Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2023
It’s been a good six years since Forza Motorsport 7, review here, with two Forza Horizon entries in between. For the occasion, Turn 10 has focused on a fresh beginning, titling it simply as "Forza Motorsport" and focusing on the current generation with the Xbox Series X/S and PC.
This soft reboot of the Motorsport series lays the foundation for the realistic side of the Forza franchise moving forward, where cars and new tracks will be added over time. Launching with a solid amount of over 500 cars and 20 race circuits, it aims to give players a brand-new angle on the experience, while at the same time being familiar ground for Forza Motorsport fans.
Let’s head for the starting line and take a closer look.
First off, the entire game engine has received a massive overhaul rather than the incremental upgrades bearing through Forza Motorsport 5, 6 and 7. This time, we have full dynamic daylight and weather, and a completely new progress system. As well as a heavily upgraded, and advanced, physics engine for that crucial car realism.
It focuses on a new element they've nicknamed “car RPG”. Basically, it’s about levelling up your favourite car and unlocking upgrade parts for it. It’s a subtle stroke of genius at play here: for the eager and impatient there’s an ingame currency to purchase brand new vehicles, a quick jump to hypercars and speed if that’s your thing. While on the other hand, for those seeking a traditional, almost throwback, to the slow progression of older Forza Motorsports and Gran Turismos, there’s a separate upgrade parts currency.
This focus on upgrade parts requires you to consistently drive individual cars, thus unlocking more available parts to buy. Installing these parts, which I highly recommend doing manually, not only makes you understand what each part alters to speed and handling, but also lets you feel the subtle changes for each part upgraded.
For many years now, it's been too easy to earn money in Forza games, jumping past the necessity of partial upgrades. This new car RPG system is an extremely welcome sight, finally going back to memories of using your hard earned cash to finally have enough money to buy a spare part.
It’s been a good six years since Forza Motorsport 7, review here, with two Forza Horizon entries in between. For the occasion, Turn 10 has focused on a fresh beginning, titling it simply as "Forza Motorsport" and focusing on the current generation with the Xbox Series X/S and PC.
This soft reboot of the Motorsport series lays the foundation for the realistic side of the Forza franchise moving forward, where cars and new tracks will be added over time. Launching with a solid amount of over 500 cars and 20 race circuits, it aims to give players a brand-new angle on the experience, while at the same time being familiar ground for Forza Motorsport fans.
Let’s head for the starting line and take a closer look.
First off, the entire game engine has received a massive overhaul rather than the incremental upgrades bearing through Forza Motorsport 5, 6 and 7. This time, we have full dynamic daylight and weather, and a completely new progress system. As well as a heavily upgraded, and advanced, physics engine for that crucial car realism.
It focuses on a new element they've nicknamed “car RPG”. Basically, it’s about levelling up your favourite car and unlocking upgrade parts for it. It’s a subtle stroke of genius at play here: for the eager and impatient there’s an ingame currency to purchase brand new vehicles, a quick jump to hypercars and speed if that’s your thing. While on the other hand, for those seeking a traditional, almost throwback, to the slow progression of older Forza Motorsports and Gran Turismos, there’s a separate upgrade parts currency.
This focus on upgrade parts requires you to consistently drive individual cars, thus unlocking more available parts to buy. Installing these parts, which I highly recommend doing manually, not only makes you understand what each part alters to speed and handling, but also lets you feel the subtle changes for each part upgraded.
For many years now, it's been too easy to earn money in Forza games, jumping past the necessity of partial upgrades. This new car RPG system is an extremely welcome sight, finally going back to memories of using your hard earned cash to finally have enough money to buy a spare part.
With the upgraded physics engine, Forza Motorsport's cars not only behave but also behave more advanced than before. With assists turned off, it's a tougher handling to master. Newcomers can add a long list of assists though, catering for those unfamiliar with simulator racers. Kudos for the developers on putting a spotlight, and rewards, on following race circuit rules with practice rounds, qualifying rounds and time penalties in the actual races.
I’ve been alternating playing with a wheel and a controller. Although a steering wheel will give you a far more nuanced turning precision and feedback, the unrivalled controller feel of Forza Motorsport is very much present. I don’t think any other racer on console has a better handling on a controller.
When it comes to content there’s a lot on offer. The singleplayer has a wide variety of car types, genres and speed classes. With a solid rotation of race circuits, complete with random weather and daytime, to spice up the races. The car RPG system allows you to gradually add parts through the tournaments, taking it's time reach a fully upgraded car. Apart from the narrated introductions to car classes, the layout of the singleplayer is fairly mundane, offering up a vast, yet by the numbers, set of tournaments.
Difficulty can be tweaked in a variety of ways, resulting in stricter race circuit rules and faster A.I., you can even choose which position you begin the race in for added challenge. Add inn fuel consumption and tire wear and pit-stops becomes a reality for the longer races.
