Forza Impressions Thread

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tjung0831
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Post by tjung0831 »

sportdan30 wrote:Purchased this game last night and only was able to play an hour before bed. So far, I'm pretty underwhelmed. I realize the sense of speed gets better as you move up in Classes, but right now I'm not having a whole lot of fun. Perhaps this game is too "sim" for me. I may go online this evening and see if that energizes the game for me. All the while playing last night, I had an urge to play Hot Shots Golf on the PSP.

Toca2 just feels as though it played better and not having to worry about upgrades was nice since I'm far from a motor head. I'd rather jog in place for two hours than watch a race on tv.

In any case, worse case scenario I can return the game for full credit in a couple weeks.
Dan,

I'm somewhat underwhelmed as well. At this point I prefer Toca by a large margin. With that being said I haven't raced online yet but while I was playing Forza lastnight I was really wanting to play some of my White Sox season on MVP or play Mercenaries.

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Post by SoMisss2000 »

Diablo25 wrote:I raced a few online races last night with 2 buddies (who are green rooks like me) and had a ball. I got an invite from a few guys here but didn't want to embarrass myself yet so I stayed away. I want to have a clue before I get dusted by the DSP boys. I'll definately be on this weekend :) Awesome game.
Dude, I'm terrible. My goal is to finish the race before the timer runs out after the leaders have finished.
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Post by TCrouch »

It's good to have goals, however unattainable they may be :lol:
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Post by Badgun »

sportdan30 wrote:Purchased this game last night and only was able to play an hour before bed. So far, I'm pretty underwhelmed. I realize the sense of speed gets better as you move up in Classes, but right now I'm not having a whole lot of fun. Perhaps this game is too "sim" for me. I may go online this evening and see if that energizes the game for me. All the while playing last night, I had an urge to play Hot Shots Golf on the PSP.

Toca2 just feels as though it played better and not having to worry about upgrades was nice since I'm far from a motor head. I'd rather jog in place for two hours than watch a race on tv.

In any case, worse case scenario I can return the game for full credit in a couple weeks.
Well I'm not going to compare it to Toca, but I can address some of your issues.

Upgrading - You really don't have to be a gearhead to slap better parts on your ride. Basically each item will tell you what it does and the effects will be highlighted in blue on your car's stats. Looking for more speed? Go into the engine upgrades and add turbo charger or any of the other parts in there. Once you get the car up to speed you feel like you can't keep it on the track? Head over to the braking, suspension, and tire department where those items usually affect only braking and cornering.

You can easily determine if this part or that part is what you're looking for...you don't need to be a gearhead...I'm far from one, but really enjoy upgrading my car when I have the dough. Now setups is a completely different story as like you, I don't have a clue what I'm doing so I leave that alone.

As for your concern that the game is too sim like, I had the same fear, but if this game is too simlike for you, then Toca is too. The game has enough simlike features to keep the most discriminate gearhead happy, but I think the bar is low enough for guys like you and I to get over. Guys like us will always be backmarkers against most of the DSP guys simply because they understand what's under the hood better than we do. That doesn't mean you can't have fun and even be competitive at times because you can.

I say hang in there and give it a little more time. Try taking one of your cars and turn it into a winner through upgrades...it's not as hard as you seem to think. The driving itself is really no different than TOCA 2. Both games will severely penalize you for driving like an ass and reward you when you get it right. So far I actually think Forza is a little more forgiving than Toca 2, at least for me. If you are driving with the assists off, turn them back on and leave them on until you feel like turning them off. Contrary to what some people would have you believe, the assists were put there for people like us and are meant to be used.

I'll be on Xbox Live on and off through the weekend. Feel free to send me and invite and let's give it a whirl. Maybe we can get Jack to join us. :lol:

Of course, I'm sure the DSP guys will be around as well and even though they will blow your doors off, they will be happy to have you. Just stick with it a little bit and see if your initial feelings change.
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Post by Leebo33 »

Badgun wrote:Maybe we can get Jack to join us. :lol:
LOL. I'll join in that group as well.
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Post by pk500 »

Great assessment, Bad. But I wonder what you meant by this:

Badgun wrote:Guys like us will always be backmarkers against most of the DSP guys simply because they understand what's under the hood better than we do.
Do you mean that some of the DSP guys are faster because of tuning? I don't think that's the case. I think the really fast guys at DSP, such as Terry, Slimer, DB and Fshguy, are quick because they know how to drive. They understand proper cornering, braking and acceleration techniques.

For example, I have yet to touch a setup option in this game and still am competitive among the DSP crowd.

The good drivers are going to prevail in this game, regardless of tuning, because of the very smart system to elevate cars to another class when you make a lot of upgrades.

Plus a good driver in an untuned car can beat a mediocre driver in a tuned car in the same class almost every time. The mediocre driver will get caught out at least once and make a mistake, giving the better driver in the untuned car a chance to pounce.

