Forza is out! post thoughts and reviews here.

[VIPEROSI]

Well its out at least in other parts of the world and its getting some very good reviews!

http://www.msxbox-world.com/xbox/review ... sport.html

Theres one there, most people are saying that its far better then GT4 in everything except for sheer volume of cars and tracks which feature in the GT series, but who really cares about that.

Peoples only gripes are that in the early stages of the game it is quiet easy, but its meant to get quiet hard later in the game. But lets face it AI no matter how good is a match for real racers.

Hopefully ill be able to afford to get the game soon and get myself connected to xboxlive! teach those console boys how to drive

[Exar Kun]

I'm getting it on Friday. Got a crap load of work to do this week so can't really afford the distraction of getting it earlier. Looking forward to a weekend in front of the telly though.

You can check out a bunch of reviews here.

[SE1Z]

Looking good!!!
i have been really looking forward to this game, hope it doesnt let me down like GT4 did :|
I got 15% thru GT4 and got bored... sick and tired of rubbish AI in the computer cars...

Hope to have Forza very soon

[Pinger$]

The AI was definitely the most dissapointing aspect of GT4... I will always love the GT series.... but seriously, the AI is not worth a pinch of salt. Hasn't really got any better since number GT1. Despite changing to a newer, faster platform and many more years of development. Farked if I know what the AI department were doing over the years... I'd be ashamed if it was my life's work.

[VIPEROSI]

Supposedly the ai starts of pretty easy for experienced racers like us but once you reach about 20% it starts getting hard.

From the few reports out, the ai is very good avoiding you, not running into you etc unless you do something eratic, and brake and steer to avoid each other and you.

The plus is that you get to train your own AI so if your a good racer the ai will be very similar to you.

I think the biggest advantage over GT4 and a very important one is that it allows online races, the creations of online teams etc No more racing against crap ai or split screen with your mates.

The setup and telemetry is also very extensive. Finally sounds like we are getting a sim for console, and one that could hold its own against pc games as well!.

[Pinger$]

Yeah, online is awesome With default support for teams....

That's actually one area where LFS probably needs a bit of work, in providing a decent infrastructure to support teams... It's kind of just a tacked on thing the way it is at the moment.

Back on topic though, would have thought after x years of development, GT4 could have had the online component included too. At least to make up for the shithouse AI.

I'll have to try Forza for sure

[Threeps]

I heard somewhere, not sure where, that GT4 was going to re-release later this year with online support. Not sure if it's just rumour or not. Anyway, I am enjoying GT4 at the moment and I'm thinking of picking up Forza too. I don;t have a wheel for xbox though. Do you guys use the standard controller on xbox racers or do you have a wheel? If you have one, is it good? With no force feedback support on xbox, I am just wondering if a sim type game on it would be any good.

[VIPEROSI]

I dont have a wheel, sure the controllers are a compromise but ive found them to be pretty good with racing games. People have had no problems with RBR which is a true sim on XBOX so cant see why hand controllers would be a prob with Forza.

[yumchaKING]

ok... i just played 2 hours... so im not really deep into it:

Definatly rent before buying it. save your $$$. to me it feels like gt's poor cousin. Im a graphics slut, so i start there...

the graphics are crap in my opinion, some of the tracks look wonderful, but the car shading looks like 'my first reflectionmap' or something... silver or coarsechip paints are non existent or dont look like what you would expect.. Frame rate is ok rarely chugging.... didstant textures are mipmap soup looking quite blurry. alot of the cars look like what they are meant to be but all of them are slighty odd... cant put the finger on it, but they look like rc cars in replays...

all in all in the gfx dept gt kills it subtlely but comprehensively. even rallysport2 is a muchmuch better example of whats possible on an xb.

Sound = lol, really

Physics is not bad. i cant really judge it, coz i only have 4 or 5 cars atm and none of them are crazy hot. the cars i got are nice and progressive and with aids off still easy to fang around... a little too bulletproof after playing lfs but really not bad for a massmarket console game.... the only thing i cant work out... i always no matter what speed i always get *monster* turn in, which is really strange to me... but there you go.

