Forza 4 Latest News & Discussion

[SuperShouden]

European Manufacturer Races done. Onto the Asian races. And I still need an R1 Acura at least. And an R3 Saleen, but I have a couple Saleens that should be able to help out with that.

 

[Speedster911]

I strongly believe FM5 is not going to be a current gen title.

Google Dan and T10: you're going to know they are planning to include night driving and weather at a constant 60 fps. Also, the issues that have been present with previous FM titles or the current one, are going to need new hardware to do away with.

FM4, then came Horizon. T10 has their hands full with FM5. And like Wolfe said, sticking to the 2 year cycle is not an issue, as long as Microsoft holds their end of the bargain about releasing new hardware.

 

[Dopplegagger]

I wish Top Gear would help make a racing/driving game, that would be epic.

It depends...

The TGTT is an awesome addition. TG voice overs in AV... nice touch. Soccer... Fun to break up the monotomy. Bowling... Noooooo!

I want to see all the Top Gear test tracks (El Toro MCAB from TG USA espeically ) and more commentry from Top Gear would be awesome... But that is about it from my wants in a game involving Top Gear.

 

[Speedster911]

I think "a game involving Top Gear" would pretty much come down to this:

Test driving cars, and test driving yet more of them..... and... then what?!

 

[CyanideCola]

I wish Top Gear would help make a racing/driving game, that would be epic

I believe Road and Track tried that once. What was the game called... oh, yeah The Need for Speed. That's where things went wrong. I don't want that to happen, and especially not to Forza.

I think "a game involving Top Gear" would pretty much come down to this:

Test driving cars, and test driving yet more of them..... and... then what?!

Ain't that right.

 

[Wolfe]

I believe Road and Track tried that once. What was the game called... oh, yeah The Need for Speed. That's where things went wrong. I don't want that to happen, and especially not to Forza.

Have you played The Need for Speed?

Road & Track's involvement meant detailed specifications and analysis for each car, photo galleries, videos, narrated descriptions, and histories of the brand/model. They provided input on the handling, helping to make the game a sim by early-'90s standards, and probably provided the access needed for the interior views and recorded engine sounds. It was a very sober and sophisticated racing game for its time.

What happened when they dropped R&T for NFSII? Handling turned to typical "arcade"-style simplicity, the tracks became wacky fantasy courses with ridiculous features, the car list catered to exotic prototypes and adolescent fast-looking concepts, and the acclaimed police chases of the original were nowhere to be seen.

Whatever beef you have with the NFS series, it's ridiculous to pin it on R&T.

I think "a game involving Top Gear" would pretty much come down to this:

Test driving cars, and test driving yet more of them..... and... then what?!

I think you're thinking of the pre-2002 original. TG is far too busy globetrotting, smashing caravans, dropping things on cars, dropping cars on things, setting cars and things on fire, racing against every other possible form of travel, transforming cars into every other possible form of travel, and bickering with themselves to do something as mundane as test driving cars.

I'd play a game where you do stuff like that.

 

[SuperShouden]

Ugh! Doing the X Class races....ummm...yeah, Turn10, I don't know what that Insta-Stop crap is just on the other side of the white line, but you should sell it to law enforcement. Literally, even if PART of a tire goes over the white line at the bottom of the track, you pretty much stop instantly. It's really annoying on those already boring oval races. And it doesn't help that in a super fragile car, if even the brakes get damaged you can't turn. I didn't know brakes had anything to do with the handling other than stopping the car. Maybe they figured if you wanted to stop on the ovals you could just dip a tire over the white line for half a second.

 

[HAL20XX]

I didn't realize just how awful this game can be with a controller until taking another stab at the autocross events. The amount of time it takes for the car to start turning in the other direction is ridiculous. Setting up for the next turn is one thing, but setting up to get the steering wheel to start turning to set up for the next turn is asinine.

What's the point of having a simulation mode for the controller when my input is not directly simulated on screen? T10 needs to stop babysitting the players that want as true of a simulation as possible.

Before you say, "steering wheel", it was on my shortlist but then my wife and I decided to take a trip to Japan (only 9 days from now!). Now with the next gen on the horizon, I want to wait and make sure that any steering wheel I buy will be compatible.

