Forza Motorsport has been out for 3 months now. So far we have received 3 Updates consisting of some bug fixes, 2 tracks and a handful of cars. Sadly the Career Mode still only has 1 Cup available and the Featured Cups have been about 3 or so so far? So not a lot.
I’m curious what the community would like to see added to the career mode. After all, T10 explicitly said that they want this game to be a ‘live service model’. So Updates and additions are kind of necessary, especially with such a bare bones Career mode.
Any ideas or suggestions?
I would love some racing series added badly. None of the Tours we have so far focuses on racing cars.
I would also love to see some drift and drag events being added to add some variety.
Well, let’s take some inspiration from a great game that I played growing up. It was called Forza Motorsport.
Since they seem insistent that they keep their CarPG perhaps we take inspiration from Forza Motorsport (2005)s region selection at start. So for those who are unfamiliar when you start the game you can choose your region for where your avatar is based. (America, Europe, or Asia) Whichever region you choose decreases the price of that regions cars but also reduces the rarity of those cars which effects overall payout after races. We could use region to start all cars in your selected region at level 10 or something to thar effect.
Another thing that Motorsport (2005) had that I would like to see return is point to point races. Some of the world’s most famous races are point to point events. So it seems odd to be focused only on circuits, especially when every title in the past has had point to point events. We had 20 locations at launch and 3 of them we’re oval tracks. Maybe they could’ve pushed one of ovals to be drip fed to us and give us a point to point instead.
Motorsport (2005) had multiple ways to play;
-Arcade mode: single race events with difficulty from easy to medium to hard.
-Multiplayer: I do not understand how so many developers drop local multiplayer from every title - Yes, I know I don’t have any friends, but I would like the option to play with one if I manage to get one.
-And the career: 3 event types (point to point races, circuit races, endurance races). Of the 3 event types in the original title somehow the ‘built from the ground up’ version has 1 (ONE!) of the race types from the original game.
Other things Motorsport (2005) did better:
-There were only 17 locations in the original but there was variation between them. In Motorsport (2023) all locations, save for Hakone, feel pretty much the same.
-2005 had the Nurburging Nordschleife. Yeah, you know the world’s most famous race track, they had that. Because why wouldn’t you have that in a racing game!
-2005 you could change your car during an event, you weren’t locked in on using one car for an entire championship unless you restart the entire thing.
I happened to be reading a review of the console port of AC from 2015:
“…These restart rituals are the kind of thing I practised commonly back on the early Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport games but since then other racing sims have matured to feature career modes that make you feel like you’re competing as a real race driver. Assetto Corsa’s racing career is really just a fractured series of vanilla assessments you have to complete successfully before moving up to the next one…”
Desperately sad that 8 years down the line, that review applies entirely to the current Forza game. Quite why the IGN review of Forza 23, written by the same author, doesn’t make any of the same criticisms but instead describes the Forza career as “… a smart touch, and it’s a more robust single-player racing experience than the likes of GT7 as a result.” (based solely on being able to pick your own position on the grid) is hard to understand.
Publishers cannot bribe gaming outlets to give favorable review scores. It’s illegal. Period.
There are laws from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) that prohibit any sort of “compensation” for favorable reviews. If it were to come out a publisher bribed a news outlet, the publishers and outlet would face heavy fines, let alone lose all credibility moving forward.
What publishers can do, however, is deny news outlets access to future products if they don’t give favorable reviews. This is a lot harder to prove, obviously. Also, having early access to a game is one of the competitive advantages all gaming news outlets compete for. So, access can become more valuable than money since having access is what generates traffic aka money, for big gaming outlet sites like IGN.
So, technically, it is about money, but the ways publishers can try and influence gaming outlets and individual influencers cannot be out right monetary bribes for the reasons listed above.
I just want to clarify this because it’s too easy for people to just assume big publishers literally pay for reviews (especially when people disagree with the review) when that’s not the case.
If it were as common as people believe, there would be far more scandals and proof publishers are bribing news outlets (with money), for favorable reviews than there are, or have been. Access, or lack thereof (Blacklisting) on the other hand…
The first thing I want to see in career mode is an AI that doesn’t suck. Then I want to see an actual career mode in career mode instead of the waste of time and effort they decided was good enough. Most importantly get rid of the stupid upgrade system that has made the barebones career mode more boring than watching paint dry.
