Volume 84 -- Mar. 21, 2008

A Turn 10 Introduction...

By: Che Chou, Community Manager

Greetings from the track! Welcome to this week's Turn 10 Pitpass Report, where I'm writing from the dusty, grimey environs of Forza Motorsport 2's various race tracks. We're currently in the middle of our Xbox Live "Game w/ Dev" online event, where folks like you get to play Forza with Turn 10 and hang out virtually the crew over Live. In all, we had nine Turn 10 devs jamming on the game with a bunch of you out there and initial feedback from those who have dropped in and out of my office with headsets still firmly attached to face is "whoa, that was pretty fun!" It was officially our second "Game w/ Dev" event and the consensus tonight was that we don't do this nearly enough. Well, good feedback, to be sure, and we'll look into how we can do this sort of thing more often. A note of reminder: if you were in my (chespace T10) lobby, be sure to email forzafb@microsoft.com for either your unicorn car or free in-game credits.

2008 Maserati GranTurismo by: Hoccy

It's the weekend and everyone here is excited to catch some F1 racing in Malaysia, where forecasters predict a chance of thunderstorms. If the attrition rate in the Australian Grand Prix was anything to go by last week, I can't wait to see these guys running sans traction control in the wet. It's also been a pretty exciting week here at Turn 10. We released the March Car Pack last Wednesday and saw a really good response from both online press and community regarding its arrival. If you haven't had a chance to check out our 14-page car guide, be sure to go and get the full scoop on every ride in the pack (as well as our trailer video to fire up your car lust). Honestly, I feel it's our best car pack yet, with the scoreboard-dominating Ferrari F50 GT (go check the scoreboards, it's already the car of choice for the discriminating hotlapper) and my personal favorite, the '08 Porsche 911 GT2.

2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X GSR by: Stickydiljoe

Surrounding the March Car Pack are all sorts of promotional activities on Xbox Live. For instance, if you go and explore Live Marketplace right now, you'll see that there's a Forza 2 Play & Win weekend happening. You can win stuff (yes, STUFF!) by downloading a free, sUpa-l33t Turn 10 gamerpic and playing multiplayer games of Forza 2 online this weekend. For full details, hop onto your 360 and click on any number of Forza 2 banner ads promoting the Live Weekend event. If nothing else, you need the awesome Turn 10 gamerpic. Finally, I have some sort of iconic visual representation for my virtual counterpart on Xbox Live that I can be proud of. You should go and rock a nice Turn 10 gamerpic too. It's free. Do it.

Turn 10's game director Dan G. snapped this pic of an authentic Turn 10 mailbox at Sebring last week. And no, this is not where Turn 10 studios got its name.

 Alright, so how many people watched the 12 Hours of Sebring ALMS race last weekend on Speed Channel, or were lucky enough to get out to the FLA? Well, if you haven't already read the bad news yourself, the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 430GT did not repeat a historic finish like the one it had last year when it went wheel-to-wheel with Jorg Bergmeister's Flying Lizard Porsche 911 on the final corner. Nope. In fact, ol' #62 did not finish the race at all. Risi's Jaime Melo took out another car going into a corner too hot and wrecked five hours into the race. Our man on the inside, Don Pierce, followed the entire race from the pit to the press room and blogged about 12 hours of heaven and hell on Risi's site. It's definitely a compelling read. Many of you also asked why the Forza 2 logo was no longer on the hood of the #62 430GT. The short answer: We did not renew our sponsorship for the 2008 season, mostly for timing reasons, as we currently have no announcements regarding new projects. The doors are wide open for anything to happen, really, and the future excites.

At Sebring was also the recently unveiled 2008 BMW E92 M3 GTR. Smokin!

Speaking of logos and liveries, I'm giving the Forza 2 art and painting community a heads-up right now. The Championship Gaming Series headmaster has contacted me for a list of our community's best artists to work on a contract basis to design all the league's cars that each of the 18 global teams will use for televised races. This is a real contract gig where you'd literally be painting Forza cars for real money. We'll be sending out emails or PMs to a handful of you out there that we've noticed to really shine with your designs so keep an eye out for that soon. If you're interested in this job, you could also take the initiative to contact us; just be sure to include a link of a thread or forum post with something that you've recently created.

