Support NeoGAF

[AZ Greg]

The game is already running smooth at 60 frames per second, Greenwalt said, and the goal is to have the sequel to one of the highest-rated racing games on store shelves before the end of 2006.

The game will feature more than 300 cars, including Lamborghini -- new for Forza. Each car will be fully customizable, from the tires to the spoilers to engine performance to paint job and decals.

Like the single-player game, Forza 2 on Xbox Live will have 12-player races and you can take your tricked out car online and show it off to your competition

Because Forza 2 is geared toward car and customization freaks, Microsoft is adding a photo mode too. You can take pictures of your ride and post them online, sharing them with your friends.

Forza 2 will have more than 60 tracks, so we assume the number is around 30 with their mirrors. Greenwalt said the original Forza tracks are included and are getting the high-resolution treatment. We don't know how many new tracks are in the game, but we do know that Sebring International Raceway will be included.

With sophisticated rumble capability and force feedback, the wheel will give gamers a three-dimensional sensation of control, Greenwalt said. For instance, let's say you take a sharp turn. If you let your hands off the wheel, it will automatically self correct. Also, with force-feedback, you will feel when the car is off traction during sharp turns. Greenwalt mentioned that the all racing games down the line will have to be compatible with the wheel as part of the certification process

and there is talk of updating PGR3 with a patch so it works as well.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/707/707986p1.html

 

[Helznicht]

Sounds great. Was this shown realtime on the show floor this week?

 

[skybaby]

If you let your hands off the wheel, it will automatically self correct. Also, with force-feedback, you will feel when the car is off traction during sharp turns.

If thats not force-feedback, I dont know what it is anymore!

 

[jax (old)]

so why no footage or ingame or handson behind closed booth?

PR talking head FTL

 

[neptunes]

Greenwalt mentioned that the all racing games down the line will have to be compatible with the wheel as part of the certification process

It's good to know that you'll get your money's worth if you buy one

 

[Gek54]

Sounds excellent.

Still no word on how many degrees of rotation the wheel allows?

Greenwalt mentioned that the all racing games down the line will have to be compatible with the wheel as part of the certification process

 

[Stinkles]

Sounds excellent.

Still no word on how many degrees of rotation the wheel allows?

Nah. I forgot to ask Che.

That's the weird thing about sim wheels though - is that they tend to simulate either an average car or an extreme everything car - six speed gated shift is great for emulating a Diablo, and shit for emulating a Quattro. You can't win. Paddle shifters are all accurate, at least...

 

[Gek54]

Nah. I forgot to ask Che.

That's the weird thing about sim wheels though - is that they tend to simulate either an average car or an extreme everything car - six speed gated shift is great for emulating a Diablo, and shit for emulating a Quattro. You can't win. Paddle shifters are all accurate, at least...

With the DFP, several games would let you customise how many degrees you could turn the wheel and would adjust the level of input accordingly. Like in Richard Burns Rally I could set the wheel to 540 degrees which is what the standard rally car is set at.

Why would a 6 speed shifter be shit for a Quattro?

 

[jGuru]

It's good to know that you'll get your money's worth if you buy one

Yeah.

 

[Stinkles]

Why would a 6 speed shifter be shit for a Quattro?

Gated. I like my shifters spongy.

 

[Beer Monkey]

RR6 update pls.

 

[Big Takeover]

Anyone happen to see any new GTR360 info?

 

[op_ivy]

bizarre have stated previously that if and when a tff wheel is released, they'd support it via a patch. no surprise there, but its good to hear about it again after getting confirmation that we are indeed getting a ff wheel.

also, i'm hopeful pgr3 will get a photomode update allowing for the transfer and sharing of pics. its my assumption that the reason it wasnt in the game previously because live didnt support that sort of thing, but it sounds like it will be available in Forza 2, so heres hoping bizarre patches that as well.

its kinda odd that the game sounds to be fairly far along and will launch this year, but that it hasnt been shown off to anyone at this point (afaik)

 

[pj]

how are they doing all this in less than 2 years?

 

[Gek54]

No price announced for the MS wheel?

how are they doing all this in less than 2 years?

Che power?

 

[FLUXCapacitor]

how are they doing all this in less than 2 years?

I was wondering the same thing. I just hope it's not Forza with a new coat of paint, or something similar to GTHD. I also hope they have the in-car view like PGR3 but i doubt it.

 

[thorns]

PGR3, Forza 2, Moto GP, GTR, Colin McRae, Sega Rally..

xbox360 ftw for racing! now I have to find a spot for this wheel my setup is so not suitable for it...

 

[BlueTsunami]

How do you guys situate your Wheel, Pedals and Shifter? Do you use a desk or something...this is the first time i've learned about Force Feedback wheels (yes I suck) and I think it may be what gets me back into racers...

:blush

 

[isamu]

Sounds excellent.

yes this gives me a hard-on as well

 

[isamu]

RR6 update pls.

Best post you have ever made in this entire forum.

