The more I play Forza, the more frustrated I grow. Am I the only one having horrible problems with the huge dead-zones in the analog sticks? Its equally bad on Controller S and Logitech Precision and there are no settings to compensate for these. I usually run gas/brake on one stick, steering on the other...and I, for the life of me, can't gas or brake without losing traction (or locking the wheels) in most cars. I run manual (with shifting on the triggers) with all of the assists disabled (except for the racing line for now), but found I had to reenable ABS due to this locking problem. I can't power out of turns, I can't manage subtle tuns (like on Peninsula Speedway), I can't seem to do anything smoothly in this stupid game.
If only I could use my Driving Force Pro! I really don't feel like investing any money in a Xbox specific steering controller at this point in the Xbox's life-cycle, not just because I already own the best wheel out there, but also because Xbox 360 may not support this generation's controllers.
I've played Forza for several hours, two of which were online against a bunch of NASCAR loving, Fast and Furious types who only wanted to drive ovals, try to bump me off the line, never brake, and often quit out of races dropping me to last place (so I earn no points even for finishing second). Once I got more selective (I will no longer use quickmatch), I found better and more mature competition, but then inability to be smooth on the control inputs really started to work against me.
The lower class cars really feel sloppy in Forza...even typically solid cars like the S2000 felt strange (a car I love in GT4). Things didn't improve until I got my Honda NSX-R, so I took it online (haven't gone back to offline yet). At this point, I found myself needing to modify it to make it more competitive. As someone else mentioned above, the sound was cool until I modded it. I've been refining the settings, but can't seem to do much to keep the rear from coming out from behind me on turns...more likely the control issues I've already mentioned than my tuning.
So far, the most fun I've had in Forza has been applying custom decals...I went to town on making it an akira3d-Naughty Dog NSX-R. I just wish I could be more competitive with my customized ride. I also wish I could take my career with me to the office, but, for some reason, Forza decided to not support the memory units. Oh well...looks like I'll continue to play GT4 with a real steering controller during my lunch breaks.
As for Forza's graphics, the backgrounds are really pretty and very detailed (higher-res textures and geometry). That said, Forza is a tad too stylized (too dreamy soft) for a game trying to compete as a nearly photoreal simulator. Too bad Forza's cars aren't as good as its backgrounds. It's funny, replays in GT4 often can be mistaken for real footage, but no one will mistake when Forza's replays for anything other than clean and glossy computer graphics. Forza's car models, the way they move, the stuttering reflections, the funky paint...all are hugely inferior to GT4. One of my big gripes with GT4 was not being able to drive the Carrera GT...but Forza didn't make the car look nearly as good as it should. Forza's people aren't even as well done.
As for sense-of-speed, GT4 clearly wins this one hands down. Forza's camera glides along silky smooth with no attempt to translate the dipping and rolling of the car, the bumps, etc. I have pretty much had to rely on their dynamic racing line to know how I'm doing. Forza being locked at 30fps also hurts the feeling of speed and decreases the feeling of responsiveness from the controls. The line is cool, but it's hard to pay attention to that and your competition.
And the damage modeling is more annoying than cool. Too many online competitors (and even AI competitors) seem to intentionally knock you into walls. Attempting to compensate for damaged alignment when the controllers have such a huge dead-zone is a real pain...especially on longer courses.
I just don't understand why I haven't heard more negatives about this game. Everyone seems to be glowing about it, but I'd rather play GT4. If only GT4 was online...
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