I rock, you rock, we all rock for IROC. Check out why this car makes you bitchin'.

As usual, we round up the week with another adventure in the Turn 10 Car of the Week blog series. My pal P. Rod is back and this time he's got IROC on the brains. So that explains the fresh mullet he's been sportin' as of late. And welp, that's really about it for me this week. Go forth and play with the March Car Pack. Oh, and if you're someone who hangs out on other real-life car forums, here's something you might be able to help me out on. I'm interested in featuring, on a regular basis, cool people with cool stories to tell about cool cars. Could be any car, as long as you have a story to share. Drop me a line, and let me know at forzafb@microsoft.com.

Have a great weekend, folks!

1989 Ferrari F40 Competizione by: leggs 08

2008 BMW Motorsport M3 E92 by: ltlynX

1971 BMW Motorsport 3.0 CSL by: jhower08

The Forza Motorsport 2 Community Update

By: Landin Williams, Community Moderator

Yo Forza Fans! Welcome back to another edition of the Forza 2 Community Update. I am very excited this week due to the successful release of our newest DLC, as Che has already covered with such grace and precision. He also mentioned the “Game with Dev” event that was a lot of fun and a great success. Just to make sure that everything is clear I wanted to put out this disclaimer for those of you who watched Trixie’s video on the Xbox LIVE marketplace. I don’t think you’re clowns, and I definitely don’t think that I am faster than the racers who play our game to death on a regular basis. In all reality I thoroughly enjoy our community and had a great time racing, drifting and talking with all of you! The video was made specifically to rile up the Forza 2 players out there, and judging from some of the messages we have been receiving, it worked. :) Anyways it was great playing with you all (SPDN Blazn, Farman Racing, Nismorphed, Nastyr2112, LCD Sound, coriano2112) and I am excited for the next time when I will be able to participate in an event like this.

2008 Porsche 911 GT2 (977) by: Stemisch

Now it’s time for my weekly video reminder...just kidding, but seriously if you haven’t seen the March DLC trailer, then you should head on over to our latest article to check it out. This will be my last reminder, and even if you have already seen it 20 times, go watch it again! Additionally we are planning some cool DLC related events on our forums so if you are interested in participating keep reading, as I will go into more detail later on.

First I wanted to share the experience of one of our “Community VIP’s” who just recently (yesterday actually), made a visit to Turn 10 after we found out that he was in the Seattle area. As some of you already know Ryan “TRC Solo” Terpstra has been a very active member of the Forza 2 community and is currently one of our forum moderators. Since he has had such an impact and has helped so much on the forums, Che and I were super excited to have some time to sit down and discuss his passion for all things Forza.

2007 Porsche 911 GT3 RS (997) by: SRT8 - Photoshop Competition

Being such a huge fan of the series Ryan was also excited to be able to take a tour of the studio, and he should be, because Turn 10 is a really unique and interesting place to see (especially when you are one of the biggest Forza 2 fanatics in the world). As soon as he walked into the studio he was immediately floored by all of the cool car related decorations that are scattered along ever wall and found in every office. “It’s obvious that Turn 10 has a true passion for cars” he says as Che and I give him the full tour of the studio. After the shock and awe had worn down a little bit, Ryan began noticing some of the other cool things about the studio. When I asked him what his first impression of the studio was he mentioned the fact that we have lots of “toys” to play with; and we’re not talking about Tonka Trucks and Power Wheels. 

We’re talking about the oodles of Xbox 360’s, HD TV’s and Triple Screen’s that are almost par for the course here at Turn 10. “These are the tools of your trade” says Ryan, “and it’s cool to see all of the Xbox 360 gear lying around”. Just as an example, the office that Che and I share has a total of 6 Xbox 360’s and 2 HD TV’s, perfect for those late nights, and after hour drift sessions. Of course our office is just the tip of the iceberg, so we made sure to show Ryan the rest of the studio while giving him a chance to sit down with some of the developers who made this incredible game possible. Anyone who is a fan of video games in general would enjoy these conversations, as it is always cool to get a behind the scenes look at what actually goes on in order to produce a game of this caliber.

