Volume 45 -- May 4, 2007
By: Che Chou
Made In Japan: Import Generations...
Welcome one and all to another edition of the Turn 10 Pitpass Report, our weekly update regarding all things Forza Motorsport 2, console racing's one and only racing simulation exclusive to Xbox 360. As we approach our imminent release date, now might be a good time to get caught up on the past 45 weeks of Forza 2 development in our WPR archive section. Lots of useful tidbits of info there if you're just joining us for the first time. As for the rest of you, feedback to my inbox (and our traffic numbers) tell me anticipation for the game is at an all-time high. And certainly, there appears to be a slew of questions and cynicism out there regarding what the game is and isn't, what it looks like and doesn't look like, when the blasted demo will finally come to Live Marketplace, what the deal is with the Limited Collector's Edition, and finally, when will the FM.net forums re-open for registration.
Well, in regards to the Forza 2 demo. I still don't have an answer. As of today's emails, the demo was still in the hands of our certification dept. They're expediting it through the process but it's not out of the woods yet. We should have a firm idea when you can expect the demo by early next week. Basically, once it passes cert, throwing it up on Marketplace shouldn't take more than a couple days. Of course, being a Microsoft n00b, none of you should take my conjecture as gospel, but I'm doing my best here to give you an honest answer. I want y'all to play the demo just as much as you do -- if nothing else, it'll give the forums something else to talk about. Also, once the demo releases, I'll see if we can do some fun little hotlap contests for some no-prizes. Please be patient. The demo is coming 'round the bend. So close I can almost smell the burnt rubber.
Then there are the questions of whether or not all the videos and screenshots coming out of Europe this past week have been from the latest and final build -- and the answer is no. It was an early release candidate preview build. Not a whole ton has changed between what was shown and what finally made it into certification, but we did fix a litany of bugs -- and yes, some were graphical. Here at Turn 10, we finally got our hands on a small batch of much-coveted "green discs" (they're actually silver DVDs that play in retail Xbox 360 kits). As such, some of you spotted our resident gearhead Joel Robinson playing Forza Motorsport 2 on Xbox Live earlier this week (and much jealousy and conspiracy theorizing ensued). The truth is, most of Turn 10 is now playing Forza 2 on their 360s at home in a live/real production environment. Sure, we're addicted to the game, but this is also a good way to work out the kinks in our complex Xbox Live functionality, which include Photo Mode, Auction House, and Tournaments.
Speaking of Forza 2's online functionality, the webdevs and designers who are hard at work whipping the next revision of Forzamotorsport.net into shape are nearly ready to show off their baby. If you worked here at Turn 10, you could visit a test version of the new FM.net that allows you to sign in with your Windows Live ID, browse and download your photos, search and get detailed info on cars in the Auction House, and see which Forza 2 tournaments are currently qualifying and running. Then there's scoreboards, player stats... all of which are pulling data from our test environment. The exciting thing is that next week, we should be able to move FM.net v2.5 into a live production environment, meaning those playing the game with green discs will be able to use the site in conjunction with the game. Having worked on this site for over a year now, I can hardly wait to see it all come together. You won't be able to see the new version of the site until the week of 5/29, of course, but know that FM.net is about to undergo yet another important transformation. As for forum registration, we will open it up for new members when the Forza 2 demo makes its debut on Marketplace, as I'm sure many of you will want to comment on the game in the forums.
Then, there's the lingering question of the Forza Motorsport 2 Limited Collector's Edition, which includes a soundtrack CD, a special making-of book (which yours truly contributed to), as well as nicer packaging and different cover art. On top of all that, the LCE comes with a code that allows you to download three exclusive cars available only to those who own the LCE. While the Forza 2 LCE has been confirmed for Asia and Europe, I'm sorry to say that it will not be coming to the U.S. Was it a Turn 10 studio decision? Of course not. When it comes to retail matters, there are many internal and external forces at work in the channel. Unfortunately, it was decided early on that the U.S. wouldn't get the Forza 2 LCE. Why? You'll just have to chalk it up to one of life's great mysteries, I guess. So the question is, just how badly do you want the three exclusive cars ('06 Ford Saleen Mustang S281 E, '03 Ferrari Challenge Stradale, '06 Subaru Impreza S204) and how far will you go to track down a LCE?
Lastly, a certain European site put the opening intro movie for Forza 2 on their site this week and it quickly spread like wildfire. The fine and all, except when they were busy ripping the Bink file from our preview build, they messed up the sound encoding -- the result is that the audio only contained the low-frequency channels, making the video sound like a rather odd drum solo without much rhyme or reason. So in the spirit of righting wrongs, here, for your viewing pleasure, is the real and official 720p version of the Forza Motorsport 2 intro movie.
And now, a word from frequent Pitpass contributor Bill Giese on Forza 2's achievement list which was "leaked" first this week by (as far as I know) the folks over at msxbox-world.com.
Forza Motorsport 2's Achievement Philosophy
By: Bill Giese
This week saw the revelation of Forza 2's achievement list, published by msxbox-world.com. There seem to be two different philosophies in regards to achievements. Some believe that achievements are meant for only the best of the best, similar to getting a high score in an arcade game back in the day. These people use achievements as bragging rights, and rightfully so, as the average player will probably never land these achievements.
