Be Excellent To Each Other

Might be worth a weekly time trial challenge with a standard car on a specific track each week?

Personally I cba driving without the braking line, especially after a few beers, I find the sense of speed and distance in the game is not really good enough to know when to brake or not.

I find the line most useful at the end of a long straight.

Also, I havent yet tried the online mulitplayer yet; is it 16 players?

Finally, I'm glad you're enjoying the wheel stand doc, Id feel a bit guilty if you hated it!

Same here. I don't find the line offputting because I ignore that, I just want the colour coding guidance. I think GRID got this right (it has a flashing red dot down in the instrument HUD for "I think you should be braking now").

Yes. Is it?

And so you should, as it was your writeup that finally convinced me to take the plunge. I took it to Grim...'s on the weekend (and also over to the Egg's on Sunday) and most people seemed quite impressed by it. It's much more stable than it looks like it could be.

As is right and proper, of course. And why I treat the colour as advice to be followed on the first lap and ignored, as necessary, on the second. I really don't want to have to do a practice calibration lap every time I encounter a new track or change cars.

I like the way it's done on Gran Turismo, whereby the gear youre in flashes if it thinks youre in the wrong gear for a corner.

I turned everything off in FM2 and left them off, and I'm still shit.

You here that slapping noise? Hear it, punk? That is the sound of the gauntlet being laid down.

Not that I want to get into technicalities becasue you're a pedant!You beat my time in a different car (Focus RS vs Audi S5).

As the youff would say, bring it on bitch. It's Hot Lap Challenge time!

No, I watched you do ten laps in the S5, then beat the best of those 10 laps in the same S5 on my second go. I didn't beat your RS time (although I got very close), but I don't know what the relative specs of the Focus and S5 are.

I probably need a bez on that too at some point, if it's no bother.

Oh I see, so you beat my first 10 laps using your wheel. For 10 laps. Ever.

Anyway, shut up shitface.

(That monitor works by the way, well it did before I put it in the boot of my car, will check it again later)

Sure thing. Pop over sometime.

And came within touching distance of the Focus RS time you'd set earlier in the day on the pad.

Good oh.

This is getting worse now. Wheel is controller 1, I want the pad to be that temporarily, so I unplug the wheel, hit the gude on my pad and it asigns to... controller 2. Forza doesn't want to know. I press the two little sync buttons, goes to controller 2 again. I turn off pad, restart, goes to controller 2.

What am I doing wrong?

Even fucking better, I was downloading stuff with the redeemable code, quit out, then went back to do so again, it has disappeared from my active downloads so I put the code in again, it now says that code has been used, I need to use another code. I've only got the one, I've not received my cars and tracks.

I'm starting to get a bit angry today.

By the sounds of things, getting up this morning...

Find the download in the Marketplace and select Download Again.

It's not in the marketplace. I can buy a t shirt for 80 points though.

/edit looking on my HD, it has the legends car & track pack halfway downloaded, with the only option being to delete it. Yay. No sign of the sidewinder and benchmark bits at all.

I think I need to ring MS and get a new code.

GO to your download history and press download again, then.

Ooh, where's that?

Under account management.

Got it! Cheers, chaps. I'd have been pissing about with that all day.

All up and running now, and doing ok. Ah, the pitter-patter of tiny gamerpoints.

The manual being entirely useless, can anyone tell me what the little icons in the car selection menu are? My alpha has a little steering wheel and a speedometer style icon, my focus has the speedo one and my Abarth has nothing.

I think the steering wheel means you're in that car at the moment.

The speedo one means, I think, that the car isn't appropriate for the event that you're running in - i.e. an F class car in an event dominated by C-class cars etc.

Why do I have to start at the back for every damn race? I'm not Luca Badoer!

Right, I've unplugged the wheel and put it away in the cupboard. I'm still unable to make the pad be controller 1.

