Hot Take - Forza 7 isn't very good

"Arrivederci" (arrividerci) 10/02/2017 at 09:42 • Filed to: None

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Full disclosure: Turn 10 wanted me to review this game so badly, they got me hooked on Forza 6 and FH3, so I paid my own money to Wally World for a pre-ordered copy. I received my copy of the Ultimate Edition on Friday night and spent a little bit of time playing it this weekend.

First off, my annoyances may have ways of being corrected, so hopefully some users can chime in with comments, but overall I’m not impressed at all.

The racing experience and graphics are good as always, but certainly don’t blow me away on my 1080p TV. I think this one is optimized for 4k, so perhaps once I get a new TV I’ll get the full experience, but for me, it’s just okay.

In a race, one of my annoyances is how everything moves around. All the status items (position, speed, gear, etc) are constantly twitching and vibrating. I’m guessing it’s to give a sensation of speed, but it’s just obnoxious to me. Another is how twitchy the damn car is - if you cook your tires, you pretty much have to coast until they cool or else you’ll spin out. Cars that shouldn’t have snap oversteer, have it. If you put a tire or two off course, you won’t have the opportunity to save it. If you set the AI to Expert or above, if you don’t get into the top 3-4 positions by the first turn, you have no chance to win in a 2-4 lap race.

Elsewhere in the game, the menu structure is bad, and when you have the option to customize cars (one of my favorite things) they put you in the darkest damn room without any light! The fuck! How am I supposed to see what I’m doing? I can’t get a clear view of the wheels on my car, I can’t see how that fly livery actually looks until I get it out on the track in the light of day.

Also, cars are crazy expensive by way of credits. They used to, at least somewhat, follow the actual MSRP of cars. Now, I was looking at buying something not outlandish and it was like 200,000 CR. That said, they give you the opportunity to score a lot of cars for free when you level up, which is nice. Free Play is also shitty because there’s no option for just fucking around on a track by yourself. You have to set a race, then reduce the drivatars to zero.

The things they did well are the weather progressions. I did a Free Play race at VIR and when the race started it was really eery and ominous. Lots of lightning and thunder as we set off, which then turned into an all out rainstorm. It was pretty frickin cool. If you have an early morning race, fog will set in at certain parts of the course, if you’re somewhere arid (Laguna Seca or Dubai) sand will blow across the road (which also changes grip).

TL;DR - the weather is kickass, but the rest of the game is meh.

random001 > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 09:49

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Huh. Nice things to know!

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 09:56

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Motion effects can be turned off in the HUD options. It is the second option I believe.

Not being able to win on the higher difficulty is a side effect of being able to dial it in to match you perfectly. You always have to start towards the middle of the pack and then you are only slightly faster than the other cars making it quite hard to get to the front in the short races. I found that lengthening the races in the assists menu (or maybe it was the drivatar difficulty menu) helped me to get enough time to actually work to the front of the grid on Unbeatable difficulty.

jonny11quest > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 09:58

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No! I just “pre-ordered” this morning. I say pre-order because apparently it isn’t available until 11pm today, which is dumb. If it says available Oct 2, I should be able to play it Oct 2... but I guess I get a car pack or something now.

promoted by the color red > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 09:58

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Side note: Have they started offering body kit(s) beside the Forza nose ring and park bench spoilers for the 2016 MX-5? I remember being super bummed that they’re STILL offering the incorrect prototype Club which omits the front & rear spoiler.

djmt1 > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 10:12

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Notes on your problems:

1. Turn off motion effects in the Hub menu.

2. Turn off friction assist in the assists menu.

3. Increase race lengths in the assists setting to long. It’s the only way to make unbeatable difficulty playable.

4. Car prices haven’t changed from previous games but you’re forced to buy homologation parts.

As for my problems with the game:

1. Removing the parts basket which is the single greatest addition to the Forza series is truly baffling.

2. Reducing the amounts of showcase events by ten fold and locking them behind levels is baffling.

3. The amount of free cars the game gives you is baffling.

4. The UI in general is baffling.

5. Being unable to buy a fully stock car is baffling.

66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 10:17

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Lol, reminds me of the last NFS, which had awesome paint/livery customization but the game was so dark it was hard to see in-game, and only looked good in the menu. F7 just looks like more of the same thing so really I’m just waiting for Horizon 4 so I can get a new open world to drive in. Might pick up F7 when the prices drop for PC.

Arrivederci > djmt1 10/02/2017 at 10:25

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Thanks for the tips! I had (or thought) Friction Assist off - I believe it said with it on you can’t qualify for leaderboards. I also didn’t know I could increase race lengths - that and the motion will be my first two fixes.