But your assessment that you still can have fun with this game as a newbie is spot-on. Glad you're having fun with it.

Forza is a brilliant sum of some very nice parts. It does nothing revolutionary, but it does everything it tries to achieve really, really, really well. The most polished console racing game package I can recall.

Take care,
PK
Last edited by pk500 on Fri May 06, 2005 11:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by bkrich83 »

Badgun wrote:
sportdan30 wrote:Purchased this game last night and only was able to play an hour before bed. So far, I'm pretty underwhelmed. I realize the sense of speed gets better as you move up in Classes, but right now I'm not having a whole lot of fun. Perhaps this game is too "sim" for me. I may go online this evening and see if that energizes the game for me. All the while playing last night, I had an urge to play Hot Shots Golf on the PSP.

Toca2 just feels as though it played better and not having to worry about upgrades was nice since I'm far from a motor head. I'd rather jog in place for two hours than watch a race on tv.

In any case, worse case scenario I can return the game for full credit in a couple weeks.
Well I'm not going to compare it to Toca, but I can address some of your issues.

Upgrading - You really don't have to be a gearhead to slap better parts on your ride. Basically each item will tell you what it does and the effects will be highlighted in blue on your car's stats. Looking for more speed? Go into the engine upgrades and add turbo charger or any of the other parts in there. Once you get the car up to speed you feel like you can't keep it on the track? Head over to the braking, suspension, and tire department where those items usually affect only braking and cornering.

You can easily determine if this part or that part is what you're looking for...you don't need to be a gearhead...I'm far from one, but really enjoy upgrading my car when I have the dough. Now setups is a completely different story as like you, I don't have a clue what I'm doing so I leave that alone.

As for your concern that the game is too sim like, I had the same fear, but if this game is too simlike for you, then Toca is too. The game has enough simlike features to keep the most discriminate gearhead happy, but I think the bar is low enough for guys like you and I to get over. Guys like us will always be backmarkers against most of the DSP guys simply because they understand what's under the hood better than we do. That doesn't mean you can't have fun and even be competitive at times because you can.

I say hang in there and give it a little more time. Try taking one of your cars and turn it into a winner through upgrades...it's not as hard as you seem to think. The driving itself is really no different than TOCA 2. Both games will severely penalize you for driving like an ass and reward you when you get it right. So far I actually think Forza is a little more forgiving than Toca 2, at least for me. If you are driving with the assists off, turn them back on and leave them on until you feel like turning them off. Contrary to what some people would have you believe, the assists were put there for people like us and are meant to be used.

I'll be on Xbox Live on and off through the weekend. Feel free to send me and invite and let's give it a whirl. Maybe we can get Jack to join us. :lol:

Of course, I'm sure the DSP guys will be around as well and even though they will blow your doors off, they will be happy to have you. Just stick with it a little bit and see if your initial feelings change.
I completely agree.

I do wish I knew more about cars so I could tune them better.

I am getting better at this game. I have all assists off except the line thing. But I will turn it off, as PK says, its got my eyes down too low instead of looking down the road.
-BK
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Post by TCrouch »

Tuning? What tuning?

I've made one "tune" to my stable of cars, and that's an obvious one. When I slapped on upgraded tranny/clutch/etc, when I shifted to 5th gear at any track, the car actually bogged out and slowed down. I went through and raised the overall drive ratio so that it would continue accelerating.

As for any other tuning options, I haven't even bothered. For me, I need to find a happy baseline for a car before I could even think about tuning. That, and I thought it was kind of a gentleman's agreement in our DSP races not to bring your heavy hardware. I just didn't like not having a 5th and 6th gear in my cars :lol:
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Post by bkrich83 »

TCrouch wrote:Tuning? What tuning?

I've made one "tune" to my stable of cars, and that's an obvious one. When I slapped on upgraded tranny/clutch/etc, when I shifted to 5th gear at any track, the car actually bogged out and slowed down. I went through and raised the overall drive ratio so that it would continue accelerating.

As for any other tuning options, I haven't even bothered. For me, I need to find a happy baseline for a car before I could even think about tuning. That, and I thought it was kind of a gentleman's agreement in our DSP races not to bring your heavy hardware. I just didn't like not having a 5th and 6th gear in my cars :lol:
Good to know TC. I might have to catch you on aim, and chat about this stuff like I did when I was first getting in to NR2003.
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Post by lsdean »

Badgun, great post. In the past, I never really played racing games enough to become good at them. However, I am interested in picking this game up and will probably do so this weekend. So you will have any guy to add to your group. :D
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Post by sportdan30 »

Badgun,

Thanks for the advice and pep talk. I'm certainaly not giving up on this game. I'm look forward to playing it both offline and online this evening. While I know I can jump online and race with you guys, I feel as though I'm doing myself a disservice by not upgrading my car offline first. Does that make sense? As if I'll be at a great disadvantage.

