Forza Motorsport 2 Officially Released in North America

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

05.30.07 // 12:00

By: Che Chou

It's finally here! As of this morning, 5/30/07, Forza Motorsport 2 has been officially released to retail in North America. Those of you who have been waiting months, if not years, for this occasion, we've only got one thing to say: Go! Go! Go! (But drive very carefully to the store, please). And to those of you who have just caught wind of our very exciting launch of Forza 2, we urge you to give the game a try. From the very outset of development, the Turn 10 design team have embraced the philosophy to bring forth a game that would embody accessibility and inclusion for all types of gamers.

Whether you're an on-track driving genius with impeccable reflexes, or a physics nut who loves to tweak and tune your ride, or an online gamer who's in it for the glory of competition, Forza 2 is the racing title you're looking for. But let's say you're not so much into the racing or the drifting or the scoreboard bragging rights -- there's still very much a game here for you.

With our powerful (and having seen what the Japanese have been able to do with the game in just a short week, I mean this in every sense of the word) car painting tools and addictive/interactive online Auction House feature, you don't even have to be good at driving games to partake in the car passion you'll find on and off Xbox Live. Come explore the online community of Forza Motorsport 2, you'll find all types of gamers, here for all types of reasons. But there's one thing we all have in common and that's our universal love of the automobile. Forza Motorsport 2 is here to celebrate that love.

Of course, things are buzzing here at Turn 10. We're just as excited (and maybe a little nervous) as most of you are now that the game is finally in the hands of the public and our passionate community. Here's a quick rundown on what's on our minds, and yours.

Auction House/Tournaments Servers Update - 5/31/07 - 12:00AM PST

We had a bit of server downtime a few hours ago due to overwhelming online activity in the Forza Motorsport 2 community. That's really awesome news for Forza 2 and... well, less than awesome news for our server farm which has to bear the brunt of the workload.

Well, we're happy to inform you that servers are back up and running smoothly, and all functionality should be working. Those of you who had cars on the auction house should have them back in your garages, and those of you who gifted cars during the server outage should be able to see your cars back in your garage (or your friend's garage) -- if not now, then in a few hours.

Not everything has been restored back to hunky dory status, however. Tournaments proved to be so popular, it nearly brought the service down to its knees. So temporarily, for possibly the remainder of the week (although we hope not), we're going to limit tournaments to ones which are currently qualifying this week and actually close tournaments from last week which may be in its final rounds of completion.

We apologize for this shuffling around, but please keep in mind that this should all be very temporary until we stabilize our backend.

Thanks, and if you have any questions or concerns, please post 'em over to our troubleshooting forums.

Downloading the Pre-order Nissan 350Z / LCE Cars

There has been some confusion among those who have pre-ordered Forza Motorsport 2 and those who have purchased the Limited Collector's Edition. Here's the deal. If you bought either of these versions of Forza 2, you're entitled to some bonus cars which are not in the normal retail version of the game. Pre-ordering the game grants you a limited edition Nissan Fairlady Z (350Z) -- the same one you see in the screenshot above, while buying the deluxe LCE gives you three rare cars ('06 Ford Saleen Mustang S281 E, '03 Ferrari Challenge Stradale, '06 Subaru Impreza S204) from the Forza 2 stable. In either case, you should have gotten a code to download these cars from Xbox Live Marketplace.

Once you've redeemed the code and gotten your cars, you'll need to go into the game to see your cars. In the arcade mode (Exhibition and Free Run), you'll see these cars in their respective classes when you choose to run a race or a lap. To quickly sort through cars in the menu system, press the X button, then choose whether you want to sort by year, model, make, etc. The same thing goes for the Fairlady Z. If you've downloaded the car, then you'll find it simply by locating it in the menu in Arcade mode. Now, if you want to actually OWN any of these cars in your personal garage, you'll need to head over to the single-player dealership and actually buy these cars so you'd own them. Of course, note that you cannot gift or sell these cars to anyone else.

Forza Motorsport 2 Reviews

As you'd expect with the game's release, reviews of Forza Motorsport 2 have been hitting the wire at rapid pace. And as you'd also expect we're watching these reviews pretty closely. So far, we're ecstatic with all the press raves so far -- especially with Gamespot's review score of 9.2, since those guys have a reputation (at least among hardcore gamers and developers) as tough reviewers and typically stingy on scores. Although there's been a little controversy in the community over a couple of the scores from IGN and 1UP, here at Turn 10, we feel that an 8.9 and an 8.5 are clearly good scores and we look forward to how Europe's press will take to Forza 2. Exciting times to be sure. Anyway, here's a snapshot of reviews so far courtesy of our fans and moderators at Forzacentral.com. Thanks for all your diligence, guys!