/edit I think I need to hold down the button on the controller rather than press it. This is more like setting the time on a digital watch than I expected

Yeah, that aggravates me about racing games these days. I miss qualifying laps from Gran Turismo.

More annoying than most games as it wasn't the case in Forza 2, which had simulated qualifying.

This just puts you at the back, even if you have a C class car to everyone elses Fs.

In the short races, it makes winning pretty much impossible beyond deliberately hitting your opponents, which is really shit. And inevitably, the ai driver challenging for the 1st place in the series starts on pole everytime.

I seem to remember this from the Forza 2 singleplayer game... it's been so long since I played it, though. There was always one AI who completely dominated, if I recall.

OK, let's say for example I want to create a look for a whole fleet of cars... British racing green wiht the white stripe, then in subtle, classy font something likie "Governmentyard Racing" or "Throbbingmanclit" on the doors. This to be applied or removed from cars at will...

Do I just decorate the one car, add decals/vinyls (what's the difference?) and then there's an option to save that whole ensemble and put it on anything else, or do I do summat different?

You know how you can highlight multiple vinyls at any given time? Highlight all the ones you want to keep together, and then choose 'save vinyl group'. You can then choose 'load vinyl group' to apply that same design to a different car.

So, for example, say you created a Llamasoft logo out of a bunch of circles and ovals to look like a sheep. Highlight all those, and it will save all their positions relative to each other. When you then paste them, you can also resize the whole group or indeed rotate them.

(note this is all based on the Forza 2 editor, as I haven't played Forza 3 yet)

My top tip is to save parts rather than an entire car's worth of designs. Each car is a different shape and you want to be able to subtly move the various vinyls around to suit it. In Forza 2 I had my Team Maddie logo as one saved design, my various licence plates (prenumbered so all I had to do was change the numbers) as another design, etc etc. Painting the car and applying simple stuff like stripes takes no time at all and once you've gotten that base down on a new car you can then quickly apply all your saved complicated stuff and size/position/rotate it to fit.

When making a Team Maddie car I'd first paint it entirely, then I'd paint the hood and mirrors, then apply the white stripes to the top and grey flashes to the sides, and then start putting my pre-made stuff on. Still takes ages, though!

The Llamasoft logo is already on the shop thing for 1000 dimrills. Search "llamasoft".

Cheers, will start grouping vinyls now.

Just had a quick blast on this this morning and was thankful for the rewind function whilst racing on the updated New York race circuit, which unbelievably they've made worse by adding two chicanes in either straight - remember folks, this is a course which is very shadowy so making the initial laps quite tricky to see where the chicanes are - on the first attempt I barreled straight into the first chicane with another car and on the numerous other attempts was punted off by the dirty AI, but the real eye opener which made me grateful for the rewind function was on my third and final attempt where I came flying out of the last chicane on the final lap in the lead to be met with two very sick (as in nearly totaled) and very slow moving AI cars. I stood no chance! Still, it's nice to see the AI cars can actually write themselves off in a race.

I've not had nearly as much time with this game so far as I'd have liked. Bloody loved what I played so far though, however the AI seem to turn in very slow lap times even on their quickest setting. Were they this slow in 2?

I've found they get faster as you move through the car classes and game. I oscillate between Hard and Normal now depending on how well I know the track/car combo.

Oh fuck me yes - I did that one last night and it's the most restarts I have needed so far.

However it's a belting feeling when you get them right and slip round them with the merest feathering of the brake and then making it to within a few mm of the barrier on the left hander after that last one.

Damned Borderlands absorbed me so that I didn't even get to try this last night.

Is it possible to race the old version of the New York circuit? You know, without chicanes? So we can have our pimp takedown race?

Yep - I did a race on the old circuit last night.

I spent most of last night designing vinyl groups and putting them on the storefront. Didn't get many done in the grand scheme of things, but I did manage a fairly close approximation of the US Colonial Marines insignia from Aliens.

