Written 2011
We all know how much fun and excitement speed can bring us, whether its a roller coaster or a plane. One of the most exquisite and thrilling experiences of speed has to come from driving fast cars, against other people. Forza 4 goes out to bring you the most distilled racing experience possible in gaming.
Gameplay:
Forza 4 comes out on top form in this section. Its always been a joy to drive cars in game, to be able to put yourself into a vehicle of unbridled power (which I also cannot hope to touch in the real world) and hear the roaring of that v8 a few inches behind you. While this is not the exact situation in Forza 4 it is the closest the genre has come so far this generation. As you begin the game you can already feel how wide a variety Turn 10 has sought to offer, with over 500 cars from over 80 manufacturers, new game modes like car soccer, and all new tracks to the series such as Hockenheimring this is well and truly diverse.
Racing itself has taken the grand prize from Gran Turismo in my opinion. GT has always been king of simulation, but the pure realism and emotion you can feel from Forza at its best is unparalleled. The Graphics are top quality, the new shading system really adds to the effect of the environments where as they were more stale in FM3. The AI, while not having changed a huge amount is more aggressive, although not overtly so. The Lewis Hamilton style of driving is still yours, but when before CPU's were happy to sit behind you unless you opened a gap wide enough for a dual carriage way, FM4 has them darting around behind you, pressurising your backside more often. However they still need that dual carriage way to get past.
Autovista is a novel introduction, and one which I feel won't be used to its full capabilities. This is because its put there for the real metal heads, fans who, not only spend their life driving cars, but breathing them to. For us normal air respiratory folk, while you might want to do the individual challenges and take a quick look around the beautifully detailed model who sits before you, listening to all the statistics and being bothered to find/use all of the options can turn into a chore. Overall I think this is a great shame as T10 have obviously put a great amount of effort into obtaining these descriptions, but it needs more excitement and distractions which is what attracts casuals to the game in the first place.
Online:
The matchmaking system works well, and while I won't go into the menus now (see below) I want to say FM4 has succeeded in making an easy to use community hub.
Races in Forza online play are spread across different game types. The most common and obvious choice is circuit and quick match. These, as can be garnered from their names, are standard restricted and unrestricted class races, you can pick your car from the side bar and get right into action after the intermission. The experience of racing can be mixed, while its great to be in the lead and a mile ahead of your next competitor many people play unfairly in order to gain themselves. One, unfortunately, common example of this is the nudge, especially on straights, you'll be along side your opponent one second, only to find they give you a whack in the rear or side and your spinning away. While this can be frustrating and happens to most people, by no means is this any fault of the game itself or the general Forza community, many people are respectful and you even find those who do hit you, slowing down to let you past them post-collision.
Car soccer is one example of an innovative idea that has worked completely for FM4. There is no reason forcing you to carry out one of this absurd games, but everyone knows you want to. You are rewarded with 4 on 4 carnage, with Hummers, corvettes and all sorts scrambling to attack an unpredictable ball. Its great fun, and can even be satisfying if you lose.
Furthermore, another great addition to Forza is Car clubs. You can easily create your own and join a friend's where you can work together to get club points across all multiplayer options. I particularly like the idea of the club garage, where you can share one of your favourite cars, and easily create a club paint design, it really helps to bring rivalry to the game which was lacking previously.
Not everything about the online is good though, many things are unclear and slightly difficult to work out, you can be nastily caught out by the waiting times in lobbies which can jump around, or unless your paying attention waste your time in a lobby while another race is going on. The rivals racing is fun but its difficult to ascertain where you stand or how to get to them, and when your in a hurry the loading times seem unnecessarily long.
Menus and Customisation:
The customisation of your cars has always been one of my favourite parts of the racing genre, and on the creative side painting and decals have always been Forza's strong point. In Forza 4 they continue with the evolution of this, making slightly easier controls for copying and pasting and additions to the amount of decals you can use.
Upgrades to your car can be added easily using the upgrade shop, and make a noticeable difference to the cars handling . While I find that the amount of upgrades can be lacking, the amount of wheels and settings for tuning is amazingly vast and I'd happily spend hours in there if I knew how to tune like a pro.
Contrarily one of my real bug bears for Forza is the menu. In my opinion this is overly categorised and takes too long to load games, overall in a game which is all about speed it is massively let down by the inefficient structure between races. While improvements have been made to the world tour such as the map I find this to be repetitive and even annoyingly unprofessional. I would not be focusing so much on the menus if they weren't, in my opinion, single handedly preventing me from playing a genuinely enjoyable game. The loading times can take an age and the lack of instant transmissions which is expected from most games now is increasingly obvious as you crave the adrenal feeling of racing.
In total, FM4 is a very up to date, varied, beautiful and exciting version of a series which has always been praised for its contribution to the genre. There have been many improvements to key areas and tweaks in almost every department. However the game is let down by its lack of a streamlined engine off the track and conversely to the great cars in game, the mainframe has the aerodynamics of a box. This game is recommended to anyone who has a passion for speed, loves cars, has enjoyed the assets of previous racing games or fancies some harmless yet intoxicating competition.
Overall rating: 8.5/10
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