➤ Forza Motorsport, the analysis of Microsoft's latest driving game 🕹

Forza Motorsport for the Xbox series

La Forza Motorsport Review, Turn 10's latest effort for Xbox, is one of its most bitter. On paper, this game should and could be the best Forza of all time, but at the moment some incomprehensible decisions, such as a certain lack of courage, seriously undermine its enjoyment.

It's just the beginning

Forza Motorsport, the analysis of Microsoft's latest driving game — Forza Motorsport: cars will earn XP points based on how you use them, the more they level up and the more we will unlock modifications for each model

This latest Forza Motorsport clearly wants to be a platform in constant evolution, this is the reason for the absence of the number in the title, and it is not ruled out that in one or two years it could really become an extraordinary game. After all, in some ways it already is. For example, the first hour with the pad in hand was exceptional and all the runs we managed to do online were exceptional.

It is difficult not to be optimistic when in one of the first competitions, at dusk, on the second lap of the track, the sun begins to hide behind the mountains; At the next braking point we have at least seven cars in front of us that begin to brake. The brake lights of our rivals light up differently: there is a car that brakes with brief steps on the pedal, another that sinks the brake and others that bravely delay braking. The graphics are convincing, the engine roar is perfectly aligned, credibility is practically at its peak and all this makes us feel extraordinarily good.

the magic of Units that become increasingly more complex, one of the greatest inventions of this series that even today, as this new Forza Motorsport confirms, makes the difference. But in this case the credit also goes to a game that is a marvel on the track, a clear step forward compared to its confusing predecessors. Naturally, we are referring to the last three chapters in which the series had gotten a little lost, perhaps also influenced in some way by the great success of the open-world arcade Forza Horizon.

Forza Motorsport recovers the original spirit, rebuilds its simulation system from scratch and delivers it turnkey an exhilarating gaming experience. The cars are all different from each other, each change is felt concretely when driving and, although they are generally too docile compared to their real counterparts, the behavior of the cars always remains believable. As in any arcade simulator, the cars don't like to leave the ground in Forza Motorsport either.

S...ratings

So far our experience with the Turn10 game has been wonderful. As we progress through a race that certainly does not shine with originality, but is made up entirely of mini-championships and we love to fight for classification over several races, however, a doubt begins to arise. In fact, the game forces you to do three laps of the track before each race, they are mandatory. At first we really liked this idea, making qualifying inevitable is one of those radical choices that makes a difference, except that the third time we came twelfth we started to smell something burning.

We collect our ideas and then discover the horror: those three mandatory laps are not qualifications, but three useless test laps. And that screen he gave us every twelfth time is actually what Turn10 considers a great idea but which we, on the other hand, consider a huge, gigantic mistake. basically the game It forces you to do three laps of the track. (someone points out to us that it is possible to interrupt them, but the obligation remains to load them and start the first lap. They are also designed to level the car.) and then it makes you decide with complete freedom from what position on the track. To start with, the more parts there are at the bottom and the more extra credits you'll earn, but it's really pocket change. All this, what is even more serious, is allowed within a championship to distort the race for the final podium. After this discovery, having fun with my career in Forza Motorsport again was very difficult.

Some will say that the old Forzas were like this too, or that Gran Turismo doesn't even offer qualifying laps, but there are substantial differences. For example, the position in which Gran Turismo starts you is linked to the experience that the development team wants to offer you in each race, which in turn was built to limit the failures of an AI that is still far behind. It is calibrated on the awareness of one's own limits, offering an experience composed mainly of individual races. Gran Turismo, like the old Forza, does not impose three laps on you, which in the first few hours will also help you memorize the curves, but when you know the routes by heart they become three laps of simple anger, three laps of the Roman Ring Road at 17:30 p.m.: Friday XNUMX. Useless if not avoidable.

