Be Excellent To Each Other

With the imminent arrival of Forza 4, I figured it was time to set up a Car Club within. I've no idea what these involve yet (DrG seems to think it has communal cars you can borrow or something) but if it encourages us to PLAY THE FECKING GAME TOGETHER then it has to be worth trying.
 
I'm tempted to call it the 'BETEO Motor Vehicle Club Of Gentlemen' or something (I'm not a fan of 'BEEX' but if the majority is against me I'll call it that instead) and you will all be welcome to join and do whatever it enables us to do. Even if it's not very much, let's still have some races, yes? I can't guarantee the frequency of the old Forza 2 nights but I do have one idea:
 
We need a new official car for Forza 4. For the record, the previous cars were:
FORZA 2 PRE-SCHISM: Mazda MX-5
FORZA 2 POST-SCHISM: Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86
FORZA 3: BMW M3 E30
 
This car can then also be used for our own Reasonably Priced Car time trials around the Top Gear track in-game.
 
...I'm not the only one getting this, am I? I know a number of people are a bit disillusioned with 3.

EDIT: The club is now up! It's called the BEEX MOTORING CLUB. The clantag, as it were, is BEEX, and can't be changed, but it seems the club name can. Please let me know if you'd like in, or send me a request in-game and I'll add you.

STOCK CAR SERIES STANDINGS:

I liked 3, and will be getting 4.
I approve of this idea, and nominate a Range Rover for "car of the forum".

That could be entertaining!

Here's another interesting suggestion...

I'd go with the next one along...

When I get my new telly sorted, I'll be up for this. So middle of next week, if I'm lucky.

I thought the whole point of having a beexmobile was so that spack-handed cunts can keep them on the road.

Anyway, I'm not sure I can be arsed with Forza 4. So I'll pass a few tips along to others.

If you're bored playing Forza, there are several techniques for livening it up. Try percussive braking, telling the person in front of you that you're going round the outside when really you're planning to dive up the inside, driving just above the threshold where your car becomes solid (about 50) on the fastest part of the track, on the racing line, and finally, quit before some pillock suggests ridonkulous cars on Nurburgring.

Fuck's sake. I was completely uninterested in Forza 4 until this thread. Damn it, Perkies!

Has someone replaced Pundy with TrollBot?

I don't like TrollBot.

Who's trolling? Those are all techniques I've used. For the 'going slow on the racing line' one, I'd recommend the downhill run to the last corner on Maple Valley. The leaders will be really gunning it at that point, yet will be trying to keep it on the road and trying to spot the line through the last corner... then they hit your rolling roadblock at about a ton (relative). Remember to pick a dark coloured car, and smash up the front end a bit, so you can use the 'sorry mate, engine is fucked' excuse.

<3 forza, can't wait to give this one a spin :-)

@ Pundy obv

I will have a look through the cars when the game arrives but that Sierra is hard to resist.

Yeah, I used to love the Cossie when I was a kid.

I mustve tried to post at the exact same time as Perkies as my post didnt go through. Anyway, basically I said I played the demo and thought it was "meh".

Given enough Beex interest tho and I will still probably get it, especially with the new multipayer modes like proper cat and mouse.

Looking at reviews it does have something that interests me. Rivals mode. Set a time on a track and your friends can race your ghost and try and beat that time...

From everything I've read about it, Forza 4 seems decidely boring in terms of "new stuff" and "reasons to upgrade" compared to Forza 3.

No doubt I'll end up buying it anyway though.

Tell me, has the GT-Four ST205 carried through to the new one?

This sounds exactly the same as the "old" time trial mode...except theyve made it easier to race the ghost.

Racing through traffic on the demo was quite fun but it was also very frustrating. By barely touching another car/going off the road then your lap time will be below someone elses who did a clean lap. Im not sure if clean laps always win tho, or whether its something like a 10 sec penalty for every infringement.

In Forza 3, for some reason, if another car drafted you, your time wasn't classed as "clean" which was angering!

Still playing Forza 2

Started it up, did the first season. Impressions:

Starting is up is a big faff. Install to the hard drive, download no less than three separate DLC from the codes included in the box. You then get a Clarkson-narrated video lamenting lentil-eating eco-greeny weird beards, before being thrust into a Forza 3-style introductory race in the Ferrari featured on the cover. This has all the assists switched on, and as such you only need to steer, a bit, and keep the accelerator floored while the game all but plays itself.

