Forza Motorsport 4 – Xbox 360

What we’ve all been waiting for., October 11, 2011

By 

Joseph Sayre (Chemung NY) – See all my reviews

  

Finally, the game is out. The third Forza this generation, better graphics, more cars, and better physics were promised in this iteration of Turn 10’s Driving sim. Did they deliver?

Oh god yes.
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This review will have a few sections, this table of contents will help.
(enter in ctrl +f dialog box to search)

**1** Game mechanics
—Graphics
—Damage
—Menus
—Career
—Community
——–Auction House
——–Storefront
—Autovista
—Freeplay
—Marketplace
—Driving
**2** Online
**3** Customization
**4** Difficulty & A.I.
**5** Sounds
**6** Cars
**7** Wrap Up

**1**Game Mechanics:

—Graphics:
Great, they do occasionally look surreal, but the gloss textures are excellent, the drive by graphics are decent and the cars themselves are great. The lighting in this game is what really sells the realism, the cars interact with the environment and look like they are supposed to be there. Comparing this feature to the occasionally underwhelming tracks in GT5 and Forza 3 where sometimes the car was better animated than the track, the cars in Forza 4 look right in place on the pavement. Graphical hangups are nonexistent, and animations are fluid. In a word, Forza 4is beautiful.

—Damage:
Damage returns more or less exactly as Forza 3 had it. The car has prescripted crumple zones and damage is animated cosmetically if you set it, but also internally and performance robbing if you set it as well. The cosmetic damage leaves a lot to be desired, but with see-able damage on 500 + cars i can’t complain. Though the damage is weak, it is better than it was in Forza 3. Bumpers and other components cave in and warp much more, and the damage zones are more plentiful allowing the damage to be more localized when hit. T-boning an opponent will leave a few dents in his doors along with much of the paint being stripped on the area hit. Its nothing like Dirt 3 or Grid’s damage model though. Choosing to allow damage to performance is much more detrimental, hitting a wall can literally ruin your race, causing damage to the engine, transmission, gear box, brakes, suspension, driveshaft,and body will all cause power, handling, or aerodynamic performance damage. All of this causes lowering of top speed, shift times, braking distance, and a multitude of other issues. This is where Forza leaps into the big leagues as a sim, race clean, or don’t finish 1st.

—Menus:
Forza is set up in a very simplistic manner, with a few main tabs to pick from that open to other tabs, the five main are Career, Community, AutoVista, Free Play, and Marketplace.

—Career:
Career works here much differently than Forza 3, there is actually a completion of career, and its guided by the announcer. The longer you play, the higher you’ll level, the more races you can participate in, and the more places you have access to race. You start as an amateur and progress to the big leagues. after about 1.5 hours I’m 1.2% Should give you a good idea at the length. (300+ events in event list)

In this tab, you can do all of the stuff you’d expect, buy sell cars, tune cars, upgrade cars, and see your stats.

—Community:
Play online with people around the world here.
You can also make car clubs (like guilds for you Rpg people) to race with, check your rivals and leaderboards, and use the auction house and the storefront here.
For new players:

——–Auction house:
Exactly what it sounds like, a bidding place to purchase cars other players are selling. Usually you can turn good profit on nice cars here. Ironically you can usually save money buying here as well.

——–Storefront:
A player’s place to sell their custom content like pictures, liveries, tunes, and custom vinyl work.

—Autovista:
Kinect featured but usable with a controller, Autovista is a first person look at some of the coolest cars in the game, and probably the closest thing to sitting in a Ferrari 458 Italia as you’ll ever get. With voice over and 100% view-ability of components of the car. Its awesome for any gear head who wants to see these exotics close up.

—Free Play:
Basically an arcade mode, go race where you want using a car. Use this mode to test drive cars you want to buy buy can’t afford yet.

—Marketplace:
One of the best Xbox live integrations for DLC I’ve seen, actually shows you what you’re buying and what it is. Nice addition for those inevitable car and track packs you might not like.

—Driving:
For the most important part of a racing experience, this has to be spot on. It is, this is the first time I’ve seen a competitor really give GT a run for its money in the physics dept. High powered cars behave uncontrollably and require a knowing and…

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