Forza Motorsport

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on April 08, 2005

Final Glimpse: Gran Turismo who?

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The cars are broken into six classes, ranging from the entry-level D-class (Honda Civic, Mazda Miata) all the way up to the blisteringly fast R-class, which features cars like the Porsche 911 GT3. To help you decide which car to choose, you can compare two of them side-by-side and pull up general statistics like acceleration and top speed, or more detailed information like RPM redline, torque, boost pressure and so on.

There will be five racing modes: Multiplayer, which includes up to eight-player support over Xbox Live; Free Run (self explanatory); Time Trials (ditto); Arcade, which are single-player races against the AI; and the heart of Forza, Career mode, where you race in events and earn credits to buy upgrade parts and accessories. There will be six Career racing series: amateur, point-to-point, professional, championship, endurance and online, each with 10-26 individual events and various car restrictions. The best part is that you will be able to play Career mode both offline and on Xbox Live, with all races counting towards your Career stats and money earnings. In fact, you will be able to race your entire Career on Xbox Live if you want, which not only sounds like more fun, it would probably make you a better driver. Needless to say, your results will be posted on Xbox Live leaderboards where anyone can download ghosts of the top drivers and practice against them.

Speaking of the AI, unlike GT4 where the opponents essentially drove in rigid, preprogrammed patterns like they were slot cars, Forza's AI will be quite aggressive and won't be afraid to bump and squeeze by you on an inside turn. To make things fair and ensure that you won't be competing against impossibly perfect computer controlled drivers, Microsoft is building in some humanity, meaning the AI will be prone to making realistic mistakes just like a real driver.

You earn credits based on your race standings along with other performance bonuses; for example, if you finish a race in the top three with little or no damage and the AI set at a high difficulty level, you will earn a rather nice chunk of extra change. You will also be able to level up like a RPG, which will unlock new races, courses, cars, after-market manufacturer relationships, and high-level car manufacturer relationships. Better relationships mean you can buy parts and cars from specific manufacturers at a discount, as well as unlock previously inaccessible items Ц like cars from another region. If you're really successful, you can unlock high-level car manufacturer relationships, where manufacturers will sponsor you as a driver and flat out give you their cars to race. Woo! Free cars!

If you don't feel like racing but still want to make progress, never fear for your Drivatar will be here. The Drivatar is basically an AI clone of you Ц sounds freaky, doesn't it? Unfortunately, all it does is drive, so it won't fetch beer or stand in for you at work. You train your Drivatar over a series of six courses, where it learns how you drive by examining how you enter corners, when you brake, and so on. Once your Drivatar is trained, you can have it race for you Ц a good idea when taking on those long endurance events. You can train several Drivatars and even race against them to see how you've improved, or spot areas where you can make adjustments. You can also retrain it at any time, a good idea as your skills improve over the course of the game.

Forza's attention to realism is most evident in the look of the game. Simply put, the cars look gorgeous, with a surprisingly high level of authentic detail, down to the tire treads. The courses include authentic detailed recreations of real tracks like Nurburgring Nordschleife, Laguna Seca and Silverstone, and city streets in New York, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. There are also several fictional tracks that look equally as impressive. The draw distances are outstanding as well, though you may not be able to truly appreciate the attention to detail while zipping along at 200 MPH.

Not surprisingly, the cars all sound authentic as well; combine that with customizable sound tracks and Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound support, and you've got the makings of a car enthusiast's dream concerto.

For the truly hardcore fan, you will be able to take advantage of Forza's unique support for multiple TVs. Link together three Xboxes (each running a copy of the game) connected to three TVs Ц front, right side, left side Ц and you can get an amazing 30 FPS panoramic view out of the driver's seat. The vast majority of gamers won't be able to afford this set up, but for those who can, I salute you (while simultaneously cursing you with green envy).