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Forza Motorsports 5
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dadudemon
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Location: Bacta Tank.

Forza Motorsports 5

This is nearly a perfect game. It is certainly the pinnacle of car games.


Graphics:
I have no complaints about the graphics. Which is odd...because I usually do.


Lighting:
The lighting is realistic enough but I do have issues with the sun glare bullshit. Seems weird to lump this under "lighting" in a racing game that focuses on realism but I do not have these lighting issues in the real world on real tracks so why the hell should I have these problems on a game?


Interface:
The interface is not as intuitive as it could be. But, it gets the job done and it is minimalistically designed: perfect approach. Just could have been executed a tad better by making things easier to navigate to and from (for instance, when you've loaded a track, you should be able to swap out your car: some tracks are better suited for other cars even within the same class of cars). If you have to swap your car, I believe you have to quit the entire series and start it over with the new car. That's lame. The load screens take FOREVER and you're constantly having to load shit. The XBox One/consoles really suffer from not having a custom SSD that games can run from.


Fun Factor and Gameplay:
If you like racing games and cars, there is literally no better game on the planet for fun, alone. I like the leveling and credit system. It's slow enough that you really have to earn money to get into better cars and faster classes. But it is fast enough to prevent the game from being prohibitive (meaning, if you play the game in order, you will always have more than enough money to upgrade and buy cars for each class and series). If you want to skip ahead on the game and race in the more expensive classes, you'll have to really save and grind. Basically, you cannot start the game racing in the exotic class series of cars. You have to start with the hatchbacks or something. Of course, I am completely wrong about all of this because you CAN skip all the way to end-game cars by spending more real world money on the game buying tokens. This...is the ugliest part of the game. The EA or Zynga model of gaming is the worst thing in existence and it is even leaking over into high-class games like Forza, now.


Difficulty:
Here is the kicker about the difficulty in the game: it is as difficult as the real world players are. One very strange but amazing feature of this game is that there really is no AI driven cars. Turn 10 Studios (maker of the game) collects data on the races you do around each track and then creates a "drivatar" (portmanteau of drive + avatar) that will race with your racing times on each track. Your racing times are ranked with all other players in the world, by lap times. Based on this ranking, your drivatar is placed in each of the difficulty classes. I do not know the math nor even the specifics of how they choose to sort these race times. But it works. Every now and again, the computer will assign a drivatar of another player to a race that is just so much better than all the other players. My personal opinion is Turn 10 does this on purpose to force the player to get better and possibly move up to the next difficulty class.

Turn 10 recommends that if you've never played racing simulation games, start out in the easiest class and work your way up. I started out on normal (no difficulty on the handicap) but soon discovered that class to be far too easy so I bump it up 2-4 difficulty levels, depending on the series I'm racing in. I would say most gamers reading this will have the same experience as I did. If you have a steering wheel and pedals for this game, you can probably bump up the difficulty much higher (I feel the controllers greatly inhibit the ability to do the turns very well because a small little joystick is just not granular enough to fine tune turning details).


My general idea about your lap time world rank is any rank less than 20,000 is really good (since millions of people have played this game and gotten track times ranked, if you get a race time of less than 20,000, you're in the top 1 percentile of racers). I've done that on several tracks and my races were near perfect races (I can only imagine the vast chasm between my sub 20,000 track times I've put up and the single digit rank track times other gamers have put up: they are several seconds ahead of me and I really do not see how I could shave off more than 2 seconds in my races). I do not know if the ranks are for that particular class of cars or if it is the absolute world rank, however. I will find out when I get enough credits to buy F1 cars. big grin I suspect that the top ranks are for either for the class of car (but maxed by smart players) or if they are the X-class of cars (F1 cars).

So, more about the drivatar...

You have to race at least 3 races for it to create a drivatar profile for you. Basically, you have to record enough laps on at least 3 different tracks in order for Turn 10's servers to make things work. You can also select a rival (from a list of rivals Turn 10's servers pick for you) and race against that rival. The rivals are chosen based on how close in skill they are to you (based on race times). The fastest way to earn credits and experience is to do the rival races. They will be hard, though, as the players will ALWAYS be matched up to your skill level on the track. That's one of the things about this game that makes it much more difficult than other racing games: you're racing real people who have been specifically chosen for you, by a computer, who are at your skill level.


