Forza 2: It's Here! Huge Launch Feature

It's a screaming orgasm of a racing game that gives us everything we want in one stunning product. We chat with the game's producers and offer detailed impressions of the final game, before our contest and final review.

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Let's Get Physical
The weighty, authentic car and track physics in Forza take things to a whole new level of realistic simulation that wasn't possible on Xbox 1. "We did a ton of research after Forza 1, and people said that the simulation physics engine was one of the things they liked the most," says Lee. "It felt very realistic to them, and I think we can attribute a lot of things to why they felt that way; when you mess up and hit a wall, your car receives damage and handles differently - it's this dynamic feeling that helps people feel a little more immersed in the experience. In other racing games, you can bounce off the wall and you might get a time penalty and it doesn't really affect the performance of the car later on. I think that pulls you out of the feeling of being in a real life simulation."

Extreme physics simulation and great draw distance are two highlights

Even things like tyre temperature matter in Forza 2; after your first lap, you might not have the same traction on your second and third laps, because the tyres have warmed up. And when you turn the wheel, there's actually a degree of tyre deformation that takes place - you don't actually see this in the game, but it is calculated in the physics engine, according to Lee. "The rubber compound in your tyres, the air pressure you have, and the road surface you're driving on, all that is calculated in the physics engine, at over 360 calculations per second. And we've obviously tuned it a lot; if it was just straight physics data it might be a little bit weird, but we've tuned it so that it feels realistic". Judging by this final build, they've got the balance just perfect.

"We account for drag, which is the air force coming directly at the front of the car, as well as down force - and based on the aerodynamics of the car, and the parts that you add, the downforce will lower your top speed to a certain degree, because you're causing the car to be heavier to the road at a higher speed. But we also calculate the drag, so if you're drafting behind someone, that car in means you don't have that force against you, and that's all based on real-world physics."

The Dolby Surround is impressive as well. The sense of directional realtime noise even as you move camera around the car makes everything seem tangible, and you can really feel the power depending on which of the four views you select; bonnet-cam sounds excellent, positioned right over the hood. It would have been nice to have a little more variety of car views though, like in-car, as was executed beautifully in PGR3.

Car Damage Isn't Rocket Science
The damage and crashes from Forza 1 are back, but now it's all a lot more detailed. Realtime crashes are great and varied, and parts of the car actually come off too. Car damage is pretty convincing now, because every minute detail is 3D modelled and has a damage state that the developers were able get just right - it wouldn't look so hot if it was just changing textures. "Because we modelled all the damage states for the car, we can show a lot more depth of detail. We had to research a lot of photos of damaged cars, talk to manufacturers to get 3D images from their CAD files and so on. And it's not just cosmetic, it has a performance impact on the car as well," explains Lee.

"It's a big myth that damage can't be done in a licensed racing game," pipes up Chou. "You know, Microsoft has been doing damage in licensed games since Midtown 1. So we've been doing it for ten years. This is not rocket science. You can do it, you just need to be a really good partner with the manufacturers. You need to tell them, you know, we respect your IP, we're trying to make a really great simulator, trying to make a great game, we don't want to hurt your IP. We've pushed the boundaries even more this time."

It can be pretty intense; dirt accumulates on the side of the car over laps, bumpers come off, safety glass shatters, wings, mirrors and spoilers fall off. And what's really fun is that in an online race, your first corner of the track gets littered with bumpers, "because everybody plays bumper-cars", Chou points out. "The fun part is being in the lead in the second lap to you just come to the corner and plough through it!"

Head-on crashes could be a little more dramatic though, and if you smash full speed into tyre barrier stacked five high, they don't budge in the slightest. There are limits - there have to be: "Tires do not fall off," Chou stresses. "And there's no flames in the cabins, and the drivers' heads don't come off, either. This is part of being a really good partner with the licensors. Manufacturers don't like that so much. They really don't want drivers' heads rolling down the street."

So Much to Enjoy
Forza 2 has an outstanding and useful set of options and multiplayer features. But what's really smart is that the front end and menu screens; unlike many games with this much packed in, things are extremely well organised, unpretentious and simple to navigate, and you never lose track of what's going on. The various front-end music sounds great, too.

There's an extremely comprehensive set of Multiplayer modes: Exhibition Race, Career Race, Tournaments, and Forza's take on Gotham TV with Forza Motorsport TV, you have System Link, Split Screen and of course Xbox Live, plus full scoreboards and community features. You can even gift a car over to a friend on Xbox Live - or even put it up for 'auction'. You can race against people of your own skill level and ranking, and innovatively, single-player and multi-player are seamlessly integrated.

Custom Race set-up means that players can race online exactly how you want by defining TrueSkill Rank, max AI players, and loads more. There's a whole load of Advanced Rules (Damage type, Tires and fuel, collisions, grid order) and Overrides for extremely precise fine-tuning of the kind of races you and your friends want to play. You can even restrict cars from your set-up by their class, power, region, make, year, curb weight, engine position... it's insane, to be honest. But it means that both casual and hardcore racing fans can have the perfect online experience, and the rabid fanbase from Forza 1 is going to be over the moon with all the features and options.

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