I’ve been playing Forza Motorsport 4 quite a bit lately to compare what many consider the best Forza Motorsport to FM23.
The only flaw I can find with FM4 in my opinion is the AI, which on occasion feels like it’s cheating the regulation limits. (Most likely though it’s me upgrading a car to a class above where it should be racing.)
My gripes with '23 currently have to do with the menus/user interface, specifically with not being able to adjust the camera while upgrading parts. I know I’m in the minority, but aside from that and some occasional bugs and crashes I’m enjoying FM23 almost as much as FM4.
All that said, I’m curious what makes FM4 better than FM23 in your minds?
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I could list many, but to start Fujimi Kaido
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I’ve played 3, 7 and 23’ and i cant for the life of me understand how not being able to adjust the camera while installing parts is a persons biggest gripe.
Never once while installing parts have i felt the need to do that haha. 95% of the parts make no visual difference and the majority of the ones that do are just forza aero.
I’d rather be able to move the camera when picking a livery to download.
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That’s fair.
For liveries I’d prefer to have an option to move the camera and preview a livery before downloading it.
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Building off of your statement about the menus/UI, I think FM23 has the weakest menu design of all of them. I know some people didn’t like the tile themed menus of FM5/6/7, but compared to FM23 they’re vibrant and engaging… The menu as it is now is just too minimal. At times it feels like there’s a lack of color too, outside of some highlighted yellow text or the occasional image.
Then there’s how clunky it can feel when trying to upgrade or tune a car in the menu, having to re-select your car every time you leave the upgrade/paint menu.
Outside of menu design, I’d say FM4 had a nice variety of different types of tracks. I’ll actually extend that to FM3 since it had it’s own crop of nice tracks unique to it. While nearly all of FM23’s tracks are great to race on, it feels lacking in other areas. Street circuits such as Long Beach, Rio, and New York are gone, and there’s long been a lack of some nice twisty tracks like Fujimi or Rallye di Positano. Sure, those tracks wouldn’t play well in a 20 something player Forza GT lobby, but I don’t think that warrants leaving those tracks out entirely.
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We need to be able to adjust the camera in a 360 degree angle while upgrading our cars. It’s so freaking annoying if you want to add another bumper, spoiler etc. and then it doesn’t match the livery you already applied to the car. Then you have to install a bumper etc. go back to the car selection screen and choose to look at your car, until you found what you wanted. This is very annoying especially if you play with JDM cars, they usually have the most bumper, spoiler etc. options. Sometimes they even have two different widebody kits.
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I guess i didn’t think of the livery compatibility aspect. That makes a bit more sense.
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FM 4 has everything:
The car sounds, incredible car and track roster, career structure, menu music and home space, I could go on and on.
It’s the most played Forza game in my collection for a mighty fine reason. It just wreaks of quality, polish, and panache.
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Yes it’s decent old game. The blocky visuals are what turns me off. I play a couple rd’s here and there on my 360 but I’m one of those guys who like to have a nice gpu and run high resolution, and even at 1080p it looks soo dated I can’t bear to continue. I have the official ffb wheel for my 360 and it’s laughable tbh, and racing with a gamepad is not for me. Enjoy it all you wish m8, it’s your time, spend it however you’d like.
There’s three things about FM4 that stand out over over FM8. Content content, and content.
My bet is, that unless you’re a total completionist, you’re version of FM4, if you still have it, has career races still unfinished. And if you’re that same person, you’ve completed all the single player (can’t call it a career mode because there’s nothing career about it) races in FM8. And probably did some of those in AFK just to avoid the monotony of the game.
There’s three things about FM4 I like more than FM8. There’s a bigger variety of tracks. There’s much better sound which leads to a better immersion experience in the game. And there’s a big in game economy which encourages player interaction.
What do I like about FM8? Well, I like the new Ginetta. I like that it’s something new, but then as you get older, hemorrhoids are something new too, but that doesn’t mean they’re all that good. 
What I like about FM8 is that I feel it is drawing a group of people in the forum together to try and change the game for the better. And I’m hopeful T10 will eventually listen. I have my doubts though until there is a major shake up at the studio management level. That, or until a better option becomes available.
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You’re right about the content of FM4, you’re equally as correct about the amount of unfinished playable content, and yes I’m one of them. There’s a very good reason for that though. The vast majority of it was boring copy and paste drab. Is it better than what we have now? Undoubtedly yes! But it wasn’t great.
For me what made FM4 was the community, customisation and creativity.
Custom public lobbies, clubs, store fronts etc etc. all of which has been asked for, begged even. They know what the community wanted, they instead thought they knew better and destroyed said community.
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Cars-
Fm 4- 501 cars at launch/no dlc, 678 all dlc
Fm 23-around 500 at launch (some were dlc so numbers vary), [cant find number online and cant be bothered to check myself but definitely fewer than 678 currently]
Tracks-
Fm4- 26 courses with on average ~4 layouts per course
Fm23-24 tracks with on average ~2.5 layouts per course (0 city courses at 9 months past launch… zero!)
Hours of entertainment-
Fm4- 29.5 hours to complete base game, 259 hours for 100% completion
Fm23- 33 hours to complete base game, 149 for 100% completion
Progression-
Fm4- 290 championships
Fm23- 21 championships vanilla with rotating monthly championship
Story/campaign-
Fm4- start with city cars and slowly progress to lmp1 cars
Fm23- start with city cars and quickly progress to slightly faster sports cars (no race cars in the ‘campaign’ [did they forget this is a racing game?])
Fm4- has drag racing
Fm23- has drag tyres that are completely useless
Fm4- has challenges such as bowling
Fm23- is challenged
Paint system- mostly unchanged since fm2
Vinyl system- mostly unchanged since fm2
Car models- mostly unchanged since fm2
Did i miss anything?
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@Forza_Dids that’s such an interesting statement coming from one who has been so outspoken against those of us speaking up about the shortfalls of the game.
If they could put this engine in Forza 4 game it would probably perfect.
Really they just need to bring over half the stats over from Horizon and I’d be happy.
“You beat this friend” is by far the best pop up.
Want to see it in all aspects of the game. Not just rivals.
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Nope, I’ve been as outspoken as anyone when it comes to the shortfall of the game and fully support anyone who feels they’ve been short changed.
Where my frustration lies, is constantly hearing the same gripes, often from players new to the game. The forum should be a platform to share views and opinions but it just becomes a soap box when people say the same thing over and over again.
Believe me we’ve been asking for the same thing for a decade on this platform and they chose to ignore it. Voting, SHUB, they will take it out what they want, nothing more.
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Joinable custom lobbies. None of this “private” bs
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Need for speed shift is a 9/10 for me (and was a 10/10 when it came out), and one of the things that made it great is it constantly compared you to your friends and gave you extra credits for besting them.
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One of my biggest regrets is never downloading all of the DLC for FM4 before they took it off Marketplace. I didn’t understand how DLC worked back then and would just download cars I liked. I never thought I’d miss out on great cars like the '94 Mustang or that black and red Challenger that previewed the refresh.
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Who has more frustration to share on the forum than someone new? And one of my biggest gripes is people who feel it is their job to silence other’s rights to voice their (even your) opinion on the forum. If you don’t like someone’s post then leave it alone.
I don’t care what anyone posts. Unless it starts to infringe on others.
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I feel that… There was a bunch of DLC cars that I really wish I could’ve driven in Forza but have never appeared outside of FM4 DLC. The Smart fortwo would be pretty goofy to have back but it would be a fun riot
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