Mouser asked a good question this morning: how does Forza Motorsport 2 compare with the Gran Turismo franchise we've all come to know and love on the Playstation?
Before I answer that, I should note that the last GT game I seriously played was GT3. I've cracked open GT4 a handful of times, but I've never gotten into it the way I did with GTs 1-3.
So bearing that in mind, I'll say right now that FM2 is a far better game than GT3, and from what I remember, is better than GT4, as well. Here's why.
- No cheap gameplay. This is, hands down, the biggest reason why FM2 sucks less than GT. Once you got to a certain point in the Gran Turismo games, it was trivial to win some really long races over and over again to win totally sweet-ass cars, and then sell them off for megabucks. You still get awarded cars in FM2, but they've got trade-in values of 100CR, which is barely enough to buy a fractional stake in a beat-up Renault. So, there's absolutely no temptation to cash in on some award vehicles and then pimp out your remaining cars until they're fully loaded with bling.
- The physics engine is just as good. Sony had the physics figured out by GT2, and I suspect that anything produced after that is all indistinguishable. FM2 certainly suffices, and that's all I expect from the immutable laws of nature.
- The modeling is better. I've driven two cars in FM2 that I've owned or raced (the Eagle Talon TSi AWD and the Toyota Supra MkIII) and the handling is dead on. I remember all of the GT cars feeling a bit off.
- The UI doesn't give me ulcers. The Gran Turismo menu navigation was always really really bad—it was slow and seemed to require two or three more keypresses than absolutely necessary. FM2 isn't particularly snappier, but it cuts down on the necessary inputs and makes moving between screens less tiresome.
- The AI is actually ... intelligent. The GT AI always seemed like it sent all of the cars careening down the same line, regardless of who else was on the track. The FM2 AI is considerably better, in that the cars will wreck each other and get into all sorts of nuttiness.
- The XBox Live tie-ins are groovy. I've only really tried out the XBox Live Achievements and the photography mode—but both are pretty sweet.
- Telemetry. The telemetry view is rad as all hell.
So what sucks?
- It's slow. Come on people, it's 2007. Speed up those load times, already.
- Still not enough cars. I'll complain about this until both the Subaru XT and the Dodge Dart are represented. Go, Dart!
- The AI still has a ways to go. It's good, but not great. "Easy" mode slows the cars down—I expect it would amatuerize them, as well.
And, that's about all. Does that cover it?
Are the tuning options/aftermarket parts common among all the cars in Forza? One of the things that bothered me was the inability to put forced induction on a lot of the German and American cars in GT-4. I bought my PS2 specifcally to play GT-4, and have only bought 2 other games since. Is Forza that good?
The long load times on a 360 don't really surprise me; there is a shiteload of texture data in this game and you're loading it with a standard DVD drive. The regular DVD is probably a contributor to the car population problem as well; I wouldn't be surprised if that disc was almost full. Is FM2 a 360 exclusive?
Does it have a damage model? Rumor has it that GTHD will have some sort of damage, freakin finally... The GTHD Concept demo thing that came out on the PSN didn't, but it was really just the GT4 engine with beefed-up textures.
Does FM2 allow you to race other players over the network?
Hrm I never sold a single car in my play-throughs of GT3 and GT4, so I guess I missed out on the ability to get sup3r-p1mp cars early on. But by the end of the game I had still amassed millions of dollars with which to embiggen my 1972 Skyline. WOoooo!
Can you get a monster truck with hydraulic tilt suspension? That might convince me to drop the coin for a 360... Imagine a race where you had an F1 car going in one direction and Gravedigger going in the other, and there was a realistic damage model. Hells yeah.
Justin-
The aftermarket parts are plenty and branded. You can get an H&R kit for your favorite Bahnburner.
And you can force air down the throat of practically any engine that will take it. My 1969 Camaro Z/28 (ugh—I won it) has options for both centrifugal and positive-displacement blowers.
And the really cool part is that you can swap entire engines—and the FM2 guys actually did their homework. A 1JZ-GTE-powered JDM MkIII Supra can be upgraded with a 7M-GTE or a 2JZ-GTE. Similarly, my 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera can have a 3.3L turbo mill stuffed in the tail—and it even notes that your handling goes to crap when you do that. It's really really good on this front.
--Dan
Mouser-
Yeah, the disc is assuredly packed full of bits. FM2 was produced by Turn 10 Studios, which is wholly owned by Microsoft. So, you can probably figure that out from there.
Yes, it does have a damage model, and it's quite good—although a bit on the resilient side. I still fully expect a car to be unraceable after it hits a guardrail at 60mph, but FM2 lets you get away with serious engine and suspension damage. The cars' textures show the damage, as well—and I've made body parts pop off of cars before.
FM2 lets you race online, but you have to have an XBox Live Gold account ($50/year?). Even without a Gold account, a handful of online features are available (you can auction your cars off, import paint jobs/color schemes, and upload photos. I'm not sure what the max number of players in an online game is, but I suspect it's 8.
--Dan
Well it sounds pretty impressive. I'll see if Nate has it yet; he's got a 360 (and a PS3 and a Wii...). I harbor a slight back-burner intention to eventually buy a Wii; there would have to be a really killer game for the 360 before I'd go there. If FM2 is significantly better than GTHD, then it might convince me. :) Of course, right now my favorite game on the PS3 is ... Odin Sphere, which is a PS2 game. hehe
I thought your favorite game was E.T.
Well that's *overall*... here I'm just speaking of what plays on the PS3.