Forza Motorsport 2 - Worldwide Review Collection So Far

OXM Italy (XMU): 9.3 [pic]
Eurogamer.de (German Edition): 9/10 [link]
Weekly Famitsu: 9/9/9/9 = 36/40 [pic]
XboxDynasty.de: 9.5 [link]
360-gamer : 9/10 [link]
TeamXbox: 9.3 [link]
OXM Germany: 90%
Looki.de: 91% [link]
Gamezone.de: 9,3 [link]
Famitsu 360: 9/8/9/8 = 34/40
Xbox-Newz.de: 91% [link]
GameSpot: 9.2 [link]
IGN: 8.9 [link]
1UP.com: 8.5 [link]
Yahoo! Games: 4.5/5 [link]
Playscope: 8/10 [link]
Spieletester: 90% [link]
XboxFront: 92% [link]
360-live magazine: 8,8/10
GameMedia.de: 9/10 [link]
OXM Brazil: 9,5 [pic]

Forzamotorsport.net is Live and Kickin'

Like any good race, Forzamotorsport.net did some very late braking but pulled it out in the end. As of this morning, you can log into the site with your Windows Live ID (and hopefully that's the same email account you're also using to read/post on the forums) to peruse the various online integration features on the site. For starters, you've got the very essential Photo Mode download functionality that allows you to grab photos you've taken and uploaded from Forza 2. Also available on the "My Stats and Photos" page are your online numbers from your activity on Xbox Live, as well as summaries of your currently auctions and tournaments.

Another major piece of the FM.net experience is the new Auction House search/browse feature that gives you a peek at what's currently happening on Xbox Live at the moment. The cool thing about this feature on the website is that we're actually giving you more info about each car than we do in the game, including extensive car history and all upgraded parts in the trunk. Keep in mind that this officially marks the launch of Forzamotorsport.net version 1.0. Going forward in the months to come, we plan on adding functionality, features, and streamlining for the site as a whole. Case in point, we'll be looking into whether we can implement blowing up thumbnail images in the FM.net auction house details so you can get a closer look at user-created designs. No promises of course -- we could always get shutdown by the folks in legal for ESRB reasons. In the meantime, however, please enjoy the site and if you run into any problems or issues, please post your concerns and observations to our troubleshooting forums.

Photo Mode/Car Painting Editor/Auctions

When we developed Forza Motorsport 2 with these powerful tools for the community to inspire and fuel its own car passion, we knew it was going to be an essential part of what will give Forza 2 longevity and lifespan. We knew we were going to see some crazy designs using our 4000 layers of shapes and gradients. What we weren't expecting were some of the absolutely ingenius livery designs coming out of Japan only a week into the game's release. I mean, seriously, we're just as blown away as anybody out there over how awesome some of these paint jobs have been and have been very curious about how they're doing illustrations with this much complexity.

Yes, that's right. Somebody made this livery with many many layers... and forgot to lock his design before auctioning it off on the Auction House! Now it's everywhere.

As a result of the car painting boom amongst Japanese players, Forza 2's online Auction House has definitely taken on a life of its own, complete with a scaling economy based on supply and demand. It's even gotten to the point where artists in the community are now stamping serial numbers (like Andy Warhol's factory paintings) on their cars to indicate just how rare and popular the car really is. All of this has been incredibly eye-popping to observe and the most amazing thing is that North America and Europe have barely even begun to scratch the surface of the game. We anxious await their results!

Also, I want to comment on our new feature Photo Mode. There are two undocumented "features" in Photo Mode that I want you all to be aware of. First of all, when you're flying around in Photo Mode, be sure to always point your camera crosshairs on your subject car and press the X button. What this does is give the car you select the highest level of detail for cubemaps (reflections) and shading. When you go take a picture from replay or in-game, your focus car is always the car you were either playing or watching. If you decide you want to take a picture of another car while roaming around in Photo Mode, always be sure to hit X on another car to give it the highest level of detail.

Having said that, we'd really like to see what you guys can pull off in terms of Photo Mode pictures so join our official FM.net Photo Mode Competition! Head on over to our photo forum and show your stuff. If it's good enough, I'll feature it in this week's Pitpass Report.

Forza Motorsport 2 Race Weekend - June 2-3

Last but certainly not least, I want to plug the fact that we've set up a very cool competition over Xbox Live this weekend and have dubbed it the Forza Motorsport 2 Race Weekend. Using the game's Tournament system, we're going to be holding a hotlap contest and scoreboard. The qualification lobby will open at midnight on Friday evening/Saturday morning, and close at midnight Sunday evening. During those 48 hours, you'll be battling against your fellow Forza 2 players for the top spot and win delicious prizes supplied by our marketing folks.

More details to follow in this Friday's Pitpass Report so look for it then.

In the meantime, thank you from all of us at Turn 10 for your continued support and interest in Forza Motorsport 2.

We hope you enjoy the game and let us know what you think in the FM.net forums!

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