AI is moronic bumping and sticking doggedly to their line. you can train AI just like lfs so prolly plenty of laughs with that.... havent tried it yet...

the phantasy tracks look a shonky (pun intended ) and the lay outs are not a patch on lfs or gt series.

to sum up, all i can think of is that i played this game before: Sega GT on dreamcast. its a valiant effort, to give the xb a much needed gt alternative, and for xb fanboys probably will be IT the totally best thing about it though is the car customisation and damgage which looks really great...( you can paint waqlls in the colour of your car :P customisation is online compatible and gives non skinners reall reaally awesome way of painting and stickering up their rides

if you have gt already, dont bother... if you havent rent it first, chances are you love it or like me you might wonder what all the fuss and rage is all about don't believe the sites rejoycing giving it 10/10 coz they were starved of a gt-style game

edit: re-reading my post it does sound awfully negative as i said i havent relly spend solid time on it, so by all means you should check it out if you have an xb if you have no console and contemplate one maybe hang on, get a psp and gt4-mobile :D

just my thoughts... im usually wrong

[SE1Z]

Nice review
I never really trust those online gaming sites....

I think ill still give it a go. Love my car racing games... hell, I liked the V8 Supercar driver games

Also... whats with the 'lol' on the sound? is it really bad?

Cheers,
Steve

[yumchaKING]

Nice review
I never really trust those online gaming sites....

I think ill still give it a go. Love my car racing games... hell, I liked the V8 Supercar driver games

Also... whats with the 'lol' on the sound? is it really bad?

Cheers,
Steve

I guess if your into cars..you like me buy it anyway the sound is just crap... compared to gt3 its about the same quality minus the environmental effects :P i was expecting much much better on xb

i got 3 guys at work who also got it and they are loving it... so could be that im just an old grump

edit: after playing it into the night, i really think they are trying something different with the ai.... if you race clean the ai tries to do the same... but when you start picking on an ai, he gets pissed off and starts retaliating, which is excellent in my opinion, but still they are quite stupid and ram you off the road if your in their way going into corners.... so better then gt ai for sure but still not really what youd like to find in 2005

[VIPEROSI]

Hmm bit worried by your impressions but at the same time yours is the only trully negative comments ive read about this game so far, so im hoping its just your opinion and that the game is better then what it seems to be from your post.

Your also only 2 hrs into it...i would reserve judgement till you are further into the game and the AI and competitions have picked up pace.

Ill definately rent it as soon as i can, hopefully video ezy will have it soon.

[Scottie]

i picked it up along with GTR from Hardly Normal today... might post something later

[Takumi]

Hmm bit worried by your impressions but at the same time yours is the only trully negative comments ive read about this game so far, so im hoping its just your opinion and that the game is better then what it seems to be from your post.

there is alot of negativity about it on RSC also.. i havent tried it yet, but hopefully its one of those games you have to play a while before it truely shines.

[Exar Kun]

I got it last night. Have only had a couple of hours so far so not really enough to make a firm impression. I think 'promising' is the best word so far. With all the aids turned off and the AI turned up it certainly hasn't been a walk in the park in the first couple of races. The fact that, as you do your car up and go into another class means the AI get faster cars too makes things interesting.

Handling is very GT-ish with all the aids on but quite a lot harder with them off. Locking brakes is particularly easy to do and will send you straight off the track with little hope of easy recovery. The non-linearity of the stick steering is taking me a while to get used to (I always got by just fine using the d-pad in GT) so i'm not very smooth atm.

Graphics are so/so. Some tracks look awesome and others not quite as good. Main problem for me is jaggies - running every game for the past two years with at least 4x AA and 8x AF and 1280x960 will do that to you though. GT4 is the same in this regard. The lighting is great but overall the graphics don't impress me that much. The damage, however, looks awesome! Very nicely done although you have to give your car quite a pounding for it to affect the handling, even on real damage level or whatever it is.

I trained up my drivatar last night and had a quick race against it. It beat me!! Still, didn't quite take the same lines as me despite the trakc I raced it on being one of the training tracks. Was about the same speed overall though.

I only have 5 cars so far but you win decent cars pretty quickly. No crappy little Japanese cube cars for the first few races! I have an AE86, NSX, some riced looking Celica and a couple of others.

Fun but frustrating in places. Could do with some good wheel support like GT4 - I reckon that's where the chief difference in the driving experience lies.

So, overall I'm positive about it. It's certainly no worse than GT4 in my opinion but wheel see how repetitive it gets later on.

