JB’s persistent hounding (fine, occasional reminders) has led to my downloading of the Forza 2 demo, the full game for which comes out later this month. After playing it for about 25 minutes, I shut it off, my impressions solidified:

  • It looks very nice. There’s some aliasing, but then, I’ve never seen any game ever without some form of aliasing, so that’s a non-issue for me.
  • The controls feel very similar to the first game. I felt right at home immediately, no complaints.
  • The physics are really fun. I spent about 5 minutes actually racing and the rest going backwards around the track trying to hit the other cars. It’s kind of fun to watch your Mercedes SLR hit a Z06 so hard it flies up in the air. Furthermore, the actual car-to-car crashes feel and sound amazing. I jumped the first time my car got hit.
  • Everything sounds amazing. And in the demo at least, no music during the actual racing (yay!).
  • The spoiler/air brake on the SLR still does not move. It didn’t move in PGR or the original Forza, yet it does on Gran Turismo 4, a game that’s 2 years old. Boo.
  • I will be buying it.

That’s it? One of the most highly-anticipated games this year is coming and my biggest complaint is the lack of spoiler movement? Well, yeah. But if a game touts its inclusion of detail, then they’d better be prepared to catch some flak for missing a few.

Regardless, the game looks fantastic so far, and I’m excited for the final product.