In the beginning, there was Gran Turismo, the "real driving simulator." With its release came many similar racing games that simply cloned Gran Turismo's formula, and other already established franchises that sought to make themselves more like Gran Turismo was. However, Gran Turismo remained pretty much unchallenged as the best console racing game for quite some time.
When 2005 rolled around, things changed. Gran Turismo suddenly found itself with competition on the Xbox in the form of Forza Motorsport. It gave racing fans new features, such as the ability to customize paint jobs, and realistic damage, that Gran Turismo wasn’t providing.
Now, as more games like Gran Turismo and Project Gotham Racing try to create the best racing simulation experience, Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport 2 has arrived on the Xbox 360 and has once again raised the bar for what a simulation racing game should be.
Forza Motorsport 2 is pretty much more of the same, as many of the original’s features return. There are 300 cars this time around in 10 classes, 12 tracks with 47 configurations to race on, arcade and career modes, online racing, and the ability to paint cars. New to Forza 2 is the Auction House, allowing the sales of Forza cars online. The car-painting mode has gotten perhaps the biggest boost, with the ability to place up to 4,100 layers of graphics on the car. One search for Forza 2 cars online is enough to show off the beautiful works that can be created this time around. Point-to-point racing, however, has been completely removed.
When it comes to looks, Forza 2 is no slouch. There have been some complaints about the game lacking a sense of speed, but if you look closely, the game does seem to reflect how speed looks in real life (hint: things aren’t always a bur when you’re going 120 miles per hour). The cars look absolutely beautiful, and the damage detail—from the paint scratches to seeing the shards of glass fall as you knock out the back window—are impressive. The only real issue here is that some of the courses, namely the fictional ones, can be a bit barren in places, but that’s really just a minor detail.
One noticeable area of improvement is sound, specifically the game’s soundtrack. Instead of the forgettable soundtrack of the original Forza Motorsport, gamers are treated to a soundtrack comprised of not only more well known songs, but songs that better fit the game’s attitude. Turn 10 has also done a great job of re-creating the different engine sounds for each car that change as the car is upgraded with newer parts. However, in a few areas, sound could be greatly improved. The biggest glaring example of this comes in the spectators’ sound, which is the same clip recycled again and again. Come on Turn 10, it’s 2007, and using the same clip over and over again isn’t really acceptable anymore.
The game plays incredibly similar to the original Forza Motorsport, but it seems the development team has turned up the realism a bit, as Forza 2 is a bit less forgiving. Driving off onto the grass will slow you down, as well as add a penalty, and even brushing the wall can be enough to cause damage. Career mode is once again an affair all about beating cups and progressing up levels. It’s incredibly time consuming and deep, but it is also pretty fun and rewarding, especially when it comes to unlocking more cars and saving money on upgrades.
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