Nearly six years after the release of Forza Motorsport 7, Turn 10 Studios has returned with a reboot for its popular simulator racer, Forza Motorsport. Sure, it’s sporting the same name as the original game that graced the original Xbox so many decades ago, but believe me, I say that this next-generation racer has more technical chops, visual delights, and enough racing for newcomers and those who’ve been playing Forza Motorsport since the beginning. It’s time for Turn 10 to show us what they’ve been doing, and from what I’ve played, I’m more than impressed.
Game Name: Forza Motorsport
Platform(s): Xbox Series X|S, PC (reviewed)
Publisher(s): Xbox Game Studios
Developer(s): Turn 10
Release Date: October 5, 2023 (Premium) / October 10, 2023
When it comes to racing games, the main purpose is the same, no matter when the game was made or by who made it. You hop into a car, soup it up, accelerate, brake, take the corners, and somewhere in between, you try to win. That’s the underlying basis of any racing game, but what makes them stand out is the sugary coating and gooey center that you can’t get enough of. Pretty cars, interesting mechanics, and, more importantly, a fun time, which is where Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios, comes in. After developing the series for two decades, it’s been a pleasure to see how far Forza Motorsport has come. For lack of any tact, Turn 10 Studios has put its foot all in that, and the result is one of the best racing games I’ve played.
Before I get into this review, I do want to make it clear that the majority of playtime with Forza Motorsport was with a steering wheel. The moment I was notified I was going to be reviewing the game, I purchased Logitech’s G920 steering wheel for the Xbox Series X|S and PC and the Logitech Playseat Challenge X racing cockpit. It’s not a flex, but I wanted to do the review right. I’ve been around cars my entire life, and I’ve played racing games for just as long. I’ve raced a few cars (illegally), and even to this day, I admire those sexy pieces of machinery. It felt only right to do justice for this review.
Let’s talk about the game modes
Firing up Forza Motorsport, you’re given the option to play five of the available game modes: Career (Builders Cup), Featured Multiplayer, Free Play, Rivals, and Private Multiplayer. The Builders Cup is where you’ll spend the majority of your time, and there’s a lot to this mode. Spread across multiple tours: Modern Tour, Enthusiast Tour, Power Tour, Legacy Tour, Open Class Tour, and Track Tour, which is a featured event. Each tour is broken down into five events, with the final one being a showcase event. All of these tours are fully fleshed out and available to play, with the exception of the Track Tour, as one cup is available to play, and the others are locked behind a timed gate at the time of this review. As you progress through the campaign, you’ll open other events in the various disciplines. There’s a lot, so it’s going to some time to get through it all.
There’s a Featured Multiplayer mode that, unfortunately, I only managed to get a few multiplayer sessions in during my Forza Motorsport review session. But what I did play was very encouraging, as things have been refined to reward players who actually want to run clean races and keep the sore losers off the track. I’ll talk more about multiplayer further down in this Forza Motorsport review.
Freeplay lets you purchase or rent any car that you want and tackle any of the available tracks in the game. It’s a good way to jump straight into the racing with your favorite car and learn the tracks, change the variables such as the weather, number of laps, and more. The downside to that is you can’t earn any car experience if you rent the car — more on that next. Rivals lets you set a time and challenge anyone to beat your ghost. This is something I’ve enjoyed in other racing games, and I’m looking to beat all of your records — so, get to racing.
Look at all those cars
Since Forza Motorsport is a racing game, there’s a vast catalog of cars, ranging from hatchbacks, F1 cars, Sedans, Muscles, Hyper and Supercars, and the list goes on. There are 500 cars in the game, and I’m sure there’s something for everyone, as we all have our dream cars. For me, I’ve been doing circuits in the 2020 Nissan GT-R, a car I’d love to have, but I’d have to sell my house first, and I don’t think the wife will let me. On that note, I am a bit saddened that my actual car, a 2022 Kia Stinger GT1, didn’t make the cut this time. It was in Forza Motorsport 7, but for some reason, there’s not a single KIA car in the game, but there are Infiniti’s and Hyundai’s. Hey, Turn 10 Studios, what’s with that?
Anyway, pick a car, drive it a lot, upgrade it, and race your heart out. Go ahead; speeding is encouraged.
