Volume 92 -- May 16, 2008

The Turn 10 Weekly Pitpass Report

By: Che Chou, Turn 10 Community Manager

Welcome to Forzamotorsport.net and thanks for reading the Turn 10 Weekly Pitpass Report! The past five days have been absolutely hectic here at the studio and for good reason. As some of you may know, we've been beefing up our staff here at Turn 10 as production on our next project shifts into top gear. As a result, it's been a non-stop flurry of new faces here, some just coming through for the interview loop while others are settling into their new offices. Once the proverbial dust settles, I'll do a more proper re-introduction of the new Turn 10 -- bigger, badder, and... yes, wiser. We've also gotten word from our business admin Lisa that the long-rumored (and much overdue) studio move is confirmed for a magical date in June. That's right, Turn 10 is moving into its new digs elsewhere in Redmond and, although the new building is bigger than our current facilities here at the Millenium campus, we're already expecting to be close to full-capacity at our new joint on day one. That is, until we slowly devour the entire floor of the building that we're occupying [insert reverb-drenched maniacal laughter here].

2004 Audi TT Coupe 3.2 by JediWise - Most Realistic Photo Mode Pic

At this point, you might be tempted to ask the almight "why?" Why is Turn 10 expanding and are two heads really better than one? The answer is pretty simple, but because I can't divulge any details, the answer is ultimately useless. What I can say is that we're growing the staff because Forza Motorsport 2 sold very well, continues to have a rabid fanbase and solid, consistent Xbox LIVE usage numbers, and we're bullish about the future of the franchise, the studio, and well, racing games in general. After Forza 2 shipped (and after a much needed vacation for many), the designers and devs here at Turn 10 spent a good chunk of time just brainstorming what we'd like to do on our next project. We came up with huge lists of ideas and gave all of them to Turn 10 game director Dan Greenawalt, who went parsed these ambitions against his own grand vision for what the studio should build next. The result? From where I'm standing, the project is ambitious, epic, innovative and should make our community very happy.

All of this talk about the future of Turn 10 segues nicely into reflecting about recent history, which is something that's gotten the community team scrambling here this week. We've been planning and creating content for the one-year anniversary celebration of the Forza Motorsport 2 retail release, and although this whole thing has been cooked up by yours truly to really celebrate you (the players of Forza 2), we thought it would be cool to put a nice event-like package around it by coinciding it with the one-year release of Forza 2. It'll be a nice retrospective on all that has happened within the community -- and if you've hung around these here parts, you know that when it comes to the creative energy of Forza nation and user-generated content, no other game community out there even comes close. So after working with Landin and Fred on the details, we've come up with what we hope will be a fun week that puts the spotlight on the Forza community to really showcase your brilliance over the past year. So, shall we have a look at the schedule?

The FM2 First Anniversary Celebration: 

Week of May 26th - 30th, 2008

The Best of Forza Nation Showcase Articles:

Monday:  FM2's Hottest Race Liveries and Real-Life Replicas  

Tuesday:  FM2's Most Realistic and Artistic Photos

Wednesday:  FM2's Most Incredible Fantasy Liveries of the Year

Thursday:  FM2's Fastest Teams/Drivers and Tuned Cars

Friday:  Special Pitpass Report, Car of the Week, Winners Gallery

2005 Lamborghini Gallardo by Hoccy - HLC Realistic Photo Comp

Also, all week long, we are inviting you guys to come play Forza 2 with us on Xbox LIVE from 4pm to 6pm. I'll have more details on which Gamertags to send your friend invites to next week, so stay tuned. In addition to the above, we've also kicked off the following community contests, which will run from now until the following Friday. Click on each link below to find out more details about the contest.

One-Year Anniv. Photomode Competition:  We want to celebrate everything that is Forza 2, and that means this contest is wide open.  You can use any car on any track to show off your Photomode skills in Forza 2.  We will be looking for the best pictures (in our opinion), and will be including the winners in our special Pitpass Report on Friday May 30th. Note: Image editing for minor touch-ups allowed (e.g., contrast, sharpness).

One-Year Anniv. Graphic Design Contest:  In order to celebrate Forza 2’s 1 Year Anniversary, we have created our second Official Graphic Design Contest.  The purpose of this competition is to find the best overall design that showcases our 1 Year Anniversary to use in various promotional areas.  Your design must be 100% original (excluding images taken from Forza 2 of course) -- that means no editing real ads or using copyrighted materials.  You are creating an advertisement for Forza 2’s One Year Anniversary. Essentially you will be creating a graphic to represent the entire event.

One-Year Anniv. Livery Design Contest:  Turn 10 is looking for a race livery to show off the One-Year Anniversary of Forza 2.  The design should include the official One-Year Anniversary logo that you see on this page and anything else that you think will help make the car feel more legit. You can create the design on any car you like. Generally speaking we are looking for a race car livery design, something that could be put on an actual car in a real life racing series, but this doesn’t mean fantasy items can’t be included also!  We will be selecting winners solely based on the cars that fit this description the best, as well as the cars that represent the One-Year Anniversary and the look and feel of Forza 2 the best.

2007 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V by RoxxApexx - [TRC]TimeRaceCars

One-Year Anniv. Hot Lap Challenge on Xbox LIVE:  Each week, thousands of you hop online to compete for top spots on our HLC scoreboards in the tournament section of FM2. And each week, the results are scary fast. For the anniversary celebration, we're going to host a special HLC sponsored by our friends at Buttkicker (designers of seat rumblers which is a nice tactile complement to Forza 2's wireless force feedback wheel and realistic in-game physics). Buttkicker has agreed to hook up the winner of this HLC with some pretty sweet gear. The scoreboard officially opens next Friday.  

