Fans of racing games took to the first version of Forza Motorsports for the original Xbox like kids to the swimming pool on a hot Summer day.  Building off the success of Project Gotham Racing and exceeding it with realistic racing, cars and tracks led Forza to the peak of racing games.  This without having guns or rockets mounted on the vehicles, resorting to capture the flag-type games or gang-related content.  On10 Studios focused its attention on capturing realistic sounds, sights and experiences as if the gamer were actually in the car, on that track, hearing those sounds.

The original Forza was so feature rich, with the ability to upgrade, paint and finely tune your cars that it's a wonder that there was anything more that could be included in the second generation of the game.  A few months back I was able to take a tour of the studio where the game was being worked on and it was evident that there was much more to be included in Forza 2.  I saw stacks of exhaust pipes that were used to get the exact sound of cars with various upgrades.  I saw thousands of screenshots of in-game views of the cars, as well as videos of on-track testing, video capture and the like.  Yes, Forza 2 would enhance and extend the game to new levels of realism, short of feeling the shattered glass as I hit the wall in turn four.

The press release for the game includes the following items:

Loaded with over 300 of the world’s hottest cars for you to collect, personalize, and race, Forza Motorsport 2 gives you the complete racing experience.

• Lap the Competition: With true next-generation features made possible by the power of Xbox 360, Forza Motorsport 2 burns rubber at 60 fps with 4x full-screen anti-aliasing, and high-dynamic-range lighting in crisp 720p high-definition glory. Feel every nuance of your car and the road thanks to support for the official Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel.
• Experience uncompromising physics: Top automotive engineers, professional race car drivers, and experienced programmers teamed up to create the most complete racing simulator experience available. Cars incur dramatic damage and wear, which affects car performance. Advanced tire and suspension models respond to heat and pressure changes as well as weight transfer and aerodynamic load.
• Race real-world tracks: From the all-new world famous Suzuka and Sebring tracks to the spectator-lined streets of New York, race on meticulously designed tracks with an incredible sense of speed and realism. Forza Motorsport 2 features over 45 tracks carved out of 12 environments, including several real-world licensed circuits such as Silverstone, Tsukuba, and Laguna Seca. New real-world licensed circuits further expand the world of Forza Motorsport 2.
• Collect, upgrade, and tune hundreds of cars: From sport compacts to purpose-built race cars, collect more than 300 cars from over 50 of the world’s leading manufacturers including Ferrari, Porsche, Nissan, VW, GM, and Lamborghini. Take your car to the garage and install alternative engines, suspension kits, bolt-on superchargers, brakes, rims, racing slicks, and more. Dial in advanced suspension settings, tire pressure, and gear ratios. Forza Motorsport 2 allows you to own the cars that will own the competition. 
• Create and share your masterpiece with the world: Express your inner artist in the paint and upgrade shops with near endless visual personalization. Customize the shape of your car by combining different licensed rims, performance parts, and aftermarket body kits. Create your own unique paint scheme using millions of paint and decal options. Take in-game pictures of your creation in the Forza Motorsport 2 photo mode. 
• Compete online: Take your personalized car onto Xbox Live® for some intense online wheel-to-wheel racing. Earn in-game credits and even complete single player career objectives while racing over Xbox Live. Watch the best racers from around the world compete on Forza Motorsport 2 TV.

While wading through that list I thought that it seemed pretty tame for a fantastic game.  What does this list look like in real-life and is there things they missed mentioning?

I received an early copy of the final game and immediately popped it into my Xbox 360 to get a view of the game in action.  Fans of the game will love the beautiful videos of racing, while the game loads.  Once loaded you're presented with the main screen that veterans of the first version will recognize.

You can choose from three modes, Arcade, Career and Multiplayer. 

Arcade mode lets you race with cars from each class and the goal is to win medals, bronze, silver or gold for each race.  Of course, you want to finish with Gold, since it nets you the most achievements and unlocks more cars for future races.  The arcade races are broken down into exhibition, time trial and free run:

• Exhibition - compete in fifteen different wheel-to-wheel races to unlock cars you can use in  exhibition races, time trials, in multiplayer races or in free run racing.
• Time Trial - Prove your skills by setting the fastest single lap time on specific tracks with a specific car or car class.  There are twenty-five different races to compete in.
• Free run - practice with any car you've unlocked, including tuned and painted cars in your Career Garage.

