Woo! My copy of Forza Motorsport 2 arrived this morning! Only 3 hours til I can go home and play! I got the Limited Edition version which includes 3 exclusives cars for the game, a HUGE accompanying manual with lots of pretty interesting stuff (including some driving school tips for taking corners properly and the like) all encased in a rather nice box with plastic sleeve.
I started a thread over at Eurogamer.net about the damn sleeves, which look nice, but why on earth can’t they have a bit of plastic at the bottom so the case doesn’t just slide through?! It’s really annoying!
Anyway, Forza 2… Really looking forward to playing it! The demo has been played loads since it came out and I bought a Microsoft Wireless Racing Wheel in anticipation! You can really tell (even from the demo) that the game has really been designed around the wheel, everything about it feels really good, every car feels different, unlike the recent demo for Colin McRae: DiRT, which looks great, plays really nicely with the pad, but is stonkingly atrocious with the wheel. Seriously. It’s f*cking bad. In Forza, I love when you start skidding (despite my car skidding normally being the precursor to ending up in the sand traps and losing) and you can actually feel the wheels losing traction and gripping again as they slow down. It really is very immersive, even if my wheel times come nowhere near my pad times just yet (although I’m generally rubbish anyway).
I’m also very excited about the livery editor, where you can layer up hundreds of different decals to create your masterpiece. And truly, we have seen some masterpieces in recent weeks (the Japanese and Americans got it a couple of weeks before us). Forums are getting filled with the awesomeness that is being stuck on the side of cars. Some of the best I’ve seen so far: Mugen (on a Mugen) from the anime Samurai Champloo, Marcus Fenix from Gears of War, some girl from the Japanese 360 game The iDOLM@STER, Batman & Robin, my absolute favourite that I’ve seen so far, an amazing paint job with a Paper Mario theme. Stunning. There are loads of galleries springing up all over the place, so here’s a few you can check out: 1 2 3.
Naturally, there’s loads of buzz about the game over at Eurogamer, so come and join the Forza 2 User Group and join in the discussion!
Oh and before I go, I have to show you this. Apparently there’s an option in the game to enable this mode! Of course, I don’t have the 3 Xbox 360s, the 3 copies of the game and the 3 HDTVs that you’d require in order to do it…
…but still!
EDIT: The guide for getting your 3-screen Forza action can be found here.
It was a heck of a lot of fun and thankfully, the weather was also very nice, which is to say, the sun was out, even if the wind made it feel like < 10°C. Landing back in the UK on Sunday afternoon, we were welcomed back with open arms and opened heavens. Typical.
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