Forza Motorsport 4 (Xbox 360)

The Forza series has always been about the passion and soul behind the cars you choose, stemming from the ability to take your little Scion tC, upgrade the parts, give it a custom paint job, and race them alongside Ferraris or Aston Martins. But Forza 4 is able to make the game ooze personality from all the 530 cars available, thanks in part to the opening narration from Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson. Touting an improved AI, on display prominently during the game’s extremely exciting exhibition race at the start of the game, even more realistic controls, and tweaked visuals, Forza Motorsport 4 is the ultimate car game on the market.

To be honest, I’m not the world’s biggest car guy. I’ve driven two Volvo’s and two Camry’s and have always dreamed of owning, get this, a Mitsubishi Eclipse. Exciting, I know; I was scared to drive a friend’s Mazda 3 up I-75 in the middle of Kentucky, after all. But Forza 4 was able to change all that. Part of it, however, stems from a flaw in the game’s World Tour difficulty. While, yes, the game’s AI is improved, it still has a lot of room for growth while playing through the World Tour circuits. As always, you can chose to pick your dream car, such as my Eclipse, and upgrade it from the D-class to the A-class. However, doing this will allow your car to absolute obliterate the competition. I’ve tinkered with using other cars in Forza 3, but I never really felt comfortable, nor did I feel rewarded for trying other cars. While you’re not necessarily rewarded in terms of actual gameplay mechanics by using other cars, there are a couple of things you will notice. While it’s a subtle difference, choosing different cars for World Tour circuits allows you to participate in a different set of events; you’re no longer forced to pick the same three events. The second, and more noticeable difference, is the fact that should you decide to keep up a change of pace and use a car with stock parts, you will notice that improved AI.

It’s an AI that is more human, for better and worse; opponents will be less likely to stick to the suggested line through the track and instead be more aggressive against you, and other cars, though that only seems to be seen at the start of races. But truth be told, you’re not playing Forza to watch the cars in front of you duke it out for three laps, you want to duke it out with them, and this will happen. Cars will block you, though not as much as I wish they would. They will, however, be aggressive as they try to pass you, not afraid to trade paint every now and then. The most impressive thing you’ll pick up on is that the AI acts very human. Often if I’m applying pressure before a big turn, they’ll miss it completely and wipe-out. Sadly, a couple of times after hitting the wall head-on, they’ll bounce off it and fully recover and still be ahead of me, so the game’s physics still aren’t quite there in terms of crash recovery; you’re still able to bounce between cars and through grass to make your way to the head of the pack.

Which is a shame since, otherwise, the game handles extraordinarily well, which is a good thing since there’s a bigger focus on the cars overall in the game. One of the biggest new features in Forza 4 is the Autovista, allowing you to view some of the lineup’s highlights as if you’re viewing it on the showroom floor, complete with select narration from Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson. While not an integral part of the gameplay, it’s a nice new feature that allows you to learn more about the more impressive cars in the lineup and can help fuel your new found car addiction, which I am starting to develop; thanks, Turn 10. Aside from looking beautiful, they handle just as beautifully too. Turn 10 hasn’t done much to change car handling, which is a good thing since they didn’t really need to, but some subtle tweaks have been made, in combination with the fact that the tracks seem to handle differently depending on what time of day it is. This combines to give an experience that surpasses anything else on the market, plus the still present ability to customize computer assisted controls allow you to play Forza 4 your way, whether you want a more arcade-like style where you can semi-drift around the corners, or you want the true simulation handling of ensuring a perfect ease around corners that don’t give the sound of screeching tires.

Still, while the AI and physics aren’t perfect, it leaves an excellent opportunity for growth to see what developer Turn 10 can do on, say, the next Xbox console; if they were to take the AI foundation they laid here and apply it to a system with more horsepower and processing speed, then I don’t doubt that we’ll see some intense white knuckle racing from the single player campaign. But thankfully, if we’re looking for that now, we can find that online, which is better than ever thanks to the all new “Rivals” feature. Sure, you can still duke it out over Xbox Live as before, but now you can download other player’s ghost runs through circuits and attempt to beat them one on one. It’s a feature that tailors perfectly to the “just one more race” type of gameplay; one more race will often turn into ten more and it’s quite addicting to see how many ghosts you can beat.

The dissapointment for when the AI and physics lack is magnified by a subtle tweak in regards to the tracks as well. For example, tracks handle different dependent on the time of day you race on them, a feature that’s most prevalent when you compete in the heat races, where one heat happens in the morning and the second later in the afternoon. Taking those tight turns feel differently, and when you round that corner you won’t do it the same way as you did in, say, the morning, and you’ll have a chance to meet the second subtle tweak, this one in regards to the graphics engine: the lighting. That damn ball of fire in the sky will at times wreck havoc on your races, blinding you momentarily, adding a subtle sense of strategy that’s always been present in the Forza series. There’s always been that off the track strategy in regards to upgrading and tuning your car, but this is the first time I’ve felt it on the track.

As far as the rest of the game’s visuals go, I mean, it’s hard to judge a game where you’re flying by the scenery. Don’t get me wrong, Forza 4 looks fantastic; the Autovista cars are extremely well rendered, cockpits inside the cars are well detailed, and the game runs smoothly as your whizzing along the track. That being said, the scenery can be a bit lacking at times, admittedly, but that’s made up for by the atmosphere set by the artwork and lighting, especially in newer tracks. Older favorites, such as Maple Valley, will seem dated, but the tracks in the Alps are flat out gorgeous. Thankfully, the true beauty in the game comes from the cars themselves, specifically how they sound. As mentioned, the cockpit view looks amazing in detailed, combined with the soothing sounds of your car, add a great sense of atmosphere to the game, empowered by the fact that you can also hear the definite sound of that Mazda RX7 whizzing by. It gives you an experience that really draws you in, only to be taken out of it for a moment as you realize your blowing everyone away against the World Tour default AI within twenty seconds.

Still, my relationship with Forza 4 is like a marriage. I love it to death, adore it, and will spend plenty of time with it. At the same time, I really wish there was just a little bit more and if I really wanted to, I could nitpick somethings: the way cars receive their damage is dated, there’s no Porsche cars, I’d like a little more customization to be able to do, say 200 laps around Indianapolis with 42 other cars, but these issues won’t make or break the game and I can happily live without them.  Unlike a marriage, however, I eagerly await the next installment in the series on the next console. But for now, I’ll happily enjoy my time with Forza 4; the honeymoon is far from over.