ForzaMartini has hit the nail directly on the head about the issues with FM’s current direction.
The only thing I could add to that would be my constant complaints of the online track rotations/lap counts/track frequency(distribution). It’s why I don’t play it as I have past FM games. In my opinion a clear step down from FM6… with FM4’s online racing being just about perfect. I would have rated it perfect, but full Monza should have been in the S class rotation. I personally think that only full and national versions of ALL the tracks should be in A/S/R/X class rotations. I think there could be some justification for the smaller track configs for the slower cars, but not the faster ones.
As another thread pointed out, for FM7, even though a track shows rain, it doesn’t in this game online…which I applaud. I think rain has no value add for online racing. Rain tracks constantly clean out lobbies(as did 2 laps of the Ring in FM6). Rain in single player…I’m fine with it. I will give the game a plus for that move.
I also agree that FM4 is the best in the series.
A re-release of FM4 with updated graphics & car list would have me all over that game.
I would say until Turn 10 is more candid about what this game is supposed to be, nobody will ever know how to review it. The fans seem to call it a “simcade”, but to me that’s like calling somebody skinnyfat. It’s an oxymoron. That makes me think the developers were aiming for sim, and just fell short. Horizon is supposed to be the arcade game. If anything even makes sense, that would make the Motorsports series the sim. To be honest, I think that was the plan. They just suck at it, and as a consequence, it’s been labeled a “simcade” and they’re just running with it lol. This game is mundane and bland. It doesn’t know what it wants to be, and as a consequence, I don’t know why I even bought it. Project Cars 2 is a farrrrrrrrr superior game, and they’re only on their second game. That series is going to dominate this market if Turn 10 doesn’t create a strait forward path for this franchise. None of this lukewarm nonsense. I haven’t even gotten into the specifics of what is, or isn’t wrong with this game because I don’t know what it’s supposed to be.
Dunno why people get all worked up and run it down. I always say if you want a sim, go for something that is deadly serious and populated by professionals. This is meant to be fun. You have SUVs, crown vic cop cars and a bloody limo for chrissakes. Won’t see any of them in a sim. IT’s been made for your enjoyment. If you don’t enjoy it, sell it! Personally I think it’s great. Only real complaint I have is sometimes it’ll just randomly go back to the home screen and anything I have just done (liveries, tunes) that’s not been saved is lost. Now I save everything regularly, just in case. Back on point - it’s neither a sim nor an arcade game. It’s a game that’s a little more involved than arcade and can be enjoyed by most people. Much like pretty much every other racing game I have played on console. Going right back to when it was Lotus Turbo Challenge on the Commodore 64.
Oh, and skinnyfat is perfectly reasonable to call someone,. Sometimes you get someone who is quite skinny but because they live a sedentary lifestyle and only eat crap food the only meat on their body is fat. Or I guess they could be a skinny person with a fat head.
There is a fine line between the simcade balance Forza just to provide that scratched a very particular itch, but it has deviated from the Forza formula. Which apparently you know nothing about…
I swore off buying a new game from Turn 10 after Forza 5. I didn’t like the direction they were taking the series (arcade) and then abandoning drag racing in favor of drifting. I purchased FM7 a while back when it was on sale and played it less than an hour before getting aggravated with it and uninstalling it.
I came across a video on YouTube from the Xbox channel and started to download FM7 again before the video ended because I was so excited about drag racing getting some much needed love. Here I am a month later and disappointed with Forza yet again, but not because of drag racing being neglected.
I don’t mind Forza Motorsports being a little arcady now. There’s just some things that are unexcusable in FM7. I can’t get my cars tuned because I can’t get any data. There’s no detailed lap timer, I’d be hard pressed to call it a basic one. The lack of a test track with big open spaces and no quick drive make casual fun impossible. The graphics and cars look amazing, but the atmosphere kills me. I hardly ever see a bright sunny day here in FM7, it’s always dark and gloomy, or even raining on race day. The HUD is disgusting, cheap looking, tiny, uncustomizable, and outdated.
I used to love Forza, and I get hints of that occasionally when I get lucky with a tune. This instalment looks amazing but feels heartless. The supporting roles just aren’t up to the task of keeping up with the main actors, the cars.
I don’t get why it gets so much stick, I’ve probably put more time on on 7 now than I put in on 5 or 6 and I’ve recently really got back into it.
Homologation makes me buy more cars and use them…I like building and tuning cars…so that’s a win for me also keeps it fresh. I’ve never suffered a deleted save or crash and I was playing on day 1.
I think there’s 3 things you need to enjoy it, 1 the ability to tune, 2 a 4k HDR t.v. and 3 and Xbox one X. Playing it on a x one x it’s just clear it was built to run on that, it looks amazing in most ways, the handling seems absolutely responsive (more than I remembered from when I originally played the original x one) and the frame rate is solid as a rock.
My favourite thing is the lighting other than that I think makes the tracks live so much more, running in the rain and the low sun breaks the clouds before disappearing again just makes the same track you’ve played 1000 times feel fresh.
Hey it sounds like you really enjoy the graphics potential in this game and the new homologation feature, but most of the stuff in the past few pages of this thread is more about features they have removed, and the terrible menu. I doubt a new version of the xbox or a 4k tv will help the menu in the game when you are trying to select cars and it struggles to load them.
I do agree that the visuals are great and homologation does have some benefits as far as making me choose some different cars. However the forced restrictions that break homologation setting seem overly strict on car setup. After playing all the other Forza games it is hard being forced into these set ups that restrict build variety.
But from my point of view I need more than just a pretty game, I would also like access to all the cars in the game instead of having to watch livestreams and that nonsense. Paying for a game should allow me to have all the items in a game without having to do silly events outside of playing to get them. I don’t want features that have always been here taken away so they can add driver suits that add nothing to the game except cosmetic fluff. I would love to have menus that are responsive so selecting a car could be simple task instead of the stuttering mess it is now.
Overall, I think a lot of people would agree with you that the game does look nice, and I have learned to see some benefits to homologation, but I also think there are several problem areas in the game a lot of people have mentioned in this thread and many others. I don’t hate Forza 7, I still like the Forza series and using the forums is a good way to let the devs know what we want, it doesn’t mean we will get it but it never hurts to put it out there.
I’m not saying pretty solves all, but tbf having a much more powerful console does help the stuttering menus a bit (doesn’t fix them entirely though!). Also some oddities like the nuclear winter trees on Maple Valley seem more resolved with proper lighting. I felt as though 5 and 6…weren’t that good because they weren’t Forza 4 but in a bad way. This isn’t Forza 4 either but it feels fresher because of the more dynamic nature of the tracks, because there’s less immersion breaking graphical weirdness. Also I don’t remember the handling being as good on the original one but that could be because I’m now 4000 miles in.
I feel as though when I first got it on my original Xbox one, it felt like forza 6…which felt like 5.5 and neither was as good as 4. On the one X it feels like Forza 7…