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By Keith B (23rd Jul 2007)

It’s a well-known fact that online racers are incredibly popular, and not only for their bumper-to-bumper gameplay, but because racing games always tend to look superb. Screaming along the home straight, in between Project Gotham 3 and the impending PGR4, is Forza Motorsport 2, making as much noise as the tyres on its 20” rims can make.

I’ve always fancied a spin on the PGR games but I’ve never seemed to be able to play them for months on end like some of my life-shy friends do. I just don’t find them challenging enough. Ramming into someone on the last corner of a race to take first place and having no punishment is all a bit much. Well if that sounds like you, prepare to be appeased. Here is racing with conscience.

Transformers

The easiest way to describe Forza 2 is like a hybrid of a typical console racer and a Formula One game. Once you get stuck in, you can tweak a staggering amount of items on your car. Tyres? How about racing slicks, wider tyres, bigger rims? Not got enough grunt? Drop in a new engine block, or start replacing items with lightweight options.

Once you’ve bought and installed your changes, you can then tweak them further by changing the camber of the tyres, the ratio of the gears, the angles of the bumpers and spoilers. You name it, and you can change it.

Getting around the tracks is a riveting experience. The physics feel right, the cars handle as you imaging they should. I’ve been rallying and road racing on special stages through my day job so I’m probably in a better position to compare than some dude in his bedroom, and trust me, this game feels more authentic than anything else I’ve played, bar F1 games with steering wheels. You can use a steering wheel with this but I haven’t had the chance yet.

Forza Motorsport 2 also features full damage, complete with chunks of your car flying off if you happen to hit, well, just about anything while driving fast. Once you lose your rear spoiler, your car handles completely differently. Throw in a damaged gearbox and a few warped wheels and you realise that letting the guy in front pass through the bend unscathed is the best thing for everyone concerned.

And this is the big difference between this and the other racers out there. This is a serious driving game, which is unforgiving and exhilarating at the same time. It forces you to drive with consideration of the other people on the road and, although you can become enraged when someone smacks you off the track from behind, it’s worth it for the pure excitement the simple racing around to win trophies provides.

You can adjust the difficulty of the game in many ways too, so if you prefer the PGR formula of guilt-free swiping and ramming you can do so. There are a variety of driving aids there to be turned on or off �" anti lock brakes, stability control, tyre damage, and so forth. You can turn on a racing line, complete with braking guide, which is a handy addition when learning the tracks as it shows you how to approach and what speed to be at for each bend. You can change the difficulty of the AI drivers too, in case it’s just too much trouble to beat them.

When it comes to audio, again, Forza 2 excels. Not only are the selected tracks good in their own right, they suit the game perfectly, and unlike my sessions of FIFA 07 where I’ve the music muted completely, even after two weeks I still like hearing the music in Forza 2.

You win

Progress through the game is a pretty typical affair, although there has been plenty of thought put into making the typical as entertaining as possible. You race in early races in a little car with no power, gradually increasing your earnings and therefore you spending power. The harder or longer the race, the more money you win. There are the usual competitions, but also a plethora of custom races to tackle. From Corvette Challenges to rally car battles (the hallowed Subaru Impreza against the incredible Mitsubishi Lancer EVO), big block battles (V8s only) to manufacturer races (Integras only, and so forth), there is something for everyone.

The achievements are well designed and encourage a little risk taking. Turning off driving aids can see the achievement points roll in, as can starting last and finishing first and other feats of driving ability. There are no quick fixes (like in most of EA’s games) and if you clock up a large score, the online community will know you’ve earned it.

As you would imagine, online play is a rewarding experience. Although still relatively new, the community has already latched onto the ethos of the game and you can find some very enjoyable sessions to suit your level of ability. It’s well worth playing plenty of the single-player career first though, particularly if you intend on racing with driving aids turned off.

A new feature not available before is the Auction House, where you can buy and sell cars from other racers across the globe, with custom paint jobs (you can add up to a staggering 4,100 layers of paint and decals to a car) and tuned to perfection.

Almost made the finish line

It’s actually difficult to find problems with the game, because I have been thoroughly impressed on so may fronts with Forza Motorsport 2. The main one is the lack of dynamic weather, which would have just been the icing on the proverbial cake, but I have a feeling the only reason I was waiting for some dynamic weather to kick in was because all the new Project Gotham Racing 4 clips I’ve seen to date have been showcasing both rain and snow effects. Other than that, there isn’t much to complain about with this game, and it’s a definite contender for game of the year. Should Forza 2 be afraid of PGR4? I wouldn’t think so. Should PGR4 be worried about Forza 2? Most definitely. Forza is now the racing series to surpass on the 360, and it’s not going to happen any time soon, although it will be interesting watching the competition unfold. Mark my words.