Quoted for fucking truth!

 

[Confidence Man]

how are they doing all this in less than 2 years?

I'd say just a souped-up Forza engine. I hate to say it but if it's coming out this year and it was looking good they'd at least have a few real screenshots to show.

 

[Rabid Wolverine]

60 frames.

Im there !

 

[Scotch]

Greenwalt said the original Forza tracks are included and are getting the high-resolution treatment.

Yeah, this really sounds like it's gonna be Forza HD

 

[Blimblim]

I'd say just a souped-up Forza engine. I hate to say it but if it's coming out this year and it was looking good they'd at least have a few real screenshots to show.

I heard it's not the same engine, they would using a new tool chain used for most non UE3 projects at Microsoft/Rare. Could be false though.
Ho and I remember asking last year about FF in PGR3 and being told by the game's producer that if a FF wheel was released on 360 they would do their best to update the game to support it.

 

[PanopticBlue]

Has it been confirmed yet that the MS wheel is indeed TRUE FORCE FEEDBACK actually comparable to the Driving Force Pro and not some rumble crap? Hearing that it reacts to a bump in the road doesn't mean shit, does the wheel fight against you when you are trying to turn? And strong too?

 

[Apharmd Battler]

RR6 update pls.

Oh yeah, I forgot about this. I would LOVE a update or patch to play RR6 with this wheel. BUt we're taliking about Namco here, I won't hold my breath, but that would be DAMN sweet. And I think this would be kick ass for NFS:MW as well...........

 

[thorns]

Has it been confirmed yet that the MS wheel is indeed TRUE FORCE FEEDBACK actually comparable to the Driving Force Pro and not some rumble crap? Hearing that it reacts to a bump in the road doesn't mean shit, does the wheel fight against you when you are trying to turn? And strong too?

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/09/microsofts-wireless-racing-wheel-a-qanda-with-marc-whitten/

FEEDBACK: Inside the wheel, there are two rumble motors (as in the Xbox 360 controller) and a force feedback system that can create tension, "spring" and other effects that either make the wheel more or less difficult to turn, depending on what's happening in game. The wheel can use all three feedback mechanisms at once, but in order to do so must be plugged in to a standard power outlet. If it's not plugged in, the wheel uses just the rumble motors. Battery life is comparable to the Xbox 360 controller.

 

[PanopticBlue]

Hmm, I'm not so sure that sounds like true force feedback.

 

[SiNCeRe]

Hmm, I'm not so sure that sounds like true force feedback.

Then what's "True" force feedback?

 

[Gek54]

Hmm, I'm not so sure that sounds like true force feedback.

Im sure Che knows what True Force Feedback means and he has many times confirmed that the Microsoft wheel does in fact feature TFF.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Che said it is, so I believe him. After all, Che said VF5 was PS3 exclusive, didn't he? Che won't let you guys down, I'm sure.

 

[Zaptruder]

As much as I'd love to be playing all my driving games in TFF, I'm not going to shell out for 2 steering wheels this gen, especially as the one I am, will be this: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99305

It's an agnostic controller; red buttons, not symbols. It'll work for the PC, PS2, PS3... given the USB ports, I don't see why they can't make it work for the X360.

Also I seriously doubt that MS will be making their steeringwheel better looking then that (if its white, it's probably an automatic lose... unless it's white leather and red. but it'll be green and white, everyone knows that. )

 

[Gek54]

The MS wheel is supose to be less than $100 but if its not 900 degrees then no linear input.

 

[eso76]

well..on paper it has everything i was hoping for a forza sequel.
But the relatively short development time makes me a little skeptic, i really hope it's not a quick port and it holds its own against pgr3, graphically.
Any chance we'll see what it looks like in-game ?

 

[PjotrStroganov]

On the bizarre forums, the devs have said to implement FF when it's available. So I guess it's coming,

 

[golem]

one of my favorite games last gen... until i lost the dvd. cant wait for the sequel

 

[Last Hope]

This is all good news but PGR3 is the worst of the series.

30fps
Excessive motion blur (it does nothing to cover up crappy frame rates and makes the cone challenges a bitch).
Lots of jaggies (try rendering it at the right resolution next time)

I don't think that many people still play it. Interesting to see that Bizarre is still working on it.

I guess we didn;t see anything from Forza 2 on the floor because it is probably unstable like Forza 1 was at CES last year. Two crashes in a 5 minute presentation.

 

[eso76]

I guess we didn;t see anything from Forza 2 on the floor because it is probably unstable like Forza 1 was at CES last year. Two crashes in a 5 minute presentation.

it also looked like shit at first; i remember watching videos and laughing about that 'pathetic attempt at a GT game'.
Playing a demo at gamestars (gamestars ? can't remember) in london and then playing oxm demo and being absolutely disgusted.
Then the final game came out and it fixed everything that made the game laughable at first, and i loved it.