Career mode lets you step into the role of a driver, competing against other real-life drivers in a variety of races throughout the world.  Career mode is broken down into race sections, such as:

• Proving Ground (10 events / 30 races) New
• Amateur (10 events / 34 races)
• Manufacturer Club (10 events / 34  races) New
• Semi-Pro (10 events / 35 races) New
• Rivalry Faceoffs (10 events / 37 races) New
• Regional Championships (10 events / 40 races) New
• Factory Specs (10 events / 40 races) New
• Professional Series (10 events / 54 races)
• Endurance races (10 events / 10 races)

You'll need to win earlier races to unlock the later series, but as you can see there are over 300 races included in the Career Mode, compared to 75 races in the previous version of Forza.

Novice and experienced drivers alike will want to start in the Proving Ground races, since they let you race in easier races and let you get used to the new, more realistic driving and track physics.  I noticed immediately how my cars reacted to the bumps, grade changes, cobblestones, dirt and gravel  as I passed over them.  This is more different that in the original version, since they drastically affect how you drive, since you have to be even more sensitive.  This is a result of extended video capture of the actual race tracks and is a testament of how Forza isn't a racing game, but a realistic racing simulator.

I jumped right into Career mode and began my first set of races.  The car responded great, although I noticed that the car responded like one would expect.....if you were actually driving it.  Gone were the days of treating a "off-the-lot" car like it's a modified track machine.  No, instead you face having to actually control the vehicle as if you were behind the wheel.  I struggled reaclimmatizing myself to the game and getting used to the new physics, but as I continued to play I found it easier.  I was able to get through my first set of races reasonably well, since the AI drivers took it easy on me.  Of course, I sensed this was false security, since my backside would be handed to me on a silver platter soon enough.  To this point I've completed about two-thirds of the races in "Proving Grounds" with about six trophy's to show my skill.  Of course, this isn't "big boy" racing yet, which will happen in Semi-Pro and beyond.

Multiplayer - After you've proven your worth in Arcade and Career mode it's time to move to competing against other live players via Xbox Live.  I always liked playing online, although I wasn't always keen on having my car that I thought "was all that and more" get pasted and face the dreaded race countdown before facing a "not finished".  Alas, Forza has extended the Live experience to beyond just racing and now you can go to the Auction House, gift a car to a friend or watching Forza MotorSport TV.

Auction House - one of the anticipated features in Forza 2 is the Auction House which operates similar to other online auction sites.  You can buy and sell vehicles in a mad-bidding environment.  You can search for cars to purchase by price, region, car level or class, make, model, year, drive type or other features.  You can bid and if you win then pickup your vehicle for use.

If you want to sell a vehicle by creating an auction.  You can set the price, buyout price, auction length (up to 24 hours), make it a featured item and even lock the car design.  You pay a virtual handling fee based on the length of the auction and if you want the item features (10 x the base handling fee).  If you lock the design then the buyer can't change the design, rather they have to delete the design and repaint it themselves.  This latter feature may cause items to sell for less, if the buyer can' customize it.  I know that we'll see some amazing cars to sale and the question is whether you'll have enough points to win them.

Gifting a car to a friend - This is exactly what it sounds like, namely you can give one of your cars to a person on your Friends List, without cost.  This is helpful if your friend needs a car that they haven't unlocked yet or one that can help them race faster in multiplayer races.

Forza MotorSport TV - Forza has included race feeds from current tournaments and races, broken down in two sections; Featured races and "best races right now".  You can pick a race and watch it from a variety of angles and who knows your race might be listed for the world to view!

Scoreboards - There are the ones you'd expect, including Time Trials, TrueSkill Rank and Hot Lap Times.  You'll see your times and others listed here in order.  This is similar to the original Forza.

Graphics  - I can't say enough about Forza 2's graphics, which are spectacular and have caused me to drive into walls while gazing at the sky, the spectators or the other environment-rich scenery.  I've even begun driving tracks slowly, knowing I would lose the race, simply to take in the detail throughout.  Of course, later I've gone back and put a beat-down on the opponents, but that discussion if for a later section.    One thing that's been included is the ability to setup multiple screens easier.  Let's say you have a few flat-panel displays laying around, then you can use them to create a left side-front-right side view of the game and you'll see those views during races.  I played on one of these setups at Forza's headquarters and it's a fabulous, albeit expensive experience!

Painting Your Car(s) - One of the features I didn't use as much as I'd like in the original Forza was the ability to paint your cars.  I tried, but got tired of the tedious movement and simply wanted to play the game.  I decided to try out the feature by painting one of my newly unlocked muscle cars.  The menus are similar to the original game and you can have up to 100 layers, where each decal type is a layer.  I used a combination of shapes, letters and decals to create my thunderstorm blue "Rainmaker2112" car, as seen below.

