This bugger is sitting on my desk taunting me to stop working and get with the racing. A nice limited edition treats you with a steel book case that is just clamped shut so hard. The accompanying book is much better than the lame excuse of an art book that shipped with Deux Ex Augmented Edition...at least there's commentary on some of the choice cars featured in the game. Seriously, the art book is so good - sweet delicious car porn.
Edited to add:
Feels like a generous overhaul type of patch of Forza 3. You'll be easily familiar with the ui from the previous game. They've seperated the online aspects into its own community section which is nice and easy to navigate. Waiting and seeing if anyone on my friendlist will be playing this to start a proper car club and choose a rival. Everything has a nice polished appearance melding useful functionality with pretty graphics. Being able to change the 'showroom' when your car is idling in the menus is a nice touch. Career mode is designed to addict you into racing and racing, and even more racing as you're shepherded from event to event with no off screens. You're free to back out to the main menu if you want to choose a different car and be presented with a race that suits your selected car.
I'm not in anyway an artist or have any skill but it was easy to lay out some shapes and strips to sportify some of my cars. It gets a little weird with the hood/bumper section when graphics cut off, but you can cheat and overlap vinyls for your desired effect. I like how they give you a flat canvas to concentrate on your designs instead of obsessing how it looks on your car...at least the way I've designed stuff in the past.
Racing is improved. AI cars put up a good fight. Car handling is even better, you can feel slight slipping when you take the corners hard. Compared to Forza 3 - the last game at times felt like the tires had some glue on them, so this iteration the cars don't stick to the road surface. The sense of speed is also improved in this game. Just racing around the intro tracks with my Citroen hatch thing was just as intense as jostling for position in the intro Ferrari race when you boot up the game. This makes the lower spec F/E/D class cars more interesting feeling - Forza 3 I couldn't wait to get away from racing the wooden blocks around.
Autovista - Car porn heaven. You're in a neat little showroom with your selected car of choice. As you maneuver around the car you'll see little prompts to be read factoids from Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson. When you step into the cockpit, you'll inevitably see the option to turn the car on. Seriously, they've captured that first test drive feeling...of which you then have the option of giving said car a test drive/challenge race.
The only knock against the game is the overly loud music when you're racing. I'll need to dig through the options menus to turn that shit off. Other than that I'm hooked.
Edited to add:
Holy OMGCAT...if any of you get this game: Take the 2011 Koenigsegg Agera on a hot lap time trial of Le Mans Old Mulsanne Circuit...you'll know what I mean.
Edited by mongycore - 10/11/11 at 11:17pm