You're then invited (at gunpoint) to purchase your first car, from a selection of shitboxes nobody would if they could afford better, including the Ford Kack, VW Fox and Citroen C1. Duly equipped with a vomit-green Chevrolet Spark, I returned to the main menu to install Disc 2 (this time around, Disc 2 only holds 250 more cars, and some of the Autovista stuff - more on that in a minute - with everything contained on the main 'play' disc). I also wrestled with the download manager and Xbox.com's account history trying to get my Limited Edition DLC to download properly as it crapped out the first time. I also get the chance to import my Forza 3 save, and get given some extra credits as 'thanks' for being an existing Forza customer, and even more extra credits for having a level 50 Forza 3 save. Nothing for Forza 2.

Now I can finally race, but first I go into Autovista and look around. You can move around an astonishing rendition of beautiful sports car, poking at the doors and interior while the posh narrator and Clarkson tell you things. This is clearly intended to be one of the two Kinect showpieces, as you can use gestures (on the stick) to get in and out of the car or lean towards or away from engine bays. Sitting in the car you can take it for a spin, and to unlock more cars to gawp at you need to unlock them by completing the challenge in them. I duly took the challenge to unlock the Aston Martin One-77, and had my first go in the game with the difficulty adjusted to suit me (all assists bar traction control off). It's worth observing there's a new steering assist option (along with a new extra-hard steering that I haven't tried) and a new 'Professional' opponent difficulty option.

Out on the track, and the new and improved physics are readily apparent. The cars are much more squirrelly if mistreated, and you can feel them squirming under hard acceleration or braking. Turning the wheel all the way really does seem to equate to a proper hard turn, and you can step the back out quite easily on almost any car (the appalling Spark included) if you are determined enough. I hurl the One-77 around Silverstone twice, admire it in Autovista, and then go to start the career mode.

Yes. Sorry. Stodgy old career mode is back to railroad you through a series of whatever events it thinks you should do. However, the exceedingly dull, white, clinical presentation of Forza 3 is gone, and everything is much more like what you'd have expected the real sequel to Forza 2 to be like. There's a big world map with satellite images of the tracks, and the loading screens now have a track map and information to keep you amused while you wait. Halfway through my forced trip through the first season, I encounter the second big thing: Top Gear's malign influence giving a much needed bit of character. I'm sent to the Dunsfold Airfield to crash through giant bowling pins arranged around part of the test track.

Excellent! There seem to be more of these to come. I hurry through the rest of the first season and go take a look at the car selection. Here are some of the cars you can now drive:
-hybrids like the Volt and Prius, as well as the all-electric Leaf.
-the Liana and Cee'd (the Lacetti is conspicuously absent)
-the DeLorean DMC-12
-other Top Gear favourites including the Starion
-The AMC Javelin and Chevrolet El Camino
-Aston Martin DB5

You also get to pick which car you get as a gift every time you go up a level.

So far, it seems like a far bigger leap from 3 than 3 was from 2. First, though, I need to take the Cee'd around the test track and see if I've absorbed enough from nearly a decade of 'new' Top Gear to not get lost.

EDIT: Didn't get lost. Did SLAM right into the tires during the Follow Through, though. Had a few more practices, managed a clean 1:46.706, which isn't bad. The Follow Through isn't too bad, but you end up on the runway so it's hard to judge where the Second-to-Last corner is as everything's so wide, so I can see why many drivers go flying off at high speed.

Nice work, Perkies.

Lot more interested now, but it will have to be discounted before I get it.

£34.97 at Amazon which does seem to be a good price for a new release

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0053WH47W

Oh, it'll have to be sub £20 before I crumble on this one.

Indeed. WoW is taking up all my time at the moment, BF3 will take over in a few weeks...

... cue me buying Forza 4 at RRP when i'm at the shops tomorrow...

Cue me buying Forza 3 when all the trade-ins roll in

I only have three cars at the moment (Spark, See-apostrophe-D and Cossie) but the latter two are shared in the club garage, IF anyone joins.

I neglected to mention that the game now scores EVERY turn, drift and overtake (and slipstream, and 'speed') and gives you a score out of four, which pops up immediately after said corner. I'm not quite sure what the criteria for this is and only managed a 'perfect' turn entirely by mistake, though I imagine most of them involve a good, clean, fast line. On the one hand it encourages you to do better on the next lap, on the other it feels a bit like having some old belm in beige trousers from the Institute of Aged Motorists huffing away in his cardigan next to you about how untidy that last bend was and scribbling something on a clipboard.

The sun effects are much more prominent, to the end that on a number of tracks your view gets heavily washed out by the glare. When hunting down the Top Gear track for my hot lap I noticed that a number of them have an 'overcast' option to get rid of the glare!