 

[Last Hope]

it also looked like shit at first; i remember watching videos and laughing about that 'pathetic attempt at a GT game'.
Playing a demo at gamestars (gamestars ? can't remember) in london and then playing oxm demo and being absolutely disgusted.
Then the final game came out and it fixed everything that made the game laughable at first, and i loved it.

I loved the first and that is why I have really high hopes for this game. The areas of improvements they need to make are.

FRAME RATE (I can't stress it enough)
The menu system
The regions that you 'live,' there were not enough cars for a feature like that.
We need more tracks. The designs were decent to good.

The game was great overall and I can forgive all my nits except for the frame rate. 30fps is just not acceptable for a racing game.

 

[Big Takeover]

I loved the first and that is why I have really high hopes for this game. The areas of improvements they need to make are.

FRAME RATE (I can't stress it enough)
The menu system
The regions that you 'live,' there were not enough cars for a feature like that.
We need more tracks. The designs were decent to good.

The game was great overall and I can forgive all my nits except for the frame rate. 30fps is just not acceptable for a racing game.

There isn't a whole lot we know, but the little we do addresses your wishes.

- 60fps
- surely different (better?)
- 300+ cars. Up from 200
- 60 tracks (I think Forza1 had 30 "circuits" with variations of those. If 60 "tracks" = 60 "circuits" that would be double Forza1)

 

[Gek54]

That 30 count for tracks in forza includes the we little Autocross tracks, hopefully they are not trying to count tracks made of cones in the Forza 2 number.

 

[Big Takeover]

That 30 count for tracks in forza includes the we little Autocross tracks, hopefully they are not trying to count tracks made of cones in the Forza 2 number.

Oh they will.

I took the track count from here. Yeah, it includes the point-to-point stuff as well as the drag strip. My estimation based on this is, unlike IGN who said "Forza 2 will have more than 60 tracks, so we assume the number is around 30 with their mirrors.", there are actually 60 individual "tracks\circuits\point-to-points\ etc." and their derivatives.

So yeah, the 60 probably includes some bogus stuff, but I don't think IGN's assumption was correct. The end result is still twice as many "tracks", if they count them the same way.

Just a guess of course.

 

[Gek54]

I'd say it not only does a damn good job, it enhances the sense of speed significantly.

You say enhance, I say artificially exaggerates and distorts.

 

[chespace]

I've just written an impromptu Forza 2 faq which I will be posting shortly on our website. It addresses everything that's been brought up in this thread.

Give me a half-hour to finish formatting this and push it live.

 

[Gek54]

 

[sangreal]

I've just written an impromptu Forza 2 faq which I will be posting shortly on our website. It addresses everything that's been brought up in this thread.

Give me a half-hour to finish formatting this and push it live.

I hope the link works this time

p.s: nice picture

http://forzamotorsport.net/devcorner/devprofiles/che_chou.htm

:lol

 

[Big Takeover]

Oh my fuckin' lol

Double fisted + Gallardo. No regrets.

 

[sangreal]

The FAQ is up, btw

http://forzamotorsport.net/051106-02.htm

 

[Gek54]

Q: Does the official Xbox 360 racing wheel feature 900 degree rotation?
A: The wheel is lock to lock only, meaning that it isn't 900 degrees.

Che, do you even know what you are talking about? Lock to lock just means spinning the wheel until it stops in both directions. We want to know how many degrees you can turn the wheel. 180? 200? 240? 360? 540?

Q: I hear Forza Motorsport 2 is 60 frames per second this time. Is this true?
A: Yes. The game will play and control at 60fps. Just like in Forza Motorsport, our physics system under the hood will still run at 180fps (or more).

Downgraded from the 240 updates per second of Forza1? Is the controller still polled at 180 times per second?

 

[sangreal]

Q: Why wasn't Forza Motorsport 2 on the show floor at E3? Does this mean the game sucks?
A: The reason Forza Motorsport 2 wasn't on the show floor is pretty simple. Coming from the press side, I kind of took for granted that showing your game at E3 was a no-brainer. Sitting on the other side of the fence, however, I see an entirely different story. E3 is incredibly disruptive to the development schedule. If you're going to show off a polished demo of your game (i.e., not incur the wrath of editors and fanboys), then you're going to spend a month polishing one very isolated area of the game while everything else falls to the wayside. The video that we showed is using real in-game assets (i.e., the cars and the track are all in-game models), and the look of the video is attainable. The game will look better than PGR3 and then some. Why? Because it isn't simply Forza HD. We're not using the old Forza 1 engine. A new platform, a new engine. Things need to be built from the ground-up. There's a lot of work involved, and showing the game now simply wouldn't do us any favors. What was effective, however, was the E3 video we showed. People were coming up to me out of the woodwork telling me about the emotional response the video got out of them. Mission accomplished on that front. We announced the game, gave folks a taste of the ol' car lust, all without taxing our very busy development schedule. Anyway, with that, I really hope you folks can understand (and forgive) why Forza 2 wasn't shown in playable form on the show floor.

oh snap