Forza Motorsport
The new Forza Motorsport has released to the masses as of today, and has been available to those who paid extra for premium upgrades and the like for about a week. I got it via Xbox Gamepass and played about an hour of it this morning, and so far it feels like a nice return to form for the series, which hasn't seen a new non-Horizon edition since Forza Motorsport 7 in 2017.
That game had some baggage with the card system/gambling mechanics, and I'm glad to see none of that thus far in the new Forza Motorsport - which, you may have noticed, has dropped the number. There's a feeling that Microsoft/Turn 10 may be aiming to make this something of a long-term platform play rather than just another game in the series.
I'm enjoying it so far, and after playing Forza Horizon 4 and 5 a lot since FM7 came out, I'm glad to have the return to more traditional circuit racing, and absolutely do not miss the supremely annoying voiced characters from those games.
The thing I most immediately noticed upon playing the game (besides the graphics, which are a real showcase for the Xbox Series X or a sufficiently beefy PC) is the new upgrade/tuning system, which requires you to actually spend time driving a specific car in order to unlock the various upgrade parts for it. You earn car points for doing things like clean racing and fast lap times, which you can then spend on upgrade parts between races. The game keeps calling those CP, which makes me think that nobody at Turn 10 has spent any time on the internet. An unfortunate acronym...
I'm curious to know what everyone's opinion on this game is. I know a lot of the audience is turned off by the more sim-like/boring nature of the Forza Motorsport games versus the arcade fantasy for the Horizon games, but I'm very much on the FM side of that divide.
There are a ton if problems. For one, content wise, the track selection is abysmal. There's like two new tracks, a bunch are missing from 7 and its the same tracks weve raced in forza since time immemorial. How does t10 continue to ignore calls for the return of fujimi kaido or anything more complex? With games like automobilista introducing a ton of cool brazilian tracks its obvious that t10 isnt hurting for choice. So wtf.
On the car selection side, the game is also reusing a ton of car models which do not look great at times. But then the others are mostly cars brought over from horizon's monthly updates and again one or two new cars but nothing to write home about. FM could have taken an opposing stance to gt7's clear affinity for jdm (multiple generations of civics, silvias,evos? Yes please) with more of an American and/or European influence. Instead the game just feels lifeless and uninspired. Like feeding slop to pigs, the car list is undiscerning and same as yesterday's.
Ui and menu are so boring and clunky, i cant explain it but i feel like im at the dentists office when im in the menus. Ive got some gripes with the paint menu but i dont paint nearly enough so maybe to someone with a horse in that race has a better opinion but holy moly is the upgrade screen just dreadful and soulless.
The entire upgrade system has been unchanged. Sure, you now have to unlock your upgrades but under the hood there have been no changes except the inclusion of ballast. Wtf turn 10? How about a fun little marketplace with branded parts or something so that it doesnt feel like im doing the exact same upgrades to every car, every series. You unlock the parts in the same order each time, there is only one way ever to play. And for god sakes, update the icons at least. And where is any customization if we dont get new cars? Theres still only the forza wing for most cars! Gt7 has a wing builder thats great. And the ability to roll fenders. There is no addition to the customization features. Again, such a missed opportunity to add meaningful systems that impact the player's ownership of a the experience.
Ive got so much more to complain about, ive been a forza regular since fm1 and its the main reason why i play racing games so ive always had a soft spot for it. But this is unacceptable, the game suffers more severely from what horizon suffers from: there's a formula and someone either at t10 or ms does not want to deviate even slightly.
FM feels like a fiero kit car dressed up as a lambo. Sure it looks right from a distance but when you come up to it you suddenly notice its too short, the engine is from a cadillac, and the interior is still a fiero's.
Edit: more stuff, umm the game looks nice. Still not up to gt7 but that can be forgiven as it doesnt have to be. I wish there was like a mode to add a graphics filter like uncharted games, id love to bring some style to it.
The lighting is cool, i dunno of its a bug with their hdr implementation but my screen in race just darkens mid way through a race from one frame to the next and then fixes itself in the menus. Car models have a hard time loading in at the start. Wtf is with the lighting and framerate when doing rolling starts? It feels like a completely different game visually.
It does feel nice to play, both on a controller and a wheel though i feel like my wheel needs more tuning because its unreliable and doesnt feel...right. And im really happy that its more accessible than ever, truly, im so happy more people get to experience the fun of racing than ever before.
Just curious, how arethe graphics broken?