Oh, and you can now go into the difficulty settings and disable the stupid 'rewind' option, so it won't pop up to nag you every time your wheels touch gravel or you nudge another car.

Would any of you skanks be up for an inaugural race next Tuesday (25 October) at the old time of 20:30?

Bagwaa and Plissken are both in the club now.

I've tried to share a few cars. Unfortunately, in a bit of fuckwitted design, I can't share the awesome Pontiac G8 I've got because I bought the tuning setup off the Storefront and that's 'locked' it, and you can't share locked cars.

EDIT: The spoiler on the Veyron functions correctly now. I'm not sure if there's the real-world option to disable it for more speed, though.

You've got the date wrong in the title, belmer

Tuesday is good for me.

Just completed the second season, and it feels much more fun than FM3. Managed to get hold of a couple of 70s US muscle cars and slide them all the way round bits of Maple Valley, which was immense fun. Grabbed the RS500, and bought the Texaco/Eggenburger paint job for it - how the hell people pull that sort of thing off using a bloody pad I have no idea.

All I've done so far is slap a few licence plates on a few cars, I haven't done any epic Team Maddie paintjobs yet.

I'm wondering if there's any interest in an official team livery? Once we decide on our official car I don't mind putting one together and giving you each a your own with your name printed on the door as I do already with all my own cars.

Plissken, you're right, the new physics make powerful cars outrageous fun. Half my battle in the G8 is keeping it on the road when I floor it and it's HILARIOUS.

Dear Metalangel,

I've heard this supports 16 person multi-player. Can you confirm if this is true?

Yours sincerely,

Itsallwater, 2 and 3 quarter xboxs old.

Back of the box confirms 2-16 players online.

Sweeet!

I'll be up for some club livery. I'll be limited to scrawling "My other car is also a Ferrari" on the back of the F50.

Oh you bastard, I want this now...and it was £35 in HMV at the weekend.

I cant do Tuesday nights tho as thats my dart's night. Wednesday night is best for me but as I dont yet own this game my opinion doesnt really matter.

Still, if Forza night was going to be every Tuesday then there is very little point in me buying the game...hurrah.

It's only Tuesday as I don't know what shifts I am doing next Weds and Thurs. It could just as easily be Monday but I figured people needed warning to find out if they could come.

It won't be a regular thing, for me at least. Not with my shifts.

I'd be all over this except my 360 wheel is broken, specifically the guide, start and back buttons only work very intermittently which would make for some pretty miserable multiplayering.

Use your pad, you ponce.

Fuck that. I literally can't play racing games with a pad now, at least not those sort, it just feels horrible and no fun at all.

Sure enough, I'd much prefer Monday or Wednesday now I know what my shifts are! Bah! Any objections, Plissken or Bagwaaaa?

Monday would be good.

TBH, whatever day next week is flaky - bughunting at work ahead of big launch next week. If I'm home on Monday or whenever, I'm in. if you see me on Xbox Live over the weekend, feel free to drop me an invite.

Thanks!

*bump*

Still stuck in Liverpool. so not tonight.

Yesterday I got flis to buy this especially for me to play tonight so Im in...if its on

So she can learn how to drive?

Funny you should say that as Ive already suggested to her that playing Forza might improve her real life drivings (or crashing if youre Pundy)

Okay, the first night was a great success! Thanks to Ramsea, Bagwaa and KrazyWookiee for turning up. Here's a quick peek at the highlights:

A-class cars race. A few moments later just about everyone crashed.


American sports cars race... Ford GT vs Corvette vs Viper on Road Atlanta.


Much bitching about the GT's brakes after that race, so I proposed we see how the finest sports cars Britain could produce compared. Except, it was three Exiges (them) vs a Sagaris (me). As I expected, the Sagaris lost ground on the corners but easily outaccelerated the Lotuses (Lotii?) on the straightaways. A tense approach to the final bend twixt me and Ramsea saw him dominate the racing line. Cresting the final hill to the finish line we had an unbelievably close finish:


Other highlights included:
-1990s BMWs vs Mercedes Benzes
-the Forza 2 car (the Trueno) unpacked for a quick run around Tsukuba.
-Bloody Ramsea and his damned rocket-powered Lancia
-KrazyWookiee not being invited back as he's too good
-Bagwaa's sportsmanship, and fighting with his NAT, and stopping Arkham City to come join us (gold star!)

But the greatest moment of the night had to be this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gID_UT-vnL8

I can run another race next week, what days are good for you?