Done with Forza Motorsport (rant)

"GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo" (jackolson) 07/02/2014 at 01:33 • Filed to: None

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This is my proclamation that I will not buy another game from the Forza Motorsport franchise, let me tell you why.

The Beginning

I started my FM career when I got my first x360 some years ago and borrowed a friends FM2. I was pretty much hooked from day 1, to me it did everything GT4 did but better and with vastly more modification ability (which as a teen I was very much into, JDM yo). I played FM2 until FM3 came out, I committed serious amounts of my time to FM3, FM3 lost a few features and cars from FM2 that I really liked but as a whole it was a much better game. I had high hopes that FM4 would be FM3 with more features (new and old) and an absolutely bonkers list of cars.

The Middle

This is solely dedicated to the letdown that was FM4 (I still played it a lot though). FM4 looked great and played great, thats about all the nice things I have to say about it. My biggest gripe was that the press for the game toted how much customization there was for everyone. Except almost every bodykit and wheel was a carry over from FM2, and for the second game in a row you couldn't modify OEM wheels size or color. Not to mention its much lauded paint system couldn't do matte colors like FM2 could. While there was a plethora of awesome cars to go around a racetrack, I saw a large rise in cars added that would be awesome for cruises or C&C events but were just never meant for racing on a racetrack. The other thing that really bothered me was that every race in career mode was 2-4 laps, basically to win the race you had to play bumper cars. Sure some races were longer but a VAST majority were short and the biggest omission were Endurance races, my personal favorite from FM2/3 because they took some dedication. FM4 took a serious blow to my fanboyism for the FM franchise.

The End

FM5...where to start? Its pretty good, downright gorgeous at certain points, the idea of drivetars (don't actually like them), the track selection is prime (SPA!!!), and its still a huge letdown. My biggest question is where did all the race cars go? Seriously I feel like theres only 1-2 of each type when in previous games there would be about 4-6. I don't think the game shipped with a single GT3 spec car, the E21 and Indy cars are cool but are not worth the omission of GT cars or the German Touring cars. Not to mention the SUVs return yet again, probably at the cost of a couple alms/tudor cars. And for the second game in a row I have yet to have a race in career mode longer than 3 laps, oh and theres no endurance races again. Also FM/T10 haven't updated the wheels in their game since 2007.

If I could get FM2 or 3 on Xbox One I would in a heartbeat because they were great games...I can't say as much for the last 2 iterations. Win me back T10.

PS9 > GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo 07/02/2014 at 01:49

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What I'm really wondering for the future of racing sims is how they're gonna keep cramming in cars and tracks and keep it as a $60 package? Forza's already conceded and went the DLC route, much to the chagrin of many, and GT's already starting down that path. What's a racing sim on whatever replaces the PS4/X1 going to look like? We already broke 1k cars on the GT side, they're going to turn their eye to mega tracks sooner than later. How are they going to keep cramming that into a $60 package?

I think the answer (unfortunately...) lies somewhere between DLC and Freemium. I'd rather not have a super-exploitative F2P model designed to extract as many dollars as possible from people. I'd rather see a return to the expansion pack era where the main game is released, and big content packs follow. But I know good and well that's dead and gone. :(

GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo > PS9 07/02/2014 at 01:56

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My only hope right now is for Project Cars... I don't mind paying for DLC as long as I'm going to use it, right now there is only 1 or 2 cars a pack I'm interested in. I just don't get how people find pintos and twingos fun in a racing game, I'd much rather try to corral a C63 AMG BS on the Nurburgring or trade paint between GT3 cars during a 100 lap race on Bathurst .

djmt1 > GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo 07/02/2014 at 02:31

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So basically you're annoyed that it's more of a car game then a racer? Sorry to break it to you but it has always been a car game it is just that the car culture part of the game is becoming increasingly more prevalent. However with the rise of Horizon, and the emphasis of racing innovations focused on Forza 5, I reckon your actions are premature. I've been saying it since the game launched, Forza 5 shouldn't be looked as the future of the franchise, simply because it was a launch title, a next gen launch title that had an 18 month development cycle which considering all the other Sims get more than double that is still ridiculous. Anyway when it comes to the big Sims I.e Forza and GT, wait for FM6 and GT7. Those games with have had time to cook and will have no excuses.

djmt1 > PS9 07/02/2014 at 02:47

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Nothing will change.

