Volume 93 -- May. 30, 2008
Happy Birthday Forza Motorsport 2!
By: Che Chou, Community Manager
Welcome to the 93rd edition of the Turn 10 weekly pitpass report, our regularly scheduled soapbox that covers all the happenings here at Turn 10 Studios and the Forza 2 community. It’s been a very special week for a couple of big reasons. Today, we’re at the tail end of our Forza Motorsport 2 First Anniversary celebration – an event we’ve been having a lot of fun with here at Forzamotorsport.net. As most of you know, Forza 2 released to critical and commercial success in North America exactly 366 days ago (the game was released a week earlier in Japan, and a week later in Europe).
Like all good things, time flies when you’re having fun. The general consensus around Turn 10 is a collective “whoa, has it already been a year? It seems like just the other month we were marveling at our auction house and multiplayer server numbers and watching our community release their first amazing paint jobs. Of course, a part of this feeling of time acceleration comes from the fact that we didn’t really stop working on Forza 2 after May 2007. Post-release, we spent the next five months (roughly) working on additional content in the form of cars, tracks, and a couple of auto-updates. Such is the reality of developing games this generation and the model doesn’t look like it will change any time soon.
But back to the celebration. When I came up with the First Anniversary concept in a conversation with Landin back in early April, we had a lot of enthusiasm but very little structure. Well, you could argue that this week wasn’t terribly structured after all, but I’d like to think that’s just how we roll as a community – have fun with the game and the contests, and not get too uptight about formalities. In that respect, this week has been absolutely awesome. Everything from the response we’ve gotten to the “best of the year” articles on painters, racers, and photographers, to the daily game with Turn 10 dev sessions has been overwhelmingly positive.
Check out the Turn 10 First Anniversary LCE Saleen, designed by Fred "redesign" Howell. If you're quick you might find a few of these still up on the Auction House...
Then there’s are the new and official Turn 10 FM2 First Anniversary LCE cars that we’ve been putting up on the auction house; designed by our in-house livery editor guru Fred “redesign” Howell, these set of three gorgeous cars (the Saleen S281E, the Subaru S204, and the Ferrari Challenge Stradale) come decked out with all sorts of nice details like Turn 10 developer signatures and other little touches. To say that demand for these cars have been high would be a sad understatement.
Due to these results, we’ve decided to incorporate some changes going forward to build on this sort of community demand. We know you guys enjoyed articles like the Robin “Little Vixen” Stockton profiles as well as the race and fantasy livery galleries, so we’ve decided to implement a weekly version of this feature which will shine the spotlight each week on one race livery car and one fantasy car of the week. We’ll keep it to just two cars because we want to give each artist more room to discuss his/her masterpiece. These articles will go up every Wednesday and we’ll be picking (the prior week) these cars/artists at random from the forums based on stuff we dig. In other words, don’t call us, we’ll call you. Additionally, we’re still going to celebrate tuners, hotlappers, and photographers, but that will take place mostly in each week’s pitpass report.
Landin's crew of Forza 2 racers tackle the first corner at Mugello in a tight pack. Surprisingly they made it through the first few corners without incident.
The other initiative we’re embarking on is a monthly official Turn 10 unicorn car. For the First Anniversary celebration, we used the LCE cars as the platform for these Turn 10 unicorns. The problem is that if you aren’t gifted these cars directly by Turn 10, you aren’t able to see them on the auction house, making these LCE unicorns very difficult to obtain for most of you out there who did not originally obtain the LCE cars or the LCE code. Which is why going forward, we’re going to be using the real unicorn cars you see on the auction house today to create the Turn 10 car of the month. I’ll have more details about this exciting line of collectibles in the coming weeks. We’re going to sit down with Fred to bring you some truly desirable designs and combining them with the best tunes from the Forza tuning shops out there.
So before I head out of here and catch my flight to San Francisco to chill with friends and family, I just want to thank all those that joined our game with Turn 10 devs sessions this week. We had a total blast racing all of you. We’re also thinking about doing a race against Turn 10 session once a week – if we have enough people bandwidth to do it. Otherwise, we can do it once every other week, or once a month. Whatever the frequency, we know you guys enjoy it and that makes it all worth it. These game with dev sessions will also be a great way for many of you to win these Turn 10 unicorn cars (you join the room, we gift you a car – it’s that simple). Those of you who joined our rooms this week, we will start doing all the gifting on Monday so please be patient. There are literally hundreds of you.
Have a great weekend, and happy birthday Forza Motorsport 2!
Check this Game with Dev shot showing two cars shooting off the track on a visit to the barrier after early contact. The rest of the pack maintains a close battle for the lead.
Forza 2's First Anniversary Celebration Wrap-up
By: Landin Williams, Community Moderator
Happy Birthday indeed! As Che has already mentioned we had an absolute blast this past week, racing, talking and having fun with everyone able to make it into one of our multiplayer rooms. It is always great to see what the community is up to on a personal level, while checking out all of the cool content first hand on the track. I met a lot of great people over the past week while we raced everything from stock Miata’s on Suzuka to R class cars on Nurburgring. Most of the racing ended up being very competitive (with the exception of a few R2P, VVV and TRC drivers who laid the smack down) and clean, but the best part was the fact that everyone was having fun.
