Forza De-Throne Grand Turismo?
May 12, 2004 - "We sat down today and played Forza Motorsports for the second time, and MAN, is this game good. Being a Gran Turismo fan is a hard thing, believe it or not. Microsoft's internal development studio, which has been working on this racing game for more than two years, however, knows that there is nothing out there that rivals Polyphony Digital's masterpiece of sim racing, and it is trying, with all due respect to Polyphony, to improve upon the model.
Taking us out again to Laguna Seca, we took dozens of laps with the assists on and off in a Ferrari Moderna, and everything about the game felt and looked good. (There are many more tracks in the game, including Blue Mountains and Tokyo tracks, we just didn't get to them.) Seems to be a theme at Microsoft's booth this year, but it's absolutely true on this game. With basic controls in hands, right trigger to accelerate, left trigger to brake and reverse, players can get right into this speedy, 60 FPS racer. I did. I took baby steps at first, taking the turns slowly and just getting a feel for the road, but even after they took off all the assists, it felt so right. Actually, with the assists off, it felt better! I was able to power into the turns, using controlled drifts to squeeze out power toward the ends of the lines, and accelerate out into the straightaway.
The team, which incidentally is, as a whole, a huge fan of the GT series, loves racing games, and wants more than anything to develop a genuinely realistic racer. This demo proves its hard work was not in vain. Lap after lap I was in heaven, using the consistent sense of control and speed to my advantage. The team has spend years trying to get the specs right from the manufacturers, and each car is tested and tested to the point that the game specs match those of the real-life cars. By the way, in my previous preview, I reported that there were more than 150 cars in the game, and more than 60 manufacturers. Well, that was what I was told, and the number of cars is wrong. There are more than 200-plus cars in Forza Motorsports! Oh God yes!
One of the biggest trends in racing games these days is the ability to customize your car. Forza Motorsports gives you that ability, and it quadruples any other game's customization specs, and then some. To give you a few examples: You can put as many decals, stripes, stickers or what have you on your car. There is no limit. It may not look good after slapping down 200 stickers, layering on top of one another, but hey, you can do it. You have the ability to take a stripe and change its shape and color so that, if you wanted, you could cover the entire car with the single stripe.
Customization doesn't just pertain to make your vehicle look sweet. You can totally tweak the engine, suspension, brakes, add nitro ad nauseum, but what Microsoft has done is to fit your car with what appears to be dozens upon dozens of tires. Tires you say? Yep, they're like walking shoes for people, and they matter more than any game has given them credit for. Apparently, Microsoft is specializing in tires with this game. In an overall sense, each time you upgrade your car, a chart shows the change in the particular parts affect on your car. It's very mathematically realistic, giving you a real accurate sense of change and direction.
In short, Forza Motorsports does indeed follow in the footsteps of a great racing series, but these guys onto something, and the ride today, has me ready for 100 more laps. We'll have more soon."
-- Douglass C. Perry
I am really looking into this game. I have always loved racing games, no matter what you race I love em.
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Originally Posted by Maximus SYN
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