In 2005, Turn 10 Studios introduced us to their visionary production of professional racing in video game form. Forza Motorsport, the beginning of a series of Xbox exclusive video games, had proven to revolutionise racing in video games; its successors only furthered it's revolution. Forza, an Italian word for force or strength is only accurate and appropriate, given the game's influence on simulated racing, which (intentional or otherwise) set quite a few standards for other similar games to follow.
Turn 10's first instalment of the franchise featured over 200 drivable vehicles, organized into six different classes and three subclasses of the highest, rated by performance. Standard performance vehicles, sports cars and general performance vehicles are organised into classes D, C, and B respectively. Higher performance vehicles, supercars, and purpose-built racecars were organised into classes A, S, and R (subclasses GT, GTR, and P1.) Forza Motorsport also allowed for tuning and upgrading vehicles to a degree; there's no body kits, nitrous, or decals. Turn 10 left street racing elements out of their professional racing game for obvious reasons. These were just two features the game had to offer that showed face in later instalments. Turn 10 Studios produced a sequel two years following and a third instalment in 2009. Their most recent, Forza Motorsport 4, is their best-rated and most overall grossing game in the franchise; although generally speaking, the franchise as a whole sold over 10 million copies to date.
Forza Motorsport 4 isn't much of an innovation as was its predecessor, Forza Motorsport 3, but the game does have slight improvements (nothing vast as critics have claimed.) As featured in Forza 3, races are conducted on closed circuit tracks. These race courses are mix between circuits courses and point-to-point courses, as well as real-world and fictional locations. Each course features as reverse configuration, and many have multiple other configurations. Forza Motorsport 4 offers 500 vehicles to race with or against, a little more than its predecessor (with a little over 400 vehicles; more than 500 in the Ultimate Collection version) with many of these vehicles having appeared in the previous instalment. With over 80 manufacturers, including Aston Martin, Ferrari, Chevrolet, Nissan, and Lamborghini, to name a few; as well as several popular vehicles including James Bond's classic Aston Martin DB5, the DMC DeLorean, the well sought-after Bugatti Veyron, and even the Lamborghini Aventador, the racing experience is quite impressive.
When I first started the Forza Motorsport 4 experience, I was a little overwhelmed. The introduction sequence was quite stunning and the visuals have been vastly improved since Forza 3 (but differences are minimal to none to the naked eye), but after I got into my first race, everything felt a little too similar to its predecessor. Forza Motorsport 3 was a revolutionary experience, so one cannot expect much change in terms of gameplay, especially when it proved to be a successful approach to racing video games...however, I didn't expect the latest instalment to be a practical clone with 100 more vehicles thrown into the mix.
One significant difference I noticed when compared to Forza Motorsport 3 is that the cars you drive no longer gain levels along with you. Instead, driving a car increases your affinity with its manufacturer, which then rewards you with cash bonuses and discounts on car upgrades. It's a great system in theory, but it's baffling that with an affinity level of just four; which might take you only a handful of races to achieve, you qualify for a 100 percent discount on all parts. That means you can take your E-class Toyota MR2 with 145 horsepower and turn it into an S-class car with over 350 horsepower without spending a single credit. This makes it a lot easier for you to make your favorite cars competitive online and leaves you with more money to spend on new vehicles, but in conjunction with the new option to purchase cars using Microsoft Points, it devalues the in-game currency.
Regardless of how you acquire them, Forza 4's cars are a joy to drive, regardless of how unresponsive on the track they feel. I won't get into petty complaints, but I will admit that the game is much more enjoyable if you toss aside the conventional Xbox controller and plug in your overpriced Mad Catz steering wheel or your cheaper wireless Speed Wheel; driving is a lot less of a headache when it comes to executing sharp turns as your vehicle will actually turn as if you jerked the wheel all the way to the left or right, opposed to its reaction to an analogue stick, with the in-game steering wheel only turning about 30°. I'd invest in either, but unfortunately, I'm not too lazy to use the brake; still, one shouldn't have to if the "realistic racing simulator" actually handled appropriately.