Being able to participate in yet another Game with Dev event was a real blessing for me for a few reasons. First of all I got a chance to drive a whole bunch of tuned cars that were sent my way from various tuning shops around the community, and I have to say all of these cars performed amazingly well in race situations. One car that really stands out in my mind is the Gold Top Secret Supra (shown above on a visit to the barrier) that quickly became my A class car of choice on Maple Valley. I can’t recall where this car came from, but I do know that it is probably the only reason why I was able to keep up with the rest of the pack. I also got a chance to drive the “Killer B” from AZT Tuning, both 52 second Evo’s from AG and Redline, and a Viper Competition Coupe from Gearbox just to name a few. Overall it was a great experience knowing that no matter what class or track was chosen by our room, I had a car ready to tear up the tarmac, so a special thanks going out to all the tuners who hooked me up!
The AWD monsters go head to head into the second hairpain on Tsukuba Circuit. The Tuning AG Evo 8 did me proud!
In addition to driving all these great cars I also had a chance to marvel at the incredible variety of cars that populate our multiplayer lobbies. It seemed like every time I launched a race I was seeing a new and unique starting grid, filled with popular cars and paintjobs that I recognized from my time spent on the forums. Every pack was unique, and that is what the Forza 2 community here at FM.net is all about.
In order to celebrate this passion for creativity and uniqueness, we have put together a bunch of articles that expose some of the best content to arise from our community over the past year. If you haven’t already checked out this collection of liveries, pictures, tunes, and drivers, then I suggest you head on over now to take a look. Links to all of these featured articles and galleries can be found in the sidebar to the left at the top of this article, so take a moment and soak in all of the incredible content that has had such a large impact on not only our community, but everyone here at Turn 10 as well.
And just when you thought you had seen it all, the community comes right back with incredible submissions to our special First Anniversary contests. In fact we were so impressed with all of the entries that we have put together multiple galleries to showcase our personal favorites. For those of you that don’t know, last week we created a livery design contest, graphic design contest, and photomode contest to celebrate all things Forza 2. We spent a good part of this week searching through the submissions and deciding on the overall winners and finalists. This process hasn’t gotten any easier with time (in fact it’s getting harder), but after some discussion we have decided on the overall winners for each category.
Check me out tandeming with Forza Community Drifter "FeLLiPh3". Bonus points for anyone who can figure out what car I'm driving...
Originally we planned on rewarding the top 3 from each contest with a variety of prizing, but with so many great submissions we soon found out that 3 didn’t do our community justice. So here’s the deal. If your design or photo has been included into one of our galleries, it means that you are a competition finalist, and have earned yourself a Turn 10 FM2 First Anniversary LCE car! Just send us an e-mail with your gamertag along with the name of the competition that you have participated in, and we will gift you one of our First Anniversary Cars. So without further ado I would like to present the overall winners from all of our Anniversary Week competitions. Congratulations!
Livery Design Contest Winners
Duff Man D - Winner: First Anniversary Livery Contest
First Place: Duff Man D
Second Place: Razored21 - View Submission
Third Place: PansyMk4 - View Submission
Out of all the submissions to this contest the Mitsubishi Evolution from Duff Man D really stood out. The overall style of the design is great, and it has a very strong race feel to it, something we were looking for in all the submissions. Second place goes to Razored21’s Celica, featuring a unique design that really caught our eye. The combination of the flags on the side, along with the Forza 2 logo looks great and flows really well with the overall lines of the car. The third runner up, PansyMk4, submitted a very clean and simple design that once again had a very strong racing feel, along with imagery that fits well within the Forza 2 tradition. Congratulations to all 3 winners for submitting these incredible designs!
Graphic Design Contest Winners
RoxxApexx - Winner: First Anniversary Graphic Design Contest
First Place: RoxxApexx
Second Place: Antiyou - View Submission
Third Place: hashiriya - View Submission
As always the submissions for the graphic design contest were very professional and well put together. We had a tough time choosing the top 3, simply because of the quality of all the designs, but in the end we were really impressed with the elegant look of the advertisement from RoxxApexx. Everything flows so well in this design, especially the text, which really captured the concept behind our community. The design looks and feels like Forza 2, and for that it took home the number one spot. A very high tech ad from Antiyou takes second place in this competition. We really liked the overall layout and style of this design; however the flow and size of the text made it difficult to understand the details. Third place goes to hashiriya for creating one of the most unique and intricate designs we have seen to date. The creativity featured in this advertisement is absolutely outstanding, especially considering that the design is entirely original (no borrowed images). Great work!
Photomode Contest Winners - Original Category
DLT - Winner: First Anniversary Photo Contest - Original Category
First Place: DLT
Second Place: Mazda6 MPS - View Submission
Third Place: SlimyPL - View Submission
DLT takes home to top spot in our Original photomode category with this emotional shot on Motegi. The combination of the background with the foreground set this picture apart from the rest, and we really loved the overall feel and style of the picture. Mazda6MPS took home second place with this well lit shot on one of the Test Tracks. The interesting composition as well as the lighting and the livery made this shot the perfect candidate for a top 3 finish. Third place goes to SlimyPL for this incredibly moody picture. The idea of having the canvas split in two with heavy contrast stood out immediately, and as a result this picture takes home third place.
