Forza 4: Catch-All

MisterStatic wrote:
m0nk3yboy wrote:

Just enabled in Forizon thread... Can someone club me up please?

m0nk3yboy on live too. :)

Sure, I'll get to it today if ThinJ doesn't first.

Spank you very much!

I forgot how 'zen' this game was. Coming off of Forizon, with a Burnout mentality was just all wrong. Damage -1,345 credits?!?! Restart please.

Relax, ease into the corners, pass nicely on the outside line, chicane, no worries, ease off the gas, let friction take the edge off the momentum, then squeeze a little more gas on the exit. Transcendental.

I'm also going to throw my hat in the ring for the Speed Wheel if your household falls into the 'space is an issue' or 'the damn kids would wreck it' camp for a full wheel and pedal setup.

Aaron D and Gravey enabled me in the Forizon thread, and it really is a nice piece of gear. Nicely weighted, the finish is great. The accelerator and brake triggers seem to have more movement/range in them too making it really nice to pull off the maneuvers as listed above (popped the perfect turn, nice pass cheevs without even trying).

One problem though, why, oh why, did you throw away the LB and RB? How can I move left to right in the menus? Why not have mini PSP style dual analogs as well either side of the base? Auto Vista is practically unusable. OK, so a bit of an issue there. I see myself using my controller in the short term, while I want to 'play' in the UI, then once that novelty has worn off, moving straight back to the Speed Wheel. Seriously, with those added buttons back on it could have been awesome instead of 'good, with a caveat on functionality'.

A few people have said it feels a little goofy to start with, but I picked it up and ran with it almost instantly. Mind you, I spent waaaaay too many hours wringing seconds out of my Wip3out scores with a Namco neGcon, so goofy seems to be my thing

m0nk3yboy wrote:

One problem though, why, oh why, did you throw away the LB and RB? How can I move left to right in the menus? Why not have mini PSP style dual analogs as well either side of the base? Auto Vista is practically unusable. OK, so a bit of an issue there. I see myself using my controller in the short term, while I want to 'play' in the UI, then once that novelty has worn off, moving straight back to the Speed Wheel. Seriously, with those added buttons back on it could have been awesome instead of 'good, with a caveat on functionality'.

Yeah, the lack of LB and RB on the Speed Wheel was a big head-scratcher for me. After I gave in and just accepted that menu navigation would simply necessitate having a control pad on standby, things worked out. Still seems like a major oversight though.

The pattern I developed was to simply fire up the game with the game pad. Before digging into the races, I use the pad to cruise around all the non-game stuff...checking leaderboards/Rival messages, store-fronts, Auto Vista, etc. Then, when I'm ready to burn some rubber, I simply pull the back off of the pad's battery pack. This quickly disconnects the control pad without having to hold the Home button. Then I press the Home button on the Speed Wheel and am off to the races.

It's important to disconnect the control pad before firing up the Wheel (or vice-versa), otherwise the Wheel/pad is assigned to the Player 2 slot. It's a bit of a workaround, but quickly becomes only a minor quibble once you get into the habit.

On the plus side I noticed that all Horizon menus throw out RB/LB navigation completely, so perhaps developers will account for the lack of buttons going forward.

Could I get an invite to the club? TheBeex on Live.

Not sure if I can do anything with the club just yet, I only have a silver account. I'm on the hunt for one of those sales on XBL codes.

I really enjoy racing games, but man am I terrible at them. It'd be nice to get through a race without crashing into another car at some point.

Oh, and m0nk3yboy, I sent you a friend request. I wish they let you add a note to a request. Maybe they do and I missed it. I'm still getting used to the Xbox interface, it's all weird after dealing with PSN for so long now.

The great thing about the Forza series is how customizable the difficulty is. For a series that prides itself in its simminess (look, I just made a word!), it's very newb-friendly.

You can toggle the assists all the way to make it an easy Sunday Drive or swing in the opposite direction for a sim experience.

I found the best way to ease in was to toggle all the assists on and then as I got accustomed to the physics engine, slowly toggle them back off one by one as my skills increased. Nothing beats the satisfaction of racing competitively, either online or off, with everything turned off (sans clutch, for me…never did master that bugger).

Aaron D. wrote:

The great thing about the Forza series is how customizable the difficulty is. For a series that prides itself in its simminess (look, I just made a word!), it's very newb-friendly.

You can toggle the assists all the way to make it an easy Sunday Drive or swing in the opposite direction for a sim experience.

I agree; Forza is fantastic at providing a fun racing experience for everyone who's interested.

fleabagmatt wrote:

Could I get an invite to the club? TheBeex on Live.

