rec.autos.simulators

I ordered Gears Of War and Forza Motorsport 2 as well.

I'll get BioShock and Halo 3 when released.

Any other recommendations?

-Larry

Yea, prepare to be disappointed by Forza2. It doesn't even have a***pit.
Feels like every other POS arcade racer you get on consoles. Using a gamepad
is no fun with a lot of the 360 games too. If I buy Bioshock it will be for
the PC as I played the demo on the 360 and it is just too slow and awkward
during the action parts of the game. Try the 360 demo of Bioshock be fore
you buy it. You might also want to get a wheel and pedals for the 360 if you
are going to buy racing games for the 360 because using a gamepad sucks for
driving with. I don't bother with driving games on the 360 though as every
demo I have tried has been a shallow arcade game marketed to ***s. The PC
completely owns when it comes to any kind of more serious racing game. All
games on the 360 are marketed to ***s and you will probably find that
annoying too. Just about every game has loud annoying music that they think
***s will like. The HD player is a nice bit of kit though. ;)

Or you're just old. =P I'm 30 and there's a lot of 360 games i own and love.
I happen to like a lot of the music in Forza2. Not that it matters, cause it
mutes the music in races anyway. And yes, the gamepad does suck for driving
and while the MS FF Wheel isn't perfect (far from it, actually), it gets the
job done. It would be nice if the wheel was built a bit better, i'm spoiled
by my old TSW, but what can you do?

The FF effects in Forza2 are really good with the wheel. Personally, i
really like the physics. If you turn all the assists off, it actually turns
into a pretty nice sim. Yeah, it sucks ass that it's missing a***pit view.
Honestly, i wish it did some real race series, but that's not what the game
is about. Forza2 wasn't meant to be a *** sim. It was meant to be a
fairly realistic racing game with enough crutches built in (again, you can
turn them off) for the non-racers and it's a game that lets you race
showroom stock cars. All the way down to lowly Civics and various other
econo-cars, all the way up to Ferraris and other supercars and even purpose
built race cars. That much it does pretty well.

- Will

I was really dissappointed in Dirt. The off road trucks were fun, but the
rest of the rally stuff sucked hard. Especially the events on tarmac.

Oblivion is pretty spectacular. I've put over 80 hours into that game and
i'm still playing it. Tons of stuff to see and do in that one. The skill
system in it really keeps it fun.

- Will

Yea, that too. :) But even Microsoft 360 recorded phone tech support talks
like they are talking to ***s, "Hey, My name is Max".

Without a***pit I can't get into Forza2 and I can't judge the physics
using a gamepad. No, I don't want to buy another wheel and pedals.

I would get Dirt for the PC but it has Starforce so it is a no buy. What
kind of dumbass company still uses Starforce?

I have Oblivion for PC and 360 and much prefer to play it on the PC because
it is much easier to control during the action parts and because of  all the
mods you can get for the PC version. If you have a good PC then get the PC
version of Oblivion. Oblivion is not really a Hack& Slash though as there is
much exploration and quests to do. When I think Hack & Slash I think dungeon
crawls with endless enemies. Like Diablo is. Oblivion is far more than that.

PGR3.  I have PGR2 and loved it.  Sure it is arcadey.  But it is a
lot of fun too.  PGR3 is prettier, but it generally doesn't review
as well as 2 (original XBOX).  I'm not sure PGR2 is compatible with
your 360.

Movies: how about Grand Prix in HD-DVD?  It looks great on DVD.

And if you are a Battlestar Galactica (the new one, not the cheesy
original) fan, season 1 comes out on HD-DVD in Dec.

the july update included emulation for pgr2 on the 360, so it finally works
after 2 1/2 years of waiting !

http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm

Tango

Fight Night 3 is an exellent boxing game,2 player vs mode with a few buddies
and a few beers is good old fashion console fun.

cheers
Staf

cheers again
Staf

The PC version is tied up in a copy protection fiasco right now, which is
one of the reasons I'm bailing out of PC *** except for racing sims.

You're right.  Forza 2 SUCKS.

Dirt isn't half-bad.

Gears of war is a bit over my head right now, but I'm working on it :)

-Larry