Grinding those gears
Sure, it’s a car game, but there are still a number of systems in place in regard to currency and experience points. As you drive in any of the game modes, you’ll accumulate Driver Experience, which goes towards leveling up your character. Driving clean, finishing in top positions, using the difficulty, and taking advantage of the Risk vs. Reward system all go towards your Driver Level. There’s the Car Points system, which rewards you for driving the same car for an extended amount of time with Car Points or CP and will unlock access to parts since pretty much everything, including tires, engine upgrades, and more, is gated. You’ll have to stay put in any specific car to be able to fully upgrade it and use the Car Points to purchase the parts, which makes you actually build a car instead of buying your way to victory with the money you win.
Money still has a use, and you can use that to purchase cars to add to your garage. But if you want to make them race-worthy, you’ll need to drive them all. In that regard, I don’t know if that’s going to make people happy or frustrate them. Especially since most like to collect a vast amount of cars and then drop cash on them to soup them up. Now that you’ll have to spend with them, almost being intimate with them, which does change things. Personally, I like the change. I never purchased cars I didn’t race, and thus my car collection was never big in prior Forza games. This change ties in better for progression and shifts the focus on car building.
New to Forza Motorsport is the Risk vs. Reward system that I briefly mentioned. Before the start of every race of Builders Cup, you’ll be able to change your starting position. Starting in a higher position reduces the amount of Podium Bonus money you can win as a top 3. However, if you decide to start further in the back of the pack or change the race difficulty, you’ll score extra money if you win. It’s a nice way to add some extra coin to your pocket. You might be asking, “If I can do this, why bother to qualify?” This is an interesting question, but the answer is that if you’re qualifying, you are still accumulating Driver and Car Experience. So, it’s a win/win.
Upgrading is easier now.
Once you’ve earned those Car Points and started unlocking parts, you can upgrade your car/s, and it’s even more accessible this time around. Upgrading your car is broken into four categories: Acceleration, Braking, Handling, and Speed. Thanks to the updated interface, you’ll see clearly how each part affects your car. So, even if you aren’t a car buff, the game makes it easy for you to understand what you’re doing, without worrying about you doing something wrong. Or, you can just select quick upgrade, and the game will take care of everything — assuming you have enough Car Points. Tuning can go further, as you have access to manually change every aspect of your car, in the car garage and prior to every race. While I like a more hands-on approach, I respect the change and like how simplified this is.
Plenty of tracks to race
There’s a total of 20 circuit tracks that are available in Forza Motorsport, with most of them having two to three variants. This is a mixture of returning tracks from prior Forza Motorsport games, as well as several new tracks, including Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit, which is now one of my favorite tracks in the game.
- Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
- Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
- Eaglerock Speedway
- Grand Oak Raceway
- Hakone Circuit
- Homestead-Miami Speedway
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway
- Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
- Le Mans – Circuit International de la Sarthe
- Lime Rock Park
- Maple Valley
- Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
- Mugello Circuit
- Nürburgring GP
- Road America
- Silverstone Circuit
- Suzuka Circuit
- Virginia International Raceway
- Watkins Glen International Speedway
- WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
It’s a solid list, and I haven’t gotten tired of racing any of them yet, though there are a few tracks that didn’t make the cut that were present in Forza Motorsport 7, and I wish they were present. I’ve spent countless hours on Yas Marina, Bathurst, Rio, and Circuit of the Americas, and not seeing them in the game is a bit saddening. But the replacements are just as good.
However, while Nürburgring is available, Nürburgring Nordschleife wasn’t available and won’t be ready until Spring 2024. That track is both iconic and one of my favorite tracks of all time. I know that is a Forza Motorsport review, but I have to mention that I have fond memories of racing on the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Project Gotham 2, and ever since then, it has been one of my favorite tracks in any racing game. I don’t want to begin talking about how many times I’ve raced along Nürburgring Nordschleife in Forza Motorsport 7. Needless to say, I need this track.
Enjoying the sights and sounds
Regardless if you’re playing on the Xbox Series X or the PC, Forza is a beautiful-looking game, in motion and standing still. The car models are faithful, as are the tracks, and other things in the backgrounds bring the tracks to life. The game is very photo-realistic, and I appreciate the dedication to the craft. But the subtle touches, such as the day-to-night and weather dynamic changes, are the chef’s kiss. Imagine driving on an overcast day that gives way to a thunderstorm with heavy rain that completely changes the race. Or rolling fog that makes it nearly impossible to see at times. When these events happen, it’s both such a cool touch and seamless. While the cars don’t get damaged to the point where they look like they’re falling apart, they do display the paint damage via scratches that can be seen throughout the races.
