Like a ghost on the race track, the Forza Motorsport series has been absent from the racing scene with its arcade-like open world sister series, Forza Horizon, taking the spotlight as the premier racing title on the Xbox for many years. However, Turn 10 Studios has been actively tinkering and polishing in the garage, patiently waiting for the day to show off its brand-new reworked entry to the series.
Dropping the veil like a new manufacturer car reveal, a shinier, more refined Forza Motorsport enters the grid, and I’ve been able to spend some time with the game (and the Turn 10 team) to get a feel for the future of Motorsport.
The new Forza Motorsport look is not only a brand refresh but a new direction for the series as the team takes a focused look at the love of cars and racing. What’s promised is a built-from-the-ground-up title that presents new visuals, audio, physics and more with a clear focus on circuit racing.
Forza Motorsport looks jaw-droppingly amazing with each iteration and as a primarily PC gamer I’m always in awe of how Turn 10 can put a game this gorgeous on a console. Out of the gate, Forza Motorsport gives us the option to run on three different graphics modes – Performance (Recommended) prioritising 60FPS on-track performance at 4K, Performance RT doling out 60 FPS with ray-tracing and variable resolution or Visuals which offers 4K with ray-tracing at 30FPS. Personally, the recommended performance setting without RT looked fine as I wanted the full performance of 60FPS, but if you want that sweet ray tracing eye candy, I would personally switch to Visuals to be totally wowed.
The preview I played kicks off like every Forza game, giving players a taste of the speed and adrenaline of the cover vehicle – in this case the Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar – by placing us into the hot seat of a race already in progress on one of the new tracks, the Hakone Circuit.
The track shows an incredible nighttime racing vibe, flexing the game’s amazing track detail and lighting. Japan always has a unique vibrance to it and Turn 10 captured the atmosphere of the country well with the Hakone Circuit, even if the track technically doesn’t exist in the real world. Personally, I’ve been to Hakone and it’s just crazy windy hill roads like the classic Forza Fujimi Kaido track, but I’d imagine with circuit racing the focus in this release, that track wasn’t feasible.
The intro kicks off with a pitstop and announcer explaining it’s up to you to finish strong while the car gets fitted with new threads. Once ready, you’re placed into the Cadillac V-Series.R as it launches out of the pits with that signature electric to V8 loud roar – if you’ve watched how these things launch in real life, you’ll understand – and Forza Motorsport captures that roar pretty well. With only a lap to go, it’s down to the wire as you attempt to grab as many positions as possible, working up the grid. Initially, I came in 4th, but after getting used to how this new Forza Motorsport feels, I got the hang of it and can now easily snatch a podium finish in this opening scenario.
The introduction really throws you deep into the feel of the new racing physics in Forza Motorsport and, in my opinion, it’s a step above the rest of the series. The new direction makes Forza Motorsport feel more grounded, responsive and less boat-y when compared to the previous games. This will impress drivers who crave more realism in this series, with racing leaning more towards the simulation side, especially those like myself who have dived more into that side of racing titles in the last few years.
While a little harder when it comes to getting used to the mechanics, the game still offers a huge level of accessibility for drivers who just want a nice Sunday drive in Forza Motorsport. The game offers a wide array of settings to adjust to your type of racing. If you want something more real-world than Horizon but don’t want to be punished for spinning out your car – there are plenty of assists for casual drivers as well.
Continuing the Builder’s Cup campaign, we were then given a choice of one of three cars for the rest of the preview. Three iconic, yet common street vehicles – the Subaru WRX, Ford Mustang and Honda Civic Type-R were at our disposal. Being somewhat of a Subaru fiend, I quickly locked in the WRX.
Forza Motorsport introduces an RPG-like system for levelling up cars. While there are plenty of cars in the game (and available in the preview), everyone is unique and most would prefer to stick to a handful of cars. When picking a car, you’ll start off with the stock version of it, and this is where the ‘Built Not Bought’ mentality comes in – a famous saying in the Japanese Domestic Market scene where upgrading and making your car unique is what drives your passion.
As you progress through the races, your car levels up and this opens up options to improve its performance and visuals. Obviously, I had to slap some Works Wheels on my Subaru WRX to give it some unique flavour once I had them unlocked. While I was initially a bit concerned about the time to level each car, the overall system seemed fast enough as I managed to unlock eight levels after just two races.
Upon entering your first race with your new car, you’re greeted with several difficulty settings. As per usual, if you opt to make your race even more challenging, like starting further down the pack or selecting a strict rule set that penalises you for driving aggressively and cutting corners or going off track and so on you’ll earn even more credits. Having the ability to adjust settings like these gives you lots of options to work with depending on what your mood is and if you find the racing just a bit too challenging, you can always tone it down at any time.
Racing starts with a practice session that gives you a set ‘Complete X laps of the track’ objective. I’m not sure if the objectives will change in other cups but there’s also an optional track time to beat if you choose to. Forza Motorsport again shies away from the qualification races mostly seen in other games for a quick practice session and the ability to choose your grid starting position.This is more for accessibility for those who don’t want to sweat it out to get pole position. If you’re feeling hardcore, you can easily just choose the back of the pack.
Racing AI is also promised to be majorly overhauled in Forza Motorsport. I’ve experienced more respect for the racing line, and AI making minor mistakes like losing control on turns and going off track. There’s hardly any lapping and the racing pack kind of sticks unless you’re just too good and get too far ahead, but for the most part, the racing from the AI is tight with no discernible rubber banding. If you make a mistake, however, there’s still the ability to rewind.
I can say, there were sometimes the odd occasions of high levels of aggression from certain drivers. For some races in the preview, the AI would fully cut me off or side-swipe me off the track – it happened pretty sporadically but maybe it’s just that some of the game’s AI has been given the Max Verstappen personality. While not perfect, Turn 10 could very well still be tweaking this for launch.
With the preview build being quite limited in terms of what’s available, we only had access to a few cars and the one segment of the single-player Builder’s Cup. There’s a huge portion of Forza Motorsport that’s yet to be discovered, like customisation and the suite of multiplayer features. Forza Motorsport is set to be a massive title with the confirmation of 500+ cars to race and tinker with and 20 tracks confirmed for launch (five of them being brand new), with the famous Nordschleife also being added in 2024.
This new iteration of Forza Motorsport will give hardcore racing fans something to look forward to without leaving the casual crowd behind – this a game that prides itself on the love of cars no matter what type of fan you are and I’m keen to dive into the rest of the game once it’s out next month.
Forza Motorsport launches on October 10, 2023 for Xbox and PC and will be available Day One on Game Pass. Amazon has physical pre-orders for $109 including shipping.
The author travelled to Los Angeles as a guest of Microsoft for the purposes of this preview and interview content.
