Impressions from the fast track on Forza 4

Being something of a racing game fan, Forza 4 made my list of my Top 5 games for Q4 2011, so it's no surprise that when it launched last Friday, I immediately picked up a copy and started burning rubber (and also playing Forza 4).

My thoughts pretty much echo all the reviews of Forza 4 that you may or may not have been reading.

Forza 4 is pretty much pure car porn

Basically I think that Forza 4 is a better game than Forza 3 in pretty much every single way.
It is further polishing the winning formula that Turn 10 has been developing over the course of the Forza Motorsport series.

However, it also feels like a much smaller step up than 3 did from 2.
Racing around a lot of the same tracks as you did in Forza 3, you will often be extremely hard pressed to see any difference at all in terms of visual quality.

Perhaps the one area that does feel like it has gotten a significant visual upgrade is the cockpit view, which now looks even better and has actually become my preferred racing view, after pretty much having been a "behind the car" racing guy for all of my life.

The new World Tour mode takes you all over the world and pretty much always gives you an option of racing with the car you are currently in.
This is really great, because it means that you don't get forced into driving a lot of cars that you have no interest in, and also means that if you suddenly feel like changing from your BMW M5 to a big SUV like the Audi Q7, then the game will immediately present you with relevant races for your soccer-mom-grocery-shopping vehicle of choice.

The racing (still) feels great, with massive handling differences depending on your car of choice and how you have upgraded it.
The four wheel drive cars tend to feel very stable around corners, while a fully upgraded Porsche will just try to murder you every time you throw it into a corner and touch the gas.

Driving a car like this BMW M5 feels very different from romping around in something like a Fiat 500 Abarth

Forza 4 also lets you customize the difficulty of driving the car to a high degree.
You can have full driving assists that all but lets you win races just by holding in the accelerate button, all the way to super crazy manual gear shifts with no traction control, no abs, no breaking lines, no rewinds and full damage.

One major gripe that I do have with Forza 4 though, and I had the exact same issue with Forza 3, is that in the career mode you do not get any option to change the difficulty of the AI drivers.
Now, I may just be a racing god (no snickering in the back!), but I have been able to win pretty much every single race I've played so far (granted, I'm only up to level 12, but this was the same in Forza 3, where I got to level 45) without much difficulty and without using the rewind function more than once or twice.
And this is with the only driving aids switched on being the ABS system and automatic shifting.

You'll occasionally have some great in-fights with opponents.
It's just a shame it usually only happens in the first lap or two

Apparently the game is supposed to adapt the difficulty of the AI's to how well you are performing, but this does just not seem to work and I really wish that there was more of a challenge from the other drivers, as driving a 4 lap race and getting to first position about three quarters of the way through the first lap does not make for the most exciting races.

I haven't really played much at all with any of the online parts, like multiplayer, car clubs or the auction houses.
I know this is a very big part of the Forza series for many people, but it never really appealed to me that much.
But it's in there and apparently pretty good, from what I have heard.

All in all, I can recommend this to anyone who is a fan of driving games and certainly if you have any love for the more sim-like ones.
However, if you felt that you got your fill with Forza 3 and you're looking for a big leap forward in the genre, then there's nothing here that's going to set your world on fire.




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