Forza 6 vs. Forza 4 - who still plays Forza 4?

Forza Motorsport Legacy Motorsport FM6 Discussion
1

Hey everyone,

This is not meant to be a Forza 6 bashing thread. At the same time, in my opinion, there are certain advantages that Forza 4 still has, despite running on 10 year old hardware.

I have been playing Forza 6 regularly for nearly two months now. While I have enjoyed the game so far, it is far from perfect, and a bit disappointing to me as I waited for this game to be announced before I made the decision to purchase an Xbox One. There have been some posts on this forum expressing a continuing preference for Forza 4 over Forza 6, and I wanted to put Forza 4 to the test myself against Forza 6.

First thing I noticed as I took my Mazdaspeed 3 out for a test drive on Maple Valley…the graphics. What was one of the best-looking games of the early part of this decade almost hurt my eyes when I hit the track. The sound though…or should I say DAT EXHAUST. The exhaust note, especially with a sport or race exhaust, is visceral and engaging, and makes you just want to drive around the track and rev the snot out of the engine. Forza 6 in comparison, sounds sterile. With most cars, it brings back bad memories of Gran Turismo. Just like GT, a lot of V8 cars sound generic. Forza 4 is a little heavy on the distortion with some of the more aggressive exhaust systems, but I’ll take that any day over the sterile and boring sound of Forza 6.

Cars in Forza 6, especially RWD cars, require a lot of tuning. Most cars IRL are set up to understeer at/past the limit of traction, but a lot of RWD cars serve up a heaping helping of oversteer, especially off throttle. Some cars don’t understeer no matter what you do. Tuning the differential deceleration rate helps, but it can be time consuming unless you just crank it up to 100% all the time. Forza 4 doesn’t have this problem. Instead, RWD cars come stock with 0 rear camber, which means oversteer on corner exit. To fix this, a race suspension must be fitted. More time spent tuning instead of racing.

After nearly two months of Forza 6, Forza 4 seems to have exaggerated tire grip. However, tire temperature and pressure is simulated more realistically. In Forza 6, the front and rear tires, once warmed up, are equal in temperature and pressure when the car is not being overdriven. It is just plain stupid for a 2000-2500 pound FWD car with 60-65% of its weight over the front axle to have its rear tires at 190+ degrees F.

It’s easier to modulate the throttle and brake in Forza 4 because of the smaller deadzones of the Xbox 360 controller’s triggers. The steering also feels less sensitive. On the other hand, the trigger vibrations in Forza 6 give very helpful feedback as you’re pushing your car’s limits.

I don’t know why so many of the tracks from Forza 4 had to be taken out. I like tracks that resemble public roads and find tracks like Circuit of the Americas boring, with so many corners being identical.

Finally, even if Forza 4 had no advantages whatsoever over Forza 6, it has the 2005 Mazda 3 hatch in it. That alone makes it one of the greatest racing games of all time :slight_smile:

I’m probably forgetting a couple of things, but I only played Forza 4 for about an hour last night. So who else still goes back to Forza 4 (or earlier games)?

2 Likes
2

I tried that for a while, and a lot of the contrasts you mention are true – I miss some of the cars and tracks that didn’t make it from Forza 4 to 6 (what I wouldn’t give to be able to take a Furai around Suzuka again), the diversity of career mode is far better, and I agree that some elements of sound are (selectively) superior in 4. That’s not to mention some of the features I personally don’t care about but are clearly missed, like the Auction House and car gifting.

But here’s what it’s missing that 6 nails:

-Drivatar liveries. This might seem like a small thing, but being the only car with a custom paint job in singleplayer career mode eventually shut down my enthusiasm for creating custom liveries. What’s the point in being the only race-decal car in a field full of plain manufacturer paints? Say what you will about Drivatars (and I’ve had fewer problems with them than many), but at least I’m going up against other cars that are as colorful as mine, and it’s fun to see appearances from the occasional perfectly-replicated classic design.

-Open-wheel cars. Track toys like the Caterham and BAC Mono are fun, but it also massively expands the scope of racing history that FM4 only hinted at. Driving pre-war or '60s Grand Prix cars is worth it alone, and as someone with nearly no previous interest in Formula 1 history, getting into Niki Lauda’s Ferrari or Ayrton Senna’s McLaren gives me renewed appreciation for the sport.

-More classic race cars in general. Seeing something like a '71 Ferrari 312 PB seemed weird in FM4 because there weren’t many cars of similar eras and divisions for it to compete against. And while I wish that particular model would return for FM6, it’s because it’d have more of a context in the newer game with its selection of Can Am/prototype contemporaries.

-Tracks. I consider this kind of a push: there’s no real substitute for Fujimi Kaido, even if it’s not that fun in a non-drifting context above a certain class. And I recognize that the absence of some tracks (like Suzuka) is more a licensing problem than T10 being disinterested. But if you asked me if I was OK with swapping Maple Valley, Sedona, Sunset Peninsula, New York, Camino Viejo, Mugello, (the shortened) Positano, and the snake tracks for Spa, Bathurst, Watkins Glen, Brands Hatch, Lime Rock, Yas Marina, COTA, Daytona, and Long Beach, I’d be fine with that. It might be a case of taking the bad with the good: I’d take Camino Viejo over two dozen Tilkedromes, but Eau Rouge and the Conrod Straight make up for a lot.

-Night racing/weather. It’d be cool if it was more dynamic, but anything that adds an additional element of strategy and atmosphere to the track selection’s more than welcome.

