Wearing and Tearing

By Danny Chihdo

There's a good reason the first image you see when you pop in the Forza Motorsport™ disc (after logos and so forth) is a written definition of the word "simulation." The effect of damage and its impact on the driving physics of each car has been honed to near-perfection by the car fanatics at Microsoft Game Studios, to the point where every vehicle reacts not just differently but with an almost alarming degree of authenticity. And, with three different adjustable levels of damage in your career mode difficulty settings, that realism won't overwhelm newcomers or disappoint racing veterans.

Setting the Crunch Level
Career mode gives you the chance to tweak several levels of difficulty that affect the amount of damage you're likely to take—tractions settings, specifically tuned parts, and the like—but only one that controls the overall behavior of your ride(s) after a sideswipe or an unexpected out-of-control skid.

• Cosmetic: You ding, nick, and scratch the bejeebers out of your car or cars, but the performance doesn't decrease. This setting knocks 25% off your winnings, so unless you're completely new to the entire concept of racing video games (or plan to balance the difference out with other difficulty adjustments), don't choose it.
• Limited: The car definitely begins to degrade with each impact, but complete breakdown isn't going to happen. That isn't to say you should be cavalier about taking damage; you can still be taken out of the race with only a few slipups. Or even just one. This is the default setting, and has no effect either way on your career payoffs.
• Simulation: If you ever thought you were a halfway decent driver, this mode shows you how cocky you were, Johnny. The car literally comes apart with too many strikes, windows are destroyed, entire systems can fail, and a single fender ding at the right angle can mean certain doom. This mode is ultimately the most fun, but also the most potentially frustrating. That's probably why you get an extra 15% to everything when you turn it on.

Can't … stop … turning … right …

Crimes Against Automobility
In the interest of pseudoscience, I conducted an unscientific test of two scenarios on the most punishing damage mode, Simulation. For the first test, I went with the Flash-mobile, my current "main" career car, a customized 2003 Toyota APR Celica with front-wheel drive. For the second test, I entered arcade mode and used a stock 2004 Bentley Continental GT with all-wheel drive. The goal with test one was simply bashing the heck out of the car, while I merely raced—or I should say tried to race—in test number two.

This better be covered by my insurance.

The hurt you're putting on the car shows up on the damage chart when first suffered, or you can check to see exactly how badly you've ripped up your vehicle at any time by hitting the white button. In my unscientific test crashing, I found a lot of the damage tended to happen to the front end, which occurs when you hit things head on at high speeds. Repeated impacts on the front bumper had effects on the inner and outer workings of the car—at first, she pulled hard to the left. Then something happened that took the wind out of any acceleration she once had, and yet another collision made the gears shift about three seconds after I'd actually hit the shift button. Then the brakes went, and thereafter I never made it out of second gear even on a long straight stretch.

Mind you, that was me doing my best, as it were, to hurt the car. For the second unscientific simulation-level difficulty test I relied on my less-than-innate driving skills and did my best to avoid getting too banged up. Naturally, the A.I.-controlled vehicles weren't about to let that happen. After one hooked my inside rear fender on a sharp left turn, the Bentley began to suffer acceleration spinouts in gears one through three. The resultant careening sent my car into the rear end of another racer, which hit the steering hard. Within seconds, despite my best efforts (kind of sad, really) the car was nearly as wounded as it would have been had I simply aimed at the bleachers and hit the gas. The pull of the steering deficiency was a minor help on left turns, but on a straight stretch or a right turn it forced me to constantly compensate by pulling the wheel against the pull, forcing the wheels to screech pitiably with each jarring zig and zag. Soon I was out of it, but since the test wasn't happening on Xbox Live®, I was mercifully able to restart.

Pick a lane buddy!

I'm no scientist but I do watch a lot of Star Trek, and it's clear the developers of Forza Motorsport have embraced the fact that "ya canna change the laws o' physics." But you do get to drive in ways that break every conceivable traffic law in the books—and see how real cars you'll probably never drive in real life behave when taking a 180 degree corner at 110 mph, spinning out on the starting line, or slamming into a brick wall. Not that I'd recommend that last one. It's rough on the paint.