 

[SuperShouden]

Don't use simulation handling with the controller. I tried it once, and it's terrible. Simulation is definitely meant for wheels. Normal is just fine for controllers.

In other news, I got Aston Martin to level 50. Getting there really isn't hard, but I'm also working on the event list, and I have to mud through the stupid low credit and xp races at the moment with the random Speedway events tossed in...which...I raced most of them then let the AI driver handle the rest. By the way, be VERY careful letting the AI drive in the speedway events. My guy kept almost losing. I believe I even had to restart one 'cause he flipped over.

 

[Wolfe]

^ Trudging through the Speedway events and repetitive "same thing, another class" events is about all I have left to do in FM4. For FM5 they should collapse all of those F-to-R class events into a single series that can be completed in any car, with a leaderboard for each class.

I didn't realize just how awful this game can be with a controller until taking another stab at the autocross events. The amount of time it takes for the car to start turning in the other direction is ridiculous. Setting up for the next turn is one thing, but setting up to get the steering wheel to start turning to set up for the next turn is asinine.

What's the point of having a simulation mode for the controller when my input is not directly simulated on screen? T10 needs to stop babysitting the players that want as true of a simulation as possible.

Low-speed maneuvers could certainly benefit from a boost in steering, but direct control is too fast and patently unrealistic, contributing to an excess amount of understeer and tire wear. I agree with Shouden, you're generally better off with Normal on a controller, but in fact, that only makes the sluggish low-speed steering worse.

It doesn't help that the autocross events are just awkward slalom runs on racetracks. The methodical gradients that define the gate spacing are terribly mundane, and those low-speed "squeeze" gates, like you're talking about, are more of a chore than a challenge.

I can't believe all we got for the wide-open spaces of the Top Gear Test Track and Benchmark Test area were some repetitive TG Bowling events, and a handful of simple half-baked layouts. Imagine the Forza community unleashed on a multiplayer-capable autocross layout editor, like Live for Speed's...we could be running laps around My Little Ponies made out of cones by now.

 

[HAL20XX]

I set my controller to normal steering last night and while it helps me maintain a cleaner line, I feel completely disconnected from the car. If only Microsoft would confirm that the next Xbox will be compatible with a Fanatec...

 

[SuperShouden]

I felt more disconnected from the car with the simulation steering and the controller than normal steering and the controller.

As for the crap events, yeah, I think those need to be in a separate list at the beginning of the event list. Instead, after racing through a crap load of true races, you get to the plethora of random events and it feels..weird. I think the idea was to give you a break, but, if that's true, they could have easily stuffed those events into a column on each tier instead of sticking them at the end.

What I really miss from previous FM games though is the local leaderboards. You used to be able to see all your times for each track, which would be awesome for a track like Top Gear.

 

[Speedster911]

Have you played The Need for Speed?

Road & Track's involvement meant detailed specifications and analysis for each car, photo galleries, videos, narrated descriptions, and histories of the brand/model. They provided input on the handling, helping to make the game a sim by early-'90s standards, and probably provided the access needed for the interior views and recorded engine sounds. It was a very sober and sophisticated racing game for its time.

What happened when they dropped R&T for NFSII? Handling turned to typical "arcade"-style simplicity, the tracks became wacky fantasy courses with ridiculous features, the car list catered to exotic prototypes and adolescent fast-looking concepts, and the acclaimed police chases of the original were nowhere to be seen.

Whatever beef you have with the NFS series, it's ridiculous to pin it on R&T.


I think you're thinking of the pre-2002 original. TG is far too busy globetrotting, smashing caravans, dropping things on cars, dropping cars on things, setting cars and things on fire, racing against every other possible form of travel, transforming cars into every other possible form of travel, and bickering with themselves to do something as mundane as test driving cars.

I'd play a game where you do stuff like that.

Aa'second that Wolfe! The original Need for Speed just stole my heart man! It was a very good representation of how these cars felt and sounded like.. and R&T's involvement really brought that experience to life. IMO, all other NFS games after the original one have been utter crap, since they shed the sim formula in favour of arcade racing, to keep up with the competition, most likely. Porsche Unleashed was the only decent sim-oriented racing game since the original NFS. I really miss the race locations from both these games, even to this day.

