Forza Motorsport 2

One of the biggest Xbox 360 releases of the summer is going to come in the form of extreme racing sim, Forza Motorsport 2. And by our calculations it's a billion times bigger than the original Xbox game too.

To find out more about the racing game that'll be filling the gap for many until PGR4 ships, CVG caught up with game director Dan Greenawalt at a recent Microsoft event held for the game in central London.

Were you surprised by how far people took what you could create with the livery editor in the original?

Dan Greenawalt: I don't think I was surprised that people would go that far, but I was surprised with what people actually did. I knew it had the capability and I knew there would be people that would do that. It's just like with an artist - you can never see the scale of it until they show it to you. So I knew we were going have some incredible stuff but when I saw what the artists did, we were blown away. We created a new medium for people to express themselves.

What's new for the decal system in Forza 2?

Greenawalt: For a start there are now 4000 layers and every layer can be a gradient, rather than having to select specific gradients. We have something like six times more decal types including text, so you don't have to build your own text. Everything about it is bigger. We've got more quick keys so you can cut, paste and insert more quickly. You can also change the camera angle so you can zoom in on areas you want to work on closely.

Is there any way to import your own images from a PC and slap them on your cars?

Greenawalt: No, because that's a security risk and that's basically what it comes down to.

How do players get high-res images of their motors from Forza off your website?

Greenawalt: When you're logged onto Live and take a picture, whether it's in the UI, from a replay or the game, a high-res picture gets uploaded to Xbox Live. It then goes to forzamotorsport.net, which is our community site, and from there you'll be able to download the high-res screenshot.

The BSM recently said that a percentage of young drivers admit to thinking they're playing a driving game while on the road. Are you worried about this and do you think Forza can actually make you a better driver?

Greenawalt: Absolutely. I think the things you learn in Forza Motorsport apply in the real world. A lot of people play other similar racing games - there are a lot of games that are kind of in the middle of sim and arcade - and they learn that if you're at the edge of traction and you brake, you'll get more turning. Well that's just not true, and it'll get you killed on a track.

If you're on the edge of traction on your front tyres turning and you brake, you've now exceeded your traction and you're going to under steer straight off into a barrier. We've had people play these other games and then they play Forza and go 'wow, how come when I brake it doesn't turn more?' well, that's because it doesn't in the real world.

As far as am I concerned about it, no. I think we're teaching people how to drive well in a safe place. And it's less expensive than driving on a real track day.

You said you left open a door open in the code so you can go in and fix any exploits that occur when the game launches. What are you expecting? More credit cheats?

Greenawalt: I didn't actually see that as a problem in the first game. The game's a sandbox, I know there were people that thought it was a big deal about the credits. Okay, you got more money but you still have to go and win the races.

But are there parts of the game that you didn't have enough time to test properly?

Greenawalt: Well there always are and that's the beauty of Xbox Live. But no, there isn't anything specific in mind that we know we'll have to fix when the game gets into players' hands. Because we have our car classification system and non-linear AI system, and because there are so many different variations, we put in a back door because there's no way to test all of that. It's not a matter of us saying 'oh the game's broken but let's release it anyway'; it's just such a big game to test.

You've clearly spent a massive amount of time on the sequel. Are you a bit disappointed that there's no Gran Turismo 5 to go up against? Or are you glad?

Greenawalt: They made GT HD and it's a beautiful game; I don't see it as going up against or not going up against each other. Our game is a next-gen racing game, it's online that's what people should be doing. With PGR 2 and 3 we've been online for five years already, that's now yesterday's game.

Today you need to be doing new online things - not just matchmaking and leaderboards. We've now got qualified tournaments and the Auction House - these are next-gen features.

On top of that if you look at MySpace and YouTube, the customisation and showing your individuality to a wider community, that's what next-gen gaming is all about and we're doing the vision we've got for Forza Motorsport.

Gavin Ogden