Hot Take

"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
06/26/2018 at 18:52 • Filed to: Forza

Forza is now the Madden or Call of Duty of racing games.

There used to be a time when I would visit the Forza forums every day, excitedly waiting to see the car list for the next game. However, since Forza 5, I feel they’ve lost their magic. They’ve had a few awesome cars in Horizon 2 and 3, but for the most part there haven’t been enough of them to keep me interested long enough to purchase the games. Even the DLCs have me keeping my purse closed while before I’d be happy to drop whatever cash was needed for DLC packs.

Shoot, even the AI cars were fun to drive (provided you had the modding tools to unlock them). I loved racing the Nissan Leaf, Tour Bus, and Kenworth T440 in Horizon 1

It seems like every year they’re removing more and more normal and oddball cars and keeping “meme” cars and your generic set of supercars/hypercars and a few classics that are basically in every racing game. I actually liked taking a Chevy Aveo, making it into a drift happy sleeper, then mastering keeping it under control. I loved taking normal cars and competing in higher classes. I adored seeing brands that few people may have ever heard of.

I wanna see more brands like Ascari in the spotlight! I wanna see more weird things like early 1900s cars or a GMC Syclone. Give me a first gen Dodge Neon, heck, I’ll even take a Caliber SRT4. Games like Forza, Test Drive, and Gran Turismo introduced me to tiny brands I never knew existed. I miss that. I miss having those lovely recorded engine sounds flowing through my surround sound system.

Further, what happened to motorcycles? It seemed like for a short time, having motorcycles and cars was a popular thing (especially with PGR and TDU), but they’ve been seemingly lost, too.

Also, shame on the car manufacturers for making this problem worse with their greed. Horizon 4 doesn’t even have real Toyotas, just the Arctic Trucks versions of Toyotas.

DISCUSSION (15)

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Mercedes Streeter
06/26/2018 at 18:55

Forza4 was the peak. Real sounds, really recorded for the game.

The tracks were the best, Maple Valley forever! The Fujimi Kaido maps too.

jkm7680 > Mercedes Streeter
06/26/2018 at 18:56

I hate games that only have supercars and exotics. I thoroughly enjoy cars that I could actually afford IRL, or just ones that aren’t super flashy and crazy. That’s why GTA Online has bored me.

I also firmly believe supercars are for compensators.

Mercedes Streeter > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
06/26/2018 at 18:59

I have like every DLC pack for Forza 4 and it’s literally the only reason I still own a Xbox 360.

Decay buys too many beaters > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
06/26/2018 at 19:04

Four was the last one for me. Demo’d 5 and thought “Wow, they want me to buy an all new system for this? Nah, I’m good”

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Decay buys too many beaters
06/26/2018 at 19:23

I bought 5 and 6 because I'm easily tricked apparently

Decay buys too many beaters > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
06/26/2018 at 19:48

I probably (N o. Definitely) would have if a new system wasn’t required. But I’m w ay too cheap to justify that expense for the limited time I have to play games.

Matt Nichelson > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
06/26/2018 at 19:52

I would definitely put FM4 right up there as one of the best racing games of all time. It had a good selection of cars and tracks, good dlc, and the auction house was well laid out. It also had a pretty decent soundtrack, something the latter FM games made an afterthought. It was well rounded and you could really tell a lot of effort was put into it. Racing by yourself was fun, racing online was fun, it gave you a rea son to actually use the forums (for tunes, liveries, and when a group was selling a good car), and it had longevity. It was the Gran Turismo fighter that we always wanted in that it took a great game in the early GT series , put it on the 360, and made it better. Simply put, it was fun and engaging without trying to do too many things at once , exactly what a racing game should be.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Mercedes Streeter
06/26/2018 at 20:09

Project gotham racing never had mortorcycles. And the reason you don’t see motorcycles and cars in the same games anymore is entirely cause of online play. Nobody would use motorcycles online if people in cars would just wreck them without consequence. Also horizon 4 not having Toyotas isn’t horizons fault. It’s Toyotas. Toyota witheld the licensing just like Porsche used to do or like how there weren't any Volkswagens in horizon 3

Longtime Lurker > Mercedes Streeter
06/26/2018 at 20:12

YES! agreed on all points.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Decay buys too many beaters
06/26/2018 at 20:55

I only bought the Xbox One for fallout, that was 2 years ago when I had more time

Mercedes Streeter > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero
06/26/2018 at 20:59

PGR4 has bikes. It’s one of three or four games I still have for my Xbox 360. lol

Kinja'd!!!

TDU sorta figured out how to do cars and bikes at the same time. The physics engine wouldn’t allow other players to knock you off the bike unless it was a head on crash. Then again, the first TDU had a pretty bad physics engine. lol

Honestly, I think the physic engine bit is probably the primary reason why modern car games don’t also have motorcycles...but I’m not a dev so that’s just speculation.

And I know that about Toyota, that’s what I meant with this bit:

Also, shame on the car manufacturers for making this problem worse with their greed. Horizon 4 doesn’t even have real Toyotas, just the Arctic Trucks versions of Toyotas.

Longtime Lurker > Mercedes Streeter
06/26/2018 at 21:26

The Crew 2 will have motorcycles in it.

After reading a few developer interviews the reason for games with bikes and cars is definitely because of the different physics models needed to get both handling good.

Kanaric > Mercedes Streeter
06/26/2018 at 22:24

At least Madden has a somewhat serviceable franchise mode, though no where near as good as the Madden 2005 era’s franchise mode . Forza 7s campaign mode is just plain garbage.

Decay buys too many beaters > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
06/27/2018 at 02:04

Ahh, I had a computer that could run fallout, and I was so annoyed at Bethesda for making an infinitely increasing save file size on the Xbox version of F allout 3 (the reason load screens get longer and longer as you progress), that I swore off console versions of their RPGs.

Takuro Spirit > Mercedes Streeter
06/27/2018 at 10:44

Ever since they ‘sold out’ with Horizon, then made Forza Motorsport a yearly cash grab, I gave up on them. Much like I did with EA and the Need For Speed franchise after Underground came out.

It became less about the realism and fun, and more about cranking out games to cater to a wider audience at the expense of realism and fun.