As I said, I'll give it a real good "test drive" (couple weeks) before I make a final decision. I think the storyline line in Toca 2, albeit kinda lame still drew me in more than this game has.

For me, it always takes a little longer to get pulled in by a sim-like racer because there isn't a lot of emotion between myself and cars. I've never been a car junkie. The last real racer I played was BO3, and there's really no comparing these two. I just have to try and separate myself from that game.

I think I'll read up on the game over at Gamefaqs today, as sometimes some the FAQs are really helpful.

Tim, nice to know I'm not the only one who felt a bit underwhelmed. We'll have to hook up online sometime with this game.

Thanks again Badgun.
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Post by JackB1 »

Leebo33 wrote:
Badgun wrote:Maybe we can get Jack to join us. :lol:
LOL. I'll join in that group as well.
sure.....I'm always up for some friendly competition and certainly need the practice! I should be on tonite (Fri) after 10 EST and should be on a lot on Sat also.
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Post by ScoopBrady »

I messed around with the Drivatar feature last night and I think it's great. I now have proof that I have a lot to work on. My overall score is a 67 :oops: . I really like how it breaks down the different types of cornering so you can see what areas you are really weak in. Apparently I'm weak in all of them. :lol: I do fairly well with chicanes though! :D

Anyone else mess with this yet? What's your overall score? I would have started a new thread just for Drivatar talk but, well, you know. :wink:
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Post by Badgun »

pk500 wrote:Great assessment, Bad. But I wonder what you meant by this:

Badgun wrote:Guys like us will always be backmarkers against most of the DSP guys simply because they understand what's under the hood better than we do.
Do you mean that some of the DSP guys are faster because of tuning? I don't think that's the case. I think the really fast guys at DSP, such as Terry, Slimer, DB and Fshguy, are quick because they know how to drive. They understand proper cornering, braking and acceleration techniques.

For example, I have yet to touch a setup option in this game and still am competitive among the DSP crowd.

The good drivers are going to prevail in this game, regardless of tuning, because of the very smart system to elevate cars to another class when you make a lot of upgrades.

Plus a good driver in an untuned car can beat a mediocre driver in a tuned car in the same class almost every time. The mediocre driver will get caught out at least once and make a mistake, giving the better driver in the untuned car a chance to pounce.

But your assessment that you still can have fun with this game as a newbie is spot-on. Glad you're having fun with it.

Forza is a brilliant sum of some very nice parts. It does nothing revolutionary, but it does everything it tries to achieve really, really, really well. The most polished console racing game package I can recall.

Take care,
PK
pk,
No I didn't mean to suggest that you guys are better because of the tuning. You're better because you're better...period. Your understanding of car mechanics and what the setups' cause and effects are only enhance your already stellar abilities.
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Post by TCrouch »

ScoopBrady wrote:I messed around with the Drivatar feature last night and I think it's great. I now have proof that I have a lot to work on. My overall score is a 67 :oops: . I really like how it breaks down the different types of cornering so you can see what areas you are really weak in. Apparently I'm weak in all of them. :lol: I do fairly well with chicanes though! :D

Anyone else mess with this yet? What's your overall score? I would have started a new thread just for Drivatar talk but, well, you know. :wink:
Yeah, the drivatar is sweet. I put up a 92 on it, but I know there's a lot of spots I can hit better.
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Post by pk500 »

Cool. I guess the theme of my reply to your superb initial post is that you can become much quicker with practice, too. Once you learn the basics of braking, cornering, acceleration and general race car physics, you'll get quicker in a hurry. The tuning will just be window-dressing after that.

Scoop's post about the Drivatar sounds cool. That might be a very good learning aid that all of us are overlooking.

Take care,
PK
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Post by ScoopBrady »

What's even cooler about the Drivatar is the fact that I put him to work for me while I was getting the garbage together and taking it out. I loaded him to race for me while I got the garbage together. I loaded him again to race for me while I took the garbage out. He earned me 800 credits to help me reach level 3. He finished 3rd in both races and after the Drivatar deduction it was a quick and easy 400 credits. Now if I can improve my skill so I can improve my drivatar I can make more than that. It truly is a very cool feature that is possibly getting overlooked. It's a learning tool and a little sweatshop rolled into one.
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Post by PadresFan104 »

I got to race with a couple of you guys for the first time last night, very cool. I let PK take first on the final turn of one race, so that kind of cheesed me off, but it was a great race. The concentration required to hold first place during on-line races is ridiculous....

TCrouch, wow. You were ahead of me for most of the night, and it was like watching a video of a real race. Your lines were smooth and you rarely made a mistake. Very impressive!

