I don't drive in the real world. Don't judge me to harshly. I did two lessons in 1987 and made some terrible mistakes that I can never talk about without invoking a court order. Strangely though, I love everything there is to do with cars and especially driving games. I can't get enough. So it's with great comfort when I slip the Forza 5 disc in and hear the soothing words of Mr Clarkson deliver a love poem to the driving fraternity. Then, as smooth as butter, I'm in a car , in a race , driving through the amazingly detailed streets of Prague.
Lets get this out of the way. This game is beautiful. it is stunning. When you drive up a hill in the Prague route and go over the ridge and see the vista of the city in front of you…well…I crashed because I was so much awe. The cars themselves have all the glitter, visuals and knobs on that you expect from the Turn 10 Studios. Glass reflections from the HD lighting effects bounces fantastically of all the cars as you drive around a mixture of new and very familiar tracks. The only thing that is a let down are textures of the crowds as you quickly pass at 200 mile per hours, but that is a very minor quibble.
The game play is excellent as you would expect from this franchise. The new Xbox one controller responds well and it feels very responsive on the track. I felt I had more control and finesse using the cars then on the old Xbox 360 version. There is a career mode, robust online modes and Rivals sections that hasn't changed much from the older versions. The new big revolution in the gameplay is in career mode and it is called Drivatar. Your driving style is recorded somehow, by magic I assume, and replicated in other peoples games. This gives the AI a welcome kick up the arse in the single player mode and you really feel that you are playing your friends or online enemies rather then the standard AI bots. Whats really nice is that you see a mixture of bad driving, acts of dirtiness and pure brilliance in the Drivatars that is refreshing . This makes each race a more organic, dangerous place to be and gives a new lease of life to each individual league or competition. In the past I always ended up first in most races after a short while in career mode, while here I am always fighting by the skin of my teeth to get in the top three. It's makes the experience far more enjoyable and rewarding.
The soundtrack itself is as always brilliant. The trance style music that plays throughout is always fresh and atmospheric. The engine sounds and race day noises are completely on the money. Then you throw in the audio commentaries from the Top Gear team as you progress through the game that gives it a bit of sparkle. These as you might expect are witty and insightful, depending if you are a fan of the ageing trio.
Now what is wrong with it? Well it hard to say really…but it does seem somewhat rushed. Not in the gameplay or the code itself, which is still the high standard you expect from this development team. It's the actual content which is a step down. There are 14 tracks on offer, which is a downgrade from before. While there are new beautiful races to be had , that lie in prague, Belguim spa, Australia and Bathurst, there is the familiar faces of Sebring, Top gear test track and Laguna that start to tire quite quickly especially if you've played Forza 4. Then the number of cars you get, which is around 200, has gone down by a considerable amount from around 500 to 600 in Forza 4. The audition house has gone, where you could sell and buy cars,as well as sell designs. This will upset a lot of fans.
The cars some would argue have been trimmed down to get rid of some of the crud that was there in the elder versions of the series. The cars are so well documented, drawn and displayed and to show them off the Frozavista mode makes a welcome return. Here you can pop the hood, sit in the seats and explore every nook and cranny in your favourite dream car. This feature is still very welcome, while being always cool to play with it will be the closest experience I will ever get to owning one of these great cars. All the cars you buy can be upgraded, tuned within a inch of their lives and you can still craft designs to put them online. The game will suggest when you buy a new car a selection of the best designs in the community to choose from, which is a nice added feature, to make way for the loss of the auction house.
The online mode is as reliable as ever, with easy match ups and some great racing of offer. Even though nothing has really moved on from last year in this respect, it is a still a very good package online and will give you hours and hours of pleasure. I would hope the Turn 10 studio team will think about not just realising the standard car packs as DLC in the next six months, but also some new tracks and maybe some new online modes.
There is some kinnect usage here with "Head Tracking" back and some voice commands but I bored of these quite quickly. It's a marmite thing.
Conclusion
Once again Forza is a brilliant , beautiful driving game who has stepped successfully into the next generation of gaming. I only wish those steps would of been a bit bigger and a bit more confident in terms of content. However, this will still give you hours of entertainment and obsessive car time on the track. Now I just keep dreaming about what Forza 6 will be like.
