Forza Win!

Remember the good old days when Gran Turismo was the most amazing game ever? We kept wondering when the next great racing game would come out and be the "Gran Turismo Killer", I'm sure we never thought it'd be Gran Tursimo huh? I'm happy to say that the days of riding along the wall and AI that just runs a line around the track (while not giving a shit if you are there or not) are long gone.

Forza on the original Xbox was an amazing game that many people passed over. Forza 2 on the 360 was even better; more tracks, more cars, more to do. I thought Forza 3 was pretty much the perfect racing game, from jaw dropping graphics to jaw dropping physics. Forza 4 is down right RIDICULOUS!

First off, graphics. While not leaps and bounds above Forza 3, they are an improvement. More colorful backdrops, better textures, and the cars seem to "pop" more. Tracks have an amazing sense of depth, and an unreal draw distance. You can literally see a mile down the road, Cars have more factory paint colors to choose from than ever before, and panels can be painted individually so you can rice as much as you can race. In addition to all the on-track eye candy, you can now set your home space (backdrop) from many different on-track locations to the set of Top Gear. You are doing something right when even the asphalt looks good.

On to sounds and music. I read that they re-recorded pretty much everything, but the engine noises dont really sound all that much better or different than Forza 3. Everything sounds like it should, except when I hear a Honda Civic driving near me on the highway it usually sounds like a bumblebee. Music remains a weak spot for this series, the good news is you can load up your own MP3s and race around the track to those instead of whats included on the disc. Ironically I typically race with no music, so you have more than one option here. All the voice over work is done by Jeremy Clarkson, of top gear fame, and you can tell this man loves cars and was a great choice.

Most importantly, game play. I know what you're thinking, this is a race game, all you do is race. Thats not exactly true. They have great mix of different race type, way more than just doing laps around a track. There are modes where all you do is , for example, try and pass 50 slow moving cars in 2 laps; another where you are doing a point to point race against 1 other car with traffic in the way. They really mix up the types of races, the car restrictions, and the objectives. Driving around the Top Gear track while knocking down bowling pins? Yes please! Getting back to my point with AI in racing games, Forza really shines here. On the easier difficulties the computer's cars aren't handicapped, they just drive differently. They'll brake too early into turns, not take the best lines, and even bump one another and you. On the higher difficulties their cars aren't artificially improved and there is no "rubber band AI" , they just take the best lines are the best speeds and race super clean. Only the very best can turn off all assists and best the CPU on expert; and I think that's the way it should be. If you want to see a big difference between the AI in Gran Tursimo and Forza, park your car on a straightaway blocking as much of the track as you can and see what happens.

Last and least, achievements. This has the best mix of achievements in a Forza game so far. I really only have an issue with 2 of them. 1 involves importing a save game from Forza 3 and the other involves running a race with a Kinect. Neither one involves skill and both require a purchase outside owning the game itself, not cool.

To sum it up, this is the best racing game available for consoles. Its not perfect but its close. If you haven't ever played a forza, go pick up a used copy of 2 or 3 and see what you've been missing.

~M

Off topic: I finally 1k'ed Mercanaries 2, I guess that's kind of on -topic.....cause that game had some retarded AI. I Don't think I'm gonna be able to crack 100k this year, Im 13k short with 2 months to go. Tonight I wipe the dust off of Hitman:Blood Money and maybe chip away at OneChanBara. Don't judge me, Ive been working on my arcade racing cabinet (a converted Pole Position) and I was in Taiwan for 2 1/2 weeks :)