As an actual AutoCross driver and seasoned GRAN TURISMO driver I am thoroughly impressed.
Those who have been playing the Gran Turismo Series (GT) will find themselves at home with the physics and car handling of Forza 2. The damage system is also back but a hardcore driver will wonder if denting or breaking the left side of a car's front lip really makes significant changes in the car's handling. Keep in mind that the car's suspension, brake balance, camber, etc. all play a factor during an impact. When you include other factors like the weight transfer of a car, a collision can be quite a challenge to simulate. Compared to real life, Forza has quite a long while to go along with other franchises in this genre. Not even the most realistic simulation can calculate all of those factors but at least Forza has these "rules" for punishing drivers who like to drive like Daytona USA.
Track variety and the lack of a Rally Mode also seems to be Forza's Achilles' Heel but that's understandable considering that they went as far as making the lap times realistic for each of those tracks. It also looks as if Someone has also been doing their homework because each of the lap times I have made in the game are pretty short from the times made by real drivers in real life made by the same real cars. Whether the developers have also went as far as calculating how much actual performance the mods make to each of the cars in the game is another story. Again, you can't have the ultimate algorithm or formula to calculate all these factors in your driving session but it's there to suspend your sense of disbelief that you are making performance gains on your car. On a lighter note, many seasoned Autocrossers and car enthusiasts will definitely appreciate the game's political correctness. Hardcore car enthusiasts will give a nod for its impressive range of car parts and brands that actually exist for a particular model such as the Subaru WRX or Acura NSX. Even some of the more purposeful body kits that exist today are modeled very well in the game...at least graphically. There are a plethora of parts and performance tools you can use to effectively tune your car and if you're a real car nerd you can definitely appreciate alot of the terms and measurements that are useful before track time. The decal system is ridiculously easy but this can be easily abused during an online session. There are alot of features and interesting things you can see in this game that Gran Turismo can learn from and it's exciting to see two franchises go head-to-head in this demanding genre. Forza 2 gives you a sense of belonging by having you choose your locale to represent.
On the online side, Forza 2's weekly tournaments tries to balance this with the Qualifying Run, the Performance Index and Class which can make sense until you begin to see exploits of "maximizing" your Class. Don't be surprised if you see only a set of Corvettes competing under the same Class with just minimal tuning which essentially puts your really fast car under the category of "Fast" Class and not under the "Faster" Class vehicles. Think of it as a honor student taking a remedial English class. Why excel in a more difficult class when you can ace a lower one? Either way, as long as XBox Live exists, many online matching and rules are expected to be tweaked. The other nice thing is the Gifting and Auction systems they've added. It's a nice touch as long as you have the time to play around with all that stuff but if you're more of a driver that wants to get into the meat of it all, you're probably going to want to stick driving and tuning.
Forza 2 has made some really good strides with this latest installment. If you have been playing Gran Turismo all this time, give Forza 2 a chance. Your understanding of driving, car performance and tuning will be easily appreciated by other good drivers online. You'll be pleasantly surprised.