Forza Fo'real

ISSUED BY UNWIRED
Author: CHRISTO VAN GEMERT

Forza Motorsport 2

Count to five. That's how long it takes for the Unwired Golf GTI to get to 100km/h. We've changed the cam shafts, the engine block, exhaust system, engine management computer and air filter. Inside, unnecessary items have been stripped out to reduce weight and I've uprated the suspension to cope with all the extra power.

In summary

Unwired says Fun, accessible, technical and deep - impressive for a racing game :-) Multiplayer scoreboards, auctions and racing; smooth frame-rate; great physics :-( Graphics lack smoothness; no in-car view; limited camera views in replays Contact: Microsoft - 0860 CALL MS www.microsoft.co.za R499

Back in the garage there's a gaggle of other iconic cars, including a 1973 Porsche Carrera RS, a Lancia Delta Integrale Evo and a handful of American muscle cars. Some of them standard, some with semi-slick tyres and a few with not-so-legal exhaust systems. Playing this game with a 5.1 sound system is a must. And make sure that it's turned up to 11 because, trust us, you want to hear everything: the whooshing of turbos, the mechanical thunk of gear changes, the bellowing V12 engines of the Ferraris and the wince-inducing crunches as car meets barrier.

Detail, as you may have gathered by now, is one of the things that Forza 2 has a lot of. The modification system, allows you to change parts on your car for either a subtle performance increase or a drastic boost in power. Each modification makes a difference, quantified by the Performance Index (PI), which gets assigned to your car. Take our Golf, which has a rating of 548. It started out life as a D-class car with a PI of 204. Through entering races, enough money was scraped together to afford the modifications needed to make it more competitive and push it into C-class. It's a system that really works well, since cars with a similar PI will put in very similar lap times.

Forza Motorsport 2

And when you're tired of your car's showroom shine, you can take it to the Paint Shop, possibly one of the most powerful customisation tools in racing game history. Here you'll be able to select any base colour for your car, be it metallic, pearlescent or a plain finish. Paint done, now it's time for decals. With up to 1 000 layers on one of a car's five sides, the possibilities are endless. We've seen custom cars that advertise Web sites, soft drinks and snacks, and none of those logos or pictures are even in the game. All of them are custom creations using the hundreds of primitive shapes that are available in the decal shop. It's a lucrative business, too, since the really skilled decal artists are plastering cars with custom liveries and then selling them for in-game credits via the game's Auction House - a virtual eBay for Forza 2 cars.

Of course, Xbox Live connectivity is required for the Auction House, but there is also the benefit of having a huge community of racers to compete against. A scoreboard system keeps track of your progress and lets you view your rank on charts that have record times from people all over the world. The online component is the richest we've seen in a racing game, and you get a real sense of community - trading custom cars, sharing racing tips, gifting cars to friends and creating rivalries. Forza Xbox, Forza Forza 2!

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