After watching the latest Forza Monthly, there is finally reason for optimism beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now hear me out everyone.
There was good reason to be skeptical on every front with Forza, mainly due to our past experiences with T10, and their direction ostensibly away from their namesake “Motorsports.”
For a very long time T10 had it in their heads that Forza needed to be something more than simply about racing. That Forza could be about anything to do with automotive pursuits. The thinking was to try to touch on every aspect of motorsports and its enthusiasts everywhere, and then call it “car culture.”
Noble as this thought was, it inherently degenerated the game into something far afield of its original intent and attraction, i.e., racing. Lost was the idea that it [motorsport] was primarily at the top where higher degrees of admiration and adulation are sourced. It is from this extremely high peak that everything else about motorsports descends from. Make this your focus, and everything that everyone enjoys about the sport is naturally enhanced. From watching the pros, to local racing, to merchandise, to products, to increasing the number of fans and competitors alike. It all comes from a love of competition first and foremost.
It is a part of our genetics to want to compete ever since the first men took to the first foot race… It is at the core of our breeding and being. And in the big picture losers are just as essential as winners. Water it down, dilute the ferver, give everyone a trophy or no trophy at all, and you have killed the very essence of what makes the endeavor so great in the first place.
I’m happy to see that T10 is on a new path in this regard. It appears they finally realize that the fundamental point of Forza is to race. I feel like saying welcome to the club T10, we’ve been here for awhile. It’s now clear that T10 is shifting gears toward a more meaningful and competitive racing environment perhaps for the first time in franchise history.
Back in FM1 it was extremely competitive, much more so than today, but it was not on purpose. T10 hardly knew exactly what they were doing at the time and just let communities develop on their own and do their own thing. The result was (unforeseen by T10) a massive shift toward ever insane levels of extreme competition first with hot lapping and then public lobby racing, from which league racing like here at the IFCA would eventually emerge.
I’m not saying they will bring that level of competitive spirit back, but it is good that they have made a U-turn to try to get some of it back. Based on the examples given we can safely say the cars handle better and are actually faster than in FM7. Tires are playing a huge role too this time with hard, medium, soft compounds in addition to stock, street, sport, and slicks. Also the addition of an authentic specialty tire for olders cars. Then there is the improved engine and tire sounds with tracks that actually have atmosphere that effects the performance and look too.
Bottom line, even if Forza Motorsports only had 1 or 2 improvements over FM7, it would be worthy of purchase for the devoted. Imagine a slightly better looking, slightly better feeling, slightly better sounding FM7. Would you buy it? Of course you would! Because FM7 isn’t all that bad to begin with. Give FM7 an across the board upgrade as they have done with “FM8”, and there is no reason not to want it.
So while we all were maybe expecting something more revolutionary, what we are getting is something more evolutionary instead. But that’s okay. Nobody hates Porsche for continually upgrading one of the winningest cars ever made, the legendary 911, for the past 60 years. But, just don’t say it’s, “new from the ground up.”
