Not everything I was hoping it would be, but still a must-own for 360 owners...
User Rating: 9 | Forza Motorsport 2 X360
Now...if you've read my review for the first FM, you'll notice that I'm giving FM2 a significantly lower score. It isn't simply because we're no longer able to go by anything other than half-points either, I would've given it a 9.0 even based on GS's old review system. The reason is that the series took two steps forward but one step back imo. Let me explain...FM2 took what made the original good an developed upon it. First case in point: One of the reasons I thought FM was so great was because of the many options it allows you to choose from to really customize the level of difficulty. One of these things was the "green line" assistance. They improved upon this by making a "braking only" option for the line, which will only tell you it's suggestion for where you should start braking. Now, that's great! It's the natural progression of how you could make the game's difficulty more customizable, and the "green line" less of a crutch later on if you want to make the switch to no line. MP has evolved in a good way with the introduction of the auction house (though I think it could benefit greatly from the suggestions presented by Jeff Gerstmann [you should look through his blog posts to find what I'm talking about]). There was an addition of many cars, including brand new car makes not previously included. However, there was only like 1, maybe two new tracks, with a whole lot of them from the original missing. For example, all the point-to-point tracks were missing because there was no longer a point-to-point race category. You should have seen the disappointment on my face when I realized that fact. It was my favorite race type in FM1. No more mountain in Japan, no more San Fransico Bay area...Not only that, but there was no more Rio track, or Tokyo at night. There were virtually no street maps except NY, just GT tracks. If you look at the games genre, it says..."GT/Street Racing"... Where's the street racing?!
The fact of the matter is, that there's very little variety in the race types. I don't think they should go the way of GT and correct this by adding rally racing, but instead, adding drag/quarter mile racing. One of the achievements for FM2 requires that you complete a race in first with no assists. They clearly want the player to challenge themselves. I think a good way to more forcefully implement this idea would be to add 1/4 mile races. You would drive in a straight line and only need to upshift, with emphasis on proper timing. Also, it would make a lot more sense with engine swaps. You know, that was one of the reasons I thought FM was so great, because of the engine swaps. The truth of the matter is this though... Dropping a modern 911 engine into an old Porsche will never have good results. The car's handling won't accomodate for the extra torque. This is not as much of a problem when driving a straight line. This way, you could focus on making your cars acceleration beasts with less regard for the other components.
Even with these problems, I think FM2 is a must-own for 360 owners. If you're into cars and like driving simulators, FM is indeed an awesome driving simulator. If you're new to it, and are afraid to get a driving simulation game, then I would say even more that this game is for you, because of its highly customizable difficulty options. To solve these problems however, I really do think that Turn 10 and M'Soft Game Studios should release downloadable content that includes the old tracks and point to point racing plus some new tracks, some fixes for the issues with the auction house, as well as some new concept cars. That would in my mind change this game from being superb, to an absolute perfect 10.
