We’ve spent the last several months telling you all about the incredibly deep and realistic features of “Forza Motorsport 2.” Soon you’ll be able to take the game for a test drive on Xbox LIVE Marketplace – the rumors this week of a downloadable demo are true, details on timing will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
From true Force Feedback to online tournaments, from Xbox LIVE Auction House to our unmatched Livery editor, “Forza Motorsport 2” will truly set a new standard for the racing genre. According to Game Director Dan Greenawalt, “Soon, gamers will get a taste of the raw horsepower the Xbox 360 game engine has provided as we redefine what it means to be a racing simulator with ‘Forza Motorsport 2.’ Whether it’s the hundreds of thousands of physics parameters captured from countless man hours taking track measurements and capturing car data to harnessing the power of the industry’s most advanced the neural-network search algorithms, non-linear and linear math models as well as AI simulation systems from our Microsoft Research Labs, we’ve turned mountains of real world raw data into a living, breathing racing simulator where the only difference between the game and reality is that you’re not risking life and limb when you hit a wall at 200 mph.”
As always, we have more to reveal from “Forza Motorsport 2’s” extensive car list as well. This week, we’re unveiling the aftermarket production cars in the game, with rare models including the Tommy Kaira Skyline from Nissan and the VeilSide Supra Fortune from Toyota. These souped-up favorites are sure to bring some spice to the track as they round out the game’s list of production cars – the full list below. Be sure to check out forzamotorsport.net for the latest screenshots as well as this week’s Pitpass report featuring Dan and Che “geeking out” on car physics and realism.
“Forza Motorsport 2’s” May 15 release date is approaching fast and fans the world over have been responding in a big way! With pre-orders for the game on pace to double the original “Forza Motorsport,” please be sure to drop us a line with your editorial needs as this game quickly becomes one your readers are surely hungry to hear about.
List of Aftermarket Tuner Car Classics:
Toyota
2003 APR Performance Celica GTS
2002 Tom's W123 MR-S
2002 Tom's Z382 Soarer
1998 VeilSide Supra Fortune 99
1998 VeilSide Supra Fortune 03
1998 Top Secret 0-300 Supra
1998 AB Flug S900 Supra Turbo
1995 VIS Racing MR2 Turbo T-bar
1995 Tom's T020 MR2
1995 Border MR2 Turbo T-bar
1992 Do-Luck Supra
Microsoft Australia recently announced a deal with the Bracks government and the Games Developers Association of Australia (GDAA) to provide the Victorian game developers community with eight Xbox 360 development kits.
This may not sound like much, but "to put it in perspective for small developers," said Ms Tracey Fellows, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, "each kit is valued at around $15,000 and they really are the key to developing games for the Xbox 360. The kit provides all the codes and protocols needed to program a game for the Xbox 360."
Microsoft and the Victorian government will be investing jointly in the kits, with the GDAA managing their loan distribution to "cutting-edge local games developers." The key component of the scheme is that it gives smaller development houses a leg up in a fast moving industry with rising development costs. Tom Crago, President of the GDAA, commented that "Given the rapid changes occurring globally in our industry, the early roll-out of this program in the development cycle will ensure we leverage and grow our local skills base."
No word yet on which development houses will be receiving the kits, but there are certainly plenty to choose from - over half of the game development industry in Australia is based in Victoria, employing over 700 people.
"A modified Gentoo LiveCD and new KingKong Shader Hack have been released for the Microsoft Xbox360 console that will allow you to boot Linux on your Xbox360 pretty easily! The new shader hack no longer requires a serial connection on your 360 and will load the XeLL bootloader directly from DVD. Once the bootloader ran you can insert the 'Xenon' modified Gentoo Minimal 2006.1 LiveCD and run Linux. As this hack uses the Hypervisor Vulnerability it will only work on Xbox360 consoles with kenrel 4532 or 4548 (downgrading is not possible at this moment as Microsoft blew-up eFuses in CPU to prevent kernel downgrades), to run the shader hack you'll need the Xbox360 King Kong game (modified with thew new shader patch mentioned above) and to run this modifie d game disc you'll need to flash the Xbox360 DVD-ROM drive with a modified firmware."
The Infectus mod team mailed in to let us know that they have uploaded a video of their first tests at dumpinging and and flashing the Xbox 360 BIOS NAND. They claim their mod will read and write the internal BIOS of the Xbox 360, allowing you to even downgrade!
Last week I asked Microsoft to bring Folding@Home to the Xbox 360 to add a boatload of computing power to the Alzheimer's fight. Well, Folding@Home isn't the only distributed protein-folding program around, don't-cha know. There's also Rosetta@Home, a program that happened to receive over $10 million from the Gates Foundation for HIV research last year.
Meanwhile, Xbox Live has been opened to developers via the XNA Game Developers Framework for about a year, allowing people to develop programs on their own for the system. Like… folding programs?
When asked about it on the project's message board, head scientist and developer David Baker said that "we have been discussing this idea with Microsoft quite a bit over the past several weeks; I will keep everybody posted."
Iiiiiiinteresting. This quote is from last October, so it's unclear as to what the status of this project is, but we sure hope this rumor has legs. Of course, any serious distributed folding program would be developed outside of the XNA framework, but it's interesting that this is how he responded when asked about XNA specifically. Having legions of PS3s helping to cure Alzheimer's and legions of Xbox 360s helping to cure HIV sounds like something even the most diehard fanboys can get behind. –Adam Frucci
According to a press release from Microsoft Japan, some Xbox 360 owners looking to upgrade their hard drives to the new 120 GB model next month may be in for a more complicated experience than they had once thought.
Following the announcement of the Xbox Elite, potential Xbox 360 owners across the world have been disappointed that the news announced so far only applies to the North American market. However, a recent press release from Microsoft Japan indicates that the Elite's 120 GB hard drive will be available in Japan for the price of 18,900 yen ($161.64 USD) starting June 7th.
But, Wired's gaming blog Game|Life recently examined the Japanese press release a little more closely and noticed some eyebrow-raising conditions that will most likely affect 360 gamers from all regions. In particular, the blog post points towards the process of transferring data from the old 20 GB hard drives to the new 120 GB models.
According to the press release, partial transfer looks to be impossible, since the entire contents of your 20 GB drive will automatically be transferred to the larger 120 GB drive. Once that transfer takes place, everything on your original drive will be permanently deleted. Furthermore, the transfer process has been made into a one-way street as it is impossible to move any transferred data back to an original 20 GB drive.
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"A modified Gentoo LiveCD and new KingKong Shader Hack have been released for the Microsoft Xbox360 console that will allow you to boot Linux on your Xbox360 pretty easily! The new shader hack no longer requires a serial connection on your 360 and will load the XeLL bootloader directly from DVD. Once the bootloader ran you can insert the 'Xenon' modified Gentoo Minimal 2006.1 LiveCD and run Linux. As this hack uses the Hypervisor Vulnerability it will only work on Xbox360 consoles with kenrel 4532 or 4548 (downgrading is not possible at this moment as Microsoft blew-up eFuses in CPU to prevent kernel downgrades), to run the shader hack you'll need the Xbox360 King Kong game (modified with thew new shader patch mentioned above) and to run this modifie d game disc you'll need to flash the Xbox360 DVD-ROM drive with a modified firmware."
