Pitpass report 45

The earlier pics we saw were NOT final build:

Then there are the questions of whether or not all the videos and screenshots coming out of Europe this past week have been from the latest and final build -- and the answer is no. It was an early release candidate preview build. Not a whole ton has changed between what was shown and what finally made it into certification, but we did fix a litany of bugs -- and yes, some were graphical.

DEMO is on the way:

Well, in regards to the Forza 2 demo. I still don' t have an answer. As of today' s emails, the demo was still in the hands of our certification dept. They' re expediting it through the process but it' s not out of the woods yet. We should have a firm idea when you can expect the demo by early next week. Basically, once it passes cert, throwing it up on Marketplace shouldn' t take more than a couple days. Of course, being a Microsoft n00b, none of you should take my conjecture as gospel, but I' m doing my best here to give you an honest answer. I want y' all to play the demo just as much as you do -- if nothing else, it' ll give the forums something else to talk about. Also, once the demo releases, I' ll see if we can do some fun little hotlap contests for some no-prizes. Please be patient. The demo is coming ' round the bend. So close I can almost smell the burnt rubber.

About the Intro Video

Lastly, a certain European site put the opening intro movie for Forza 2 on their site this week and it quickly spread like wildfire. The fine and all, except when they were busy ripping the Bink file from our preview build, they messed up the sound encoding -- the result is that the audio only contained the low-frequency channels, making the video sound like a rather odd drum solo without much rhyme or reason. So in the spirit of righting wrongs, here, for your viewing pleasure, is the real and official 720p version of the Forza Motorsport 2 intro movie.

Official Forza 2 Intro Video (720p - 39MB)

New video (720p - 208MB)

Well i dont think the final build will change very much from the RC build.Its just hammering the bugs.

I didnt see the video you posted but earlier videos on gametrailers were nice.

IGN has a new
AU Preview
where they write about the graphics, handling and sound.

Graphics
We' ve seen just as many screens and videos of the game in action as you guys, but they didn' t prepare us for the way Forza 2 looks when hitting three hundred kilometres an hour through New York' s Times Square. The most in-your-face, retina-stretching effect is the game' s frame rate. Locked at a super smooth 60fps, it' s made the IGN AU editors firm believers in the importance of 60 over 30. We' d always thought 30fps was fine… until we played Forza 2 and were kicked into the back of our chairs by its sensation of speed. Strangely enough, it' s also less straining on the eyeballs.

There' s been a trade-off to reach this smoother than thou framerate though - the environments in the game aren' t quite as jaw dropping as we' d hoped. Functional is probably a better way to describe them. We' ve sampled about 8 tracks, and while some of them have a few pretty sections, we haven' t seen anything that inspired us to whip out the virtual camera. It' s not such a big deal though. Due to the intense handling and fast frame rate, we were usually so focused on the pavement that we didn' t have time to take in the scenery.

Overall, we' re very happy with the way the game looks. The choice to implement a faster frame rate over courses filled with waterfalls and unicorns has worked to the advantage of what the game is all about - the sensation of speed while driving a car only Jay Kay could afford.

Handling
We' ll admit that we' ve only played this game with a control pad (we' re saving the joys of using the wheel until our review). Even with this control method, the handling of the cars is where Forza 2 shows why it could be first to pass the chequered flag in the next-gen car race.

There' s more technobabble associated with this game' s physics engine than most rocket scientists are comfortable with. For instance, did you know that the physics engine runs separately to the graphics engine, at 360 frames per second? More time was spent working on the tire modelling than it takes to develop many budget games. We wouldn' t be surprised to learn that the game forces your 360 to connect to a massive supercomputer in Dubai to calculate fuel usage. All of this has resulted in car handling that can only be described as… glorious. Dare we say perfect? Of course not, because then Forza 3 would have no room for improvement. But it' s damn close.

We' re pretty sure the business next door to the IGN AU test room hates our guts right now. They' ve had to deal with a day full of VROOOOMs, WAAAAHHs and PHWISSSSH (that' s a turbo in case you didn' t realise) - the engine sounds are so tasty to the ear that we' ve had no choice but to crank the surround sound system up to eleven. We recently visited a real race track to watch some racing, and something that struck us was the difference in the burble of every car that zoomed past. Well, Forza 2 has managed to replicate this - you' ll easily spot the rumble of an American muscle V8 under the whine of a Japanese turbocharged six.

Super-smooth 60 FPS graphics with incredible sense of speed, near perfect handling, even with a control pad and fantastic sound. I think this will be good


And they end it with

And we haven' t even delved into the Mariana Trench of depth that is the online portion of the game…

GT what?

The grpahic looks so-so nothing special at all,if this is next-gen then...okay...

Only reason why I pay for this shit is becuase there are no other great games out for the 360,or any games at all for that matter.

Oh waiut spiderman3,oh yeah,yippie kayayemother fucker,fuck Miyamoto,fuck him.

I' m not expecting FM2 to be the deepest physics or sound simulation I' ve ever played, but it still looks pretty deep. Deeper than GT thats for sure. That combined with the customisation and online bits is what looks tasty.

Don' t care too much about the graphics, but from all the videos, the game looks great in motion. Especially like the reflections on the hood of the car in 1st person cam.

I' ll probably be seeing you online in a tricked out Civic Type R at some point, heh.

Nah, I usually hate racing games and I' m not a big car enthusiast
But I think the work they' ve put on Forza 2 is very fascinating (especially after reading their pitpass reports and such) and I' ve been enjoying PGR3 quite a lot lately. I' m hoping a deeper and more customisable racing game will develop my interest and knowledge of racing games.

The producer, or whoever it was, said that
with Forza 2 he wants to turn car enthusiasts into gamers, and gamers into car enthusiasts, and have them meet in the game and the community built around it.
I might become one of those gamers who becomes a car enthusiast.

I also want to use my nice 360 wheel for something

Here' s some really interesting read about Force feedback, very fascinating.

The producer, or whoever it was, said that
with Forza 2 he wanted to turn car enthusiasts into gamers and gamers into car enthusiasts and let them meet in the game and the community built around the game.

Yea that' s what I like about it as well, only coming from the other direction. The problem with most racing sims is that only enthusiasts need apply, so who have you got to race online? Hardly anyone, and the few guys that you do race will kick your ass, heh.

I think I' ll probably have to give in and get an MS wheel, I dunno I' ll have to play it first. Feels like such a waste of the one I' ve already got!

Oh and I meant that I' d be in the Civic Type R. Love those cars.