Like previous games, Forza Motorsport 4 does a fantastic job of catering to drivers of all skill levels. Options like assisted braking and steering, traction control, and the suggested racing line make it easy to get behind the wheel and compete even if you've never played a racing game before. Using any of the driving aids, including the useful rewind feature, means you earn less prize money at the end of every race, but unless you desperately want the achievement for owning every Ferrari in the game, this is hardly a cause for concern. The only real worry with the driving aids is weaning yourself off.
With even the best and newer vehicles, the Forza games doesn't reinvent driving, but instead, it refines and improves on what proceeded it. That's no small achievement given how games left and right attempt to revolutionise their genre and fail. While Forza Motorsport 4 isn't much different than Forza Motorsport 3, I find its best redeeming factor to be being the newest game in the franchise. If you can live being "out-of-date" then I suggest waiting for a price drop before picking up this game.
KeenGamer: "See the top 10 rarest cars to ever appear in Forza history! Thousands of cars have been featured in Forza since launch and only a handful of them have been really difficult to obtain or, in current state, impossible to drive around with. Although they were once obtainable, it's only for a limited time and, most times, for a certain price."
I thought this was going to be about the rarest and most valuable cars in the game, based on real life manufacture numbers and value.
Xbox: "Today, we’re excited to share a major milestone – as of December 2016, the Forza franchise has exceeded $1 billion in retail sales."
Pretty much expected regarding Forza Horizon 3 (selling 2.5M units). Good numbers compared to the previous iterations.
As a quick comparison, the Gran Tursimo series (as of 2015) has sold over 76 million. Lets say the average game is £30, even though GT5 cost me £50..
If my maths are corrects, the GT series has made at least £22.8 billion. GT sport can only add to this. Plus this is GBP and not Dollars.
Sick achievement. Many people doubted the numbers:
http://n4g.com/news/1974704...
But looks like those are some noice sale numbers indeed.
Well deserved. Such a sick racer. Was playing it this weekend and aaaah. Feel sorry for all those missing out 😍
I don't usually like forza games, because I don't usually enjoy race games, but must say after my gamble on horizon 3 I'm more than 100% happy.
I'm a blood n guts game kinda lover, so this was a nice change.
I think there's really only a couple of race games out that can compete with forza, project cars and gran turismo. Need for speed I thought on some games was going in the rite direction and don't get me wrong now and again it can pull out a surprise game, but it's not consistent enough like forza.
Last week, when Microsoft announced the Forza Racing Championship, people were so hyped that they overlooked some interesting and quite amazing facts revealed, number wise, about the Forza online community. When it comes to numbers, people usually only look at sales. Microsoft has revealed the fact that more than 3 million virtual racers play one …
“We have more than 11 million people who have played a Forza game on Xbox One, which creates a massive pool of data from which Drivatars have evolved. Players can expect more nuanced and surprising Drivatar behavior than ever before.”..........Ralph Fulton
Nice
I played Forza Apex on PC. Decent for a free to play game. Ill be getting Horizon 3 for PC most definitely.
While I'm surprised at the score, I can't say I'm surprised at the general sentiment for this title by certain fans. When looking at the Dirt and Forza series, one can't help but wonder if the racing sim genre (let me repeat that this excludes arcade racers like Mario Kart) itself is fit to allow three or more iterations per generation. There's only so much you can do with genre most heavily based on realism and going in circles.
I'm still looking forward to grabbing GT5 and Forza 4's complete editions (if they both have/get one), though. :)
Just popped in this game for the first time today. I was completely taken aback by the fact that the car pretty much drives itself.
I went and found the settings and turned 90% of the driving assists off. I was astonished at how much the game can hold your hand if you don't turn off assists.
After making the adjustments, the game actually felt like a simulator.
Not really criticizing, just something that turned me off briefly at the beginning.
Played about 10 minutes in "GAME" one day. Thought the track was awesome (Some mountain top) but the driving is not very realistic
Tryed demo, looks good, but dunnot have Xbox, so only car game except GT (I got tyred of GT) I play is Shift 2. Which is surprisingly good, so my guess is that Forza is even better.