The Turn 10 Weekly Pitpass Report
January 26, 2007 -- Volume 31
By: Che Chou
Forza Motorsport 2 on Sale May 2007!
Hello and welcome back to another Turn 10 Pitpass Report, a weekly Friday update on the development of Xbox 360's premier racing simulator, Forza Motorsport 2. If this is your first visit to FM.net or the weekly updates, feel free to peruse our back catalog here. Those who have been following my ramblings since we announced the game at E3 2006 will notice that today's Pitpass Report comes much earlier in the day than it usually does. So what's the occasion? Well, ever since we missed our holiday 2006 release date sometime last November, we've been gunshy about committing to another date until we were absolute sure. The schedule had to be one such that it was realistic from a production point of view, as well as one that allows us to give FM2 the polish it needs and that the fans deserve.
This morning, we teamed up with the PR team at Xbox 360 to send out an email blast to our friends in the press and auto community alerting them to the fact that we've officially fired-up our marketing engines and put the promotional pedal to the proverbial metal. The first important detail in the email is something you probably noticed already -- Forza Motorsport 2 will be on North American store shelves May 2007. Wait, so just May 2007? No exact release date? Not if we could help it. Our schedule right now has us hitting Xbox certification around the middle of April and going gold soon aftewards. We want them to put the game on shelves as soon and fast as they can humanly muster. So optimistic estimates have us at retail in the first half of May -- obviously the sooner the better and that's our goal.
This Week At Turn 10
In the meantime, we're hoping to shorten the wait between now and May with a rolling schedule of new FM2 info, announcements, assets, and videos. There's so much stuff we haven't really touched on with the game; I'm not only talking about major features but a ton of little details that really set FM2 apart from every other racing game out there -- arcade, sim, or otherwise.
As well, I realize that this week may have seemed particularly dark for some of you when we announced that we had to scale back on the total number of racing environments in the game. There were a lot of questions and a discussion between the community and Turn 10 ensued on our forums. In the end, we realize that lack of information about the game was driving the majority of our community insane -- so okay -- in the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act, let me present to you the list of...
Forza Motorsport 2 Tracks
* Mugello Autodromo Internazionale
* Suzuka Circuit
* Sebring International Raceway
* Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
* Tsukuba Circuit
* Road Atlanta
* Silverstone Circuit
* Nürburgring Nordschleife
* Maple Valley Raceway
* Sunset Peninsula Infield
* New York Circuit
* Test Track
I asked Turn 10's game designers to pick their favorite new track in FM2 and tell me why in 200 words or less. Here then, are their responses...
* Chris "Master of Cars" Vanover on Mugello: "After watching the wealth of F1 Mugello footage available and then finally getting some seat time in-game with our cars, I've found myself thinking about taking a trip to Italy for the real thing. Combined with an elevation that varies 135 feet from top to bottom, the track has a great flow to it, and with 15 corners, every completed lap dares you to find even one place to go just a little faster. Like anywhere else, however, consistency is key -- miss a brake zone or start checking out the amazing vista from the top of the hill and you'll wind up far off track in one of the numerous, wide gravel traps. Mugello will definitely take time to master."
* Rhett "Career Overlord" Mathis on Suzuka: "Suzuka is my favorite new track. It has a lot of personality, plenty of variety, and is great for racing because it features numerous passing opportunities. I like the way it dares you to go deeply into turn 1 before getting on the brakes to control the car for turn 2. The entire east section is a blast in any car -- the esses being fairly easy to drive, but tricky to really perfect. In some way, Suzuka feels to me like it has two personalities due to the high-speed nature of the west section. You can reach some crazy speeds on the back stretch, and there’s a real test of the kinds of stones you have coming through the 130R before crushing the brakes to safely navigate the triangle."
* Dan "Forza Visionary" Greenawalt on Sebring: "I’m really excited about Sebring International Raceway. I’ve been following the world famous 12 Hours of Sebring event for years. Its one of the most physically punishing courses in the world -- the attrition list at the end of the annual endurance race is pure madness. Sebring features several grades of sun baked asphalt as well as lots of ill-fitting concrete slabs loosely sealed together. It’s built on an old airstrip and nothing really matches up, so cars are always skipping and jumping all over the place. All those different seams and surface types really let us show off our physics engine, which is something I’m really excited about. The final corner, a long sweeper over several concrete slabs, is pure evil. Though Sebring doesn’t have a lot of elevation change, its one of the roughest, craziest, nastiest tracks out there. Its truly one of the premier sportscar race courses in the United States."