Forza and GT are way too successful. There will always be new cars and both franchises are missing many iconic tracks. Plus both have really ramped up the use of original tracks which has gone down well with both communities.

The only reason why they go down the DLC path is because they can. The car passes on Forza have always been good sellers despite ratings saying otherwise for the simple reason that while expensive they are good value at 50p per car in comparison to other games where it is more like £5 per car or skin (looking at you NFS).

As for the other games of genre well the codemasters games have stuck to their business model and given that they are pumping out games constantly it seems to be working and there are bunch of new ip coming.

2014 will be an interesting tussle between Driveclub, Horizon 2, The Crew and Project Cars and I have no ideal who will come out on top. If I had to bet I would say Forza partly for being the only game with more than 75 cars but mostly I don't trust Ubisoft servers, I've lost faith in Driveclub. Project Cars should be interesting to see being the only sim and all but I think this year belongs to the simcade.

djmt1 > GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo 07/02/2014 at 02:50

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That question has been asked twice today, weird. For a lot of people myself included the high end race cars are boring as they are too easy to drive and there are no consequences to my mistakes. It is a lot easier to get back into a race in a F1 car then say a Fiesta. Also like real life the limit is a lot lower making it more enjoyable at the edge.

GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo > djmt1 07/02/2014 at 07:33

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"So basically you're annoyed that it's more of a car game then a racer? Sorry to break it to you but it has always been a car game it is just that the car culture part of the game is becoming increasingly more prevalent." - No I'm not annoyed at all I love car culture but what I'm saying is that Forza has progressively gotten worse at the culture part even though that is what they tote as them being so good at.

"Those games with have had time to cook and will have no excuses."- Yet over the last two iterations the game has gotten extremely casual (even with the birth of the Horizon franchise) and shows no signs of returning to it former glory.

djmt1 > GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo 07/02/2014 at 08:04

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How have they got worse at the culture part? The career mode is where the series is getting worse in my opinion. Forza 2 career mode was great but 3 and 4 have the problem that Turn 10 themselves pointed out that you just feel like a Billionaire dicking about. As for 5 it's like you're sent to a bunch of track days and everyone is trying to get the most for their money. I would one to see a return to Forza 2s career mode but it I don't see that happening as the car pricing is no longer tiered and we all saw the outrage Forza 5 caused going back to the Forza 2 levels of rewards.

Also I wouldn't call it casual by any extent more accessible yes but definitely not casual. Plus looking at certain aspects of Forza 5, different finishing tiers, the drivatars etc they are definitely trying to focus more on the racing aspects but like I said that game while I play virtually everyday needed more time to cook. Still I have high hopes for Forza 6 with Playground games working on Horizon the Forza series now has two teams working on it meaning the ludicrous 18 month development cycle will be easy to handle.

GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo > djmt1 07/02/2014 at 08:19

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They haven't added a single new body kit or wheel since 2007 and in FM5 some of the bodykits got canned. While I like the direction that career mode went in FM5 I still haven't had a race longer than 3 laps! at least make it a option in the menus to increase race length. They always talk about how awesome their tire model is but in reality it doesn't matter cause I could cook the tire for all 3 laps and still finish 1st. I don't really care about the money because I don't pretend I'm some billionaire I just save for the car I want and I buy it, but whats really annoying is that sometimes I like clearing out my garage but now I can't even make money off of selling my vehicles which is TOTAL bullshit.

djmt1 > GTRZILLAR32-Now saving for Godzilla and a condo 07/02/2014 at 08:29

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They should really release just a cosmetic expansion pack as they managed to (breifly) get the Porsche license off EA it can't be that hard to get the manufacturersto agree but you never know with those guys.

I was Ok with the short races at first because I assumed it will scale upwards like Forza 4 but rather then going up to 12 laps it goes up to 5 which is annoying and made the career short, I actually 100% the career on a Forza game or rather the event list.

I like the billionaire vibe if I'm honest always feels like a challenge to own all the cars in the game( 4 short on Forza 5) but the gift cars are really screwing it up as I get doubles which I then can't sell.