You had 1 job T10: take FM7 and improve and add to it. Instead you made it worse and removed content.
Of course, in modern “legitimate” business affairs, nobody physically hands anybody an envelope of cash in an actual shady back alley exchange.
…Favorable reviews are just (conveniently *wink*) mutually beneficial for the gaming media & game companies.
Few major releases from big “TrIpLe-A” publishers ever get low review scores from major media outlets, no matter how much some of those titles might deserve harsh criticism.
With Microsoft’s ownership of dozens of game studios (including those bundled with their recent $69-billion-dollar buy-out of Activision Blizzard), it’s easy to see why “GaMe JoUrNaLiStS” would want to remain on Microsoft’s good side for “eXcLuSiVe InSiDeR aCcEsS.”
Favorable reviews are also more likely to be quoted by those game publishers in their hype to boost sales, lending more credibility to those reviewers and driving more traffic to the reviewers’ sites.
Favorable reviews also feed into more follow-on content from those reviewer sites, like guides & tutorials & tips & tricks & updates & announcements etc., all pulling in even more clicks/traffic/views.
More clicks/views = more ad revenue & more user/traffic data to collect for advertising.
Unfavorable reviews are just dead-ends that get less exposure, risk damaging mutually-beneficial relationships with game companies, and might also risk retaliation from angry fans of a game.
I cannot take “GaMe JoUrNaLiStS” seriously as “critics” because they are obviously incentivized to avoid criticizing anything from big publishers.
…They won’t bite the hands that feed them, and they clearly have no ethical reservations about being accomplices in misleading consumers.
They’re effectively just part of an outsourced marketing department.
I would like to see them add a new permanent cup with a decent progression structure. What we have right now feels like a random collection of free play races. They don’t need to add a story with cutscenes, or team management, just make it feel more coherent.
The Xbox 360 games did a good enough job of this, having you start out doing short single races with street cars, and ending with endurance races in GT3s and prototypes. Oh, and every series gave you a reward car. Why are they so allergic to giving out rewards all of a sudden? It would make it more worthwhile to give out a reward for each series, not just one at the end of each tour. The entire permanent campaign has 4 reward cars right now. The only other thing to earn is CR but with how they set up the economy I’m already drowning in credits.
I had envisioned the “Career” mode to start my Driver out at amateur level events. Tuned street cars on short duration, short track series, with 2 or 3 such series for each single-make or car class.
Then after I win enough gold trophies (or more silvers, or even more bronzes), I’d get offers to take a seat driving for a pro-am racing team. Medium length races with a single pit stop. There are multiple car types/classes that these series could be centered on, and the cars might even be spec tuned. Race well enough, get other offers within this same tier, switch teams/cars, etc.
Above that tier, enough wins would see my driver getting offers for pro GT or LMS type teams. Real race cars. Longer duration races with 1 to 3 pit stops, and a few time-lapsed endurance events.
Win enough trophies in the pro series, and advance to “team owner” events. Open class, bring the car, build, and tune I want to the series. This tier offers short sprints series, medium length race series with pit stops, or endurance events.
A wall in the main menu “Garage” would have a display case that I could fill with my trophies. Completing the career mode would see me having a gold cup on the shelf for every event. Maybe on the wall behind the helmet display.
Endurance Series, multiclass races, some fun events to loosen up the routine (drift races with points, drag races, time attack on parkours, overtake mini-game and so on).
All stuff that has been in the series and doesn’t require any effort. I’m not even asking for a fully-fledged career with cutscenes or choices. Just the absolute basic which this game still manages to fail.
I’ve been playing racing games since '96 and I think I’ve never experienced a lazier and more drab “career” than in this Motorsport.
Honestly I’d like to see autocross brought back from 4, passing challenge, the one on one races down the mountain or nurburgring, multi class races, the superlap races, the almalfi coast track, like toss in some of the fictional places along with more real tracks
Oh to be so innocent once again! Look, that’s not an insult so don’t take it as one. Stay young, or at least young at heart! Those of us who have been around the block a few times, however, know the world does not work like you want it to.
