While the graphics seem a bit sharper, the biggest upgrade is to the frame rate. The cars are meticulously rendered inside and out, and the interior views have been jazzed up noticeably compared to those in 3. Among the available courses are the Hockenheimring, the Top Gear test track, the Le Mans Circuit de la Sarthe, and, of course, the Nürburgring Nordschleife. All can be raced at 26 locations, each of which has multiple track configurations. Other notable additions to the roster include the GMC Syclone, Hummer H1 Alpha, Aston Martin One-77, and Jeff Koons’s BMW M3 GT2 art car. In contrast, there are numerous Ferraris, from classics-including a 1957 250 Testa Rossa-all the way up to today’s 458 Italia and FF.
But the feature gets boring, especially if you’re a regular Car and Driver reader and you already know everything about all of the cars. In some of the cars, the narration is handled by Jeremy Clarkson, which is neat. Click on highlighted areas of the car, and the narrator will provide a cool factoid (for example, clicking on the tab in a Ferrari 458’s engine bay launches a short rundown of the engine’s specifications). Whether viewing the exterior of a car or inspecting its cabin, players can pan the view on the screen by moving their head around (which they can also do while racing to “look” into turns when using the in-car view). With Kinect, lowering your body results in a different view on the screen, and you can manipulate doors and trunks using hand motions. Using either a controller or Xbox’s trick Kinect motion-tracking device, players can “move” around the cars. He will be issued your challenge the next time he goes online.Īlso new to Forza 4 is Autovista mode, in which players get an in-depth look at 26 cars that have been rendered inside and out in extreme detail.
You can set a lap time on a track and see if your buddy can beat it-even if he is offline. (The show is prominently integrated into the game.) This is unique from typical online play in that you can challenge specific players to one-on-one battles cooler still, the battles need not be wheel-to-wheel.
Rivals mode is an aptly named conduit for challenging friends to races and Top Gear challenges like car soccer and lapping the British TV show’s test track. Car Clubs, as their name suggests, allow gamers to form clubs with like-minded users. Developers added two new online community features to Forza 4. The Community tab takes you to online battles and the cool Auction House where players can put their in-game cars up for sale or bid for other players’ rides with in-game credits. Career is also where you can manage your stable of cars, buy new ones, and upgrade the rides you have.įree Play is unchanged you can enter a Quick Race with the car and track of your choosing, go for a spin alone in Hot Lap, or battle your friends in Split Screen multiplayer races. In Career play mode, players choose specific events to compete in or let the computer lead them through a racing season in World Tour.
There is now a single, more accessible main menu that houses the Career, Autovista, Community, Free Play, and Marketplace modes. Nothing about Forza 4 radically differs from the formula utilized by Forzas 1 through 3, but the game certainly takes a solid step forward. For now, though, let’s take a closer look at number 4. (Okay, so it was closer to four years, but the constant delays-it’ll be out in March! In October! Two years from now!-made it feel longer.) By the time GT6 comes around, Xbox players might be on Forza 12. By the time last year’s Gran Turismo 5 finally appeared, fans had waited nearly two and a half millennia since GT4. We reviewed the last Forza-number 3-just two years ago. If you judge video games on their development time, Xbox’s Forza Motorsport franchise absolutely flattens PlayStation’s juggernaut Gran Turismo series.