‘Forza 2’ tests skills, patience

by W. Andrew Powell

Forze Motorsport 2

Rated: 8.5/10

www.forzamotorsport.net

This is the short and utterly sad story of my racing career.

I drop Forza Motorsport 2 into my Xbox 360, grab the controller, pick a car to race, and I crash into the wall. I try it again, with a different car, different game style, and once again I crash the car. If this were the real world I’d probably have some very fractured ribs, and would have totaled about $400,000 worth of car. Luckily, it’s a game, but I’m a bit shocked at how bad I am at this.

Forza 2 is Microsoft Game Studios’ latest offering to the world of sports racing, and it gives gamers the chance to race behind the wheel of some 300 cars. The game lets you fully customize each car, race them, and even sell them when you’re tired of them. My problem is that I’m an utter calamity behind the virtual wheel. We’re talking glass-crackingly, car crunchingly bad here.

The photo below, which is from my third accident, should prove something. It’s just funny that I had just gotten through a perfect lap when the accident happened.

My Forza 2 experience
My Forza 2 experience

Forza 2 gives you every chance to be a great driver though – it’s just a question of patience, and perhaps in my case, a lot more practice. You can choose to drive almost any kind of consumer, or pro-racing car, go for a un-competitive drive to test out your wheels, or race in timed or arcade style modes against your friends or the AI players. As you progress you can buy upgrades to help you progress and get to that next stage of racing.

In a nut shell, it’s what racing games aspire to be – a truly realistic experience.

There are a lot of gamers out there who will be dying to pick up this title, and you can all soundly mock me for being a total moron when it comes to racing games, but this is definitely not a title for everyone. There’s no way to sit down and become even a casual Forza 2 player without the aforementioned patience and an urge to be better than when you first sat down.

If you’re a fan of racing games, there’s no question you should pick up this title – it’s brilliantly designed, the graphics are eye-popping, and the sound effects are perfect. If you’re anything like me though, maybe you’ll want to stick to something like Shadowrun where destruction is actually the goal rather than the byproduct of your sad driving skills.

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