Forza Motorsport, the latest Xbox exclusive, takes video game realism to a level never before seen, with over 500 car models that can be modified virtually endlessly. It’s still a racing game, you have to like “tanks” at least, but what mastery!
A bit like the debate between Coke and Pepsi has never been resolved, fans of car simulation games are divided between Gran Turismo for PlayStation and Forza for Xbox. And the fight is even fiercer since we are talking about a new edition of Forza Motorsport, focused on racing tracks like Gran Turismo.
For connoisseurs, note that the Forza franchise also includes the Horizon variant, an open world where you encounter erupting volcanoes and overtaking trains, the fifth edition of which was released in 2021.
It’s been six years since pure racing enthusiasts on Xbox had a new Forza Motorsport. Expectations were high, combined with the fact that the seven releases since 2005 have demonstrated impressive technical virtuosity. We hadn’t seen anything yet, we noticed from the first minutes of testing. The 4K Ultra HD graphics, combined with HDR and the use of Ray Tracing of the Xbox Series It is only when we notice that the driver celebrating in front of us or the car stopping are the ones we have chosen that we realize that these are computer-generated images.
The colors are flamboyant, the details licked and dozens of little touches – rain on the windshield, scratches on the car, landscapes in the background – add to the realism. The game is impeccably fluid.
We are immersed in the bath quickly, and even the beginner can find his way. We choose the speed of our “drivatars”, our opponents on the race track. The rules in competitions range from the most lax (Club) to the most severe (Expert). At Club level, for example, you will hardly be penalized and your car will never run out of fuel.
The higher the difficulty you choose, the more bonus points you get when you reach the podium. These points are vital for acquiring upgrades that will make your car perform better. We start with a few warm-up laps to familiarize ourselves with driving. The base is extremely simple, you accelerate with RT and brake with LT, while controlling the steering wheel with the left joystick.
You are then free to choose from the half-dozen modes to get started. The simplest path is to embark on the Manufacturers’ Championship, made up of five stages which will then allow you to unlock other competitions.
We won’t name them all, the exercise would be tedious, but we have access to variants such as “German rivals”, modern, enthusiastic and “powerful” towers, and the possibility of racing in multiplayer mode against real opponents humans.
In total, when you have unlocked all the possibilities, you have access to more than 500 cars ranging from the city Ford to the Ferrari 312T2, including a Datsun 2000 Roadster or an Aston Martin DBS.
So here we are with our 2019 Subaru STI S209, a great performance car, we are promised. By choosing to start far on the starting grid, we increase our points.
On the track, we have the luxury of following arrows on the ground, blue when you can accelerate as much as possible, red or yellow when you have to slow down. The handling of the car is subtle, the car reacts like clockwork on rough surfaces, it skids if you approach a corner too quickly, it squeaks when you catch an opponent.
On minimum difficulty, as we first chose, easy to get everyone back up and win the races. We can obviously increase the difficulties to make victories more rewarding.
With our hard-won points, we will be able to buy almost all the parts – rims, exhaust, tires – to go further. And you don’t need to be an expert to choose well: a “Rapid Improvement” mode is offered, let’s let artificial intelligence make the choice for us.
You notice the difference in driving quite quickly as soon as you improve your car or change model. The Forza formula, we see, has been gradually refined since 2005 and it appeals as much to the maniac who wants to control the smallest detail of his car as to the beginner who is content to drive as fast as possible without taking the field.
It’s hard to fault this game from a technical point of view. Are the races too easy? It’s up to you to increase the difficulty in the settings. We have the choice between 20 rather spectacular tracks with their 24-hour cycle, variable weather and changing track conditions.
Of course, you have to love the genre and have a little thrill of excitement in front of a perfect body or a rumbling engine. This is not, we admit, quite our profile, which prevents us from giving a perfect score. That said, even a minimal car connoisseur will find what he is looking for in these high-speed races and will be able to count on an AI to help him progress.