Photomode Contest Winners - Edited Category
Yasvetperez - Winner: First Anniversary Photo Contest - Edited Category
First Place: Yasvetperez
Second Place: Der_GolF - View Submission
Third Place: RockSteady1983 - View Submission
Photomode veteran Yasvetperez submitted this realistic looking picture of a Mines Evo. The overall composition mixed with a wide angle gives this shot a real sense of speed. Combine that with great reflections and you have yourself a winning submission. Der_GolF takes home second place with a unique looking shot in the Mugello pitlane. With great composition this picture has a real “race day” feel to it that gives it a sense of excitement. RockSteady1983 takes home third place with this emotional picture that just oozes racing passion. Even with the car at a great distance, it remains the focal point of the image, and creates a strong emotional response. Congratulations to the six winners from both categories of our First Anniversary photomode competition!
View all of the finalists in the First Anniversary Winner’s Gallery!
Along with all of the competitions listed above we have also put together a special Hotlap challenge sponsored by Buttkicker. Prizing from Buttkicker, as well as Limited Edition LCE cars are on the line, and we have seen a huge number of players participating in hopes of scoring an LCE Unicorn and some buttkicking prizes. 300 random players will be selected from all participants to receive one of the Turn 10 FM2 First Anniversary LCE cars. Your ranking and best time will have no impact on your chances at being selected, as long as you submitted a time you will be entered into the draw. Additionally the top 10 drivers on our Hotlap leaderboard will be gifted one of these special cars! Thank you to everyone who participated in this week’s special Hotlap challenge, and congratulations to the top 10 fastest drivers in the world!
An intense battle for first on the Ring' with photographer (and evidently racer), Johnny Questtt pushes me to the limit. One mistake, and it was all over as Questtt sailed to victory.
FM2 First Anniversary HLC: Sponsored by Buttkicker – Top 10
1 - R2P ChemicaL
2 - R2P KimiMatt
3 - V12 seba grisea
4 - V12 Nikrox
5 - RBR In Ya Chops
6 - iPicaso
7 - VVV NookmaM
8 - VVV Evolution
9 - R2P CoNCepT
10 - D2C Walahoshie
And with all of that said I would like to officially wrap up our extremely successful First Anniversary Celebration week for Forza Motorsport 2. Our community has shown us time and time again that they are some of the most passionate and talented players on the planet, and we are glad that you have made Forzamotorsport.net your home for the past year and beyond!
Speaking of beyond, there are just a few more orders of business to take care of before I head home for the weekend. First of all the final results are in from the third installment of our Official Hotlap Series, and as mentioned earlier Team V12 has shown an extreme amount of dedication to our competition. With almost 1000 points separating them from the second place team, it is easy to see that this team means business. In fact just a few days ago I heard rumors that the members in V12 were running an insane number of laps to ensure their victory and dominance in season 3. Either way this team has really sparked my interest, and if you are as curious as I am then you will be happy to know that a full article on Team V12 is in the works, and should go live within the next few weeks. For now here is a breakdown of the final points calculations from Hotlap Series 3. Congratulations to V12, R2P and VVV for placing first, second and third in our overall team leaderboard!
We have yet to determine when the next series will begin, however stay tuned to the Tournaments section on our forum for up to date information. Also due to time constraints we will be uploading this week’s Hotlap Challenge on Monday instead of Friday, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t show up until then!
And finally we have more exciting news regarding one of the most interesting competitions ever hosted here on FM.net. As some of you already know, amateur racing driver James Elterman has summoned the powers within our community to design a livery for his Subaru WRX that will be used in the 2008 Time Attack season. Our community responded with mighty force, submitting top notch designs that rival some of the finest race cars in the industry. Over the past few weeks James has been filtering through these designs along with his primary sponsor Takata, and they have unanimously decided on a winner, whose virtual creation will now be transformed into reality! Check out the full story on Elterman here, and without further ado I present the winner of the Takata Livery Design competition!
Check out the winning submission from the Takata Livery Contest. Forum user and founding member of AG tuning, dRizZe, will finally get to see his creation transformed into reality!
Congratulations to dRizZe from AG Tuning for winning the Takata Livery design contest! As you can imagine there is a lot that goes in to choosing a winner for this sort of competition, and I don’t plan on leaving you all out to dry. A full breakdown on the competition as well as insight into why this car was selected over the others will be included in a featured article next week, as I sit down with James Elterman to talk about what it takes to transform this virtual design into reality. Stay tuned for more and once again congratulations to dRizZe for this winning submission!
And with all of this said I am out for a nice relaxing weekend! I hope you have all enjoyed the First Anniversary of Forza Motorsport 2, and once again thank you all for making this community all that it is! Enjoy the weekend and thanks for reading!
Peace
Landin
// Next: Check out the First Anniversary Winner's Gallery //