Then there are some achievements that are meant to be more of a snapshot of the players progress. Simply looking at their score can give you an idea of how far they have gone through the game. This is geared towards the more casual player. This is the philosophy that we take on Forza 2.
We have built a huge web of scoreboards (both in-game and on FM.net) to track your times anywhere in the game. The tops of these scoreboards will be populated by the best of the best. Their times, ghosts, and replay data will be studied and challenged daily. This is a great achievement and, to me, helps feed those who desire something to brag about. But these top times won’t be attainable to the other 98% (or less) of the Forza community. So we wanted to make sure we built a rewarding achievements system for everyone to enjoy.
That being said, let me delve into the achievements for Forza Motorsport 2.
Race Achievements
These will probably come easy to the pro’s out there, but we wanted a way to positively enforce clean driving as well as reward specific driving scenarios. These achievements are not worth a lot of points, but I hope they will teach those unfamiliar with racing.
Career Achievements
The biggest part of our game is by far the career mode (it took our testers on average around 70 hours to complete it 100%). This is where you get to fully experience every aspect of our game. As you can see we wanted to award those who completed all the career races as well as leveled up their character profile to 50. These pay off especially to the snapshot example I was talking about. These achievements aren't going to be attained overnight. You need to gain levels to unlock events, then you need to have the right car with the right restrictions to even get into the race. The great thing about this is that you can get this by doing online career as well.
Collecting Achievements
We love the car collecting aspect of this game. We have broken up the achievements that have to do with car collecting in the career. Some will be easier than others, Spain for example has only 2 cars. One of the cars won’t be unlocked till you succeed further in your career, never the less we only give the Collecting Cars from Spain 1 achievement point. Compare this with the Collecting Cars from the United States which is worth 25 achievement points. To answer all those panicking posts – NO the Unicorn, Limited Edition, and Pre-order cars do NOT count toward these achievements.
Arcade Achievements
We really want to highlight the Time Trials in Forza 2. Not only have we paired the right car with the right track, but we have also attached a target time to each trial. These target times should be achievable by all players (but they are challenging!).
Our exhibition achievements reward players who come in 2nd or 3rd. Our exhibition mode is more approachable and we want to encourage players to keep trying if they happen to come in 3rd. And, yes, if you get all gold you will also get the silver and bronze achievement. We do not require multiple replays.
Online Achievements
As I mentioned earlier I didn’t want to force people to play in ranked matches just to get an achievement, we have scoreboards for that. We really want people to try the auction house, as we are very happy with how it had turned out. And as for the 1 million online credits, that may take you a while, but is far from impossible.
Secret Achievements
We're really not supposed to let the cat out of the bag on these, but if you'd like to bribe me with cash monies, PM me and we'll talk. (No, not really.)
And there you have it, Forza Motorsport 2's achievements in a nutshell. And now, onto this week's Forza 2 replay theater!
Made In Japan: Import Generations
Inspired recently by a pretty rad JDM video posted by Tempest_Demon in the FM.net forums, this week's replay theater video pits three pairs of Japanese muscle cars together for the ultimate five-lap battle on Tsukuba. The pairings are comprised of old vs. new, including the FC and FD RX-7s, a brutish white Evo VI against its newer, slicker, Evo IX brethren, and finally, the familiar orange Fairlady Z (350Z) vs. its cult-favorite 300ZX former-self.
Unlike last week, this race was more or less a single-player-style experience, where I set up my own dream race in the system link lobby and battled against 5 other AI cars. Difficulty for all AI cars were set to "professional" and I drove the red second-gen RX-7. Due to complaints from the past two videos that my driving was way too erratic (hey I was drifting and going into the dirt for dramatic effect!), I have tried my best here to drive like a professional racer would -- as little contact as possible, being conscious of AI's race lines and not diving into corners and playing bumper cars to get ahead. As you can see for yourself, when you drive like a pro, the AI also behaves quite intelligently and reasonably. There's absolutely no rubberbanding here, folks.
When the flag dropped, the Evo VI shot away from the pack and became a dominant wall that lead for pretty much the entirety of the race. I worked my way through the pair of Fairladys and dueled with the blue FD for a while. When I finally passed him, the Evo VI and my cherry red FC pulled instantly away from the rest of the pack and it soon became a nerve-wracking battle of patience and endurance (although it was only a 5 lap race, there's nothing worse than wiping out on the 5th lap).
To make my older RX-7 competitive amongst a field of more powerful (but stock) AI cars, I pumped my performance index up to B591. Upgrades include race intake and exhaust, a MAZDASPEED sport port and polish, Spearco race intercooler, and a beefy Apexi sport turbo kit. Oh, and sport tires to boot. The effect these mods had on the car went beyond just putting the car at a healthy 338 hp with 298 lb-ft torque, as you can hear for yourself in the video. The FC sounds like a pissed off little kid!
As for the small low-quality version of the video, I've decided to omit it this week unless I get an overwhelming request to put it back up. I've found that almost everyone downloads the high quality version of the video anyway.
And with that, I'm out. Have yourselves an awesome Cinco de Mayo!
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