I was playing the Forza Motorsport 2 demo and upon viewing the replay, which was still missing a lot of options, I was amazed to see how they display a lot of the data affecting the simulation. Like the car body’s center of gravity, tire heat, wear, angle, grip, suspension and amount of fuel. You really do get a feel for how well you’re using what you have. At least with my driving skills it’s mostly entirely useless information and I suspect that very few people really have use for it, but it is very cool to see what’s going on.
I also dig the driving aid system a lot. It does help to know when to brake and when to go neutral. I’m not sure if this is a game I would like to play, being perhaps too simulationist for me, but peering inside the engine is fascinating.
Next-gen seems to have added better damage modeling to driving games, which I applaud. Somehow seeing the paint scrape off realistically is more, well, touching than the all or nothing wrecks we’ve become used to. Probably because everyone can imagine their own vehicle being scraped.
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