XBox 360 FORZA 4 Completed! Check out my 252 digital race cars! Introduction.

Gentle reader,

Yes, it has been quite a while since I made a posting to this blog. I appreciate your patience, I HAVE been busy!

To begin, those of you who think Microsoft's Forza series or SONY's Grand Turismo series are just "GAMES". You haven't tried it. Check out: Nissan GT Academy | Nissan USA

Hundreds of thousands of people who race in SONY's Grand Turismo on-line, may eventually be chosen to compete live and in person, if they are good enough, for a chance to attend Nissan's GT Academy and be transitioned from virtual to real racing.

That being said, Forza and GT are RACING SIMULATIONS. Don't believe me? C'mon over and sit down in front of the wheel and lets' see how you do. Choose ANY car. Go ahead. 

Even those life-long "gamers" such as my son-in-law, who has raced both for years, when he drops the controller and tries the wheel and pedals, "Wow. This is a lot harder than I'm used to."

Above is a screen shot of one of my virtual race cars posing at one of the fictitious race locations in Forza. High in the Alps and very cold. And challenging.

Below are screen shots of my profile when I was 97.9% done and decided to make a record of my activity and digital garage. Note, three boxes have yet to have the needed cars purchased. FYI: the GREEN boxes indicatethe potential for this particular car to race in those events. The further to the right, the faster they are and more modifications needed to be competitive.

Note the GARAGE VALUE of 100,980,425. That's for 250 cars and there were some expensive ones yet to buy.

Below are my records at that time, a week or so ago.

Below is the amount of time I spent up to that point and the various places I spent it.

Below is the EVENTS chart showing ALL events won. I have not counted how many actual races there are. But it's a LOT! The boxes that are faded out are ones from cars I sold since winning.

Below are the Profiles as of today when I finished the last race. GARAGE VALUE is down due to selling some cars to finance purchase of the last ones needed. Or replace what I THOUGHT were the correct models, but expensively found out I was wrong.

Above and below can be compared with the 97.9% totals if you wish.

Below is the AFFINITY pages that list each manufacturer and how many levels of experience with each brand.

SO, just how long did it take me to compete and complete? 322 hours, 41 minutes and 11 seconds.

Like most who try FORZA, it was a steep learning curve. I started out YEARS ago, (BTW, I'm 58 and have been driving for 42 years) when a friend gave me a PC racing game. NOT having been born with a controller in my hands like the youth of today, I had to have a steering wheel and pedals. Also, I had to have an in-car view. Because that's how WE DRIVE. In the driver's seat.

My step-daughter and son collaborated and bought my a SONY PlayStation 2 and GT3. I later bought many racing games, but they were too unrealistic. My son later got an XBox 360 and got into FORZA as well as 1st-person-shooting games. When I tried FORZA, I could NOT do it! I was all over the place! Eventually I got it and later bought my own XBox 360 and FORZA 4 sim.

NOW, what you've all been waiting for, the virtual garage. Below are the 239 cars I have left displayed in their various classes. Note that they ALL are painted in racing "livery" and most have been modified to various degrees. "F" class is the slowest, then, E, D, C, B, A, S and then the three Racing classes made up of real race cars or ones that I've modified to compete. And let me tell you, the AI (Artificial Intelligence) competing cars do NOT like cars that they "feel" do not belong racing with them! The will take many actions to let you know, by crashing into you, spinning you out, etc.

 In case you didn't know, if you click on any picture, especially the very first one, they will all be viewable larger and in order. Use your right arrow key to move through them. Then click the "X" in the upper right and you'll be back here.

So, how did I get these pictures from the XBox 360 into my computer? I mounted my Panasonic 

DMC-LX3 with it's fast Leica lens on a tripod and made a photo of each screen then edited them to fit here and not be too large a file. I made OVER 600 images, so this post is just the beginning.

Thanks for looking and check back for detailed photos of each car with the class they are in, the drive configuration and capabilities.

Scott