Fortunately we have found a partial solution to the problem: by pressing Y after the three test laps, it is possible to see the qualifying times of all the participants, including ours, to position ourselves in the right place. In this case the limit is that the system allows us to choose any position except the first three. In single player, forget about raising your arms in the air to get pole position in the final round of the championship because the system simply doesn't allow it. We were not able to establish qualifying laps even in private online matches, where the position on the grid can only be established based on the power of the cars or respecting the order of finish from the previous race.

competition judge

Fortunately, the ratings are there in competitive multiplayer, where we then take refuge. The structure of the online mode is exactly that introduced by GT Sport and replicated in Gran Turismo 7, with races divided into ever-changing categories that start at intervals of around thirty minutes each. Before having free access to each activity, however, it is necessary to complete three races in the welcome category, at the end of which we will be classified based on our speed and our sportsmanship behind the wheel. Perhaps it's also due to the small number of highly selected participants, but the first online races were among the most fun we've had in many years. Lots of clean overtaking by everyone, constant changes up top, an emotion that we still carry with us.

The credit also goes to a sanctions system that seems to work very well and by the way it is the same for both the online mode and the race. During our test he could almost always distinguish contacts, fights and kisses in the rear of those who clearly did not want to brake, he was always attentive to each cut in the track, still allowing him to leave the curbs with a certain permissiveness. . It's a system we've learned to trust, and that's saying something.

Agriculture and driving

Also passing the test was the system that combines the player's affinity for a car with the modifications that can be purchased and used on it. In practice, the more a car is used, the more it will level up; The higher the level, the more modifications we will have available to increase its power and modify its performance. This is a system that serves to limit too frequent car changes, allowing us to become more attached to each vehicle.

However, the game offers a lot of cars at the beginning, only to slow down after the first few hours; You'll have plenty of time to use your favorite machines and unlock their full potential. After all, the three laps of the track before each race would serve precisely that: to give us a target time and a few kilometers of advantage in exchange for a handful of more experience points for the car. What we couldn't find, however, was a screen that allows us to track our race progress online...

it was better before

Where are the numbers and figures, the driving statistics, the best times and where will we place our most important trophies without a virtual shelf to show them off in public? What if we wanted to watch a race in peace without necessarily going out on the track as drivers? Forza Motorsport multiplayer has always gone hand in hand with the magic of Xbox Live, a system that was futuristic at the time, especially on consoles. In Project Gotham Racing there was even Gotham Racing TV where you could select any race in progress and watch it from start to finish, whereas here nothing.

Forza Motorsport aligns itself with the competition, but offers nothing more, which is paradoxical considering that the most conservative game is usually the one developed in Japan. There's no way to watch others drive even when in multiplayer you're in the pits waiting for the race to start, but we'll have to settle for a decidedly undynamic close-up of our parked car.

a turn back

The technical sector of Forza Motorsport is decidedly good but it is not without limitations. If you're wondering if this is the best graphical racing game out there, the answer is a resounding no. But is it really that important? Forza Motorsport convinces at least 70% of the cases, photorealistic 40% of the timeIn addition, it manages many cars on the track and with an AI that sometimes helps suspend disbelief much more than a real-looking tree placed twelve kilometers away. On the Xbox Series Despite ray tracing, Turn 10 has not yet managed to find a solution for increasingly rich and elaborate lighting, but without managing to take another step towards more concrete realism.

Even the modeling of the cars is not as obsessive as in other games: they are them, they are pretty, but it is a normal reproduction and in line with graphics that are as solid as they are devoid of that extra shine that would have made them take the definitive leap in quality. We forgot to tell you about the breakdown system, but only because it never made itself felt: it is true that we rarely exceeded ten laps, but not even the most serious accident managed to make a dent in the mechanics of our car, which instead limited itself to presenting scratches of increasing size; The same goes for tire wear, practically absent and strangely under-stressed telemetry systems.

Conclusions

Tested version Xbox Serie X, PC con Windows digital delivery Xbox store Price 79,99 € Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (151) 8.0 your vote

Forza Motorsport advances at two speeds: on the one hand we have a driving game that knows what it's doing, very fun on the track, on the other an anonymous race where the only idea is to propose mini championships divided with the usual admission criteria. In addition, statistics and functions are missing that would have enriched the gaming experience, characterizing it better. Forza Motorsport is satisfied, and in an age where racing games are already struggling, it's not the best option at all. It will certainly grow and improve over time, but perhaps more than anything this new game from Turn 10 could use something to set it apart.