Volume 96 -- Jun. 20, 2008
A Turn 10 Introduction...
By: Che Chou, Community Manager
Welcome to the 96th edition of the Turn 10 Weekly Pitpass Report! As community manager here at Turn 10, I started writing and posting a weekly summary blog on a very early rendition of Forzamotorsport.net way back in March of 2006. Those of you who have been around the block with me a few times know what life was like back then: Before the official debut of Forza Motorsport 2 at E3 in May 2006, I focused most of my efforts on getting in touch with folks from our #1 fansite Forza Central, and revitalizing activity in the original Forza Motorsport on Xbox. Then there was the Forza 2 announcement and my official public "arrival" as community here at Forzamotorsport.net. In fact, you can sort of relive it right here in the first ever Pitpass Report ever written at Forzamotorsport.net. Yup, as you can tell from reading that, everyone gets to be the n00b at some point, especially yours truly. The point of all this nostalgia, of course, is to highlight the fact that we -- as a studio, a franchise, and a community -- have come a long way. And to quote a cliche I've been hearing of late: "It's not the years, it's the mileage."
2005 TVR Sagaris by JediWise - Photoshopped Photomode
And in that regard, the mileage has been good. As you know, Turn 10 recently moved into its new studio and this is the first WPR penned right here in our bright new enviorns. While things now already seemed very different from whence we began, the physical change of location really seals the deal. So long MIL-F, and hello RTC6. At any rate, Landin, Fred and I are already thinking about ways we can have a little fun with the Weekly Pitpass Report #100. Stayed tuned for that when we figure it out ourselves (hey, that's why Landin and Fred get paid the big bucks). And in case you missed our little update on our new studio space, go ahead and get yerself caught up here. As we roll deeper into the thick of summer, I get the vibe that big-time game releases are going to dry up until the fall season. With Ninja Gaiden 2 and MGS4 behind me, Battlefield: Bad Company remains the only new release that I'm looking forward to for the next several months, making this the perfect time to rediscover the subtlety of Forza Motorsport 2.
Photo by sphilli22
First of all, I plan on actually finishing my single-player career this summer, while practicing for our new weekly Turn 10 team challenge events that will put quite a lot of pride on the line. I've been discussing this concept quite a bit with Landin, and yeah, the concept and execution will be familiar for anyone who's ever played a Bungie Humpday Challenge against my bros Frankie and Luke in Halo 3. Landin will go into all the details down below, but I want to state that the weekly Turn 10 team challenge events are meant to be fun for everyone -- not just those who occupy the highest spots on the scoreboards or time trial rollup boards. That means everyone. Of course, we're going to bring our A-game to the challenge, but even if you aren't super great at racing in the game, please don't let that intimidate you. Let us know if you want to play. Of course, those who we race against will obviously get written up in the following week's WPR and receive little bonus prizes, etc. I know how fast the Forza community is, and chances are, this might just turned into a weekly bout of humiliation for Team Turn 10. (Or maybe not!)
Turn 10's June Unicorn Car - Too Human - currently a work-in-progress.
Next on the agenda is something I've been working with Fred on and pretty excited about all week. As you guys know, we announced that we're taking the concept of the Forza 2 unicorn cars and running with it a bit. Based partially on the success of the Turn 10 produced LCE cars we designed with the Forza 2 First Anniversary theme, we're going to start creating and releasing very limited runs of Turn 10 unicorn cars with designs on real unicorn cars you see in the auction house today (i.e., the Mitsubishi Evo TME, the Lotus Espionage, and the 35th Anniversary Camaro). The design on the cars will be hand-painted by Turn 10's livery master Fred "reDesign" Howell and the topic of which will vary from car to car. The first theme we've decided to do is an official Too Human Evo TME, with developer Silicon Knights' game being a title that's near and dear to those of us here at Microsoft Game Studios. Everything about this car is up to the quality you'd expect from one of Fred's designs. Besides all the details and pixel perfect replication of the Too Human art and aesthetics, we're also working with our buddies over at the Silicon Knights studio to make sure this car is about as official as you can get, including the signatures of the dev leads over there. You won't want to miss out on this ultra-rare Mitsubishi Evo TME, believe you me. We've got some early spyshots of the car above, so check it out.