That Certain Something:
But what makes this game stupendous is the je ne sais quoi. Between each track, the announcer talks to you by telling you where you are going and then says a little something about the track. While the track loads, you get facts and figures about the track. As you enter each new racing class, a presenter from the hit UK Show, Top Gear, talks about the cars in that class (which is just awesome). The quality of all of it is AAA. It is like a single cent was not spared to polish this game to perfection.


Forza is known for making ultra-realistic feel for their cars (including the sound of the engine and tires on the tarmac) so this game was expected to at least give a nice racing simulation experience. But this game takes it to another level and makes it like watching Top Gear between races. Merging Forza and Top Gear is the best possible combination in existence (I believe they did this for Forza 4 but they really outdid themselves in 5).


If you want a racing game that CAN be challenging, I recommend this game.


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Last edited by dadudemon on May 21st, 2014 at 03:38 PM

Old Post May 21st, 2014 03:36 PM
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Smasandian
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I love it. I think drivatars bring something unique to the SP game. I like how they can make mistakes, don't follow a direct line (unlike GT5) and sometimes bump you.

Basically, I always enjoyed how Forza allows you to play the game the way you want too. So many different difficulty options to choose from that you can tailor your game to fit your playstyle.

Is it better than Forza 4? No. But for a brand new title (built from scratch), it's stellar.

The only issue I have is that they don't gift you a car for the first 50 levels. In Forza 4, it took awhile to get to level 50 to get the really expensive cars but you always had the ability to buy it instead. In Forza 5, you have to grind to get that cash and it takes awhile. I really hope in Forza 6, they bring gifting back.

Old Post May 21st, 2014 05:09 PM
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dadudemon
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quote: (post)
Originally posted by Smasandian
I love it. I think drivatars bring something unique to the SP game. I like how they can make mistakes, don't follow a direct line (unlike GT5) and sometimes bump you.

Basically, I always enjoyed how Forza allows you to play the game the way you want too. So many different difficulty options to choose from that you can tailor your game to fit your playstyle.



Those moments can be rage inducing. You're driving along, minding your own business and here comes a shitty drivatar, taking the turn waaaaaaaay too fast. You're now backwards and in the grass.

That's how it is against real players, of course, but it is something that is taking a bit to get used to. I've gone from "WTF? Sunnuba B*tch!" to "lol, rewind" when that happens.



quote: (post)
Originally posted by Smasandian
Is it better than Forza 4? No. But for a brand new title (built from scratch), it's stellar.


I skipped Forza 4. I had no idea it was that good. Forza 3 was great...amazing...stupendous. But Forza 4 arrived at a time when I did not have the time to buy it. Looks like I missed out on a good title.


quote: (post)
Originally posted by Smasandian
The only issue I have is that they don't gift you a car for the first 50 levels. In Forza 4, it took awhile to get to level 50 to get the really expensive cars but you always had the ability to buy it instead. In Forza 5, you have to grind to get that cash and it takes awhile. I really hope in Forza 6, they bring gifting back.


I have been gifted 4 cars since I've started playing. I'm only level 25-26 right now. I find the cash earning to be good enough that I have not had to grind, yet, while playing. Just completing the regular events as part of the game earns enough. I can almost afford the most expensive cars, at this point. I have about 900,000 saved up.




Quick Tip: go to the Indy Track in the US, turn the number of laps waaay up, and race the track for about an hour. You'll earn 300-900k in just an hour...and level all the way up to 40-ish. I plan to do that tonight.


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Old Post May 21st, 2014 05:37 PM
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Smasandian
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Forza 4 was fantastic. They gifted you cars after every level (and gave you a choice as well) so you can start racing in different events. They had more variety of races and you can either choose to do a tour like championship or do individual sections. Some sections could be limited to what type of engine you had, car make or year. As well, Autovista was limited but each car showcased had a detailed voice over from Jeremy Clarkson talking about the car.

There is a grind. I don't like how I have to cheat to get the cars I want. Most cars are affordable but once you get into the R sections, each car is about 1.5 to 2 million bucks. Hell, the vintage section, some cars run up to 5 million. That's a lot of racing. I want to drive the cars I want and not choose based on money. In the hyper car section, I want to drive the P1, and the new Pagani but each are roughly 800k. Again, lots of racing.

Old Post May 21st, 2014 05:50 PM
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dadudemon
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Gender: Male
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quote: (post)
Originally posted by Smasandian
Forza 4 was fantastic. They gifted you cars after every level (and gave you a choice as well) so you can start racing in different events. They had more variety of races and you can either choose to do a tour like championship or do individual sections. Some sections could be limited to what type of engine you had, car make or year. As well, Autovista was limited but each car showcased had a detailed voice over from Jeremy Clarkson talking about the car.


