I just wanted to offer some feedback regarding the cars that have been included in the monthly updates in Forza Motorsport, and make some suggestions for changes that I think could drive more interest in each update moving forward. Despite the mixed reception since release, I still firmly believe FM23 has the potential to be the best game in the Motorsport series so far; but changes need to be made in order to achieve that. Personally my main sticking point with the game is the car list/cars added in updates, so I’ll focus on that and what I’d like to see change here.
First I’d like to give some positive feedback, because I know a lot of the time people can be relentlessly negative when it comes to this sort of stuff. I think the new-to-Forza cars that have been added to Forza Motorsport - both through the car pass and for free in the monthly updates - have been excellent. I’m not sure how decisions are made regarding which cars are added to the game, but whatever the process is I think the Forza franchise has consistently smashed it out of the park in recent games (across both Motorsport and Horizon), and Forza Motorsport is no exception.
Personally I’m especially keen on all the historic race cars we’ve seen; there have been a lot of cars I never thought I’d see appear in a game that have been awesome to get the chance to play around with. For me, the primary appeal of Forza as a series is that it gives players the chance to drive cars on track from all throughout automotive and motorsport history, and the new-to-Forza cars consistently contribute greatly to this. It’s like a celebration of all things car culture, and I think that’s something very few other racing games have ever managed to pull off as well as Forza does.
As for my suggestions there are two main things I think would go a long way to improving the reception of the monthly updates. The first is to try and co-ordinate the monthly updates for Motorsport and Horizon 5. By this, I just mean: if a car is added to Horizon 5, add it to Motorsport in the next monthly update, and vice versa. Of course, some cars don’t really make sense to have in both games. Off-road specialised vehicles (buggies, rally cars, trophy trucks, etc) don’t need to come to Motorsport for example, but personally I think every road car that is added to Horizon 5 should also come to Motorsport.
Some of these might not be especially track-oriented cars, but a significant part of the appeal to Forza Motorsport is being able to drive a wide variety of different types of car on track; including ones that are a bit out of their comfort zone on a circuit. Plus - to echo my earlier point about the new-to-Forza inclusions - there have been a whole host of cars added to Horizon 5 that are super interesting new additions to the franchise.
The latest update (15/07/24) is a prime example; most of those cars are cars I’d absolutely love to drive in FM23 but, because they’re in FH5 and I don’t enjoy that game’s physics as much, I struggle to get excited about them. It’s a huge shame for people who prefer driving on a track to not have the chance to properly enjoy these new cars with Forza Motorsport’s physics, and given the work that goes into them it seems like such an obvious missed opportunity.
My other suggestion is to increase the number of returning cars in each update. At the moment, there are over 500 cars that have appeared in Xbox One and Series X Forza titles that are not included in Forza Motorsport. This is excluding all the off-road vehicles, all the Forza edition cars, all the brand tie-in cars, etc; I’m just talking about road cars, concept cars and race cars. At the moment we’re only getting maybe three or four returning cars per month, which just simply isn’t enough to get people excited in the updates.
There are more cars than I can list within those 500 that I would desperately like to be able to drive in Forza Motorsport, and I’m not really sure why they’re being added into the game at such a slow pace. The pace is so slow that the list actually keeps getting longer each month, because there’s so much new content coming to Horizon 5 that we miss out on in Motorsport. I’m not asking for all of them in one update or anything, but it would be greatly appreciated if we could see them added at a significantly faster pace. I struggle to see any reason why we couldn’t get more like 20-25 returning cars per month; that would still take a good couple of years to get through.
I would be more than happy to provide a list of the cars that are missing, or offer suggestions on which cars might be most in-demand to return. I know from speaking to other members of the community that there’s a particular desire for more of the lower-class cars (E and D class especially) to return, as these offer the most options when it comes to upgrading cars for class racing.
Apologies for such a long post, but I wanted to offer as much feedback as possible. I’m really passionate about Forza - like everyone that posts here I’d imagine - and seeing the game so close to nailing exactly what I want from a Forza Motorsport title, while not quite managing it, is incredibly frustrating. FM23 could have likely the single greatest car list of any game in the history of the genre, and it feels like that opportunity is being actively ignored. Improving the car list in the ways I outlined here would have a major impact on the appeal of each update, while (relatively speaking) being straightforward changes to make.