-Drivatars (kind of). They’ve been questionable for a lot of people since FM5, and there still need to be some problems addressed. But when FM4 was deep into its post-release activity, I remember countless people complaining that races felt like hotlaps, even on some of the highest difficulties, because the AI didn’t pose enough of a challenge. Even if Drivatars get idiotic or aggressive sometimes, I’ve been able to have plenty of competitive (and winnable) races against them.

-Forzavista. As much as it’s been blamed for cutting into possible car counts and allotted time to create more cars/content, I like being able to explore the cars in detail – it’s like having digital versions of those expensive, detailed 1/24 diecast models. It was a weird side novelty in FM4, but in FM6 it’s something I mess around with every single time I buy a new car. (And the fully detailed cars, with full engine bays and everything, are quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception that they were in FM5.)

All in all, it seems like the franchise isn’t progressing as much as I’d hoped – one step forward, a half-step back – but I don’t get the feeling it’s regressing, either, and as fun as FM4 is, going back to it only highlights, at least for me, the things FM5 and FM6 added that were sorely needed.

8 Likes
3

As someone old enough to witness Tilke destroy some of the world’s best tracks (see Hokenhiemm…) I 100% agree with this.

1 Like
4

have you even raced the drivatar? every single race on unbeatable. i’ll slow down and wait for the mp4/4 to catch up so i can race it, SINCE I CAN’T CHOOSE WHAT CARS I WANT TO RACE AGAINst. the ai, just plain goes off track, at almost every turn making racing pointless…its either destroy them or ai will crash in front of you…on a track like nordschleife where i’m 40 seconds faster than the ai. i wish the game would actually work, and race instead of causing to me crash or changing my tunes…yes the game changes tunes because when i’m racing a 50 lap race on road america, and i’ve memorized every turn since forza 3…of course i use the same gears and lines, but the car won’t perform the same, but 10 laps later has grip where it didn’t before…

5

If i can find some time besides Fallout 4, i will definatly give forza 4 a go. Especially the user hosted lobbies.

6

Once 4 makes it to the xb1 I’ll be switching back to it. Everything “I” want in forza 6 is missing.
It will be mildly comical when the forza 4 lobby’s are fuller than forza 6.

5 Likes
7

If* We aren’t promised FM4 will make the BWC list.

That said, I will only use the older Forza games to fill out my Forza Rewards as much as possible provided those games are added to the BWC list.

8

This is a quote from
http://segmentnext.com/2015/08/12/forza-series-of-titles-added-to-xbox-one-backward-compatibility/4

"The latest addition in the program comes in the form of the much loved Xbox-exclusive racing simulator series Forza. The entire Forza series from Xbox 360 (Forza Motorsport 2, Forza Motorsport 3, Forza Motorsport 4, and Forza Horizon) have been made backward compatible for the Xbox One. "

1 Like
9

well shut my mouth. lol. So I will at least have the chance to up my Forza Rewards score a bit then after all without having to buy a 360. Nice. But I’ll still enjoy the newer titles much more than the older ones. That’s just me :slight_smile:

1 Like
10

I’m not seeing any Forza games on the official list here

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/backward-compatibility

11

Yeah your probably right… I’d say they may not want to bring out forza 4, once the masses see the substance of that game there will probably be more uproar for f4 features n f6.

1 Like
12

The reason for the still-missing tracks from Forza 4 (i.e. Maple Valley, Mugello, Suzuka to name a few) is the fact that Turn 10 decided to completely re-scan all of their tracks from scratch for the launch of the Xbox One and in turn Forza 5. The need to get the game out for launch led to even the famous Nurburgring being excluded; it was later added as a free DLC. So with Forza 6 our track selection pretty much originates only from the beginning of the Xbox One generation.

1 Like
13

One thing I certainly miss is the ability to browse all paint schemes, not just for the car you currently own. Makes it hard to find anything interesting as I’d often buy a car just so I could have a certain design

3 Likes
14

This. I don’t really play FM4 anymore as I’m very visual and you can’t beat the graphics of FM6, but this is the thing I’m missing the most. It’s hard enough as it is to come across that livery you really wanted, and when I find it, I want to know what other cars that particular painter has made a livery for. The storefront was such a great feature.

3 Likes
15

Overall, I’d say 4 is the better game, but not my much. I do still play 4 from time to time, and most of the reason why I don’t play it more is because the lobbies are empty most of the time. Hopefully more people will play it when it’s available for backwards compatibility.

1 Like
16

When Forza 4 makes on to the Xbox one I will revisit it as it is so much the better game.

2 Likes
17

I’m still playing Forza 4 for the private lobbies with AI. I’d love to give the cars and tracks of 6 a spin, but without this, I’m not buying into it. I also like the ease of finding liveries in the storefront. I like sorting by ‘most downloaded’ and finding the liveries I’m after easily.

3 Likes
18

I haven’t played Forza 4 since Forza 6 came out, but I think I might play it tomorrow. Forza 6 needs Fujimi Kaido.

3 Likes
19

Forza 5 was a letdown, but kind of expected do to the new console. Forza 6 is a step back in thr right direction. But Forza 4 is by far the best. More tracks, more cars, better career mode, store front, auction house etc etc.

1 Like
20

I agree Forza 6 is a step in the right direction, a few more tracks and more Mopar cars ( ie. Dodge Dart & Chrysler 200 ) and a already solid game would be perfect