Review

Of late, the Racing genre has become an almost childish arena of one-upmanship with all publishers and developers getting involved in arguments that boil down to “my car line-up is bigger than your car line-up!” When you have rivalry as intense as that between Sony and Microsoft it doesn’t stop there either.

Forza Motorsport was one title that fell foul of this, with Microsoft being so concerned with beating Gran Turismo, laughing about how their game featured car damage and online play, that they slipped up in one vital area: tracks. The visuals were fantastic, the cars handled perfectly but the there was a limited number of tracks and most of them were boring to drive around. Does Forza Motorsport 2 suffer from the same affliction?

Well, there are certainly more tracks this time around with Microsoft concentrating on recreating over a dozen real-life circuits from Silverstone to Suzuka. Thankfully they’ve also done away with the two point-to-point races and stuck to circuit racing. The claim of 60 circuits is weakened almost immediately by the fact that there are at least eight variations of the same test track found in your first few challenges.

Another area where I found the original Forza to be lacking was in the available race modes but this must have been noticed at Microsoft too. This quadruples (at least) the championships and classes at your disposal with manufacturer challenges, turbo charged races, rival match-ups and so much more. I’ve made it my goal to try and win them all and I’m predicting that it’s going to take me a minimum of six months!

If you get bored of the Career mode then there’s to new Arcade mode too. Essentially this is single races and time trials where you get to choose any car you like and

As far as the presentation goes, there are times when it looks no better than an HD update of the original. The cars are suitably shiny with some impressive reflections and lighting but you can’t help feeling a little disappointed, especially as there’s no in-car view when racing. Overall this lacks the pizzazz of Project Gotham Racing 3 but does the job more than adequately.

All the good looking visuals, impressive tracks and quantity of cars would be for nothing if it didn’t play well and this is the area in which Forza 2 excels. You can make the game as easy or as difficult as you want it to be thanks to a number of available driving aids. The racing line is back again, only now there is a new version that only shows you where to break meaning you’re less likely to stick to it like a Scalextric car. The more aids you turn off though, the more you are card you are awarded for purchasing new cars or upgrades.

So in the end, Forza 2 is flawed, but still recommended. It can't take pole position from PGR 3 though.

About the Review

Platform

Microsoft Xbox 360

Developer

Turn 10 Studios

Publisher

Microsoft Game Studios

Released

8th June 2007