Before i start, let me say, I have been playing Forza since 2005. I’ve owned Forza 1 through 6 and played a bit of horizon 1 and 2. I’ve probably logged a solid year of play time between the games and enjoyed just about all of it. I’ve played many lobbies, rivals, autocross, and story events. I tune and share cars, I paint and design too. I played with a controller up until Forza 6, and now have a full Set up, using the Thrustmaster TX wheel, the Pro pedals, and shifter add on. I even stole the rear seat out of my car and built a chair just for Forza, and it works great. Forza is the reason i got into Autoslolom, and now compete in the CASC-OR AutoSlolom Championship in SMF and SM. I will also be doing Chumpcar and Time Attack in the near future. I have introduced some friends to the game from racing, and we now play during the down time that winter brings. The cars I compete in are a heavily modified Vw GTI in Street Modified FWD, A 2013 TT RS that i do not own, but share with a friend In Street Modified. and I’m currently stripping down a Integra for Chumpcar. I have also competed in a few events driving a 2004 Rx8 modified for D Street Prepared.
Now… saying that, try not to rip my head off, because I have some complaints about Forza 6. Maybe because Forza has introduced me to racing at a time when my knowledge was very little, and now it had grown past the point of most that enjoy the game but do not compete or do trackdays with their own vehicle.
So… what don’t I like?:
Really? just 3 things. 2 of which, can be addressed.
Simulation Steering. Even though i use it in game, i have a complaint about the way it causes your car to “snap” in the opposite direction while correcting oversteer. granted, that when you over correct, yes your car will “snap” back in the opposite direction, but when i put in real life experience input to correct oversteer and it throws me into the opposite barrier without warning, i get a little annoyed. sim steering with the controller works fine, and i think that is because Forza tends to favor the controller more so than a steering wheel. It almost feels through the steering wheel, that you get a rubber band effect. Like you feel the input you get from the tires when they reach the limit, and then you get way more grip out of nowhere, right when you correct the oversteer, and bam! into a wall. I’ve learned to overcome this, but i do it in what i feel is a unnatural way, based on real life correction and steering inputs. I find normal steering setting is way too forgiving and numb, but sim is way to punishing.
Players. Last night i was in a C class lobby, did some races… won some, lost some. whatever right. I usually do private lobbies with friends and A.I. mixed. I don’t do public lobbies so much anymore because of that guy… you know the one. Every lobby has 1 or 2 people that don’t race clean, but more often than not, I’m finding there are more and more that don’t go for clean laps, use the person that is braking in front of them as their own brake for the corner, and talk shit while using every assist they can so they don’t really have to play the game. Some of you will think I’m crying, some of you will agree… So in the 6 online C class games i did last night. 3 of them had 1 guy in a 69 charger that plowed his way through the entire field, whether you gave him room or not, he hit every person off the track at some point… if you tried to pass him cleanly, on the straight or in a corner, he would side swipe you or smash you once you passed. people like this dont even get voted out of the lobbies anymore… what i find just as bad, is when you are taking the proper racing lines, and someone cuts across the grass and zips by 4 cars in a corner. prime examples: Hockenheim 1st corner, and 3rd corner. Bugatti circuit 2nd / 3rd corner, 9th/10th corners. Abu Dhabi chicane… ect… the first part, people smashing people, cant be fixed… but the corner cutting to gain advantage has to stop… Turn 10 can add slowing effects to these areas for those that want to cut… but they don’t.
The Unbeatable A.i. So for anyone that has played with Unbeatable difficulty… you will know what i’m talking about. For those of you yet to experience this… It’s a joke. As i mentioned before, I do a lot of private lobbies with real friends and some A.I. to fill in the gaps. I set the difficulty of them to Unbeatable for a challenge for me and my friends. Everything is great, until you come up to a A.I. that is “on rails”. Countless times, you dive up the inside with plenty of racing room, and get punted by a immovable object that is the random A.i. this A.i. will take the normal racing line and hit you so hard the game physics don’t know what to do… occasionally you get lucky and save the spin and try again several times to pass unsuccessfully, until you get frustrated and cut down the inside and use them as a brake… its OK, because you can hit them as hard as you want and they don’t move a single inch. In what universe is there a immovable car that is glued to the road and takes no account to your, or other A.i. for that matter, road position and spacial awareness. in some occasions ive noticed the A.i. have super human speed and blitz the lap so fast, that they beat the world record lap time just to stay ahead of you… I’ve been Rear ended on the Nurburgring straight wile doing 280kph, and have the Super A.i. come up on me, go underneath my car, and shoot me 50 feet into the air. not trying to swerve and defend the line either… just happened to be in the line the AI chose to be in… nothing like being on your 7th and final lap of a 25 kilometer track and getting demolished by A.i. that seem to have Mario Kart Star power abilities…
The only reason i bring these issues up, is because Forza is Marketed and a Racing “simulation” game. Simulation to me, means the closest recreation possible to the real world. Maybe Turn 10’s interpretation of correcting oversteer is that dramatic. I don’t know. But i think they should look at the way Simulation steering works with actual steering wheels. As for dummies in lobbies. 80% of you are good, respectful players, and you make the game enjoyable and fun! keep up the good work. but for the person that joins just to play smash up derby, and gets butthurt when someone tries to pass them, there needs to be a more effective way of making these people disappear from lobbies. weather you get booted after X amount of contact, instantly. if the game can keep track of how much, how often, and how hard, you hit someone… so that any time these people queue into lobbies, they get put in ones that are full of others just like them. and if they manage to not play smash up derby for X amount of races, they can rejoin with the rest of us. just a thought… As for the A.I. Issue… there is no excuse for this in my opinion. this has been coded into the game by the request of the developers… why?? no clue… is it annoying? VERY. should it be in the game? No. Period. Leave that crap for horizon. stop trying to merge the games. Do the A.i. in other Sim franchises do this? No. Assetto Corsa does a much better job with A.i. difficulty and Turn 10 should revamp this broken system. If you’re wondering, Assetto uses difficulty that you choose, on a scale fro 1-100%. No Weird braking points when the difficulty is turned down, and No Mario Kart Star Power When Maxed out. I prefer Forza’s driving mechanics to Assetto, but Assetto has the best Idea to scale difficulty… sorry Turn 10.
So what i’m trying to get out of all this, is feedback from you, the community, and maybe even Turn 10 if they feel like commenting. I love Forza, i’d give it a solid 9/10 any day. I play it every day… no joke. But maybe Turn 10 can focus more on keeping it up to date and addressing issues that people seem to be having. Its nice to have the most cars ever in a game, but if it doesn’t drive as good as it should strive to, and the lobbies are not managed as well as they could be, you are not doing your job as a company to progress and be the best sim out there. even if you still have the largest following.
Also, Add more Tracks! Canadian Tire Motorsports Park please… (Mosport) GP and DDT. would be nice to see a Canadian Track with some history on your roster. also that way i can drive it both real world and in game, and do a lap comparison!
-Cheers