Forza Motorsport

By UndercoverIdiot

Forza is essentially Microsoft's answer to Sony's Gran Turismo series, and quite possibly the last "big" game to appear on the Xbox. While it doesn't equal GT4 in the amount of cars, tracks, or quality of the graphics, it beats it in the racing department, and it basically fixes every complaint I have with GT4 (and the GT series in general)

The graphics in Forza are truly top notch. The tracks are incredibly real to life with almost every detail from the real location, it truly is a wonder. Even when moving at 300+ K/PH you can see everything and you’re never left with the feeling that the game world is empty, it’s really something you need to see for yourself.

The car models are richly detailed with just the right amount of shine, they didn’t overuse this technique like they do in a lot of racing games these days. The lines on the cars are identical to their real life counterparts, more so then in any other racing game before, I was very impressed with how life like they look. Realtime reflections are handled well too but not quite as good as Project Gotham 2, every detail is reflected but it’s just not as smooth as it could be. The damage modeling is also well done, the cars get pretty banged up if you smash them into walls or other cars, pieces hang off, you leave paint on walls and scratches look nice as well. The only thing I would change is I would make pieces fall off altogether like In Rallisport Challenge 2. To be honest this is a small grip, but a valid one.

The game moves along as a brisk pace and really gives you a sense of speed, I’ve yet to notice any slowdown and I doubt I will, this is a polished engine and a lot of time and care went into it.

The sound in Forza is great, all the music is original so it doesn’t contain any vocals, I’m glad they didn’t go the licensed track route here because most of the time I end up liking only two songs and they all get repetitive really quick. The original songs are good, they never get in the way of the game and they go along with the action on screen very nicely. The best part is custom soundtracks, this way you can pick what real music you want and when it starts to wear on you, you can replace it with something else. You can even map the volume and song selection to the D-pad.

The engine noises are good here too, the best I’ve heard in a racing game. Almost every car has its own sound, and when you upgrade you can here the difference from the engine itself to the whine of a turbo and blow off valves, its great and I couldn’t really ask for anything more. Other then that you have you standard tire squealing fare and the crunch of metal on metal, all very well done.

I don’t need to say anything other then impressive, but I don’t want you to feel cheated so here we go. Forza controls like an absolute dream. The physics model in this game is top notch which leads to the best of the best controls. When playing with a wheel it gets even better. It's as real as a video game has ever been and probably will be until Forza 2 hits Xbox 2.

For those who have always been afraid of Sims there is race line indicators which will help you learn how to properly use your car. It shows where you should drive, when you should let off the gas and break, and when to hit the gas again, it’s good to use when you’re learning a track and can be shut off when you’re comfortable with your skills.
Forza starts off simple enough, you buy your car based on which region you choose and you start racing. You can do point to point races not unlike those found in NFSU or you can do lap based races like in Gran Turismo on a variety of tracks, some are small with few laps and some are of the endurance variety which can take a lot of time to complete, in this case when you pit if of great importance. A good feature for the endurance races is the Drivatar. Drivatar is basicly your AI counterpart. You train it in multiple races and it will drive for you when you just want to watch or cant handle such a long race. Its incredibly accurate and you will swear you were playing. Every mistake you might make will be made by the Drivatar, this is an innovative feature that will be copied by many racing games for years to come. Although if your drivatar wins, you won't be getting much money, since as near as I can tell, it takes around 85% of the winnings.

Each win earns you money, how much you win depends on what difficulty options you have set, and how much damage you take during a race. If you take a lot of damage not only will you car look and perform badly but your going to lose a chunk of your winnings to repair it.

After each race you’re presented with a menu that will let you move back to the main menu or watch your replay complete with full telemetry data that will show you every stat you could ever dream of in real-time. You can learn how much pressure was on each tire during a corner or acceleration and breaking, you can see how far you turned the wheel or pressed the gas, how much body roll you have, I could go on but trust me when I say every stat you could ever want is here and waiting to be seen. Learning all the aspects of your telemetry data will help you drive better and win more races.

The credits you win from each race can be used to buy performance or aerodynamic parts for your car. Every time you upgrade the car you will notice a difference in performance or handling. Aerodynamic parts are things like new bumpers, side skirts, spoilers, hoods etc. Not only do these allow you to make your car look unique and very cool, they also effect how your car performs. You could buy a spoiler for more grip on the road but the tradeoff is less speed because of more drag on your car. On top of that almost every part you buy can be tweaked which allows you to customize your car to your needs, no two cars in Forza will ever be exactly the same.

Further adding to the customization of cars is the paint/decal system. Paint is free and there are many colors to choose from, but the real fun comes from the decals. There are no pre-fabs here, you’re given the tools to make your very own decals based on some set options. You have 100 layers per section of the car and the car is divided into a few sections. From here you pick your vinyl pieces and start creating, since you’re not limited to a couple pieces per section you can make something truly special that will stand out and be nothing like any other car you ever see. More choices in the vinyl selection would be nice but there is always download content to give us what we crave.

The racing itself is amazing, and is exactly what I’ve been looking for. The AI is dynamic, it knows where you are on the track and will adjust accordingly to pass you or another NPC. They also make mistakes all on their own, you will see them crash and often times it will be a multi car pileup that you need to avoid to gain those precious seconds. Another great aspect is how the physics come into play. You wont bounce off walls or other cars, hit a wall and pay the price, not only will you lose precious seconds but your car will be damaged, hit the wall too hard and your going to break something that further affects performance. The best part is car to car collisions. No more bouncy physics, if you hit someone the cars will perform as they would in real life. Want to spin someone out? No problem. Want to grind someone into a wall? No problem. If it can be done on a real track it can and will be done here the same way, not only does this add another layer of realism but it’s just damn fun.

The feature that sets this game apart from GT4 is its online capabilities. This game features the Car Club mode which is kind of like a clan on any other massive online game, but with cars. Also has 8 player online career, which lets you earn Credits while playing with you Xbox LIVE buddies. The Buy/Sell feature is very well done, letting you and and your fellow XboxLIVE players to buy/sell your works of art online. Then there is the standard ELO ranking races where you race other racers to come out on top and gain there points. As for the offline multiplayer its just the standard sandbox, with ya 2 player split-screen and 2-8 system link.

Pros

• Good sized car collection
• Real life parts and upgrades
• Great online and offline play, keep you going for months
• Decent online community ie. no real jerks like in Halo 2
• Car club is a good feature

Cons

• Some online scoreboards are glitched
• Online Career got abused, and exploited by glitchers.
• Visuals, a bit glitchy in places
• Couldnt find enough things to complain about (and I like to complain)

This is the racing game to own, whether you’re a fan of Sims or not you really need to pick this one up because it offers something for everyone. NFSU fans will love the custom cars and GT4 fans will love how much more there is to tweak as well as the far superior AI and physics. If you’re afraid of Sims because they are too hard that’s easy to fix with the highly customizable difficulty and damage settings. Microsoft did the impossible, not only did they put out a superior game on their first spin around the track they did it in a big way that will force every other racer hoping to compete to evolve in more ways then one. Every aspect of Forza is done well and I really can’t find much to complain about.