When you launch a new console you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got the games to release with it that will live up to the potential of the hardware, so the big question for the Xbox ONE was whether or not Forza Motorsport 5 would impress enough to make day 1 memorable. When E3 2013 arrived we starting to get just a glimpse of what the game was capable of and how much it managed would capitalise on the increased power boost of the Xbox ONE technology, but with it’s recent release (22nd November 2013) we know a whole lot more, so here’s our take on all the details.
When Forza Motorsport 5 was announced at the Xbox ONE reveal event we discovered that it was going to be one of the next gen console’s launch games, so the assumption was that it would be a blistering reinvention of the racing game genre, taking it from just a simulation to more of a feeling of reality. Now that the game is available we know that the game is definitely a big step forward and you can read our Forza 5 review to find out exactly how it stacked up in our gruelling tests.
Gameplay and graphics
The graphics look like the most detailed we’ve ever seen on a driving game (check out the trailer below to see for yourself), so the pressure was on Microsoft and developers, Turn 10 Studios, to make the gameplay match the lifelike realism of the movie shot teaser trailer. You can find out more in our review, but on the whole they’ve pulled it off.
The Xbox ONE hit the shelves on the 22nd November 2013, and Forza Motorsport 5 was right there beside it as one of only two racing games to hit the launch window – the other being Need For Speed Rivals. The finished article looks amazing and plays at a very high speed frame rate, taking advantage of the Xbox cloud to give opponents in the game a lifelike AI. This was delivered by the concept of a Driveatar, which is your personal AI driver that learns how you drive and sends you off to race the masses while your not playing to create lifelike opponents for all. This results in real human behaviour taking over from the need to build in computer based artificial intelligence.
The fourth installment of the game used the motion control of the Kinect to allow you to view cars in a showroom, and the feature returned with the Xbox ONE’s much improved Kinect sensor build in. It allows you to look at the exterior and interior of your best cars from FM5, however, it’s a long way off the brilliance of full motion control of the racing that could have taken the game to the next level.
If we had our way the whole game would be controlled by nothing but your hands, but then that wouldn’t sell too many controllers in all fairness. Hopefully the next iteration will allow for motion controlled change of gear and braking, as well as steering and body weight impact on the car and driving.
The new Xbox ONE controller is ergonomically perfect for Forza 5 though and it lets you feel the texture of the road with its haptic feedback triggers, which rumble proportionally to your acceleration and the surface of the track. There are also a number of steering wheels that are available for the new super computer, so you can take your racing experience even further.
The game also has the inevitable career play, which was known as the World Tour Mode in FM4, along with all of the different race types – standard race, drift, precision steering, overtaking etc. – to mix things up with. There is the same multi-player split screen play and online features, which allowed up to 16 online racers and two players offline as in the previous game. However, with the power of the Microsoft cloud it’s possible that the number of online racers could be even higher.
Cars
The same huge array of cars is a big feature of the game to rival the 500+ that were a part of Forza Motorsport 4. However, some of these are a part of the paid downloadable content in the game. That aside, there are a lot of the latest models, as well as classics of old, but in addition to the road cars that will feature in the game, there will also be a number of open wheel cars to get your hands on. These will include the 1976 McLaren M23 that James Hunt drove to pull off his dramatic championship win, plus Niki Lauda’s 1976 Ferrari 312-2, which he drove against it. In racing circles the cars are a part of one of the most exciting periods in Formula 1 racing, making their way into Ron Howard’s 2013 biopic, Rush, so getting to drive them in the game is big news.
Turn 10 Studios teamed up with McLaren in the run up to the launch with a competition to allow a lucky fan to get to ride in the real McLaren P1, but for the rest of us the upcoming super car is also one of the unlockable cars in Forza Motorsport 5. You’ll also get to grips with the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, the Pagani Huayra and the Chevrolet #1 Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12 from the IndyCar Series, as well as some random classics like the VW Rabbit.
Tracks
One area that we hoped would be significantly improvement on for FM5 is the number of tracks available to race on. With 26 to contend with in the previous game the latest iteration should have stepped up a gear to include even more famous circuits than before. However, it turned out that just 14 tracks made into the launch version of the game, featuring Circuit de Prague, Road Atlanta, Bernese Alps, Sebring International Raceway, Circuit de Catalunya, Silverstone, Spa, a test track airfield, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Top Gear test track, Le Mans Circuit del la Sarthe, the Yas Marina Circuit, Laguna Seca and the Bathurst Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit. Our expectation is that more tracks will be added as DLC throughout the game’s first year on the market, but we would definitely have liked to have seen more tracks included as standard from the start.