As you can see, 8 of these 12 tracks (or environments as we refer to them) are real-world locales -- and as such, feature all the authentic real-life ribbon configurations of the tracks. Fans of Suzuka Circuit know that the track has 3 ribbons: The full Grand Prix course, the West course (used for MotoGP events), and the East course with the famous esses (and where I hear they held a NASCAR race in the '80s). All told, there are 47 different ribbons in the game across the 12 environments.
Since we've built every track from the ground up (no assets or models were recycled from Forza 1), we've naturally gone in and added a ton of new detail to all the environments. More importantly, the track artists have followed up on a lot of suggestions, as well as corrections from track experts (e.g., track stewards) to make each track more accurate and true-to-life. Hundreds of Gigs of new GPS data (for elevation, dimensions, etc.) and reference materials were collected this time around in the pursuit of realism. Drift fans will be happy to know, for instance, that the drift loop has been added to Road Atlanta -- if nothing else, we do it for the sake of being completist.
A final thought to keep in mind, and it's something I've already mentioned on the forums earlier this week, is that with reams of track reference data for much more than just these 12 environments, our track artists will continue to be working and cranking out content even after our game ships. In other words, expect downloadable content in the form of both tracks and cars in the months following FM2's release. Will it be free? We don't know and can't say for sure right now but whatever it ends up becoming, we at Turn 10 aim to do right by the community. Definitely no horse armor here, folks.
Anyway, we'll be revisiting in-game tracks on and off with lots of behind-the-scenes detail and making-of info as we hurtle towards FM2's release this May.
More FM2's Multiplayer Options
In last week's Pitpass Report, we began looking at some of the server options available to you on Xbox Live when you want to host exhibition races online. As promised, this week we continue exploring the riches of multiplayer.
* Advanced Rules: In this options tab, you set damage type, tire wear and fuel consumption, collisions, spectators' voices, grid order, and the end race timer. It's worth noting that we've upped the ante when it comes to damage and how it affects your car this time around. The "cosmetic" or "limited" damage settings give you a taste of a fender bender, while the "simulation" setting allows you to knock off everything from fenders, bumpers, sideview mirrors, windshields, and in worst case scenarios, entire engine blocks are demolished with one impact. And finally, the end race timer allows you to set a countdown after the first-place winner crosses the finish line.
* Overrides Options: The whole purpose of overrides is to let the host restrict how people race on their server. Options here include the ability to force all players to use manual transmission, force the suggested line to be turned off, force STM, TCS, and ABS to be inactive, as well as force a certain camera view, whether it be hood or behind-the-car. The game also gives you the option to force stock upgrades and tuning for all cars on the track, essentially leveling the playing field for cars of the same make.
* Car Restrictions: The last tab in the multiplayer options menu is all about letting the host get specific about the kind of race he wants to run. The restriction categories here include Car Class (D-R4, "no race cars", or "any"), Performance Index (restrict the room for cars under a specific PI number), Power (restrict the room for cars in a specific horsepower range), Region (North America, Europe, Asia), Make (choose from all 50 of our manufacturers), Model, Year, Curb Weight, Drive Type, and Engine Position. Additionally, as you narrow the scope of your room, a number at the bottom of the screen tells you in real-time how many cars you have in your Arcade and Career garages that qualify for this specific room.
Keep in mind that although this is a lot of options to set every time you want to run a specific race online, you always have the ability to save your server settings. Another nifty thing we've added to multiplayer this time is the ability for you to save replays from your online races. Have a particularly harrowing race with some online buddies? Now you can save the glory of your triumph to your hard drive.
Although this wraps it up for the multiplayer options, do know that this is by no means the end of FM2's Xbox Live and community features. Lots more stuff to talk about as we get ever closer to May 2007.
See you all next week.
