Forza Motorsport is a tried and tested formula. This formula of a highly realistic racing simulator has garnered a great deal of support and a huge fan base for the game but with every iteration of the game going forward it has felt like more of the same. Meanwhile it’s brother game, Forza Horizon, seems to be a huge hit and continues to generate buzz about the Forza series. Turn 10 have decided to shake up the meta-game of Forza Motorsport to give players more of a reason to level their (new and improved) drivatars and get some cool rewards for coming back regularly. It borrows quite a bit from the Forza Horizon series in ways that are pretty refreshing for the sim, which ages more and more with each instalment. Let’s talk about initial impressions of the Forza Motorsport 6 demo and what it could mean for sales of the game.
We’ll start off with something Turn 10 had promised they worked hard on for this game, which would really give the Forza simulation another dimension and that is the all new weather systems. When I read about what we had in store in terms of weather, I have to admit I wasn’t floored by the concept. It’s something we’ve seen before in racers and other games in general to varying degrees of success. We’ve seen games add rain, making tyres not grip as well and sunny conditions being the perfect driving climate and Forza have taken this to the next level. I played the first couple of tracks in sunny conditions, and my car handled about as well as you would expect for a Forza game. Then I played the night time, cooler temperature track followed by the track covered in puddles during a torrential rain storm and I was astonished at how minute and drastic the changes could be. The night track’s traction was just a little bit looser, but not to the point where you found yourself slipping and the rainy track gave you a real fight to keep the car from drifting away. The grass was sodden and muddy meaning if you touched it at the wrong angle, you’d be slipping and sliding all the way to no man’s land. They really nailed the weather environments!
Now onto the things that were borrowed from Forza Horizon. They implemented the win-spins from Horizon 2, every time you levelled up your driver. You would stop on a random box and get a chance at everything from a Bugatti Veyron, to 1,000,000 credits, all the way down to a shoddy 60,000 credit sports car. It was a great idea to add a system like this into the game as it gives everyone a little bit of something every time they level up. So whether you play for 3 hours a day or 3 hours a month there is going to be benefits to all players from this system.
The only thing in this demo that I take issue with is the possibly exploitable pack opening system. I will inform you, the reader, that this is purely speculation and that I am not sure whether or not this will be the case, but I can definitely see Turn 10 wanting to add the ability to purchase these packs with real currency into the game. This could be a terrible thing for the game (if it happens) as the items you can get out of these packs are not cosmetic. They will affect the outcome of races in certain situations. Examples of things you can get from these packs are things like; added grip for the next race, more credits for your next race and things that may hinder your performance for bonus credits. As I’ve said, if you can buy these packs and earn those extra grip/traction mods, it could hurt the game but I have no problem with this system if the items either a) don’t affect game-play in individual races and b) items are not purchasable with real currency, only in game credits. Other than that, I really like the idea of gambling in-game currency for the chance at a rare card which means you earn double credits for a while and I don’t think things like that will affect anyone but the user, which is great.
Ultimately, there are a huge amount of positive things you can pull from this demo, mainly the fact that you will be able to tell definitively whether or not you want this game by playing it.
But as always we want to hear your thoughts on this. Have you guys played the demo? Will you be buying Forza Motorsport 6? Leave us your comments down below!
Tyler Ishee
Can you you please elaborate on the dry traction? Is it more closely related to Forza 4, or Forza 5? There was a HUGE difference in tire physics between those two games.
i3myX1
FM6 builts up on FM5. On the dry tracks it feels very familiar to FM5. They enhanced and tweaked the physics built in FM5 and added awesome wet racing physics. Driving through puddles feels so realistic, I can feel the aqua sliding through the controller. Awesome done Turn10!!! 🙂
AJ
Playing the demo right now, it’s pretty frustrating. My car is basically driving itself and I’m forced to watch cut scenes and cinematics over and over again.
I tried to turn all the assists off but the changes weren’t saved so I had to quit the race and start the whole demo over again. Right now the ratio of game play time to waiting time is about 30/70.
sd
Dont understand that..you have to watch intros yes..but the car driving itself..???? Im loving it!
Mike Reaney
I’m guessing he hasn’t turned the assists off. Braking and turning assists are on by default so it does feel like you are barely driving it with them on.
AJ
Assists can’t be turned off until after the first race.
Vulcanproject
Lol wut? After the first Ford GT race which is assisted you just go into assists before the next race and set everything as you wish and hit A to accept. This means turning off brake assist and whatever.
I assume you have played games before….
AJ
I’ve been playing Forza for ages. My issue is with the unforgiving run-around I was given when assists were not changed after I changed them. “A” is used to save the setting, but Horizon 2 prompts to save if you exit using “B” regardless.
anonathiest
I can tell that having your arguments for this being a “bad demo” have been torn apart to the point where you are now just plucking at strings.
Neo
The assist change once you have changed them, but they will reset when you open the game again. That’s why it’s called a demo. The full game saves whatever settings you like. 🙂
i3myX1
@ author: The mod system will only affect career races. Free play, Rivals and MP is without mods. So there is no point in buying these mods if there is no competitive PVP gameplay. Mods would be totally against sim racing in these modes. It is a nice gimmick for the SP career, nothing more.
I played the Demo yesterday the first time. It is a nice improvment over FM5 and I love the rain gameplay. You have to endure the full assist Rio and Ford GT intro but afterwards you have 4 races with full customisation (assists and controlls can be adjusted + tuning menu). I can’t wait till my deluxe edition arrives on Sep 15 🙂
sd
The graphics are excellent and its faster and handles easier..impacts are tame though strangely
Forza4ever
Fyi – the mods are for single player career and free race only. This is the best racing I have ever seen. Perfection.