[SE1Z]

I saw it in BigW today....
Didnt actually play it tho.
The thing that stood out the most for me was the framerate, looked to be about 30fps...
If that is the case, its pretty poor...

Ill steer clear of it for that fact alone. Might hire it.

[Exar Kun]

I saw it in BigW today....
Didnt actually play it tho.
The thing that stood out the most for me was the framerate, looked to be about 30fps...
If that is the case, its pretty poor...

Ill steer clear of it for that fact alone. Might hire it.

I haven't noticed any problem with the frame rate at all. It feels smooth enough for me although I'm sure you'd notice it if you jumped straight from GT4 to this.

I've played a couple more hours and am really starting to have some fun. The car tweaking is a fine art - making sure it doesn't jump up into another category where you'd be the bottom of the heap and I'm having some good races with the AI. If you're side by side with them they are pretty good. They'll stick brake in the same place everytime so hit you up the bum but show me a racing game where that does happen if you brake too early?

[SE1Z]

should be getting my hands on a copy this afternoon...
ill let you guys know what I think.

I am hoping i like it...

The main thing is the Ai as that is the reason I gave up playing GT4.

[VIPEROSI]

I played it on a demonstration xbox at Harvey Norman yesterday.

Seemed pretty good from a very minor test.

The graphics are great...people were making it sound like it was pretty average. I think we have to remember that that GT4 has good graphics cos it sacrifices other departments like ai, damage and even handling. Forza however still manages great graphics while also making a good effort in the other areas.

I made sure i had all the aids turned off and Difficulty as high as i could get it and the AI seemed pretty good, alot better then LFS and GT4.

I did notice the frame rate though, although being very smooth there wasnt a great sense of speed, but having driven on a race track at speeds 200kph and above in a V8Supercar drive day i know first hand that in a good handling tin top on a smooth track things seem pretty slow!. That was the most surprising thing, i never expected to feel like i was going slow on a race track at that speed. I would say its around 30FPS, maybe on a higher speed track its better, i was only reaching around 150kph. Still i would have liked 60 FPS but i can live with slower.

Didnt get to experience much else though i would really need to hire it to judge more on it.

One thing i didnt like was the car didnt want to spin, wether it was the vehicle i was driving(FTO) or the game i cant say. And the brakes are WAYYY to touchy at the moment, i believe this is a controller issue.

Otherwise i can see myself really enjoying this game online and in single player.

A simulation to beat pc games? no but a very decent effort for a console excluding RBR.

Definately worth buying if you have an xbox.

[Exar Kun]

Pretty much same thoughts here, Viperosi. Although I've managed to spin my NSX on several occasions now - might be the mid engined rear wheel drive thing. In order to use the brakes without ABS you really need to install a professional braking package thingy that lets you adjust the pressure so you can wind the pressure way back.

[Threeps]

I have this game now and have only played about two hours. These are only my first thoughts and may change as I get further into it. I thought the graphics were below average compared to GT4 considering how the xbox has more graphics power than the PS2. After reading Vipers comments I tend to agree with him. I too think that the brakes are very touchy but probably no more so than LFS, it's just harder to find the sweet spot on a hand controller as opposed to pedals. I'll have to find that adjustment on the pro brakes kit. The AI is pretty good. They did wack me a few times but I'm not sure on braking points yet, so it's more than likely my fault. I haven't tried it online yet, as I'm up in Townsville on a course at the moment. I'll try that in three weeks when I return to civilisation. Sound is alright, which surprised me, I've read a lot of reports about the other cars being too loud and you can't hear your own. Mind you in a motel/apartment, I only have mono sound. I think it is a little too easy to get new cars and credits, but I'm not that far into it yet, so it may get a lot harder. I just get the appropriate car and do every upgrade to keep it in the group but get to a 1, eg. D1, C1, B1 or A1. Then it seems pretty easy to get the win. However in the pro races later on it states that the restrictions are tighter so maybe closer racing will occur.

Overall a pretty good effort for their first attempt at a GT type game. I personally think GT4 is a more polished, and fun game but then I have a forcefeedback wheel for that one and am only playing forza with an xbox controller. I hope they keep the franchise going and improve what they have built. I don't regret my purchase and am looking forward to racing you guys on live.