I'm still the guy other drivers leave in the dust, sliding around after a violent spin-out, knowing that this crash will likely leave my car limping around the track like a mangy cur, a pale shadow of its' manufacturer's intelligent design, but at least I'm now able to beat some of the AI players offline in Forza Motorsport, the new, and awesome racing sim from Microsoft Game Studios for the XBox - a demonstration, if ever one was needed, of the awesome power of the current generation of gaming consoles.
Enough parallels have been drawn between this game, and Gran Turismo 4 for the PlayStation 2, but the games are quite different, and the dynamics of planning out your racing career much more detailed in Forza Motorsport. You start out your career in a chosen home region - North America, Europe, or Asia - and this provides you with an initial choice of cars and tracks. You also get a starting bankroll of 20,000 credits, enough to buy, for example, a 2003 Lexus IS300, my first car. As you go on to win races, and credits, you can purchase or win additional cars, and new tracks.
Time does not pass - you do not grow older, jaded, bitter. The adulation of the crowds never wanes, and you never get the girl. All the same, racing a Mitsubishi Evo VIII("better than a £180,000 Ferrari") down Laguna Seca Speedway, or a Ferrari Scagletti through the narrow, winding streets of Tokyo is an experience worth the vicarious pleasure, every minute of it.
The cars can be tuned, upgraded, bought and sold. Playing on XBox Live is a humbling and exciting experience. The AI is preternaturally clever at avoiding crashes, and still flinging a few bumps your way. The cars suffer damage that can, at times, leave your steed limping, drifting to the right, or even losing costly bumpers and rims. The damage is tallied and deducted from your winnings, such as they may be.
Article comments
1 - hoos30
Sweet article. You should check out some of the custom designs that people have done with the paint editor here: www.tabwin.com/forza.htm
2 - Aaman
Thanks for the link - I was intending to post it soon - which are your favorite designs? And how the heck do they do these designs so well anyway?:)
3 - Tory Edwards
Hey, I love the article, and i agree with most of it. I throughly enjoy the graphics, and do believe it to be better than Project Gotham 2, in some ways. I too also love to play Halo 2, so much killing, so little time, right? Well I might just have to send you an invite...what do you say? Wanna Play?
4 - Aaman
Count me in!
5 - swingingpuss
What I love about Forza is that players can exchange or sell cars online, a feature lacking in Project Gotham 2.