Worth mentioning, outside of regular quick play and free practice, is the rivals mode. It allows you to speed away in a time trail against other players best times. On the fly, setting a new, personal lap record will pit you up against the next online ranked lap time to beat and so on. You can just keep going on the race circuit to climb up the ranking ladder. It's an addictive and real time approach to time trails.
Online multiplayer lobbies are welcoming too, with a wide range of skill sets to race against. It punishes reckless driving and encourages good behaviour on the race circuits. I’ve been playing a few hundred laps online and enjoyed myself. The time penalties and safety ranking makes you think twice about bumping into other cars and doing your best at manoeuvring past them carefully.
From a quick glance, predecessor Forza Motorsport 7 has a sharper 4K resolution and textures, however the new FM has a lot more technology going on behind the scenes. Every race circuit has a lot more geometry on it's roadside detail. It has a less sterile look than FM7, featuring dynamic lighting and weather. Sending races from a foggy, rain covered tarmac to a sun drenched, bright day. It’s more realistic looking, spanning from colourful, vibrant times of day, but also to overcast, grey and less photogenic.
Worth mentioning, outside of regular quick play and free practice, is the rivals mode. It allows you to speed away in a time trail against other players best times. On the fly, setting a new, personal lap record will pit you up against the next online ranked lap time to beat and so on. You can just keep going on the race circuit to climb up the ranking ladder. It's an addictive and real time approach to time trails.
Online multiplayer lobbies are welcoming too, with a wide range of skill sets to race against. It punishes reckless driving and encourages good behaviour on the race circuits. I’ve been playing a few hundred laps online and enjoyed myself. The time penalties and safety ranking makes you think twice about bumping into other cars and doing your best at manoeuvring past them carefully.
From a quick glance, predecessor Forza Motorsport 7 has a sharper 4K resolution and textures, however the new FM has a lot more technology going on behind the scenes. Every race circuit has a lot more geometry on it's roadside detail. It has a less sterile look than FM7, featuring dynamic lighting and weather. Sending races from a foggy, rain covered tarmac to a sun drenched, bright day. It’s more realistic looking, spanning from colourful, vibrant times of day, but also to overcast, grey and less photogenic.
Clearly, best played at 60fps, and the franchise is known for it's rock solid framerate, there are some visual choices this time around. We have a performance mode running at 60fps, holding itself mostly up towards a full 4K. A ray tracing performance mode, which has ray traced lighting and reflections on your car only. That said, this limited ray tracing come at a cost, the resolution is lower, resulting in an overall blurrier picture. I found it underwhelming, hardly noticeable, and preferred the higher resolution of the regular performance mode.
Lastly, and please avoid, we have a visuals mode running 4K@30fps with expanded ray tracing. I guess this mode is best for taking screenshots, and although the Forza titles have great responsiveness in 30fps, it just loses the fluidity. Especially when racing in increasingly faster cars. Racing games need 60fps or higher, and sadly a 120fps is not available on console.
Apart from the blurry look of the performance mode with ray tracing, there are smaller visual complaints here. The anti-aliasing is a little rough looking on my eyes, equally the reflections on bodywork too. Road textures are less sharp compared to FM7, with a softer appearance, although at speed this isn't really noticeable. I honestly found the rainy weather to be a bit underwhelming too, then again this is something I feel extremely few games get correctly.
Overall, it’s a strong entry to the franchise and racing sims in general, with a lot of impressive, modern technology behind it. That said, there’s been a few visual and progression bugs along the way, which I could've done without.
FM is hardly a revolution at first glance, but dive in and it shows a lot of great ideas for the long run. Tempting players to participate online with its good behaviour focus and race circuit fun. The singleplayer is fairly run of the mill, but the car RPG element helps players to get familiar with a specific car and understand what upgrade parts do to the performance of a vehicle.
Apart from the blurry look of the performance mode with ray tracing, there are smaller visual complaints here. The anti-aliasing is a little rough looking on my eyes, equally the reflections on bodywork too. Road textures are less sharp compared to FM7, with a softer appearance, although at speed this isn't really noticeable. I honestly found the rainy weather to be a bit underwhelming too, then again this is something I feel extremely few games get correctly.
Overall, it’s a strong entry to the franchise and racing sims in general, with a lot of impressive, modern technology behind it. That said, there’s been a few visual and progression bugs along the way, which I could've done without.
FM is hardly a revolution at first glance, but dive in and it shows a lot of great ideas for the long run. Tempting players to participate online with its good behaviour focus and race circuit fun. The singleplayer is fairly run of the mill, but the car RPG element helps players to get familiar with a specific car and understand what upgrade parts do to the performance of a vehicle.
A solid simulator racing release, pretty but lacking the visual jump we're unfairly spoilt by from previous generations. It's a package that'll only get better over time with more content and polish added. Even though you might only be a singleplayer person, I strongly recommend trying out a few online racing events and definitely the rivals mode!
Forza Motorsport is back, but perhaps not in such a grand fashion as each Forza Horizon does. Then again, this is for the more experienced racing fans and they'll find a lovingly crafted sim racer here.