This took me about 40 minutes of work, yet you can see how fabulous the tools are.  There were unbelievable custom paint jobs in the original Forza and I know that there will be even more creativity now that you can buy and sell creations in the "Auction House".

One item that would be great is if there were a wand or tool that could be used for drawing and movement of items, besides the Xbox 360 controller.  Can you imagine the creativity that would happen?  Another far-fetched idea, but one that would be very cool is if you could import graphics into the game for custom cars.  For example, instead of spending tedious time creating faces from layer-upon-layer, let a graphic or picture be imported into a "User Gallery" for inclusion on the cars.

Music - Here's the soundtrack list of songs included within the game:

• Daft Punk is Playing at My House - LCD Soundsystem
• Come On - Andy Hunter
• Switch On (feat Ryan Tedder) - Paul Oakenfold
• Truckers Choice - DJ Mark
• Stinger - DJ Mark
• DANCE (Rockstar Remix) - N.E.R.D.
• Insomnia - Faithless
• Sonido Total - The Pinker Tones
• Look at What You get - Taxi Doll
• Put Your Hands Up - Ben Benassi
• Robogirl - The Crystal Method
• What you Want - Killing Bird and Jane Fontana
• Told You So - DJ Tiesto--Tom Cloud
• Small Step on the Other Side - DJ Tiesto--Basic Perspectivce
• Body Language - Mandy Vs Brookashade
• Beautiful - Goldfrapp (Additional Tracks)
• Sink - Sister Machine Gun
• Lenny Pane - Underworld
• Elevate Myself - Grandaddy
• Break your Neck - Shy Child
• Witch in the Club - Quintron
• On Repeat (Xfm Session) - LCD Sound System
• Off The Hook - CSS
• Lead Head - Beamish & Fly
• Slide In - Goldfrapp (Additional Tracks)
• Nothing Left - Orbital
• Positive Tension - Bloc Party
• Karma Hunters - The Pinker Tones
• Gone Daddy Gone - Gnarls Barkley
• Disco Infiltrator (FK's Infiltrated Vocal) - LCD Sound System
• Crash V8 - Kill Memory Crash
• Cobrastyle - TeddyBears
• Alala - CSS
• Rogue Rock - The Rogue Element
• BlackPowder - Motor
• Come Inside - The Chemical Brothers
• SolidRockRazorSteel - Apollo 440
• Rollin' Down the Highway - Apollo 440
• If You're Gonna Jump (Paul Oakenfield Remix) - Paul Oakenfold
• Lights Out - P.O.D.
• Spitfire [2005] - Prodigy
• Busy Child - The Crystal Method
• Weapons Of Mass Distortion - The Crystal Method
• Forza2 Theme - Junkie XL Remix by MarQ

Of course, you can use your own custom soundtrack from the Media blade and turn off the game soundtrack in the Options menu.  The choice is yours.

Your Space on Forzamotorsport.net…

The Forza folks have extended the online stats and salivating by creating an entirely new ecosystem using Xbox Live, so now you simply log into Forzamotorsport.net with your Xbox Live Gamertag information and visit this page for instant access to…

• Download your FM2 Photo Mode pictures that you capture in-game. The press of a button gives you the ability to share your work of art with others in the online community. Forzamotorsport.net will allow you to store up to 5 photos on this page at any one time.
• Browse your online racing stats, including Overall Rank, Time Trials Rank, Hot Lap Rank, Total Racing Time, Number of Total Races, and more.
• Quickly keep track of all your FM2 auction house activities, including current bids, sales, and notices to resolve any sold or expired auctions.
• Get an at-a-glance summary of your upcoming online tournament schedule.
• Receive content/editorial updates via a convenient articles module right on the page. Never miss another Pitpass Report again!

As of today, May 24, 2007, this isn't available, but will be when the game releases next week.  I'm excited to view my stats and all of my pictures, including the ones of my muscle car above, with better resolution and picture quality.  Being a stats junky and website fiend I'm very excited to see this as soon as it's available.

Conclusion

There is so much in this game, far more than I can cover in this initial impression, yet without the game being gimmicky.  You won't see crazy features, rather just a great, quality racing simulation throughout.  I love the new races in Career mode, the new online features, such as the Auction House, gifting a car to a friend and the new individualized website.  You owe it to yourself to pre-order a copy of Forza 2, if you haven't already.  You might want to pickup a Xbox 360 racing wheel while you're at it to round out the experience.  Like me, though, you might need to implement the "one hour post-game wait" before getting behind the wheel of your actual vehicle, since I'm certain that the police won't believe the "honest officer, I thought I was playing Forza 2" excuse.  Now get out there and race your heads off!