1964 Ferrari 250 GTO by: brandonp51 - Forza Central Photomode Comp.

Now remember, when I said Ryan was a huge fan of the series I wasn’t joking. He has to be one of the most hardcore Forza players that I have ever met. Now all this was pretty obvious to me when I met Ryan and saw how excited he was, but it wasn’t until he sat down with Forza 2 that I truly realized his passion. The first thing that stuck me was his knowledge base regarding the various part configurations that you can use in FM2 to build the ultimate car for a specific set of restrictions. Ryan was very eager to check out our new DLC cars, and was making predictions on what cars would be competitive in what class, based solely on their PI index and weight. 

He is also a scoreboard fanatic who compulsively checked the boards to see if the new cars were making their way towards the top. All of this was really impressive for me as I come from a completely different side of the Forza community; the side that doesn’t ever cast an eyeball on the scoreboards. For Ryan, achieving a good hotlap time is a serious mission and after he spent a few minutes tuning the new Evo X, he set off to place a top 100 time on one of the test tracks. He wouldn't stop till he got it, and eventually he clocked in around 70th position after an intense session. Watching him make subtle changes to his line while chasing the top 100 was interesting to say the least, and I definitely have respect for someone as dedicated as Ryan. It was great spending time with him and I hope you enjoyed your behind the scenes visit to Turn 10 Studios!

Check out the winning submission from our Magazine and Website Livery Contest!  Congratulations to Little Vixen!

Alright now it’s time to talk about the DLC Competition week that is already underway on our forums. Since this is a special week we have decided to host an official photomode and livery contest. For both competitions you have to use content from the March Car Pack, so grab your favorite new ride and make some submissions. The livery contest is wide open, meaning you can submit anything you can possibly think of. This includes replica, fantasy and original liveries. We are going to be judging both competitions based on our favorite designs and pictures, nothing else. This leaves the doors wide open, and we hope to see some really unique content spring up over the next week. We will be accepting submissions until Thursday the 27th of March, so get to it.  For all the details make sure to check the photomode contest thread and the livery contest thread located on our forums.

We are also running a special Hotlap Challenge this week featuring none other than the new Mitsubishi Evolution X (as voted by the community). This challenge will be the same as the rest; however we will be rewarding the top 20 with free gift cars along with the Random 30! That’s 50 people who will be receiving a gift car next Monday, so grab the new Evo X and start running laps on Motegi East!

Hotlap Challenge Week 26 - Top 10
1 - VVV headyman
2  -TRC Smokinu
3 - MonoPeak BR
4 - ACC Mega Mug
5 - VVV Daveyskills
6 - IPR StevenX
7 - TRC Pale Rider
8 - VVV Richie Roo
9 - IPR SGATTO
10 - VVV Volcom

Click here to see if you have been selected as one of the Random 30 from this week!

Magazine and Website Livery Contest - Second Place Submission.
Congratulations to turtleart!

While we’re talking about competitions, I wanted to take this time to congratulate Little Vixen for placing first in our Official Magazine and Website livery contest! This amazing submission features characters from all of your favorite Xbox 360 games, along with references to Game Faq’s, a popular destination for gamers. Great work on the design, and enjoy your signed copy of Forza 2 (Robbie Gordon FTW!) and your official Forza 2 Polo shirt! Also congratulations to Turtleart and Duff Man D for placing second and third respectively with equally amazing designs. To check out the top 10 submissions head over to the official blog entry here. Congratulations Vixen and once again great work!

Magazine and Website Livery Contest - Third Place Submission.
Congratulations to Duff Man D!

Alright that’s all for this week’s update. I wanted to quickly mention that I will be changing my forum name to “Landin T10”, and will no longer be using my old account. I will try to keep up to date with PM’s as best I can, so make sure to contact me on the new account if you have a question or comment. Ok thanks for reading, and have a great Easter weekend enjoying the new rides from the March Car Pack!

Peace

Landin