GWN's sim expert Walter Hurdle explains why Forza 2 is not a true racing simulation, and judges the game based on the following "deadly sins of arcade racing", some of which Forza 2 passes, and some fails:
The First Deadly Sin: Unrealistic physics model
The Second Deadly Sin: No damage
The Third Deadly Sin: No performance degradation
The Fourth Deadly sin: No cockpit driving view
The Fifth Deadly Sin: Fantasy tracks
The Sixth Deadly Sin: Unlockables
The Seventh Deadly Sin: Victory with a game pad
Let's be honest. Most console racing fans, like everyone else on the planet, want respect. They don't like it when one of their super-cool fav racing games is labeled with the dreaded scarlet letter "A" for "arcade" by snobby PC sim-nuts. The paranoid are convinced PC sim-snobs enjoy thumbing their noses at console racers, dismissing them as of little use beyond serving as coasters. If this is not true, then why do so many fanboy game reviewers slavishly mention the "S" word when describing the latest and greatest arcade racer?
Every review I've read on Forza 2 has included at least one reference to the "S" word, if not an outright proclamation that Microsoft's second iteration of its answer to Sony's equally arcade GT4 is a legitimate racing simulation. Well, I'm here to tell you that despite a valiant effort, Forza 2 falls short of the mark for true sim-goodness, because the game commits too many of the seven deadly sins of arcade racing.
Here's how the sim-gods pass judgment on every virtual racing title. According to the Good Book of Sim-Geekdom, the first deadly sin is absolutely sacrosanct. Commit the first one and it doesn't matter how pious you are with respect to the other six. However, a racer can still fail to qualify for sim-salvation even if it does not commit the first deadly sin. Commit two or more of the last six deadly sins, and the punishment is arcade damnation for eternity.
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2. Manufacturers probably don't want this. Nitpicking.
3. Nitpicking. More of an annoyance, really. In-race degradation is fine because bashing your car into things can affect performance but over a long period of time is just stupid.
4. I think this is more of a game-related feature that was neglected.
5. Second-Worst point of all. I mean, what's the difference of a fantasy track having a hairpin turn over a real track with a hairpin turn? Stupid.
6. Um...what?
7. Worst point. That is up to the player and they're under no obligation to play with a wheel.
I love these list things. The damage thing is true in a lot of cases.
"The Fifth Deadly Sin: Fantasy tracks" ~ Once again the tracks are based on real life!
Just realised only some of them apply to Forza 2, most of them are crap nicky picky reasons!
This is about Forza 2 right?
Which is why I play GT4
The Second Deadly Sin: No damage
Don't need it
The Third Deadly Sin: No performance degradation
GT4 has it
The Fourth Deadly sin: No cockpit driving view
GT4 has it
The Fifth Deadly Sin: Fantasy tracks
Any good track will do for me, doesn't have to be a real one. I like the old tracks from GT1 more than most real-life tracks.
The Sixth Deadly Sin: Unlockables
Unlockables suck, unless they're game modes, in which case they rule, or in the form of, curb your excitement, "rewards"
The Seventh Deadly Sin: Victory with a game pad
I play with a gamepad, but I want a wheel, even with all those useless points, this makes a very stupid one still.
Whoever made those "seven deadly sins of racing games" is waaaaaaaay too nitpicky and needs to try appreciating a game for what it is, not what it isn't.
seven sins:
1. Health bar
2. No Jamming
3. Infinite stamina
4. allow you to reload a whole clip and lose only one bullet from inventory
5. no blood
6. no goggle + helmet view
7. victory with a game pad
Cockpit views are pointless. They make 60% of the player's FoV unusable... when you're driving in real life, you don't focus on the dashboard... you focus 99% of your attention to the road.