A few more notes about the Too Human Evo TME unicorn car. First of all, because it's an actual unicorn car, owners of this rare item won't be able to sell or gift this vehicle back on the auction house or to their friends. Secondly, we're going to release this car in waves, or "editions". We haven't determined the overall number yet, but you'll definitely want to get in on first edition versions since we're going to stop creating them (the cars will be labeled as such) when inventory runs out. Per usual, you'll be able to find these cars on the auction house and win them via bidding wars, or participate in our many community events, such as the Turn 10 Game w/ Devs events we do each Friday, the Turn 10 Team Challenge, or any of the livery or photo competitions. Basically, there's a good chance for everyone to grab of these beauties, so don't fret. We'll have final shots of the Too Human Evo TME unicorn car when it's finished (and Fred begins his next car project).
And now, I pass the mic to MC Sidefx (aka Landin), who brings you all the details and news in our weekly community update...
2003 Ford FocusSport SVT by SLAPHAPPYFRANKY - Forzacentral
Community Update: Team T10 on the Scene...
By: Landin Williams, Community Lead
Hello and welcome to this edition of the weekly community update, the portion of the pitpass report dedicated to bringing you all the latest news straight from the depths of our online community. Were coming to you live this week from our new crib as Che has already mentioned, and all I can say is our new space is awesome. After spending some time this week gathering the thoughts of many people on the team, it seems pretty obvious that everyone is pleased with the outcome. Anyways if you haven’t already, check out our latest blog and take a gander at our new home!
If you have already taken a look at our blogs then you should know about our brand new Turn 10 Team challenge that was briefly mentioned. You see…the folks here at Turn 10 believe that we have what it takes to shut down almost anyone willing to step up to the challenge. No hesitation…no hard feelings, just a good old fashioned smack down. As much as Che is doubting our teams capabilities, as the team manager, my sentiments are somewhat different. Why? Well there are some pretty fast racers among our fleet here at Turn 10, and with the recent addition of an R2P member to our dev team things are looking good. This is serious business, and believe me when I say that Team T10 is already preparing for our debut battle...while searching for our very first victim.
The format is simple. You form a team of 3 racers and issue a challenge in our weekly thread. We accept one challenge a week and proceed to lay the smackdown every Friday at 4PM PST. Rinse and repeat. Of course there are many more specific details to cover, so here they are in all their glory!
2007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia by ConnorHGT3 - The Italian Collection
Turn 10 Team Challenge: Rules and Regulations
Description: This is a team based challenge, where members of the community will get a chance to race head to head with the Dev’s here at Turn 10 studios. We will be running these races every Friday (excluding every third Friday) at 4PM PST, just before we start our regularly scheduled game with dev event.
Sign-Ups: Every Monday we will be posting a thread just like this, where players can sign up in groups of 3. Include a cool or funny name for your team, the gamertags of the player’s involved and a short description of why you think you can take us down.
We will be selecting who we challenge in a partially random, partially biased method based on your team name and challenge post. We will announce what team’s challenge we have accepted on Wednesday’s, and will be updating the first post to reflect the final details. We encourage everyone to sign up together, regardless of your group affiliation; however we will accept challenges from teams that have already been established.
Race Format and Rules: This will be a 3 on 3 race format with a points system to determine the winner. We have a clean racing policy, and will be saving the replays to check out any intentional contact! We will be running the race using the in-game Team Race option to make things easy.
Race Settings: The settings for each week’s challenge will be posted in Monday’s thread to give everyone time to practice. We will be mixing up the settings each week, so you can expect some stock/spec races added in to the mix as well. The results from each week’s challenge will be published in the Pitpass reports, as well as in these threads for all to see.
Prizes for Beating Team T10: If by some stroke of luck you are able to beat Team T10, then you deserve a prize. If your team is capable of achieving this mighty feat, each member will be eligible for 2 free gift cars of choice, along with 1 million credits. It is also worth mentioning that you can request any of the Official Turn 10 unicorn cars for winning, so if you have yet to receive a Anniversary Unicorn then now is your chance…but the pride and prestige associated with beating the almighty Team T10 is enough reward already right?
We will be running in our first challenge next Friday the 27th, so go ahead and sign up now if you want to be considered. Once again check back on Wednesday of next week for the final challenge details!
Sign up now. Do it.
Check out this week's Community Spotlight article to take a closer look at these incredible designs, created by members of the Forza 2 community.
