Byline of a Renaissance Bubba : forza horizon 2

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Forza Horizon 2 and the 97 Lamborghini Diablo

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing the Forza franchise racing games on Xbox since I’ve been at home from an injury I suffered at work in November of 2013. It'd started with Forza Horizon, then I bought Forza 3, then Forza 4 and now I'm hitting the roads in Forza Horizon 2.

It’s given me a whole new appreciation of the automobile. I’ve driven every car imaginable and I have so many favorites it’s hard to pick one above all others. My heart first and foremost still belongs to the America Muscle Cars of the 60’s and 70’s.

But as I’ve advanced my video racing career, I’ve fallen in love with the premium BMW’s, Mercedes’, Ferrari’s, Lotus’s, Ruf’s, Bugatti’s, Sagaris’s, Audi’s and the Alfa Romeo’s of the world as well since they all have speed and amazing handling characteristics.

That said, I’m developing a real love affair for the Lamborghini’s. Their new top of the line road cars are off the charts amazing and unbelievable. In Forza Horizon 2 the newest one is the 2014 Hurcan LP 610-4, it's a real hellcat. There are 6 others Lamborghini’s in their lineup, the 2013 Veneo, the 2012 Aventador LP 700-4, the 2011 LP570-4 Super Leggera, the 2010 Murcilago SV and the 1988 Countach LP5000 QV.

The 1997 Lamborghini Diablo SV

My new favorite is one of the older smaller Lamborghini’s. It’s the 1997 Lamborghini Diablo SV. No, it isn’t the biggest or fastest car in the game and the horsepower is smaller but it handles as well or better than any car ever made.

I LOVE this car, it has a 485 hp engine, a 5 speed manual transmission, its top speed is 201 mph, 0- 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and it’ll do a ¼ mile in 12.2 seconds. It’s one of those cars that is just fast enough to give you a mind numbing adrenaline rush but not so fast that you’d wreck it after coming out of the first corner. The braking, steering and acceleration of the Diablo is 'devilish' perfection.

Since I was born good looking and not rich I’ll never be able to afford to buy a real 97 Diablo. The starting price for one with high mileage is around $120,000 to $150,000, the low mileage mint condition Diablo’s can go as high as $500,000.

So as a fan of road racing I’ll have to settle into my imaginary world on Forza Horizon 2 and get behind the wheel of my Diablo (or xyz car) and zip through the winding roads on the coast of France hitting speeds of 150 mph plus through corners. If I slam into a wall and wipe out the car no worries, I hit the reset button and start over again and it’s off to the races. After I've gone as far as I can go on Forza Horizon 2 I plan on investing in a Xbox One (made the mistake of buying a Xbox 360 first) so I can buy Forza 5 and the new Forza 6 that will be released soon.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Forza Race Games Rock!

I've had a blast playing the Forza race car games on the Xbox 360. The first game I bought was Forza Horizon, then Forza 3, Forza 2 and Forza 4 in that order. I couldn't buy Forza 5 because it's only available for Xbox One but I do plan to buy Forza Horizon 2 when it comes out in September.

After playing 4 of their games I prefer playing the online multi-player racing on Forza 3 because it's the most competitive, at least at my current skill level. The only problem is the game is an old one and most of the players have moved onto the other games. You'll still get some good online racing there but not as good as the others. The season play and event list racing is great in all the games as you learn to race, so that's the bonus. The race tracks in all the games are awesome and many are replicas of the real ones. Sebring, Sedona, Indianapolis, Le Mans, Laguna Seca, Sonoma, Silverstone and Road American among many others are their to test your racing skills.

The fun part about Forza for me personally is the awesome muscle cars of the 70's you can race. Each car on Forza is an exact replica of the original in ever detail, from the HP of the engine to the inside of car. The dash, speedometer, tach, and steering wheel are all exactly the same.

From the mid-60's to the early 70's American car companies built the coolest hot rods ever. They had style, power and personality. Today they're are many cars that beat them on a race track or in a drag race and they certainly don't handle as well as the new cars but that's not the point. If I had my way and money was no object I'd buy a mint condition car from that era over a Japanese, German or Italian performance car any day of the week. Any one of the cars in this slideshow I would happily own if I could. All the cars in the slideshow below are orange because of my love of the Broncos but you can paint them any color you want including the original stock colors. Keep in mind all the photos I took of the cars were on my big screen TV so they're a little grainy but when you see them on your TV at home they'll be in perfect hi-definition.

Here's a video I made of the cars I own on Forza 4.

Here's a video of a race at the Brickyard Raceway in Indy with a 1971 AMC Javelin. I made it for my friend Darold as a tribute since he's a fan of AMC cars.

The cars below are ones I customized in the paint shop on Forza 3 and Forza 4. The reason there are 5 Puegeot 908's is because it's the most commonly used online mutliplayer race car on Forza 3. The Broncos Mustang, Broncos Shelby, Broncos Mercedes-Benz SL 65 and Police Car Camaro were designs I bought from other designers in the market place and applied to the cars.