The cars definitely sound better than those of the prior Forza titles. The tire screeches as you overextend during a turn, the raspy to the monstrous roars of the more powerful beasts that the trained ear can recognize without even seeing the car. It’s a car lover’s dream.
Don’t bother looking for a soundtrack, as there’s no music. But who needs that when you have the roar of a finely-tuned engine as it hits the right RPM, turbo wastegates, or the lovely exhaust notes? Yeah, I’ve been around cars way too much.
However, it’s not all perfect, as I’ve noticed a few oddities. For example, the people in the stands look fine as you zoom past them, but on occasion, when I got T-boned by AI racers and got a close look at some, they looked very low-res, and I thought that was odd. Or, with a few of the cars I’ve driven, everything in the rear-view mirror was either pixelated and low-res and displayed other oddities. Racing on a track with the fog rolling in would show the cars behind you against a nearly all-white background. However, outside of those, everything else looked great.
Driving it like you stole it
Earlier, I mentioned I picked up a steering wheel to play the game, and I don’t regret that decision one bit. In fact, my 25+ hours of racing have left nothing but a smile on my face, and for good reason. With the G920, the immersion was on point. From the sensation of speed, having the steering wheel jerk me violently as my rear wheels started to pull away from me as I tried to accelerate too fast out of a corner, vibrating as I touched the side of the track or going completely out of control as my car, well, started to get out of control. This was very apparent with several rear-wheeled cars that the slightest amount of acceleration would cause the steering wheel to become possessed. Thankfully, you can also adjust the sensitivity of steering wheels and controllers as you deem, as there is a nice amount of customization options.
I’m spoiled, and I can never go back to playing a racing sim with a gamepad or controller ever again, and that’s not a bad thing. The only thing that could have made this an even better experience is Virtual Reality/VR Headset support, which, sadly, isn’t happening. It’s a shame, really.
I can’t leave out the updated physics, which makes driving, compared to Forza Motorsport 7, more natural, and cars react differently. Reading it doesn’t really convey how the cars handle, but trust me, there’s a difference. The updated lighting and reflection system is front and center on most tracks, especially if you prefer driving in the hood view as I do. But none is more apparent when you’re racing in the rain, and the tracks reflect the cars and lights. It’s almost magical.
Here are the camera views available, and yes, you can adjust the FOV:
- Bumper
- Hood
- Cockpit
- Driver
- Chase Near
- Chase Far
Performance a go-go
One of my main concerns going into Forza Motorsport for the PC was the performance and for good reason. Back when Forza Motorsport 7 was released for the PC, there were numerous hitching, stuttering, frame rate issues, and crashing that weren’t present on the Xbox Series X|S version. Even if you tried to brute force the frame rate by running the game on a godly PC, it didn’t matter. I’m happy to report that this time around with Forza Motorsport, that isn’t the case. Firing up the game and heading to the settings, not only did the game decide my best configuration, but it even did a benchmark afterward. It all worked seamlessly, not requiring me to lift a finger. And adding to that surprise, given that my PC is a beast of a machine, it even went on to configure my RTX 4090 to not use Nvidia’s DLSS, which is something I haven’t seen any game do before.
But tell us about the performance, Keith. I’m getting to that. With the Xbox Series X, I was asked if I wanted to play at 60FPS with the performance mode, and away I went. There is also the option to play with Ray Tracing, but I wasn’t sure if that would affect my frame rate, and I’ll never play a racing game at less than 60FPS or higher if the option is available. That said, going with performance mode, the game ran beautifully. There wasn’t a stutter, slow-down, or pop-in that I noticed over 10 hours with the Xbox Series X. The load times were impressive, and jumping into a race was quick, while restarting one was even faster.
On the PC side of things, things were just as impressive. Once the game dialed in my specs, I double-checked them, disabled the dynamic optimization, and off I went. No fuss with Ray Tracing or any of that, and it was just, “You got a good PC. I’m going to show you a good time.” No pop-up, nearly 60 frames per second at 4K with no upscaling, and everything is set to ultra. You couldn’t do that with Forza Motorsport 7. Speaking of upscaling, at least for now, the game only supports Nvidia’s DLSS, and I didn’t see AMD’s FSR in the options, which I found that as being odd. Forza Motorsport runs great on the Xbox Series X and, depending on your PC, even better. But both perform well, so you won’t be left out regardless of which version you go with.