That system actually sounds better than Forza 5's system. But, I don't like the highly restrictive class requirements (like the engine sizes you mentioned) you mentioned. I like the ability to drive the X-Bow in the S Class of cars. Even though the X-Bow does not have anything near the top speed of the other cars, it can take the turns so much faster than all of the other cars that even when I turn the difficulty all the way up, I still beat the other drivatars by 20-30 seconds. It's cheating...haha.

quote: (post)
Originally posted by Smasandian
There is a grind. I don't like how I have to cheat to get the cars I want. Most cars are affordable but once you get into the R sections, each car is about 1.5 to 2 million bucks. Hell, the vintage section, some cars run up to 5 million. That's a lot of racing. I want to drive the cars I want and not choose based on money. In the hyper car section, I want to drive the P1, and the new Pagani but each are roughly 800k. Again, lots of racing.


I don't look forward to the high-end car classes, then. It looks like I will have to spend millions and millions to get all the fun out of the cars I want. That is not very appealing. But, again, I'm only about 1/4th of the way through the game and already have close to a million. With the Indy Track as a potential grinding spot, it should not be a problem to get to 4 million.

5 mil on a car, though? Even if I were crazy rich in real life, I would never spend that much on a car.


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Old Post May 21st, 2014 06:12 PM
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Smasandian
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In Forza 4, there was a ton of events and in most cases, you could take any car and drive it in there. It works very similar to Forza 5 system where you have your hyper car section, Grand Touring section and etc...

It also helped that there was 300 more cars (not including DLC) than Forza 5, and many more tracks.

I agree that you could get a fair bit of money grinding (essentially cheating) but I believe games should not make it a necessity for you to do so. In Forza 4, I drove a lot more cars but in this generation, I seem to be only driving BMW's, Ferrari's and Fords because I make more money due to automakers level. It shouldn't be the case in a racer. I should be able to drive anything I want and not have to spend an hour grinding away.

Old Post May 21st, 2014 06:20 PM
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dadudemon
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Gender: Male
Location: Bacta Tank.

I've had much more time to play this game and really get a feel for it.


The sound is even more amazing now that I have had a chance.


But, here are all the things I found wrong with the game:

You cannot skip the beginning race intro stuff. I would love to skip that 10 second time waster.

You cannot quickly jump through your race, credit, and XP results after the end of the race. You should be able to quickly press "a" and jump right through those.

It takes forever to earn credits. Much worse than I thought, before. The cars are prohibitively expensive in this game. And after you finally save up to buy an expensive car, it is going to take forever to get the next car you want.

You cannot switch cars in the middle of doing a series. If you do, it exits and makes you do the whole thing, again. I mentioned this in my top review but it is still a major annoyance.

It takes too long to load each map. The load times are just stupid long. And the game likes to load everything so you're spending about a third of your time on load screens (because it takes that long).

There is no pole-position option before each track. Some racing games, like the real world, allow you to do a time-trial type of race before you do the racing event. Your lap time determines where you will start in the starting line-up. This allows really good players to get to the front so that they are not constantly behind shitty players. This is not how they set the game up. You have no choice but to start in last place or 14th out of 16. What they should have done is given additional credit bonuses to those that get pole position, second, or third place in the time trials. Something like a 50% bonus. This would create an incentive for the players to put up a good "best lap" time before they do each race. That way, they start in the front and don't have to worry about traffic. Basically, it rewards good players for taking the time to play the game more.

You cannot sell your cars back. If you make an expensive and bad purchase, you have to grind forever to earn all that money you lost.

There is almost a barren market of wheels and pedals for the Xbox One which, to me, hurts the system and other racing games.

Some information is not displayed on the various menus when you're in a series. It would be nice to know how many races are left at any point during the series (except in the middle of the race) rather than just the victory screen.

I will think of others as I remember them...


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Old Post May 27th, 2014 12:52 AM
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Tzeentch
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I wish I was man enough to enjoy racing games.


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Old Post May 27th, 2014 02:10 AM
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BackFire
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Love the Forza games. Was one of the main reasons I initially hesitated to choose to purchase a PS4 for so long.

When/if I do get a Xbone, this will be one of the first games I buy for it.


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Old Post May 27th, 2014 08:43 AM
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Smasandian
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quote: (post)
Originally posted by dadudemon
I've had much more time to play this game and really get a feel for it.


The sound is even more amazing now that I have had a chance.


