There's a few things though, that if they make it into Forza 3 will really make my day...
In no particular order:
- Weather effects
- Lighting effects
- Pit strategy
- Length of races
- Difficulty levels
- Circuits
- Cars
- Damage
The challenge here is not to get gimmicky - PGR 4 actually did a reasonable job of rain but the snow, although fun, isn't really worth the effort it must have taken.
There's two parts to implementing this - the first is the visual effects of water on the cars, the circuits, the spray from cars, the rain itself and of course the darkening of the skies that would add considerable atmosphere to what is a very clinical game.
The second part is implementing aqua-planing and friction against the water in puddles - PGR4's attempt here is a good example of what can be achieved, but with the additional dynamics that are being modelled in Forza surely it could be awesome.
In a similar way that rain would add atmosphere I think that other lighting effects would give the game further depth.
In addition to the obvious one of night races, the time of the day can trigger effects such as low sun glare or mist burning off during a race.
I think what would really make things interesting is something along the lines of a weather forecast for the race adding dynamics such as choosing tyres and pit strategy to the mix.
I believe I've read somewhere that Forza 2 models the effects of fuel use on the weight of the car, possibly even the weight distribution. That's a great piece of physics implementation but it's stillborn in that you have no choice as to how much fuel you're putting in the car.
We've seen that in formula 1, pit strategy has become a huge element in determining who wins - I wouldn't want a game to lose it's driving aspects too much but the choice of only filling to say 75% from the grid and knowing that an early pit stop is required would add to the strategy.
Likewise the pit stops all seem to take about the same length of time - I'd like to see the options as to whether certain damage is repaired and whether tyre changing should be performed and see an appropriate knock on effect on pit time. It would bring into the equation the possibility of "splash-and-dash" pit stops.
I guess looking at all of the above you can see that I'm a fan of the longer races. If it was me designing the career elements I' have added about an extra 5 series, all as long as the endurance races and have some proper endurances races of 4 hours or more.
The 50'ish minute races are well chosen in that an hour is a reasonable time to set aside for a race but the opportunity is missed to have some really long races allowing for far more to happen during the race.
I also can't see why adding addition levels has a great deal of effect on play testing - the addition of an extra 50 combinations of race would surely be an easy thing to do. Maybe each class of car could have 5 or 10 circuits for the endurance races rather than just the one.
The model of difficulty affecting credits earned works well in Forza 2 - I've never found myself with too many credits nor too few.
What I find annoying is that by dropping from hard to easy I only lose 15% of my credits won per race. This could have been changed considerably without affecting the early stages of the game where credits are at a premium. I also find that the "normal" level of difficulty is too closely matched to that of "hard". The "easy" levels can be completed with almost no concentration and in almost any car, yet "normal" and "hard" often require a car and driver of much higher skill. Either an additional level of difficulty or a rebalancing of these would smooth things out. In terms of credits - I'd like to see the levels at -50%, 0% and +100%. That would really make a difference as to which level is chosen.
Oh for more circuits... I guess you can never have enough and at least with Xbox Live there's the possibility of more being added.
I guess there's a high level of effort (and therefore cost) in presenting a new circuit but surely it's worth it. I'd almost go to say that I'd settle for 1st and 2nd grade circuits, differing in how well they've been modelled. Maybe that's where the community could come alive by modelling circuits they have an interest in - initially just from aerial photography but eventually with contours and additional touches such as scenery. There are so many circuits out there that very easily be modelled in outline from Google maps alone.
What's most missing from Forza are the street circuits that have been implemented so well in other driving games such as PGR and GT. I know that it is a game concentrating far more on dynamics than visuals and that's one of the main reasons I like it but there's still something about screaming though an Italian city or through London that appeals. It's obviously possible as the New York circuit demonstrates. I can only assume that the development costs are prohibitive compared to that of a normal circuit.
With over 300 cars we're not doing badly and there's only a few manufacturers that I feel have missed the opportunity to get included.
I'm not sure how the licensing works for cars - I'm guessing the manufacturer has to give permission for the trademarked brands to be included and may even contribute 3d models and technical data to start the process off. From there I guess it's all done from publicly available literature and photographs.
The thing I'd like to see here is far more variants of some of the existing models - the gamer points can still be done my model but surely it can't be that hard to have statistics against different engine options for the same model. Maybe I'm the only person out there, but there is something nice about driving the exact model of car that you own - in the same colour and specification. Something I can only really do with the 350z as it's a popular choice in gaming.
The damage modelling in Forza 2 is a valuable addition that models crashes quite well - I'm looking forward to Race Driver: GRID as Dirt had stunning damage modelling and if they've been able to bring that across Forza will be looking very dated.
More important than just crash modelling for me would be more subtle effects such as those of punctures caused by driving over debris and even flat-spots on the tyres caused by locking the wheels under braking. I don't think these will be hard to model but will add yet another depth of game play. They are also obvious candidates for the rumble in the controller and for the direction tug that's already been implemented.
Enough of me and back to the game - I'm sure there's plenty of other opinion out there and we'll just have to wait and see what Forza 3 brings. Let's hope its constructive towards game play though and doesn't follow GT5's route of only providing eye candy.
