Conclusion
As you can no doubt gather, Forza Motorsport 2 is not perfect. There are only three downers in this title that stop it from scoring a perfect 10 out of 10 in my books. The inclusion of an in-car dashboard is essential in any sim and gamers will hugely miss that in the game. Secondly the graphics on a large screen display jaggies so prominently that it’s just impossible to ignore at all. On VGA the jaggies are slightly smoothened out, but over Component they show up clearly and on occasions this bugs me, even though jaggies don’t bother me, as I play pc games without any AA already.
Thirdly career mode becomes irritating because of the fact that the tracks don’t vary enough from the Level 0-23 region and it is hard not to become disillusioned by that fact. I am told that after Lv24 the tracks become more varied, which is a bit too late in my books. Forza 2 shines when it comes to the ability to allow players to fully customise their cars and make them truly unique. Cars can be sold on auction or gifted to other players with customised body parts, paintwork and tuned parts, this will increase the longevity of the game by a huge margin and gamers will be playing this title for a long time to come.
The online community tools are brilliant such as the auction house and the ability to see your rankings as well as active running auctions and auctions you’re currently bidding on. Add to that the largest list of cars ever seen, and a physics system that defies belief and you have a superb addictive racing simulation that could hold your attention for quite a while. I rate this title firmly alongside PGR 3, and if it wasn’t for the three downers I mentioned earlier, Forza would have received a solid 10/10.
Rating: 9/10
Pro’s:
- Colossal list of cars.
- The ability to create custom designs on your rides with the in-game paint editor.
- Lots of aftermarket mods to soup up your rides.
- Money is actually hard to earn and save for once.
- Heavily detailed vehicles with damage!
- Online are great.
- Online tools e.g Auction House/Stats are very nice.
- Massive community means that this game will last a long while.
Cons:
- Desperately needs more racing venues.
- Jaggies are still apparent, when they shouldn’t be.
- No in-car dashboard.
- AI is nothing special.
