I have bought every Forza game on release day, dating all the way back to right after my sophomore year of college ended in 2005. I remember seeing an ad for Forza Motorsport in the case for some Xbox game or another, and thinking it was really great that Microsoft had an answer coming to the only game I honestly thought gave Sony a leg-up on them in the console market. I looked up some more information about the game, and I was really impressed with the track list (even though a lot of them were fictional tracks) and even though the car list wasn’t all that impressive, at least the game had damage modeling.
Some of my best gaming memories come from the Forza series. I remember barely being able to cross the finish line in my CCX on that Brazil endurance race because rewind wasn’t a thing yet. I remember being so happy that Forza actually included some damned muscle cars, and they weren’t completely useless. It always felt like whichever type of car you liked, you were getting the same amount of attention as everyone else. I never felt slighted or taken advantage of.
I can’t even imagine how many hours I’ve logged into this series through the last 9 years. It has been my official favorite game series of all time since Forza 3. Over the years, each game has given us marked improvements over the last. Additions of things like rewind, the auction house, storefront, dlc car packs, refinements to the paint shop, etc… It has been a great ride.
But then we come to the subject of Forza 5. Let’s be honest, folks. It’s one hell of a lot of fun to play. It really is. The driving feels great. The sound is great. The game looks great. If you can get with a good group of people on XBL, you can have a ton of fun racing online. I bought an Xbox One strictly for Forza 5. I bought the car pass and VIP because those things were really worth it in Forza 4. I mean, I looked through the car packs for Forza 4, and I remember when each one of them came out and I was just blown away by at least 2-3 of the cars, and maybe even amused by a few others. Hell, we even got the Viper right away, and that thing was a damned exclusive for us. That was badass.
But that’s not what we’re getting here, is it? I didn’t really mind that the car pass was more expensive this time, because I had anticipated the same kind of quality I saw before. Now, naturally with this being a matter of opinion, I can’t plainly state that the car packs have been inferior. Sure, a lot of them have been recycled from Forza 4, which in and of itself isn’t really a problem. The problem is that no one seems to care what the community is asking for. I’ve seen month after month now of people asking about the C7 Corvette. I don’t even really care if it gets added, because I’m not a huge fan of it, but I have a really hard time understanding why it wasn’t there to begin with. The same goes for a lot of the other cars people are pining for. And of course we have the infamous interview where we were told that cars weren’t being held back for DLC. It should be plain to see from minute one that we were dealing with a falsehood there. There is no way in hell the La Ferrari was not a priority for this game’s car list. With all the talk about Nurburgring lap times over the last 18 months with the Ferrari, the P1, and the Porsche, you would imagine T10 would want to get the two out of three that they can actually get in there. Of course you could get the Ferrari, as dlc though.
And this brings me to my next point: The Ring. You know, I don’t wanna be the kind of guy who looks a gift horse in the mouth, but I don’t remember anyone complaining that Road America wasn’t in the game. Sure, it’s a great track and all, but it’s not the track people were asking for. I understand that a lot of work went into it, but it still remains that it isn’t the track that is really conspicuously missing.
I spent about 3 months making excuses for T10, by basically just regurgitating the excuses they were giving us. It takes a long time to build a car, the tracks are laser scanned, etc… But at this point, I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t look past the coincidence that the alleged time it takes to build a community request car is the length of time that the car pass lasts, so we’ll start seeing the cars people are asking for when we have to pay extra for them. I can’t look past the fact that the auction house and storefront are still not there. I can’t look past the fact that we’ve been choosing from the same selection of rims for, what, 3-4 games now? We got drag racing back here recently, but it’s still the same half-assed drag racing mode from before.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. Forza 5 improves the handling of the cars, the presentation, the paint booth, and the tracks. Everything else is a half-baked version of what it was before, or it’s missing entirely. So at the end of the day this is where I’m left. How would I feel if when I bought Madden 25, it only came with the AFC North? I would be pretty pissed off, considering every previous game in the series came with a hell of a lot more than that. But let’s say they started releasing team packs. Let’s say the first month you get the Giants, the Dolphins, the Jets, and the Rams. So everyone says “Guys, those teams all kind of suck. Can we have the good teams that everyone wants to use?” And EA says “Yeah, we’ll get those out to you.” Next month you get the Raiders, Texans, Jaguars, and Vikings. You see where this is going. Nobody would make excuses that things that seem an awful lot like they should be standard features are bizarrely missing just because it’s a next generation title.
I’m tired of all of this. After buying the car pass, I only downloaded the first two packs. I really enjoyed the Ferrari, and I honestly can’t even remember if I bought and drove anything from the second pack. I didn’t even download last month’s pack, the Honda pack, Road America, or the booster pack. I really doubt I’ll download this month’s pack either, because it’s just not interesting enough. Almost all of these are cars I have on Forza 4. Two weeks ago I went back to Forza 4, and it’s just amazing to me that we have regressed so much in terms of basic content.
I don’t want any more excuses. T10 doesn’t care about this community anymore, and if I’m going to deal with a studio that doesn’t care about their community, it might as well be one who actually releases games that follow a logical progression in the sequel instead of delivering a bunch of excuses as to why their latest and greatest feels like a glorified demo.
Back to Forza 4 until I pick up a PS3 and GT6. It’s been a fun ride, but this is my stop. Maybe I’ll see you again for Forza 6 (you can keep that Horizon garbage; I won’t make that mistake twice) because I already own this goddamn Xbox One.
