Welcome to our review of Forza Motorsport, the newest entry in the gold standard of racing games!
Race over 500 real-world cars including modern race cars and more than 100 cars new to Forza Motorsport. Make every lap count across 20 living tracks with fan-favorite locations and multiple track layouts to master, each featuring live on-track scoring, fully dynamic time-of-day with weather and unique driving conditions where no two laps feel the same.
Experience a cutting-edge simulation with incredible photorealistic visuals that deliver real-time ray tracing on-track, new damage and dirt accumulation systems, and massively upgraded physics featuring powerful assists and a 48x improvement in tire fidelity.
Out-build the competition by earning over 800 performance upgrades and race our most advanced AI opponents yet in an all-new, fun and rewarding single-player campaign, the Builders Cup Career Mode.
Compete for the podium in Featured Multiplayer events with a race weekend inspired structure or create the racing you and your friends desire in Free Play. Online racing is safer, more fun and more competitive with AI-powered Forza Race Regulations, tire and fuel strategy, and new driver and safety ratings.
Immerse yourself in an expanding world of motorsport. New career championships and online events will be regularly introduced offering unique challenges, incredible new cars and tracks, and exciting new gameplay experiences for years to come.
Growing up in a home where I had a brother who was always buying racing games, I had an abundance of options to play, yet very few games in the genre really ever caught my eye. Sure, I played a few hours on the original Gran Turismo, but never really had any fun with them, it was more about trying to beat my brother’s record and annoy him at the same time. After he moved out, I pretty much only bought racing games on sale or in lots.
The majority of racing games are just mostly boring to me and usually very much inaccessible to someone like me who does not like learning how to drift over the course of hundreds upon hundreds of hours. I like a pretty forward approach to the genre like in the old days, like F-Zero and the likes, games that were not going to break your desire to play all those hours in a row.
Enter Forza a few years ago and well, we all know some of the upsides to game reviewing, I mean you really get access to games you would otherwise never be able to afford or just get stuck in busy months like right now, where 1 top game is succeeded by the next in rapid succession. But as I was about to say, a few years ago, I had my first real experience with the Forza franchise and it sparked a desire to actually play these games!
Forza Motorsport for me, is a pretty much perfect game with just very little going wrong. I just love how easy it is to get into, the game just takes your hand, you let go of any reservations and you have actual fun playing. From the start, you are thrown straight into actual races with a variation of cars, from powerful ones to everyday-use hatchbacks. Yes, I learned those words while playing, I usually have little to no interest in cars, heck, I drive a small cheap car in real life.
Also straight from the start, I was actually interested in upgrading my car, went to the designer to switch out its ugly base color, and made that Ford Mustang of mine a nasty-looking yellow one with red calipers. The options are really amazing and they exist for literally every car in the shop.
And buying cars, you shall! I got this love in race games for the more unique designs and I was not disappointed, well, I was, but that was because I didn’t have enough in-game currency to buy everything. Forza games do this to me, they make me addicted to a genre I usually don’t even play.
Now, about the actual racing, a lot of handholding is done in the easier modes, making the races incredibly accessible to anyone. I am sure that even without any race game practice, you could get a great ending position in games. Heck, for giggles I once tried to start at the last row, final position and I was already top 3 by the end of the first round and I finished first in the end. Forza Motorsport is just so inviting.
What I may find weird, is the constant need to practice a set of laps on a course before you can take it on. Maybe that is just a first few hours thing, but it really is weird I can not purposely skip this. I just wanted to finish a preset course at one point with 3 races and I was far ahead in the standings, even a tenth place would have let me finish first. But I had to do all 3 laps before I could start the main course. Not complaining, just something I would have thought possible beforehand.
In conclusion, Forza Motorsport proves once again that it is the gold standard for racing games! From great animations to amazing tracks and so much more! This is a fun game!
