Driving games typically have some kind of identity that exists beyond the cars and the races. The open-world Forza Horizon 5 is fun and celebratory. Gran Turismo 7 is prestigious and classy. But Forza Motorsport, the 2023 reboot of the simulation series from Turn 10 and Xbox Game Studios, is seemingly aiming to be as neutral as possible.
“I think it’s important that we stand away,” says Dan Greenawalt – the co-founder, longtime director, and current General Manager of the Forza Motorsport series. “We don’t have an opinion, we create a world where you develop your own.”
And Forza Motorsport certainly feels that way. After spending a handful of hours with a preview version of the game, which featured an introductory onboarding and the start of the Builder’s Cup career series, I was surprised by how no-frills and to-the-point it was. It felt more like a training program than a piece of pure entertainment, where self-improvement is the main motivation.
But the game seems to handle it all quite well, thanks to some small but meaningful ideas that help keep you more keenly invested in every moment of the race, and reward you for paying more attention to the details of the simulation. And what’s more, the first few hours also show that the game can deftly cater to both learner drivers and seasoned professionals in the same breath.
You’re immediately flung onto the track in Forza Motorsport, but not without some clear and efficient guidance – I can’t remember the last time I actually noticed the tutorial prompts in a racing game walking me through the controls of acceleration and braking. Assist options are all on by default, making the driving simulation as approachable as possible, but with a clear checkpoint that explains everything that’s being done, allowing more experienced racers to make adjustments before potentially getting too frustrated.
Each individual race in the cup is preceded by mandatory practice laps, forcing you to warm up and get at least somewhat familiar with the layout of the track and the feel of your car before competing for actual stakes. A new vehicle-specific experience system rewards you for adept driving in relation to the maximum theoretical performance of the car you’re driving, so if you’re confident in pulling off perfect turns around tricky corners and running clean races, your car’s level can skyrocket multiple levels during a single race, which provides new options for upgrading performance in the garage.
With Forza Motorsport acting as a soft reboot, both in name and concept, Greenawalt says that the goal for the team has been to create a long-lasting platform – “it’s going to be ever-changing,” he said. The story that Turn 10 and Xbox are telling pre-release revolves around their efforts to make it the “most accessible and approachable racing simulation on the market” from the get-go, according to Creative Director Chris Esaki. And that’s no small feat given the meticulous depth of simulation that Forza has traditionally prided itself on.
This is the first time we’ve really, really taken a good look at how we introduce a ton of the complexity of the game over time,” said Esaki. “We’ve added a bunch of new systems, a whole new physics system of course… and we want to unfold those systems and those experiences in an elegant way so you can start understanding them through natural play and natural learning.”
“And we have a bunch of assists on top of that, which allows the game to meet you where you are, whatever your physical abilities are, even to the point where if you’re unsighted, you can actually get into the game and be successful, and maybe even drive a car for the first time.”
Esaki and Greenawalt regularly speak about the philosophy of natural learning, which they’ve tried to better integrate into Forza Motorsport‘s onboarding this time around. They tell me one of the studio’s motto is “You gotta go slow to go fast”.
Source: gameshub.
In other news – Nintendo patents new controller with magnetic joysticks
As spotted by reporter and consultant Laura Kate Dale, Nintendo filed the patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in May, with its contents being publicly released on 7 September 2023.
As Dale pointed out on Twitter, the filing refers to a ‘Hall Effect’ type controller with magnetic analogue sticks. Read more
