zerolight

It’s supposed to be rock solid isn’t it? It takes a couple of months for any new patches and DLC to make it through certification and onto Xbox Live. Turns out it’s not.

I’ve not played Crackdown in quite a while, despite it being one of the best games on the 360. The last time I played it was online co-op with John, during which we downloaded that Keys to the City DLC. Well, it turns out that this content contained a bug that slipped through certification. A bug significant enough to wipe your character stats, essentially meaning you have to start the game all over again. Like I have time for that. Thanks.

You’d have thought that at the very least they could provide a “cheat” that would enable you switch your character stats back to max so you can continue where you left off? Apparently not. It’s going to the blockies trade in bin!

I just love Forza 2, and not just for the superb physics engine, I’m having a right good time painting my cars too. I acquired a nice Anime style cartoon paint job (curiously unlocked in the Auction House) which I’ve heavily modified (layout, colours, shading, gradients, the whole shebang…) such that it barely resembles the original now. It’s become my paint job of choice on most of my cars… in some form or another.

I was bidding on an absolutely stunning little Mini for a while in Forza 2’s virtual equivalent of eBay until the price went beyond my means, ditto on a 350z that was bonkersly pretty. Then along came a nice little Mini, which granted, isn’t as pretty as the one I was after, but I got it for a song whilst everyone else was chasing the other 2. Not long afterwards I found the more expensive (but still affordable) Dragon Ball Z Skyline. I’ve added all my upgrades and car setups to each and taken snap shots on Tsukuba. Check out more of my cars here.

edit:

As a big fan of Stussy T-shirts (I have many) I decided to try my hand at a custom paint job using Stussy’s Arc Skull design as a base. I’m pretty happy with the result, which I think is a fairly accurate representation of the Arc Skull design. It can’t compete with the Japanese Anime inspired cars I bought from the auction house, and as such isn’t something I’m going to be able to sell – I’ve tried. However, given my love of all things Stussy, it’s an appropriate design to apply to my own cars.

So I’ve had the weekend to get the single player experience under my belt… it’s very very good. Not sure what planet IGN were on. I’ve focused on the offline career mode because it’s unusual for me to have so much 360 time these days, certainly won’t as of Monday, and so figured I’d get some cars bought, modded, and tuned, ready to race the lickers – some of whom will have plenty time to quickly amass a garage far bigger than mine.

Offline, some of the races are challenging, others a bit easy. Depends on the race restrictions really. Often, you just cruise off into the distance and chase lap records. But them, I bought this for the long term online prospects. I’ve been playing medium difficulty, all aids off, full sim damage.

A modded car has radically improved braking, better cornering, and more stability than those cars available in the demo. Those of you worried about driving without aids, don’t worry. It’s also easy to setup a car… I usually just shorten the gear ratios, tweak the rear anti-roll bar (especially in a FWD car), and soften the tires. Works for me, most of the time anyway.

It initially takes time to earn money, especially since your “prize cars” are worthless. You can’t even get rid of them in the auction house, as all regions get the same prize cars, so nobody wants them. Thankfully, some of them are worth keeping. Tip: Take care what you buy in the auction house, as I say, it’s full of “prize cars”… I have two Sparco Evo VIII’s after winning one.

Quickly you’ll amass cars… I have at least 6 tuned to perfection, and another dozen in prize cars waiting for mods. Once up at level 10 or so and things start to open up bit… races worth more money come thick and fast.

Graphically, most of the tracks are excellent, with Suzuka being particularly gorgeous. All are excellent to race on, as are their many variations which create numerous Tsukuba length tracks. The only weak track in the game is NYC. All have great draw distances by the way, even Silverstone. Jaggies aren’t as bad as the demo, and certainly nowhere near as intrusive as IGN would have you believe.

My favoured cars thus far are my tuned A class Gallardo, B class Impreza, A class Sparco Evo, and D class Mini Cooper S. Infact the Mini is better than anything I’ve built in C class, so I’ve just made a second Mini specifically for C.

Audio is especially impressive… the noise these cars make when modded can only be described as awesome. Modify your car, and the audio changes with each addition.

All in all, best racer ever. No question.

Forza 2 is really starting to look absolutely essential if you’re a car nut. The original Forza already had a terrific physics system and by all accounts this has been improved in Forza 2, as has it’s frame rate, locked down to 60fps. The new Forza 2 website reveals a lot of nice and deep features which should improve things further, including an ebay style auction system that allows users to buy and sell cars for whatever price they choose, online, with in-game virtual cash. If you can tune your car to be a race winner then you might find it’s worth a lot more than you paid for it. Combine this with a huge array of online stats, scoreboards, tournaments, all accessed through the internet via your PC or Mac, and it’s pretty much covering more bases than any racer before it. It looks rather pretty too.