We were lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of Microsoft and Turn 10’s new Forza Motorsport 4 video game for review. This has given us the opportunity to check it out for you before spending your hard earned cash on a game that could be junk.
Of course, the Forza franchise has a solid reputation for providing quality games over the years, so if you placed an advanced order for the game, you’re gamble has paid off. And we’re happy to confirm that anybody who purchases FM4 will be delighted with the new game.
We enjoyed Forza 3 and, frankly, were wondering where they’d be able to improve it. Yet Forza 4 is about as perfect as a racing game can get.
Perhaps the most astonishing aspect is the graphics. Viewed on a HD screen, this could almost be TV footage. The gap between virtual and reality is narrower than ever. You can almost feel the wind in your hair, flies in your teeth…
And it’s not just the cars; everything from the road surface to the curbs, to the backgrounds and vistas – the scenery unfolds majestically and smoothly. It doesn’t appear in jagged chunks as you round a corner; this game is lush.
Graphics are only one aspect of a successful game. If it plays like crap, it doesn’t really matter how it looks. Again, Forza 4 has upped its game with so many subtle improvements that, for me, have made a good game great.
In the past, every driving game I reviewed was compared to Sony’s benchmark Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2. However, FM4 has finally eclipsed GT4 in my mind for playability, fluidity and response.
Admittedly, I haven’t yet got into the online experience in much depth, but since GT4 never had a multiplayer element, it has little outcome on the overall impression.
As always, the game starts slowly, putting you in small-engined, low-powered cars as you learn the courses, the controls and the rhythm of the game.
Initially, the steering felt odd, the cornering behavior was jagged, trips onto the kerbing robbed too much momentum and an off-road moment was disastrous. But as I got acquainted, I realized that altering the steering characteristics gave a far more realistic response. Switching off the traction control also improved the feedback. This is how I’d drive a real car on the track – the game was responding like the real world.
Within a few races, I’d got the car dialed-in – I started in a Ford Ka for its fluid chassis response. I was altering the characteristics to suit each circuit and hadn’t even got into the tuning aspects of the game.
As the wins mounted, I was acquiring new cars as prizes, which seamlessly allowed me to move up in classes as I progressed through the World Tour mode.
The experience couldn’t have been sweeter, and the developers ensured it remained fresh by switching the circuits and challenges. One minute you might be sweeping through Laguna Seca’s Corkscrew, or bowling down skittles on BBC Top Gear’s test track…
Having spent hours on Forza 4, it’s avoided the pitfall of many racing games and, to be honest, some earlier versions of Forza, by keeping it fresh and fun. And I haven’t even got into the supercars or racecars – the glamorous side of FM4.
Also ahead of me is the community aspect of the game, where you can create a car club with friends, tune cars, paint them and share among you.
You can also challenge those same friends in the Rivals Mode, where you can set times for them to beat either online or in single-player mode.
Perhaps an even bigger entry point for Forza 4 is its Kinect functionality, that allows anybody to step up to the game and control it with their arms and voice. Kinect also tracks your head movement, allowing you to look into corners or over at competitors.
With no controller needed, it lets kids and grandparents access the world of Forza 4 at an arcade level but with the graphics you want from a high-end TV and console. You can also inspect individual cars, with Jeremy Clarkson talking you round the highlights and breathtakingly detailed graphics.
If you’re into racing video games, Forza Motorsport is now the benchmark. It lives up to the hype and delivers on so many different fronts.
Of course, we haven’t completed the game yet and it’s possible there’s some hideous glitch we’ve yet to find. To date, our only criticism is that going off-road slows you artificially and brings you back to reality with a bump. I’m sure it was programmed that way to keep racers on the blacktop but I found it jarring at times.
We’ll obviously report back if we find any major problems, but for now I’m concentrating on a color scheme for the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth I bought and tuned as far as I could afford!