But, here are all the things I found wrong with the game:

You cannot skip the beginning race intro stuff. I would love to skip that 10 second time waster.

You cannot quickly jump through your race, credit, and XP results after the end of the race. You should be able to quickly press "a" and jump right through those.

It takes forever to earn credits. Much worse than I thought, before. The cars are prohibitively expensive in this game. And after you finally save up to buy an expensive car, it is going to take forever to get the next car you want.



You cannot switch cars in the middle of doing a series. If you do, it exits and makes you do the whole thing, again. I mentioned this in my top review but it is still a major annoyance.

It takes too long to load each map. The load times are just stupid long. And the game likes to load everything so you're spending about a third of your time on load screens (because it takes that long).

There is no pole-position option before each track. Some racing games, like the real world, allow you to do a time-trial type of race before you do the racing event. Your lap time determines where you will start in the starting line-up. This allows really good players to get to the front so that they are not constantly behind shitty players. This is not how they set the game up. You have no choice but to start in last place or 14th out of 16. What they should have done is given additional credit bonuses to those that get pole position, second, or third place in the time trials. Something like a 50% bonus. This would create an incentive for the players to put up a good "best lap" time before they do each race. That way, they start in the front and don't have to worry about traffic. Basically, it rewards good players for taking the time to play the game more.

You cannot sell your cars back. If you make an expensive and bad purchase, you have to grind forever to earn all that money you lost.

There is almost a barren market of wheels and pedals for the Xbox One which, to me, hurts the system and other racing games.

Some information is not displayed on the various menus when you're in a series. It would be nice to know how many races are left at any point during the series (except in the middle of the race) rather than just the victory screen.

I will think of others as I remember them...


I agree with mostly all of them.

Can't blame the developers for the lack of wheels/peddles. This should be not an issue when the next game gets released (allows a company like Fanatec to produce something new).

And I agree that pole position would be kind of neat (I enjoy F1 2013 for the exact reason) but it's not really the type of game that needs it. This isn't a racing game, it's a car game. Play F1 if you want to get the racing experience. I play Forza for the cars/tracks.

And your absolutely correct. It takes forever to get credits in this game. As I said before, they should be gifting cars like previous games instead of making your buy them.

The credit issue was even worst before the crazy backlash from fans. Before the update, the cars cost more (50% more) and the amount of money you got per win was lower. As well, when you gained a level, the amount of money was around 16 thousand instead of 35.

And the sound? The best in a racing game by far. For instance, if you do in car view, the sound is slightly muffled, you can hear the whine of the supercharger, the gear shift and when you look back, the car engine explodes because your not in the car anymore. Furthermore, if you get Ferrari F40, the car rattles when you start getting high speeds because of the loose body. It's absolutely fantastic.

Sony's Driveclub is being released shortly. I saw a preview that stated that two cars felt very similar on how the drove. In Forza 5, that's not all the case. Get into Lamborghini Aventador (4 wheel drive) and compared that to a Ferrari 458 Italia, take off all the assits and its crazy how well the developers made each car feel authentic (to a point, I have never driven a Ferrari to compare). But I have driven a BMW and it does feel kind of similar.

Last edited by Smasandian on May 27th, 2014 at 01:38 PM

Old Post May 27th, 2014 01:32 PM
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dadudemon
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Well, I played this game much much more and finally opened up pretty much everything.

There are even more things about the after-race screens that I don't like. It needs much much more information.


Also, I think a new patch came out so you can select a different car, now, to do events. So if you don't like a car you're doing a series on, just exit to the menu and select a car in that class when you go to continue the career stuff. It didn't use to do that! It would reset the event/series and you'd have to start over at the beginning. I think Turn 10 is listening to the fans and patching for the better.


As I get towards the end game, I tried a couple of tracks on time-trial and was able to get less than 2000 on my world lap-rank. IMO, anything less than 2000 is just too much. You have to grind and grind and grind just to lose the second or two it takes to get to the #1 slot. At that point, it feels obsessive and a waste of time. I don't have the patience do do a track 100 times just to get a top-time.


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Old Post Jun 2nd, 2014 06:09 PM
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Smasandian
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Unless you have a wheel/pedal getting a very good game is hard due to inaccuracies in the controller.

Old Post Jun 3rd, 2014 01:36 PM
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dadudemon
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quote: (post)
Originally posted by Smasandian
Unless you have a wheel/pedal getting a very good game is hard due to inaccuracies in the controller.


Yup, this.


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Old Post Jun 3rd, 2014 10:10 PM
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