Not sure if I can do anything with the club just yet, I only have a silver account. I'm on the hunt for one of those sales on XBL codes.

I really enjoy racing games, but man am I terrible at them. It'd be nice to get through a race without crashing into another car at some point.

Oh, and m0nk3yboy, I sent you a friend request. I wish they let you add a note to a request. Maybe they do and I missed it. I'm still getting used to the Xbox interface, it's all weird after dealing with PSN for so long now.

I'll pop on this morning (my time) and hopefully accept both (with my discriminatory magical random powers).

EDIT: getting confused with the Forizon Thread. Friend request accepted at least

fleabagmatt wrote:

Could I get an invite to the club? TheBeex on Live.

Invite sent.

Just picked this up again after not playing in forever. Decided to try the speed wheel and finally turn the last two assists off. Wow, has my driving improved! I actually drive the car like it's "real" now. I'm really finding it a lot more fun now.

Maybe I should start looking for one of those fancy wheel set-ups...

I've got a spare CSR wheel, CSR shifters, CSW v1 pedals and Rennsport stand I need to get rid of. Just sayin'.

Got Forizon and a speed wheel for Christmas. Now I just need some time to play.

LiquidMantis wrote:

I've got a spare CSR wheel, CSR shifters, CSW v1 pedals and Rennsport stand I need to get rid of. Just sayin'.

Just went on an interview for a new job today that'll pay a lot more money. Let me see how that goes and we might need to talk...

You bet. These are unused here, only because I went whole-hog and got a CSR-Elite in a cockpit setup with a TH8RS shifter and the CSW v2 pedals. I'd love to rehome the old setup to a GWJer.

Do you guys know of any "beginner" type leagues around? I'm finally racing with all the assists off, but with pretty slow cars. Didn't know if there was anything that catered to that type of racing.

There's no longer a GWJ racing night is there? Or interest in one?

I'm no help for a beginner/slow class league unfortunately. As far as I know, the weekly gwj racing night lasted about 1.5 weeks, so yes it is defunct. As far as interest, I would totally be up for it, but I'm not sure how many other takers you will find.

Depending on scheduling I'm interested.

LiquidMantis wrote:

Depending on scheduling I'm interested.

Depending on timezone adjustments relevant to scheduling, I too would be interested.

I'd like to give it a go. Assuming you don't mind losing a little paint on your race cars.

Spoiler:

Not intentionally of course, I'm just a bad driver.

My schedule is pretty wonky the next couple weeks, though, so I'm not sure when I'd be available.

1700 GMT on Saturdays?

I can do 1700 GMT for now, except for the occasional Saturday job. Would CST weeknights work for anyone?

1700 gmt looks to be 1pm eastern (daylight savings) time. That works for me.

I should be able to make that time typically as well.

MisterStatic wrote:

1700 GMT on Saturdays?

1am Sunday morning for me, so if the insomnia kicks in, or I can't sleep after finishing night shift at 10PM Saturday, I'm in too!

I might try to join in tomorrow morning if I can. You all use voice chat I assume?

On a related note, this Xbox newbie has yet to try using the included headset. Do I just plug it into the controller and it works, or do I have to do some setup?

fleabagmatt wrote:

I might try to join in tomorrow morning if I can. You all use voice chat I assume?

On a related note, this Xbox newbie has yet to try using the included headset. Do I just plug it into the controller and it works, or do I have to do some setup?

You should be able to plug it in and go. If you'd like to test it, send a voice message to someone on your friends list. You can play it back and not have to send the message. If it works there, you're all set.

For tomorrow, I will host. For 3 races at a minimum, we will race your best A class car. Tracks will be Road Atlanta, Infineon, and Hockenheimring, in that order. Practice up! We will go from there, see you mañana!

Is it possible to be in the lobby and watch the race, but not be in it? I wouldn't be able to drive an A class car into anything besides a wall, but I want to hop in for the slower races if you guys have some.

fogrob wrote:

Is it possible to be in the lobby and watch the race, but not be in it? I wouldn't be able to drive an A class car into anything besides a wall, but I want to hop in for the slower races if you guys have some.

We will follow those races with some slower classes. But, just put some practice in tonight! We are a VERY easy-going bunch, you have nothing to worry about.

Sounds good. Still not sure if I have to work today or not. Crossing fingers.

fogrob, I'm pretty terrible with anything other than the slow classes, you and I can knock each other around in the back of the pack and try to stay out of the real racers' way.

That being said, I'm not completely sure if I even have a class A car, I'd better go check.

A couple of us are online and tooling around. Just send the invite when you guys are ready.