The only other games that managed to awe my senses like the original NFS, are GT and FM. That's it, everything else is crap. Apart from some PC sims, those are brilliant too!

Ugh! Doing the X Class races....ummm...yeah, Turn10, I don't know what that Insta-Stop crap is just on the other side of the white line, but you should sell it to law enforcement. Literally, even if PART of a tire goes over the white line at the bottom of the track, you pretty much stop instantly. It's really annoying on those already boring oval races. And it doesn't help that in a super fragile car, if even the brakes get damaged you can't turn. I didn't know brakes had anything to do with the handling other than stopping the car. Maybe they figured if you wanted to stop on the ovals you could just dip a tire over the white line for half a second.

Call it a lack of resources or whatever, but T10 obviously decided not to have any flagging system in the game, since realistic tyre wear/fuel usage, along with pit stops are missing. The gluey areas outside the track boundaries have been put there deliberately, to prevent people from cheating/cutting corners. It has been discussed a number of times on the official forum - forzamotorsport.net.

I didn't realize just how awful this game can be with a controller until taking another stab at the autocross events. The amount of time it takes for the car to start turning in the other direction is ridiculous. Setting up for the next turn is one thing, but setting up to get the steering wheel to start turning to set up for the next turn is asinine.

What's the point of having a simulation mode for the controller when my input is not directly simulated on screen? T10 needs to stop babysitting the players that want as true of a simulation as possible.

Before you say, "steering wheel", it was on my shortlist but then my wife and I decided to take a trip to Japan (only 9 days from now!). Now with the next gen on the horizon, I want to wait and make sure that any steering wheel I buy will be compatible.

If you use the controller, like... well, a controller...stabbing the stick left/right, then you're not going to get precise control. Something I learned fairly early on when I used to race in GT with a PS2 controller: make intricate corrections, and learn to hold the analog stick at a certain angle, rather than just tapping it left/right intermittently. Takes practice, but you get used to it, once you're into the game. What you're probably doing is giving far too much steering input, which results in sudden loss of grip. This happens in real life too, BTW.

Don't use simulation handling with the controller. I tried it once, and it's terrible. Simulation is definitely meant for wheels. Normal is just fine for controllers.

In other news, I got Aston Martin to level 50. Getting there really isn't hard, but I'm also working on the event list, and I have to mud through the stupid low credit and xp races at the moment with the random Speedway events tossed in...which...I raced most of them then let the AI driver handle the rest. By the way, be VERY careful letting the AI drive in the speedway events. My guy kept almost losing. I believe I even had to restart one 'cause he flipped over.

Normal and Sim steering both cater to different driving style. I don't believe you need to use sim steering exclusively with the wheel. You can enjoy it with the controller as well, AS long as your dead zones are set up correctly. If they're not, chances are you won't enjoy SIM steering much, and feel compelled to just stick to Normal. Based on actual driving, Sim steering does give you a better feel of the road as well as every car's individual characteristics.

^ Trudging through the Speedway events and repetitive "same thing, another class" events is about all I have left to do in FM4. For FM5 they should collapse all of those F-to-R class events into a single series that can be completed in any car, with a leaderboard for each class.


Low-speed maneuvers could certainly benefit from a boost in steering, but direct control is too fast and patently unrealistic, contributing to an excess amount of understeer and tire wear. I agree with Shouden, you're generally better off with Normal on a controller, but in fact, that only makes the sluggish low-speed steering worse.

It doesn't help that the autocross events are just awkward slalom runs on racetracks. The methodical gradients that define the gate spacing are terribly mundane, and those low-speed "squeeze" gates, like you're talking about, are more of a chore than a challenge.

I can't believe all we got for the wide-open spaces of the Top Gear Test Track and Benchmark Test area were some repetitive TG Bowling events, and a handful of simple half-baked layouts. Imagine the Forza community unleashed on a multiplayer-capable autocross layout editor, like Live for Speed's...we could be running laps around My Little Ponies made out of cones by now.

They could have included seperate Autocross tracks. Autocross on race tracks doesn't make sense.

I have a feeling FM5 is going to be huge. Yeah.. they better...or they'll be called EA no.2!

