Just got off a 40 minute testing session, so here's my verdict. If you haven't played it and would like to find out for yourself, close your eyes and scroll down to the next post.
Overall the game has become much more like GT. The main menu is more slick and race menus are based around panning track shots, much better than a slab or grey in the middle I think. There is now music in the races now, like Gran Turismo and which I will turn off straight away, just like I did in GT. I actually liked the fact that I didn't need to go there in FM2. Seems to be pretty generic, not heard anything I recognise yet.
To my joy and surprise, the penalties have gone! But they've been replaced by that nagging 'rewind' box which appears every time you put a wheel out of line, nagging you into giving up and trying again. I tried it but you don't really get to choose how far back you go. The game selects a completely random point in time to take you back to. It also stopped working on one race.
Other than that I only have one major issue with the game. In my races the AI kept smashing into each other (or was that me?) and light lenses got broken. I was pleased to see that for the first time, lights still work after the lenses are broken. But that lasted for 3 seconds when I realised that the Challenger I was following now had
brighter red brake lights. Now if a car has red lenses then it will have white bulbs, not red! All of them are the same, and LED lights are just a block of light in game.
There are more minor niggles. When you hit start you get a clip of your car pulling up to the grid. Very nice, but it's the same every time. Then you get flashes of each angle as it counts down to the start, and you can't skip it! So you only have a split-second to get the revs right. The AI do seem a bit too polished on all modes, some mistakes would be nice. Last gripe is with the in car view and damage. Outside you can see your car getting beaten up, including cracked and missing windows. But flick to in-car and they're fine, no cracks, no reflections. Nothing!
Other than that I enjoyed the game. Sound is good as it bloody well should be these days, and graphics look good. On my 19" TV things tend to look a bit pixelated around the edges, so I tried my parents' HDTV. Unfortunately it's also a 19" @ 720p, but everything was much smoother. Personally I felt force feedback was fine.
Oh, and I managed to put an R8 on its roof.
Anyway I'm sold on it, will get my pre-order in soon.