Forza Motorsport Races to Store Shelves

By Ian Bell Updated May 4, 2005

From the press release:

One of the most highly anticipated game titles of 2005, Forza Motorsport offers gamers and car enthusiasts the ability to completely transform an ordinary factory car into a speed-drenched racing machine.

The metamorphic process of creating of a fully-equipped racer begins with a choice of more than 230 different models from over 60 of the world’s top car manufacturers including Ferrari, Porsche, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Chevrolet, Mazda and Dodge.

Featuring an unprecedented level of customization, Forza Motorsport gives gearheads the ability to tune-up their rides with performance upgrades including engine swaps, bolt-on superchargers and suspension kits as well as the tools to â€œtrick-outâ€ their creations with sleek new paint schemes, body kits, rims, spoilers, fender flares, scoops and decals from more than 150 aftermarket partners.

Additionally, Forza Motorsport debuts a powerful online racing experience that is certain to take the checkered flag on Xbox Liveâ„¢. With online car clubs, car trading, downloadable ghosts, race replays and car setups and more than 1,400 online leaderboards for competition at any skill level, Forza Motorsport boasts an online garage that sets the standard for all future driving simulators.

To support the inaugural title in the brand’s new racing franchise, Microsoft Game Studios has launched an integrated marketing campaign, which is brought to life with the tagline, â€œYou are what you race.â€ The multi-tiered campaign consists of both broadcast and print advertising as well as the innovative â€œXceleratorsâ€ films, which profile the wide range of car cultures in Forza Motorsport.

For more information about Forza Motorsport, or to view the Xcelerators films, please visit http://www.forzamotorsport.net/.

Publisher

I work with the best people in the world and get paid to play with gadgets. What's not to like?

Gaming

Lego 2K Drive melds the best parts of kart racers and Forza Horizon

A custom car built drives around Lego 2K Drive.

Forza Horizon 4's excellent 2019 Lego expansion worked so well that it seemed obvious that an open-world Lego racing game should become its own thing. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait too long to see that become a reality. Visual Concepts and 2K Games have announced a multi-title partnership with The Lego Group that begins with the open-world racer Lego 2K Drive, which launches on May 19.
I was recently flown out to 2K's Novato headquarters to go hands-on with Lego 2K Drive ahead of its announcement and came away impressed. The Lego and open-world racer combination still works quite well, harkening back to some great-playing racing games with aesthetics and a car customization system that gets as much mileage out of the Lego association as possible. Whether you're a fan of this new wave of open-world racing games or want to build and then race the weirdest Lego creations possible, you'll be thoroughly entertained by Lego 2K Drive.

Entering a Lego world
My hands-on time with Lego 2K Drive encompassed the game's opening hours. The central premise is that players are trying to qualify for the Sky Cup Gran Prix, a race in the sky that only attracts the best drivers from this Lego world. To qualify, one must win four Grand Brick Arena circuits in each of this game's biomes. But first, I had to learn how to drive. After designing my Lego character, I was let loose in Turbo Acres. In this smaller open-world area, it's manageable to learn the basics from an experienced Lego driver named Clutch Racington.
"We wanted to feel like you are playing with your Lego sets in the real world"

Gaming

Playdate finally gets a curated store … and a slight price increase

Playdate Catalog image shows launch games like Carve Jr., Direct Drive, and Playmaker.

Playdate, the quirky gaming handheld with a crank, is finally getting its on-system storefront Catalog today. That update comes ahead of a small price increase for the system, which will begin retailing for $199 instead of $179.
This news came during Panic's first Playdate Update showcase of 2023, which was mostly focused on introducing Catalog and its launch game lineup. When players find a game they like on the storefront, they can crank to buy it once their credit card info is connected to their account. Its launch lineup will include two free games made by developers from marginalized communities: Reel Steel and Recommendation Dog!!!

Some of the other notable games that are part of Catalog's launch lineup include Carve Jr., Chuhai Labs' crank-based snowboarding game that it teased to Digital Trends last year, Bloom, a flower shop managing game that plays out in real-time, and Skew, an endless runner Playdate spin-off of the upcoming game The Last Worker. Here's the full list of Catalog's 17 launch games sorted by price.

Gaming

How to find PlayStation VR2 games on the PS5’s PlayStation Store

An image featuring several launch window titles for the PlayStation VR2.

PlayStation VR2 is out now, and many of us are trying out the headset for the first time. If you didn't buy the Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle, you'll need to buy some games for the headset on the PS5's PlayStation Store. Right now, we have the benefit of the headset and its biggest launch titles being prominently featured on the PlayStation Store on PS5. That won't always be the case, though.
PSVR2 is not backward compatible with games for its predecessor, and just searching "VR" on the PlayStation Store will bring up many games that are only compatible with the original PlayStation VR headset. As such, searching for PSVR2 games manually on the PlayStation Store is more complicated than it might seem. To ensure you don't accidentally buy a game you can't play in your new headset, this is how you can find and identify PSVR2 games on the PS5's PlayStation Store.
How to manually find PlayStation VR2 games on the PlayStation Store

Currently, the "Latest" tab of the PlayStation Store does have featured widgets for specific games and an entire row dedicated to PSVR2 games, with a "View All" option at the end, which will bring you a list of the headset's games and demos. That's currently the easiest way to find PSVR2 games, but it likely won't stay there as we get further out from the PSVR2's launch. To manually search for PSVR2 games, you'll need to head over to the Browse section of the PlayStation Store. By default, "All Games" for PS4, PSVR, PS5, and PSVR2 will be shown, sorted by bestselling. To filter out non-PSVR2 games, choose the "Filter" button featuring three lines and a downward-pointing arrow on the screen's left side.
Once there, you'll see filters for price, genre, platform, release date, VR, and age rating. To ensure you're only served PSVR2 games, you'll want to go to the platform tab and choose the PS5 option and to the VR tab to choose the PSVR2 option. Once that's done, you can sort them by bestselling, most downloaded, name, release date, or price in the filter menu. Once everything is set to your liking, you can press the circle button to exit out of those filter options and you will see a list of games that all work with PSVR2. From here, you can easily access each game's store page before choosing whether or not you want to buy and download them.
How to tell if a game is PlayStation VR2-compatible