FORZA Motorsport

May 11,2005 - Over the last couple of years, Microsoft has had a pretty good track record when it came to racing games on the Xbox. The system launched with Project Gotham Racing, a game which not only looked great, but was a lot of fun to play. Not too long after that, Rallisport Challenge was released, introducing Xbox gamers to the Rally Racing genre. Sequels to both of those games followed in the years to come, but all of those games have been slanted towards the arcade side of the spectrum. MS hasn't had that one definitive Racing Simulation, until now. Forza Motorsport is Microsoft's attempt at a Racing Simulation for the Xbox. It has large shoes to fill, though, since Forza's main competition is the world renowned Gran Turismo series for the Playstation and Playstation 2.

When you think about a driving simulation, you think about realistic car handling. Taking a hairpin turn at full speed is not something you will be doing in Forza. A car's tires can only offer up a limited amount of grip. Suddenly shifting the car's weight to one side, as will happen when you try to turn while going too quickly, will result in the tires losing their grip and the car sliding off the track or into the wall. It's in this way that Forza places a heavy emphasis on proper braking techniques.

Most racing games don't do very much to penalize you for sliding off the track and hitting the wall, but Forza's damage modeling makes sure that there are very real consequences to doing just that. It's now not advisable to play bumper cars with the other drivers, as bumping into them will damage your car. Forza has three damage settings. Cosmetic damage is purely visual and doesn't affect the car's performance at all. Limited damage adds a performance hit to a damaged car; one good hit and you'll blow out your steering, causing your car to start veering to one side. It's also possible to damage the engine to the point of reducing your car to a sputtering, staggering crawl. It's not possible to completely total a car, but a badly banged up car will become almost completely impossible to drive. Simulation damage goes a step further by adding damage to over-revving the engine. Heat is also a concern in Forza. The car's engine and tires will heat up over time. In short races this isn't a real problem, but in the game's longer races, especially the endurance circuits, it's something that you'll need to keep your eyes on.

With the game's realistic driving and damage model, Forza still manages to be an accessible game. The most noteworthy way it does this is by offering a Suggested Line option. Essentially, this is a line painted on the racetrack that shows a good path to follow. This is color coded, Green means accelerate, Yellow means to ease off the gas, and Red means to apply the brakes. This is an easy way to get a feel for the tracks. However, it's by no means the fastest way around the track. When you start to get a feel for how your particular car handles and how the track is laid out, you'll soon start to find areas where the Suggested Line seems to be a bit too conservative. With enough time on the track, you'll be able to plot your own line and turn the Suggested Line off entirely. There are also a variety of driving assists like ABS, Traction Control and Stability Management. These don't take away from the driving experience that much since a lot of the cars featured in the game already have these features.

One of the biggest problems in most racing games is the opponent AI. Most of the time, they're programmed to follow a specific line with very little deviation. A lot of the time, the opponent AI isn't even aware of the position of other cars. This leads to situations where you'll be bumped off the track by an AI car because you happen to be right where they've been programmed to position themselves. Forza's AI is quite different in that it is well aware of where each car is on the racetrack. An AI car that is coming up behind you at a faster speed than you won't just plow straight into you. It'll dart around your car and continue on its merry way. The AI will usually try to drive a clean race, but should you bump into an AI-controlled car, then you'll more than likely find yourself being clipped by that same car at the next corner, so driving clean is advisable. Though the AI is much better than that of most racing games, it isn't without its flaws. It'll occasionally try to take a shortcut and wind up clipping another car, which sometimes results in a massive pileup. It's almost as if the AI driver had a brief lapse of focus.

At the end of a race, you're given the option to save or watch your race replay. During the replays, you can turn on a race telemetry screen which will give you lots of information about your car's performance. There are screens for tire load, suspension load, and the car's lateral G forces among other miscellaneous information. Those that want to diagnose a car's tuning issues will want this. It's also possible to use this information to hone one's driving style. By seeing where you're asking more of the car than it can give, it'll help you to learn your car's limits and better handle the track the next time out.

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