This week we also launched the second edition of our weekly Community Spotlight, the article dedicated to showcasing the cool content that is created by the replica and fantasy livery artists. In this edition we featured a flashy design from David “Duff Man D” Wylie, along with a great portrait from Steven “system addict” Allan, so stop by and check out their incredible works of art here.
For those who have been following the happenings here at Forzamotorsport.net, you have undoubtedly heard about the Takata livery design contest that has recently been completed, and the good news is there is another one! For those not aware, amateur time attack driver James Elterman, recently hosted a competition where Forza 2 artists were challenged to create a livery for his real life Subaru WRX STi. The response from the community was huge, and it seems like some other teams in the Redline Time Attack series have taken notice.
I have yet to track down all of the specific details; however I can say that Visual Assault, LLC and Dent Sport Garage are looking for a one of a kind livery design for their RASpec 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX. Yet another Subaru that will be adorned with a flashy livery courtesy of the Forza 2 community, and it could be yours. Head on over to their official submission thread here, and check out the rules and guidelines. If you missed out on the Takata contest, or are looking for another shot at seeing your design in real life then this is your chance. They will be accepting submissions until June 27th so there’s no time to waste…head on over and post up your best design!
1997 McLaren F1 GT by Der_GolF - Realistic Photomode Pic
Hotlap Season 4 Launched!
After the great success of Hotlap Season 3, we have decided to launch Season 4 next week. We will be using the exact same format as in the past, with the same duration (5 weeks), rules and regulations; however if you are new to the scene and want the full breakdown on how the season is structured, check out the official thread here. As always we will be rewarding those of you who place high enough as well as a random selection of 30 people each week. As always the best place to find information about this, and many other community racing events is the “Tournaments” section on our forums. Results from the challenge and the names of the “Random 30” will be posted in this section as well, so stay up to date and you will always know the lowdown. For now get your team together and sign-up for Season 4 of the Official Turn 10 Hotlap Challenge here.
Just recently while browsing through the Tuning Marketplace I stumbled upon a great community initiative that deserves some recognition. Essentially they have organized a full line-up of cars that will be released at cost to anyone in the community. Over 10 different tuning companies are participating to create a car for every track type in every class, so if you are looking to get your hands on some great cars then look no further than the “TM Line Community Car Series” located here. Props going out to forum user “Kill Broccoli” and all of the tuning companies involved in this great community project.
2006 Ford Focus ST by Duffers999 - Duffers999's Gallery
Community Competition Listing
Pairs Photomode Competition: Snap a picture with 2 cars or more and submit it to the "Pairs Photo Comp" hosted by forum user "goingtoooofast". Gift cars are on the line for the 3 best photographers, so grab a buddy, get some cool looking shots and submit them here.
Rear End Photomode Competition: Forum user and Moderator “RoxxApexx” is hosting another unique contest with some cool prizing. At least one taillight and one exhaust pipe must be included in your submission to this "rear end" photo competition, and with 5 Million Credits and an amazing livery created by “Little Vixen” on the line you can bet we will see some nice shots. Check out more here.
Forza Tarot Livery Contest: Another innovative livery contest is already underway in the Fantasy Livery Section, where players are challenged to re-create the look and feel of Tarot cards on their car of choice. Many people have already made their submissions, and I urge everyone to take a moment to check them out here.
Livery Design Contest – Community Poll: How does almost a Billion in-game credits sound as prizing for a livery design contest? If it sounds too good to be true then you should check out the latest contest in the Fantasy livery section, hosted by forum user “toyotaracer247”. The theme for this contest is yet to be decided, and a poll is currently open for user to vote on their favorite idea. Of course with almost a Billion credits on the line you can expect to see a lot of winners, so if you are in need of some credits stop by and check out the contest thread here.
2006 Lexux IS350 by Kami Iki - TRC Kami
And for those of you who are new to the community here at Forzamotorsport.net, we have put together a forum guide to help you find all of the cool stuff that is oftentimes overlooked. We have included popular forum topics and helpful tutorial threads, and have posted a link in every forum section. Alternatively you can check it out right here.
Alright that’s it for this week’s update. Thanks again for stopping by to get caught up on the latest and greatest, and I hope to see you online racing with the Community Team over Xbox LIVE! Have a great weekend and thanks for reading.
Peace
Landin