I can’t do that, Dave
Those that got this iconic quote will know where I’m going with this. Despite everything that Turn 10 has accomplished with Forza Motorsport, it still feels like the AI is a hold-over from the earlier titles. While it remains aggressive, and you can turn it up to give you more of a challenge, it’s already a cheap-as-heck, dirty player from the gate. If you’ve played the prior games and attempted to go into a corner at the start of a race, only for it to turn into a massive car pile-up, this still happens. If I’m upset about anything with Forza Motorsport, it’s this. It’s as if the AI wants to crush you, even if you attempt to drive clean and responsibly.
For example, it’s pretty much guaranteed that when I do a clean pass, the AI will purposely ram into me. It doesn’t matter if there’s plenty of room on the segment; it will hit me. Or when I start to lose control and while I try to recover, bam! The AI rams into me, smashing me off the course, and sometimes it will come after me even if I was out of bounds. You’d think that because they are superior to us in every way, the AI would be trying to win the race as cleanly as possible, but I’ve not seen that. I’m beyond frustrated with that, and I hope Turn 10 revisits this because it gets worse the more difficult you make the game.
Refined multiplayer
Unfortunately, I only managed to get a few multiplayer sessions in during my Forza Motorsport review session. But what I did play was very encouraging, as things have been refined to reward players who actually want to run clean races and keep the sore losers off the track.
There are two versions of online multiplayer: Featured and Private lobbies. The featured multiplayer are timed events that occur at specific times during the day, and you have to sign up for the race and qualify for your position. You also can change any aspect of these races, but at least you can see what they are before you sign up. These races include two distinct ratings: Drive Skill ratings and Driver Safety. By beating faster drivers, your driving skill rate will improve, while the Driver Safety rating depends on how clean of a race you run, which will impact the overall success of online races. If you’re a clean driver, you’ll always manage to rank, even if you don’t win races. However, if you’re one of those dirty ratings that like to ram into other players and constantly cut corners, you’re not going to want to be playing featuring multiplayer, as you’ll get penalized. Regardless, both the Drive Skill and Driver Safety ranks will determine where you’ll rank and will be entered into races with drivers who are similar or close to your rank.
The private multiple sessions are where you can customize every aspect of a race, and these can be started at any time. There’s not really much to say about them. I do plan on getting more multiplayer sessions under my belt once there are more people playing the game. Look forward to more impressions. But as it stands currently, I did enjoy what I played.
Accessibility options galore
Accessibility has come a long way in video games, and it’s good to see that Turn 10 has packed Forza Motorsport with so many options that it has to be pointed out. These include options for the visually impaired, enlarging the subtitle text, a screen narrator who reads everything to you, speech-to-text / text-to-speech, blind driving assists that include audio cues, and more.
Pole Position
It’s not farfetched to say that Forza Motorsport is now my favorite racing simulator on the Xbox (but not PC). Nearly everything in this game is perfection, and it’s beefy with enough to keep you busy for a while, plenty of cars to collect and upgrade, and more than enough tracks to keep you entertained as you learn the ins and outs of them. Aside from the few oddities I mentioned, I’m more than satisfied with the game. Turn 10 has yet again worked its magic, and this will be hard to surpass, regardless of the platform. Racing fans, you’re going to be in for the time of life, and for those who aren’t sure if you’ll like racing games, the game is still friendly enough to ease you into it.
If I sound like someone who has fallen in love, that’s because I am. Not because I got to play the game early but because I can see the love and the effort. More importantly, I can see that this game is a love letter from people who understand cars and racing. That’s something I can get behind. I’m having so much fun that I’ve literally neglected everything I am supposed to be doing. That’s a good sign of a great game.
Forza Motorsport releases on October 5th, 2023, if you purchase the Premium Edition, or October 10th, 2023, for Xbox Series X|S and PC (Windows/Steam).
Review Disclosure Statement: This copy of Forza Motorsport was provided by Xbox for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.
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Summary
Turn 10 Studios has taken what was already a decent simulator racer and improved on it in so many ways that it’s impossible not to enjoy it as a car and racing fan. The attention to detail when it comes to the tracks, the cars, the mechanics, and even the performance. This trumps every previous effort, every prior Forza Motorsport game that Turn 10 has ever developed, and I’m sure that was the plan all along.