Finally, for those of you waiting to go online until you get better, just go for it. Play the races smart, and you will end up with TONS of credits much faster than playing offline. If you didn't realize it, you can win 10K to 20K credits for winning an on-line race. Hang back, use your brakes, stay on the track and compete for a podium spot and you will make more in 2 hours of online racing than you could all weekend offline.

Oh, and if I could get an invite to the DSP Car Club, I'd really appreciate it!!

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Post by sportdan30 »

Nice Pad's win last night Al. Disappointed to hear that Woody is on the DL. Would have love to have seen what the Cardinals could have done against him.

Giles is a KILLER!
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Post by Zeppo »

OK, so after a little more playing, I've learned a couple things. The suspension/clutch/brakes etc. section of upgrades will NOT boost your car into another class. (Weight reduction, also found in this area, can easily boost your car up levels, however. The second and further upgrade in tires will also boost your car up in class.) So, you can have right up to Professional-level parts in those areas, which would be adustable, and keep your car in D2 or D1 or whatever. This would mean ultimately that in a D-class race, you could have some degree of tuning. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I don't think I mind people tuning, and the fact that you can d/l people's tuning set-ups on a per-track basis may make it really easy and cool to get going. Personally, I haven't gotten any Pro level stuff in those areas yet, because I fear those parts WITHOUT being tuned may not help me. I'm probably wrong, but for now I'm sticking to 'car club' level gear. Maybe for some long races, we could have a D2 "car-club level upgrades" restriction, or "modified level upgrades" restriction, or perhaps that's too much restriction, and we should just open it up.

Also, I've learned that my Civic hatch-back is a POS. I need to get more upgrades and see what I can do. I already installed a better engine. . . . Maybe I'll get a different type of Civic and upgrade it up.

I really want to try some longer races, to check out the tire wear/fuel consumption. I have yet to even visit a pit lane, anyone know what happens in there? Does is magically remove all damage, like in ToCA, or are there some decisions to be made as you approach the stop, like in IndyCar or something?

Interesting that in career mode, you only have so many choices as to number of laps: 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, and 25. I assume in free-race mode, you can set any number?

I need a class-C car. I don't know whether to get a C4 car, or a D1 car and upgrade it up.
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Post by pk500 »

PadresFan104 wrote:I got to race with a couple of you guys for the first time last night, very cool. I let PK take first on the final turn of one race, so that kind of cheesed me off, but it was a great race. The concentration required to hold first place during on-line races is ridiculous....
-Al
That was a good race, Al. I was catching you like a bastard, but I think I would have run out of laps if you didn't make the mistake.

Good fun! And you were clean and fast. I need to give you my official online racing blessing the next time we race, which is:

"F*CK YOU, AL, YOU F*CKING DICK!"

That's a term of endearment from me. :)

See you tonight.

Take care,
PK
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Post by pk500 »

Zeppo wrote:Also, I've learned that my Civic hatch-back is a POS. I need to get more upgrades and see what I can do. I already installed a better engine. . . . Maybe I'll get a different type of Civic and upgrade it up.
You mean the car that I ordained as the "grocery-getting homo hatchback piece of f*cking sh*t, you c*cksucker" while we raced last night? :)

I'm with you, man: I'd love to try a race that takes 15-30 minutes or so.

Take care,
PK
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Post by Zeppo »

pk500 wrote:
Zeppo wrote:Also, I've learned that my Civic hatch-back is a POS. I need to get more upgrades and see what I can do. I already installed a better engine. . . . Maybe I'll get a different type of Civic and upgrade it up.
You mean the car that I ordained as the "grocery-getting homo hatchback piece of f*cking sh*t, you c*cksucker" while we raced last night? :)

Take care,
PK
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Post by bkrich83 »

pk500 wrote:
Zeppo wrote:Also, I've learned that my Civic hatch-back is a POS. I need to get more upgrades and see what I can do. I already installed a better engine. . . . Maybe I'll get a different type of Civic and upgrade it up.
You mean the car that I ordained as the "grocery-getting homo hatchback piece of f*cking sh*t, you c*cksucker" while we raced last night? :)

I'm with you, man: I'd love to try a race that takes 15-30 minutes or so.

Take care,
PK
Damn, I miss playing racing games with PK. Always an adventure and always a story to talk about the next day.
-BK
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Post by TCrouch »

Zeppo wrote:Also, I've learned that my Civic hatch-back is a POS. I need to get more upgrades and see what I can do. I already installed a better engine. . . . Maybe I'll get a different type of Civic and upgrade it up.
Yep. I actually kind of like the Civic Type R. Upgraded it's very competitive. Hell, I'll trade you mine if you want to test it.
pk500 wrote:I'm with you, man: I'd love to try a race that takes 15-30 minutes or so.
Ditto. I'd love to run a longer race.
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