FINALLY got around to starting this.

I don't really care for the being-led-by-the-hand bits at the beginning. Announcer can indeed fuck off (though he does sound like a very nice chap, possibly called 'Howard' or something, a bit meek if you push him) and I don't really see the point of the stupid calendar bit of the season thing as it's all so abstract you don't feel like you're in a season and just wish you could pick them from a big menu like in the old Forza. Indeed, I find the whole menu system much less friendly than Forza 2.

I doubt there's many other games that could get away with recycling SO MUCH content. Now, yes, fair enough, there's only so many cars in the world and they don't change completely that often, but I'm a bit disappointed there's not more new ones. But on the other hand, they have added some seriously cool stuff, like the Dodge Ram, a whole raft of Firebirds, the GrimRover, and the Veyron.

The enemy AI is good, but annoying. In every single race, an AI driver (invariably in a red car) storms off to an early lead as, unlike me, they haven't had to start at the back of the grid and fight their way through the pack. Having to desperately try and catch this cheaty cunt up in the space of two or three laps is highly irritating, and thus I have absolutely no qualms about smashing him the fuck off when I catch up.

The new storefront thing is BRILLIANT. Within two minutes of going into it I'd already found and download astonishingly detailed Ontario and GB licence plates to save me making my own again.

Canna wait to play some more, start buying some cars *I* want instead of the godawful hatchbacks you are forced to start with ("Good choice." Yes, Howard, it sure is - if you're a GIANT VAGINA)

Someone with loads of time and talent on their hands needs to make some really excellent BEEX logos and shit that we can all use.

I could have a crack - what do you want it to look like?

A bee doing a hi-5.

I dunno man, just really excellent, hence the "talent" bit.

We don't really have a logo, which is a problem.

Perhaps Dimrill could do a racing Dimlie (open face helmet? dunno) and I could try to reproduce it along with some suitably squiggle-writing 'BETEO' letters.

Yes, we need one of the art-fags to step up. Zardoz?

Seriously? Did you ever play Gran Turismo 1 or 2?

I've got through to the R3 championships.

It's going to take a massive effort not to stick the Traction Control on having spun out about 3 times on the first lap.

While playing just now with Teh Egg, DrG and Guvermint Yard, we've noticed there are three NASCAR stock cars (unpainted) for you to buy - one Ford, one Dodge and one Chevrolet.

*squeeeeee*

I'm just about to go and scour the marketplace for some replica paintjobs, as well as do a Team Maddie one.

No doubt myp will similarly cream his shorts, and with the expanded options we could well organise a NASCAR championship thingy.

EDIT: Sure enough, there's a Mello Yello paintjob for the Chevrolet on the Storefront already. And TWO Richard Petty paintjobs for the Superbird!

And then fall asleep driving around an oval?

After about 6 hours of driving and lots of fiddling I have settled on the following;

ABS - On
TCS - Off
STM - Off
AI - Hard
Driving Line - Braking Only
Damage - Simulation

I tend to overspec my car a bit to compensate for starting off in the middle of the pack and end up in a decent tussle with the driver who starts first for pretty much the entire race. Putting the damage to simulation stops me from barging past and makes me bide my time to find the right opening.

The braking line is a decent guide and you quickly work out which bits to ignore and which bits you ignore at your peril - especially from R3 up it would seem. The handling is absolutely spot on - having got to the R3 championship and bottled it by notching the AI down to medium until I get used to it I was proper pleased with myself to have got through a lap with no penalties. You have to nurse the gas out of every corner with the TCS off and it makes for a much more rewarding driving experience.

I'm tempted to forfeit borderlands and spring for a wheel with my Gamestation credit I'm enjoying it that much.

After seeing some more fresh circuits I'm starting to like this a lot more. Weeeeee!

Mmm. I think I'm going to have to put ABS on. I'm finding the brakes are ludicrously grabby compared to F2.