Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Forza 5 Review

This summer I bought an Xbox One and so far the only game I’ve been playing on it is Forza 5. It’s that good. Well, I’m a Forza fanatic. I’ve played them all and this one honors the franchise. Plus, I now know someone on the team so it’s fun to chat with him once in a while.

That being said, there are a few things that I’d like to see changed in Forza 6:

  • The cars get tuned for you when you buy them for a race. There’s almost zero story line already in Forza and automating this part of the game makes it feel like you’re just getting put into the seat of various cars and running around a track. Sure, you CAN still tune, but it’s already done for you so you really have to go out of your way to want to change something. If you’re just running the career, there’s almost no reason to tune your car.
  • The career is LONG. Really long. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to the various combinations of cars and tracks. You’re just checking them off one by one. There’s not much feeling of progression or choice.
  • The online stats are really limited. Forza collects so much data. Make it all available online! In addition to the slew of basic numbers, help me analyze my racing line and show me the areas of the track where I lose time to people slightly faster than me. There are lots of opportunities here.

It’s a great game, and if you love racing simulators, this is the pinnacle. (PS4 owners are free to disagree. I haven’t played Gran Turismo in many years.) But it offers very little beyond that pure racing simulator experience. If you’re not a little OCD about completing lists, you might find yourself giving up on the game before you’ve completed the whole career. But I suppose you could have a great time just playing the multiplayer section either racing with other people or competing in timed events. I enjoy that area but haven’t ventured there much yet.