Getting Started

When you first boot up Forza 2, you're going to notice three primary options for getting into the game: Arcade, Career, and Multiplayer. The Multiplayer choice is fairly self-explanatory, in that it will let you pursue your dreams of online domination, or let you play via System Link or Split Screen. The two main single-player modes, though (both of which will tie into online play as you proceed), are Arcade and Career.

Arcade Race

Arcade racing is pretty freeform, so just pick a car class and get down to business.

Arcade Race is going to be preferable for players that want to get right in on the action, as you'll start out with most (but not all) of the cars in the game unlocked and available for your use. You can choose any car you wish for the races here, but the computer will adjust your competition based on the class of car that you choose, so if you pick a speed demon race vehicle, you can expect to be going up against likewise speedy opponents. In order to unlock more cars and tracks, you'll need to conquer the races that are available at the beginning of the mode, then proceed along the line until you wind up at the formidable full Nurburgring challenge.

If you wish, you can use cars from your Career Mode to race in Arcade mode, and this can be handy. If you upgrade a car so much that it bumps into a different class, though, you'll need to be careful that you're not putting it up against cars that it can't compete with. In general, if you upgrade a car more than one full class (e.g. if it goes from C to A), then you're probably going to be outmatched when you take it to the track against cars that started their lives in the A class. This isn't always the case, but just in general, to compete in races with a class restriction, it's better to take a car that's already in that class and attempt to max it out instead of bumping up a car from a lower class.

Career Mode

Most players, however, are going to want to jump into Career Mode, which is going to let you start out as a hip young cop, sent undercover with your partner, a reformed street thug, to infiltrate a band of highway pirates and their gritty, underworld street-racing empire. Along the way, you'll learn about life, love, and what it means to be a man.

Well, that's all entirely false, except for the part about you being a cop. Well, OK, that's a lie too. In Career Mode, you're going to start out with nothing but a small war chest of cash, and absolutely no cars at all. In order to start working your way up through the ranks of the international racing elite, you're going to have to start small.

Region Choice

Before you can begin a career, you're going to have to choose a region to base your driver in. This is a permanent choice, and one that can have an impact on your finances, but won't limit the kinds of cars you can obtain. As the manual says, no matter what your choice of region, you'll eventually be able to obtain all the cars in the game, and will also be given access to all the tracks, as well. There are three areas in which your choice of region will affect your game, though.

Car Prices and Rarity

Region choice affects the price of cars, so that a North American driver will have to pay more for cars that come from Europe and Asia, while an Asian driver will have to pay more for cars coming from Europe and North America, and so on. This is more important when dealing with A and S-Class cars than with other car classes. The lower class cars are going to be the product of large production runs, for the most part, and thus will be relatively common in all regions, while the purpose-built race cars in the R class are going to be equally rare (and thus equally expensive) in all regions.

The rarity of a car is also affected by your region. Rarity doesn't have an effect on a car's gameplay mechanics, but the more rare a car is, the more cash you'll earn by winning races with it. Why? Heck if we know. Maybe the race organizers give you a bigger cut of the cash for drawing in more spectators with your uber-rare ride. Regardless, using a rare car will net you more cash, but you shouldn't cripple your chances of winning a race by using a car that's more rare, but which performs worse than your other choices.

Initial Car Selection

Your choice of region is also going to affect the initial car selection. You're going to start the game with 11,000 credits and a selection of cars to choose from, each of which will set you back between 8,000 or 11,000 credits. Now, we'll be the first to admit that you can choose anything you like, but an examination of the cars in each region will usually convince you that a certain model of car is going to be objectivly better than the other choices. For Europe, the 2004 Audi TT Coupe 3.2 quattro will be decent if you like a 4WD vehicle, but otherwise, the 2006 Volkswagen Gold GTi will be the best choice for speed and overall performance.

The Toyota Supra will be the speediest car you can choose at first.

In North America, the 1998 Chrysler Eagle Talon TSi Turbo is somewhat cheaper, but faster, although it is a 4WD vehicle which may make it more difficult for you to shift over to a RWD vehicle later on. The 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt SS Coupe is less speedy, but has better handling, and is marginally rarer, letting you gain more money in the early races. The 2003 Lexus IS300 may be the best here, though, as it's a RWD and has great speed and rarity ratings.

For Asian drivers, there are plenty of RWD cars here, but the obvious choice is the 1992 Toyata Supra 2.0 GT Twin Turbo, which has the highest initial speed rating of any of the starting cars from any region.

Basically, these choices all have something in common; they're faster than their counterparts in the early game. You might be saying "well, duh!" but in the D-class of cars, which is where you'll be starting out, it's important to note that speed differences between cars are going to be much more important than will handling. Handling will become an integral part of the game in the upper classes, where braking distance and turning ability will often decide your ability to win a race, but at the outset of career mode, he who goes fastest wins. After all, when you're barely busting out 100 MPH from corner to corner, you're going to have a pretty easy time slowing down and turning as compared to a car with 600 horsepower and a top speed of 230 MPH. So pick your starting car based on its acceleration and speed rather than any kind of handling consideration.

Level-up Rewards

Your progress in the Career Mode of Forza 2 is dependent on your level, which you increase by earning cash in races. What's more, each time you earn enough cash to increase your level, you'll earn a reward from either your home region or a car manufacturer. The costs of cars from your home region will plummet after gaining a few levels, and will continue to decrease as you level up your driver. Most of the level-up rewards after the fifth level are simple car unlocks, allowing you to buy new cars at various dealerships around the world, but every fifth level you'll also receive a free car from a dealership, usually one of the ones in your home region.

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