Prizes All Week Long:  Contests? What about the prizes! Yes, we haven't forgotten the prime motivator for some of you out there, which is why we're going to be releasing very limited edition Turn 10 liveried series of unicorn cars and gifting them only to the winners of the above competitions. These rare beauties are designed by Turn 10's own livery editor maestro Fred Howell ("redesign" on the forums) and will adorn the three LCE cars which were impossible to obtain unless you purchased the LCE version of Forza 2 last year -- or you received these cars from us as gifts of Turn 10. At any rate, next week we'll give you guys a look at the FM2 One-Year Anniversary Subaru S204, the Saleen S281E, and the Ferrari Challenge Stradale. I'm also going to be gifting these cars out to folks who join me in playing FM2 during the Game w/ Devs windows (4-6pm all week)... if you can beat me in a race that is. Heh heh.

Unicorns Galore and Auction House:  Speaking of unicorns, we're also opening up the unicorn floodgates during the week of 5/26 and putting up the four hard-to-obtain unicorn cars with a cheaper than usual buyout price. So those of you who haven't gotten your unicorns yet, now's your chance. These unicorns will go up at random times of the day throughout the week, so be sure to check often. And as we mentioned a couple weeks ago, we're also going to do a little experiment with the Auction House by turning off the time extensions on bids. That means when an auction is over, that's it -- no more two-minute extensions that potentially go on for hours (and god forbid, days). This means the last person to bid when the auction timer is up wins that car. We've never tried this before, so we want to hear feedback from you guys on how it's working out.

So there you have it folks, a week of festivities in honor of Forza 2. You know what I always say -- don't hate, celebrate!

2007 Audi S5 by Jockamo - Fantasy Livery Contest

The Forza Motorsport 2 Community Update

Landin usually does this section quite a bit of justice each week but since he's out for the next week-and-a-half visiting his homeland of Canada and then heading out to the real Liberty City (aka Manhattan) on vacation, I'm going to relay his message to the hot lap community:

"Season 3 of our Official Hotlap Series has recently been completed, and while we do not have the final results yet, I wanted to take a quick moment to congratulate Team V12 for their amazing performance this season.  Since week 1 we have consistently seen a number of V12 racers in the top 10, and the points after week 4 speak for themselves.  With over 600 points separating V12 from R2P, it is clear that this team has been extremely dedicated since the beginning. 

"Of course this is no reason to discount the amazing driving abilities from members of R2P, VVV, and all the other teams who put in the effort this season.  The final point’s calculations are already underway, and we are planning to release a full breakdown of the season in our special 1 Year Anniversary Pitpass Report on Friday May 30th.  Until then you can participate in this week’s challenge on the Motegi Road Course, and next week’s sponsored challenge on Road Atlanta. 

"Additionally the random 30 from HLC week 34 and 35 will be posted on Monday, May 26th, in the tournaments section.  Until then enjoy your Forza 2 gaming, be nice on the forums, and I will catch you on the flipside after my vacation.  Holla!"

2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II by Lethal Industry - ForzaCentral.

Other stuff happening in Forza nation this week run across the spectrum of our community; everything from the tuning folks to the livery folks to the photomode devotees. Here are some of the things you should check out:

• Car Tuners:  Forum user Recipe started a thread asking forum members to post their five favorite tuned cars in Forza 2. It’s a great thread to see what tuning files have come out over the last year that are highly regarded by the tuning community.  There was a similar thread a few weeks ago about the three favorite Fantasy designs that was also popular.
  
  
• Fantasy Livery Guys/Gals:  OMG, keep your eye on this thread. Forum user and livery painter systemaddict posted work-in-progress photos of his Adriana Lima MINI Cooper S earlier this week and the results were simply stunning. He's since removed the WIP photos and presumably will post finished images soon.
  
  
• Forza Photographers:  Every week I chance upon some of the most incredible photomode pics ever. Landin and I will sometimes just sit there, jaws agape, wondering how people do it. The one thing that caught my eye over in the photomode section this week was the next installment of the Photoshopped Contest, where they're doing a contest to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Porsche. The contest ends on May 20th.
  
  
• Race Livery Masters:  Forum user and livery painter quattroCrazy just finished his amazing 1996 Porsche 911 GT1 replica livery. Go to the thread now and check it out. Right now. Not only is it a spot-on replica of the real-life race car, it's also a really difficult paint job to pull off. Congratulations quattro, simply stunning!
  

2002 Lexus SC430 by RMMfan - Race Livery/Replica Comp

And that, my good friends, is a wrap on this edition of the Turn 10 Weekly Pitpass Report. As always, do check out our Turn 10 Car of the Week blog articles, and this week is no exception. This week, my buddy F. Roberts ponders life as a new daddy and why he loves the MINI Cooper S but will never actually own one. Also, I was going to talk about the return of Dan Greenawalt's insanely sick 2000 Audi S4 from the shop, but I'll save that story for later. You'll definitely want to check out all the mods Dan's gotten on his S4 this week. Color me very jealous. Next Friday is the official Turn 10 studio picnic so there won't be a pitpass next week. Boo hoo, I know, but hey, we're not going to leave you to the weekend empty-handed. Instead of the regularly scheduled WPR, we're going to run our first Forza Nation Spotlight article showcasing none other than Robin Stockton, aka Vixen from our fantasy livery community. It's a nice little piece on someone we feel really exemplifies why Forza 2 is breaking the mold when it comes to gamer stereotypes.

Have a great weekend, and see you on the forums.

// Comment on this edition of the WPR //