Forza Motorsport 4 – Review (360)
Simulation racers are, for the most part, personal experiences and everyone that criticises or applauds a certain title and the way it performs have validity in their own right.
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Likes
- Reworked Career Mode
- Graphically beautiful
- Amazing new community features
- Improved handling
- Rivals
- Best variety of cars ever
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Dislikes
- Not enough new tracks
- A.I. can do some crazy things
For me Forza has always had a place in my heart, from the early offering on the Xbox racing in split screen with a friend to the rediculous amounts of hours that I invested into Forza Motorsport 2 to be at the top of my game and even once get a top 50 in the world lap time. With Forza, there have always been advancements in the product and an ambition that few could replicate in the final product.
After the wow factor of painting and tuning alongside the community element of Forza 2 came a sterile representation, in my opinion, of all that was good with the release of Forza Motorsport 3. Don’t get me wrong though. Forza 3 was a masterpiece in craftsmanship that utilised a lot old features and married them with new handling physics and modelling as well as several features that catered for drifting, filming, drag racing to name a few which resulted in us giving the title a top score of 5 out of 5 but something happened in there that turned me off of it. To me it had lost some charm and became a little lifeless, something that I didn’t want to invest the time I had before in or take that kicking from the wife about playing the game too much, something we can all relate to – right? I am not wrong in this thought as apparently there have been quite a few that left the world of Forza behind also.
Well, with Forza Motorsport 4′s imminent release, Turn 10 have the ability to redress the balance and restore order to the world of simulation racing. What is apparent right from the outset is that the game has got its mojo back. It has soul, it has personality and it is everything to everyone and will wrap you up in a warm bundle of love that gushes from the heart.
Anyone that has played Forza, no matter what your skill level, will need to do the following first. Turn all of the assists off! I completely forgot that all of the assists are turned on for my little soaree around one of the new tracks in the game, Bernese Alps. Turn 10 have once again catered to everyone here as I allowed my 4 year old son to take over the lap and actually finish off the race – well going to show that this game is accessible to everyone. The real fun though comes as you switch everything off. The handling and physics engines have been refined to get maximum enjoyment from the cars and in cockpit view that has so much detail in makes you feel as though you are at one with the car, can feel every bump, slide and tire trying to grip for traction on the variety of roads available. Yeah, Turn 10, you’ve nailed this baby alright and things only get better!
Anyone that has played Forza 3 will also get a few little bonus items added depending on your level of completion, for me was a few bonus cars added to my garage off the bat that allowed me to get behind the wheels of a few better class cars rather than the Citroen C1 I eventually chose as my initial car from the Bernese Alps trial. The World Tour will be your staple way of earning money, XP as well as bonus cars for each level complete and manufacturer rewards that work slightly different then before. World Tour also gives you a choice of events depending on the car you have and feels nowhere near the sort of slog that previous Forza’s threw at you. Instead a variety of events are offered from track days, races, head to heads to wacky events based around the Top Gear test track that makes its first appearance in the series. One thing that you will also notice pretty instantly is the way the game throws money at you with not a lot to do than to spend it on cars. The levelling system is easier to reach high levels fast and the cars manufacturer level system will stop you paying for car parts after level 5 and then start giving you bonus credits thereon! This enables you to constantly think about buying cars rather than saving money for parts, tunes etc.
For all of the beauty of the remodelled single player campaign, community and Rivals is where the longevity of Forza 4 kicks in. Forza is famed for its online and community features including events and tools for painters, drifters, film directors , drag racers, hot lappers etc, all have been reworked slightly to give a little more satisfaction to the experience. Storefronts and auction houses also make a return but the big seller here is the newly introduced feature, Rivals.
Rivals is based loosely around EA’s creation Autolog which was first seen last year in Hot Pursuit. Lap times etc are all up for grabs and relavent messages will be sent to your friends to show your achievement and give them something to try and beat. If you want something to loose half of your life with then this is it. Addictive as hell if you have a competitive bone in your body, Rivals will suck hours out of your day hunting down you friends times only for them to beat you back. Turn 10 has also introduced community events too which will based around Rivals tech which will allow you to compete in numerous events at your leisure against your friends and the rest of the world. These events will change every month or so and it definitely a breath of fresh air and something a little different to sway you away from an already packed title.
Clubs has also made an appearance in the game which will allow you to go online with friends that join your club, race, compete against other clubs as well as share cars and tunes together too. With the amount of competitiveness out there with very good racing teams racing in previous Forza’s, clubs has them covered in a nice tidy one stop area for all members to arrange everything regarding their competitions.
Forza 4 is an astounding achievement but there are a few niggles. Although there are new tracks within the game, I feel that there could have been more but what is there have been beautifully rendered and all run at a very smooth 60fps. I just feel that there are so many other classic tracks out there, Brands Hatch and Brno for example that have more history and deserve their place within the game. Not including the new Silverstone track feels like a smack in the teeth to any British racer too, although I prefer the old one that’s not to say that this oversight doesn’t cause a clench of a fist. Last but not least, the A.I. can be very unpredictable with some strange outcomes in certain races. I am all for hard A.I. and Forza 4 certainly provides them in places but when you have a driver racing on Sunset Reverse that fully locks his wheel to the left and cuts right across the track in front of you taking out two cars you have to question the validity of that driver being on the track in the first place!
These small gripes can be tweaked, updated or downloaded as DLC and although they niggle a little, in the overall scheme of things become nothing that will break the experience. Forza 4 serves as the ultimate car and racing experience giving you a sense of speed and inertia that is not experienced in any other racing game and although Kinect’s features like racing with no wheel seem gimmicky, there is a place for it using Autovista to discover and explore in great detail the cars that you are driving.
Overall, Forza Motorsport is the tour de force in racing games that brings a passion and feel to it that will bring many a racer back that may have deserted it in the past. Forza Motorsport 4 is everything that Gran Turismo 5 aspires to be and cements itself as the go to racer of this year, hands down, with no exceptions! Wrestling an R1 car out of a bend has never felt so good …..
