Hands On: Forza Motorsport 4

Regardless of how you feel Polyphony did with Gran Turismo 5, you can’t argue that Turn 10 absolutely delivered with Forza 3. Sure, the Xbox exclusive might not offer every minutiae of mechanical physics modeling, but it offered up a consistent collection of cars, a wide variety of courses and some of the best online functionality ever seen in a console game. The community interaction, especially on the Marketplace where you could buy and sell designs and liveries, was superb and the multiplayer was a blast with some mates – in fact, the only thing that let the game down was the rather static career progression in single player.

[drop]So whilst Microsoft were busy being bullish about the follow up game (simply dubbed Forza Motorsport 4) in their E3 keynote last week, promising a more ‘open world’ approach to career progression, we were getting strapped in (literally) into an amazing three screen, three 360 hydraulic chair with surround sound and one hell of a wheel and pedal combo in an exclusive ‘after hours’ session at the Microsoft booth.  Naturally, this isn’t a combination that’s likely to be representative of how most people will ultimately play the game – but if you’re going to show off a new racer, why not do it in style, right?

Buckled up and ready to roll, the demo version we had offered a choice of three cars ranging from 1970’s American muscle to a grunty Ferrari 599, but opting for the Impreza STi seemed like a safe enough middle ground.  Safe wasn’t really the right word: the unit tipped, shook and spun with the game as we wrestled with the heavy, force feedback wheel, the Japanese monster both sticky enough to throw into corners but happy enough to drift without too much fuss for a little showboating.  It’s really an experience above and beyond what you’d expect from a console racer, but – again – unlikely to be repeated outside the walls of the rich and famous.  Or the seriously hardcore.

Races were tight, mainly because we were (by the end of the session) running without assists and manually shifting – it’s not the ideal situation to allow detailed inspection of the game’s AI by any stretch but it did feel a little more organic, opponents making mistakes and reacting better to your presence on the track.  What was immediately obvious was the bump in visual quality – the game’s still running at 60 fps but felt busier and more alive with richer scenery and some ridiculously detailed cars, especially in the menus which have had their interface and design tweaked again – Forza Motorsport 4 is a really good looking game.

[drop2]It’s this attention to detail with the cars that’ll push Forza 4 to the top of most gamers’ want lists – the selection in the full game is massive (500 cars from 80 manufacturers) but it’s more about the feeling of ‘owning’ each car that rings true here: you can – in a seperate mode to the main racing – climb into your cars, look around, listen to the engine notes and even get some voice-over for each car from Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, a brand that also lends the game its celebrated Top Gear Test Track, which was on display for driving at another event during E3 – we took a look over someone’s shoulder, but didn’t manage to get a shot for ourselves.

What else is new?  The clan-like ‘Car Clubs’, where you can share your rides with friends (and everyone can tune, modify and paint them) and compete against other Clubs on the leaderboards, a Need for Speed Autolog-like ‘Rivals Mode’ that’ll constantly bring up messages letting you know who’s beaten your time or score for a given event or circuit (and let you jump straight to them to challenge them right back) and sixteen player online (with some new multiplayer modes thrown in).  We didn’t get to see any of the this, mind, our playtime was strictly locked down to a small subsection of the single player, but it all sounds impressive enough.

And so Turn 10, clearly not taking anything for granted, have come up with a comprehensive racer that looks set to define the genre again for Xbox 360 owners.  It seems it’s no longer about battling with Gran Turismo’s technical grunt, but about providing a catch-all title that plays on the strengths of its predecessors.  Sounds like a smart move to me.