 

[SuperShouden]

Thanks to doctorrg, I now have 3 achievements left in the main game plus the Porsche DLC ones, which shouldn't be hard once I get that DLC. I might be able to borrow someone's kinect for a day to get that stupid achievement and then it's just World Traveler and Bucket List.

 

[VXR]

I don't get the problem with sim steering on a pad that some people have? To me every car feels good and the really powerful ones are tricky but controllable too.

 

[Speedster911]

Tricky but controllable, the real powerful ones. Just like real life.

As long as you learn to use the controller as it were a steering wheel, you'll get tremendous satisfaction out of SIM steering. Took me a little over a month to fully adjust to FM4's physics. Well worth the effort and patience!

 

[SuperShouden]

So, I believe the World Tour races give you the most experience per race I believe you can earn 25K experience there. I'll have to experiment and check. It's either World Tour, Multi-class or World Championship races. But I'm almost positive the World Tour gives you the most.

 

[SuperShouden]

Good news! I've got the Porsche Expansion now. Now, it's time to complete Forza 4. Just have Bucket List for the main game and all the Porsche achievements. Shouldn't be too hard. Buying all the cars should be the hardest thing.

EDIT: Just passed level 23 with Dodge. Experience needed for the next level went from 150,000xp to about 75,000xp...and it'll drop to 50k at 25....interesting.

 

[JohnBM01]

Earlier today, I played the demo to Forza Motorsport 4. It was my first experience actually playing Forza 4 after seeing a good number of videos on FM4. I've been extremely "tardy to the party" (so to speak) on FM4. What has surprised me the most is just how beautifully FM4 runs as beautiful as it looks. I literally swear the game runs as smoothly as Gran Turismo 5. And with all due respect to GT5, FM4 looks better than GT5 by miles/kilometers. Because I didn't know what to expect, I put the difficulty on Easy and used the Subaru Impreza in the demo. I won by about 19 seconds and except for accidentally pressing the Rewind button when I didn't need to use it, I had a pretty good time lapping the beautiful and original Bernese Alps track. That course seems like one where you can enjoy going full speed for a good amount of time without a whole lot of tricky or grinding corners.

I've always respected the Forza Motorsport series once I really eased up on it. That respect hasn't been tainted in any such way after playing the FM4 demo. I'm sure you all will probably tell me something different in regards to the proper game, but I was fairly impressed with FM4 after reading about it and seeing several videos.

 

[SuperShouden]

Two things: 1. Forza 4 isn't nearly as beautiful as the demo makes it out to be. I've mentioned that Turn 10 turned up the Contrast, Exposure and Brightness for whatever reason, which makes driving in cockpit view on some tracks nearly impossible and it also makes the cars and tracks really shiny. Which, I don't know why they need to be super shiny, but whatever. There are several other minor quirks with FM4, too, but there's minor quirks with a lot of games. Even GT5 has a lot of quirks.

2. Turn10 has a habit of using one or two tracks in almost every race in the game. In FM1 it was Blue Mountain and the Test Track. 2 was the Test Track Infield and Sunset. 3 was the stupid Sanoma courses and the Ladera courses and 4....FM4 is that Bernese Alps track. The thing is...Blue Mountain, the Test Track Infield, the Test Track (I'll give you one guess as to why that wasn't included in any FM game passed 1), Sunset and Ladera...they're all really fun courses that you don't really mind racing over and over. Sanoma and Bernese...are the most annoying tracks in the world. The full Sanoma, I hate, the oval sanoma I hate, probably because....there's nothing around the track. With most of the courses, there's good "scenery" (by which I mean photos) but with Sanoma...there's nothing. It's the desert, and Turn10 made you race on the Sanoma courses until you were sick and tired of them in FM3. And the same thing goes for the Bernese Alps in FM4. They use it so much, that by the time I had thought I'd race my last race on that track, I was dancing for joy...and then I got the Porsche Expansion...which features the Bernese Alps in almost EVERY event. I understand being proud of creating a good track, but Turn10 just rubs it in your face. What makes the Alps worse is there's only 2 variations of it that look REALLY similar, so it always feels like the same track. By the end, you can't even tell the difference between the two, and hardly between forwards and backwards. And, despite being in the Alps, the track is almost a NASCAR track with the amount of left turns. At least when GT made an Alps track they put lots of turns in it...which, it's the ALPS. It's like Turn10's never been on a mountain road before.

