Source: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
Xbox’s best game could live on the race track and not in space. Hip-Hop Wired Gaming’s Bernard Beanz Smalls was one of the first to get behind the wheel of Forza Motorsport, the next installment in the beloved racing simulator franchise, and it left us very impressed.
Forza Motorsport is in a unique position right now. It could be the best game on Xbox without that much fanfare. The game will arrive after Bethesda’s epic space RPG, Starfield, which understandably is the talk of the video game world and has given Team Xbox the first-party win it desperately needed.
That, in turn, takes some pressure off Turn 10’s racing simulator that comes after 2017’s Forza Motorsport 7. It doesn’t have to be the best game on the Xbox Series S | X console, but it still has a reputation of being one of, if not the greatest, racing simulator video games on the market, not named Gran Turismo.
There Is A Reason It’s Called Forza Motorsport
Source: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
Many of you will notice the game is not called Forza Motorsport 8, but instead, it is called Forza Motorsport and serves as a complete reboot of the franchise in its first lap around the next-gen track.
Speaking with Forza GM, Dan Greenawalt at the private preview event at the Microsoft Flagship store in NYC, he explained to HHW Gaming why this year’s game is not a direct sequel.
“Forza Motorsport [is] launching as a giant AAA game, right? We’re coming out in that holiday timeframe. It’s got 500 cars, it’s got 20 tracks. This is a massive game,” Greenawalt begins. “The first reason you could say that we don’t have a number on it is because it’s a reboot. So we’ve gone back to the basics of what made this game great and Forza Motorsport one through four and have really built this builder’s cup, this experience, towards our vision.”
“Now, on top of that, after it launches like a AAA game, we’re going to be supporting this game as a racing platform. So, I think of it less like a service. We have the ability with Game Pass and being on all these devices, PC and being on Steam, we’re going to have a big, big community. And so it’s less about a service and more about a competitive racing platform where people can get in. New cars are coming in, new tracks are coming in, we’ve got [the] time of day, and we can change all these events almost on the fly.”
He continues, “So those races and builders cup, we can decide to move it to a new track, make it rain, whatever. And that brings the community together. They’re having a shared experience. You may be in a Civic, and Ben may be in an STI, but you’re still having a shared experience together of how you’re going through this career. So that’s the tip of the iceberg of how we’re going to support this game after it launches and get into this platform.”
Forza Motorsport Feels More Welcoming Than Previous Games
Source: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
We were pleasantly surprised at how welcoming the game is regarding onboarding players who are not car junkies and the not that well-versed with racing simulators.
Coming into the event, we were more student drivers in the Forza Motorsport experience but more experience in Playground’s arcade driving fun in Forza Horizon 5. We were slightly intimidated by what to expect when picking up the controller to play Motorsport.
We were pleasantly surprised at how welcoming the game is regarding onboarding players who are not car junkies and the not that well-versed with racing simulators.
Usually, in racing games, players are thrown behind the wheels of a suped-up car, but in Forza Motorsport, it’s a gradual leap. While car collecting is usually one of the most beloved features in Forza titles, and it’s still there because the game does feature 500 vehicles at launch, the idea this year is for players to fall in love with that first car you select by turning it into a beast through upgrading and tuning.
Source: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
“Well, with this game, we try to embrace natural learning, which gives you a challenge, but a small one, a bite-sized one, and let you work your way through it,” Greenawalt tells HHW Gaming. “So as you were playing that game, we introduce you to upgrades, but we allow you to do smaller upgrading. Right? The practice system lets you learn how to do a track. I think that we used to find a lot in the motorsport games. We’d throw people straight into it.”
“You get in a fast car with a lot [of] upgrades, and it was like, go race. And I understand why people want to do that. We’re trying to have people appreciate the car a little bit more so we don’t slow them down a lot.
But by practicing, you learn the limits of the car a little bit better, and it’s only three laps. It’s over pretty quickly. And then you can challenge the grid and each one of these little mechanics. We introduced them one at a time. It’s actually quite a few mechanics, but it gets stretched out over the course of about 45 minutes. I think people can jump right in. A couple of brass tacks changes, the AI difficulty. The AI is 6% slower than it was in previous motorsports, and the higher-end one is 20% faster.”
Greenawalt continues, “So the gap in skill is greater, and that allows players to find the right spot where they live so that the game’s very approachable. All these mechanics get shown to you, but also, it’s more accessible like a capital A, we’ve got a blind driving assist and all these ways to help a color-blind gamer or other people play the game.”
Source: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
That’s totally evident as we played through Builders Cup during our preview. You can literally feel your car, a Honda Civic in our case, becoming faster, and our results on the track improved race by race, eventually leading to winning the entire tournament. So it’s quite rewarding to go from finishing 6th or 5th to landing in the first.
You’re Still Getting A Top-Tier Forza Motorsport Experience On Series S
Source: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
Graphically, you’re basically getting 4K 60 on the Series X, and you’re basically getting 2K 60 [with] a variable frame rate, or not variable frame rate, but a variable resolution on the Series S…
Of course, with the controversy around console parity and what gamers could expect from Forza Motorsport on the “lesser powered” Xbox Series S console.
When the game launches, it will not have core features like split-screen, spectator mode, or the ability to race against AI in some multiplayer modes.
Immediately, many will look at the Series S as the reason the split-screen is not coming, but speaking with Greenawalt, he promises that Forza Motorsport on the Series S is not a watered-down experience compared to running on the Xbox Series X.
“It’s basically the same game in a different resolution. Everything else is the same. So I mean, not everything, but my point is that graphically, you’re basically getting 4K 60 on the Series X, and you’re basically getting 2K 60 [with] a variable frame rate, or not variable frame rate, but a variable resolution on the Series S,” Greenawalt says.
“What that allows us to do is use an upscaler, so we actually have it running at 1080p, and then we use an upscaler to make it look not even 1080p even on your Series S.
Source: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
“So it looks great on the S. You’re still getting 60 frames per second. Incredible technology [is] going on here. And if you go to graphics mode, it runs at 30 frames per second and at 1080p, and you’re getting ray tracing, you’re getting all these advanced technologies. So the game looks great in the S. I play on both. I switched between the two because I’ve got one at home, [and] one [at] work. Just going between the two, and my save game just moves between the two and just works great,” he continued.
One Feature In Forza Motorsport Players Should Be Excited About
Source: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
Forza Motorsport will have plenty of new features when it launches, but there is one thing Greenawalt says he loves: he thinks players will take a liking to the physics and fall in love with cars.
“For me, there’s my game creator. I’ve been making these games a long time, and there’s the whole loop of falling in love with cars by upgrading them and racing them, and what have you,” Greenawalt says. “But if I had to limit it down to one feature, the way the game feels is so natural and right. It makes cars that people tend to overlook come to life as they should.”
He continues, “I love that the depth of the physics flips over people’s preconceived notions of what’s a good car. A good car is the car you love, man. And the physics really bring out the nuances of what makes that car unique.”
Yes, There Will Be A “Car Pass”
Source: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
Last, we also touched on what Forza Motorsport as more of a racing platform, a service game in a sense. At launch, plenty of content will be available for free, but Greenawalt notes there will be a car pass you can pay for that grants you access to other vehicles and things offered in the past.
But Greenawalt notes that there will be “cars for free in the community and tracks as well.”
Forza Motorsport looks and feels like it will be the game’s definitive edition for the Xbox Series S | X generation and will also be very welcoming to gamers who love racing games but are not car junkies.
We’re looking forward to getting behind the wheel again and giving you our full thoughts on the game when it officially arrives.
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Photo: Xbox / Turn 10 Studios / Forza Motorsport