Good call out on the prices - I could’ve sworn when I bought one car that I had the option of buying it homologated or not. I’ll have to play some more to figure that out.

Arrivederci > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 10/02/2017 at 10:26

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Thanks for the tips! That’ll be the first two things I change next time I play

Arrivederci > 66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash 10/02/2017 at 10:27

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It really bothers me - I have to get my lazy butt up off the couch to see what sort of changes I’m actually making. There may be a setting where I can brighten things up a bit. I’ll have to dig and see if I can find it.

Arrivederci > promoted by the color red 10/02/2017 at 10:27

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Hah - nope. I haven’t looked for the 2016 Miata yet, but I’d be stunned if it’s not just a carryover from the previous game.

DutchieDC2R > djmt1 10/02/2017 at 10:28

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You seem a bit..........baffled...

Arrivederci > jonny11quest 10/02/2017 at 10:28

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There’s still much to like, but it seems to me they just changed some things for the sake of change.

DutchieDC2R > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 10:28

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I had doubts about getting this game in the first place....damnit....

djmt1 > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 10:31

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You can buy cars without the parts fitted (which you should do because the AI’s upgrade choices are just bad) buy you still have to pay for them.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 10:37

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I love how they now let you lengthen the career races. 3 laps isn’t long enough for me to really get into a rhythm.

Arrivederci > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 10/02/2017 at 10:40

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I’m glad to know this now - in a few races where I can’t get myself top 5 at the first turn, I’m usually closing on the leaders in the last lap, but since I was bogged in traffic, they’re way out ahead.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > djmt1 10/02/2017 at 11:00

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say whaaat? The cars come non-stock by default? If you want them stock you still pay the same price? This is so confusing, or dare I say baffling.

66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash > promoted by the color red 10/02/2017 at 11:13

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This is something that always annoyed me. In the first Forza game they gave you three options for “default” wings. Why they only give you one now is kind of stupid, not to mention it’s ugly on over 95% of cars you put it on.

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 11:40

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djmt1 pretty much wrapped up everything I was going to say, lol. I played the demo and almost got motion sick with the way the camera was moving around and everything was shaking. That’s not how to convey the effect of “speed”, but it is a good way to send someone into a vertigo episode... I got about 20 seconds into that demo race before I quit and went straight to the settings menu. Once the camera motion is corrected, and you mess around with the Friction Assist and Traction Control and Stability Control, the game is much more enjoyable / driveable. I’ve already beat the “Seeker” championship and am still thoroughly enjoying it myself.

The one complaint I do still have though is the lack of light in the customization menu, like you mentioned. The only way around that I’ve found is to buy the car in white, go customize the parts and see how everything looks, and then go back and paint it how you like. Annoying, but it works.

citizennick > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 12:39

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I’m going to reserve my thoughts until my One X arrives. Right now it’s nothing mind blowing. 2D trees at Maple Valley?? My buddy is playing it max on a PC with 4K and says it’s amazing.

The lack of class rivals is really what bothers me right now. 90% of my Forza time was spent hot lapping.

Also, 700 cars but some obvious ones missing. No Toyotas besides race cars and a Hilux, and really, no Mustang GT350?? Would have liked to have the 2016 Camaro SS like the previous game had as well.

Character customization isn’t all that it’s chalked up to be.

Oh, and how could I forget how much they screwed up with the VIP?? Used to be you’d get a credit boost all the time but now it’s only available with some mod cards they give you. Exactly what are we spending money on VIP for again?

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 14:05

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I’m also understanding that the homoligation for races is so tight that upgrading and tuning cars is basically all but impossible for the career now.

Arrivederci > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 10/02/2017 at 14:08

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Yes - and it seems the mods add a lot more to your performance value/rating. I tried to just put some nicer wheels on my Golf R and some that are generally heavy from previous games bumped me up 2 points from 500 to 502. Ugh. So I just have to roll with the ugly Cadiz rims.

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Arrivederci 10/02/2017 at 14:36

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The Forza subreddit is on fire right now. The Forza fan community is angry. A lot of people are getting refunds because the VIP stuff you pay extra for on the special editions is not what they advertised.
As someone who has been a huge fan since the first game on the original Xbox, and has bought ever Motorsport game (except the still-terrible 5), I will likely be skipping this one as well and go back to playing 3/4 which are by far the best in the series.

feather-throttle-not-hair > citizennick 10/03/2017 at 18:37

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I’m pretty sure the Camaro and the Mustang (well GT350R) are in there as unicorns, not sure how helpful that is to you, but you’ll probably get them eventually.

citizennick > feather-throttle-not-hair 10/03/2017 at 23:02

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I figured that out. Didn’t know there were several cars we could get that don’t show up in that section to buy some.