Other than that. It's an excellent game, and, really, once you're past the first 40-50 events in the Event List, you don't race on Bernese Alps that much. And the only "online" achievements are the Porsche ones I think you can do in Rivals or just create a lobby of AI players. I ground most of them out on Maple Valley Mini set to 1 lap.

The community is great! I love seeing all the designs the community comes up with. And there are some REALLY impressive ones. And...I've not learned that while the Auction house doesn't really serve the purpose of selling designs anymore, it does allow people to get cars for cheap and get rid of cars they might not be able to get a lot of money for otherwise. (BTW, Porsches are quite valuable. Nearly made back the 2 mill I spent on the RS Spyder the other day,)

Anyways. That's my three cents.

 

[Eks]

Enjoy the game, JohnB0M1. The game has issues, some being the ones Shouden pointed out, but overall it is enjoyable. Shockingly, it kept me "latched on" to it more than GT5. And yes, it runs much better than GT5. 60fps comes at a price, though. The biggest price of all is no F1 or any open-wheel cars, no New York track, or the big version of Coasta da Amalfia or whatever it's called.

 

[SuperShouden]

New York probably isn't there for the same reason the Test Track disappeared after the first game. While it wasn't an exact copy of GT's New York, it was close enough. Although, to be fair, GT5 doesn't have a New York circuit, either.

 

[JohnBM01]

I don't have an XBOX 360, so I obviously don't have this game either. I am just speaking based on the demo I played. I'd probably own every Forza Motorsport by now if I did have an XBOX 360. Maybe even the very first FM (if it's playable on the XBOX 360).

 

[YakieS1]

Sanoma and Bernese...are the most annoying tracks in the world. The full Sanoma, I hate, the oval sanoma I hate, probably because....there's nothing around the track. With most of the courses, there's good "scenery" (by which I mean photos) but with Sanoma...there's nothing.

Sedona, you mean? Not the track formerly named Infineon and now named Sonoma Raceway?

Agree on Sedona, disagree on Bernese. IMHO Bernese is a good track, just with the difficulty dialed way up. Lots of camber changes and elevation changes. I've had some of my most rewarding hot lap sessions around Bernese (and Infineon...)

 

[SuperShouden]

Sedona, you mean? Not the track formerly named Infineon and now named Sonoma Raceway?

Agree on Sedona, disagree on Bernese. IMHO Bernese is a good track, just with the difficulty dialed way up. Lots of camber changes and elevation changes. I've had some of my most rewarding hot lap sessions around Bernese (and Infineon...)

Sedona, Sonoma...they're both in California.

After I've not raced at Bernese for a while, it's a good track. But, after racing on it for so many races, it gets boring. The scenery's lovely, though.

 

[Wolfe]

IMHO Bernese is a good track, just with the difficulty dialed way up. Lots of camber changes and elevation changes. I've had some of my most rewarding hot lap sessions around Bernese (and Infineon...)

IMO Bernese is a good track, just inflated to ludicrously huge proportions. It looks like a road but drives like a double-wide runway. The experience you can get there in a Pagani Zonda, I'd prefer to get from a Miata.

 

[YakieS1]

Sedona, Sonoma...they're both in California.

Sedona is in Arizona!!

 

[Eks]

New York probably isn't there for the same reason the Test Track disappeared after the first game. While it wasn't an exact copy of GT's New York, it was close enough. Although, to be fair, GT5 doesn't have a New York circuit, either.

Maybe that too, but I remember them saying either on Facebook or FM Forums that the number of lights dragged the framerate down.

Shame. I loved that track.

 

[Speedster911]

Sedona, Infeneon, Bernese... all technical tracks, and with the right tune, reward precision driving big time!

 

[Dopplegagger]

With so many "events" full of multiple races, you are going to see the handful of tracks in Forza 4 repeated until it's unbearable.

The thing I find funny is, all those events and some how Turn 10 managed to make every last one of them feel the same.