"Forza Motorsport 7": Unstoppable
3.10.2017
Translation: machine translated
Three successors to the best racing game series on the market are released within the space of a month. "Forza Motorsport" is one of them. Will the racing simulation make it to pole position?
700 vehicles and 32 routes. That makes my foot twitch for the accelerator. With "Forza Motorsport 7", developer Turn10 wants to cater for simulation fans and beginners alike. I see myself somewhere in between. In any case, the scope checkbox can already be ticked. But "Forza" also knows how to pack a punch in other respects.
A car paradise
The number of racing cars already gives you an idea: "Forza Motorsport 7" is damn comprehensive. From nimble buggies and sedate lorries to exotic racing cars, you really can drive anything. And every vehicle handles differently. I concentrated on the career mode. You're guaranteed never to get bored there. A few laps in a roaring V8 muscle car and in the next race you're whizzing round the bends in an electric racing machine. Variety is also provided by the showcase races, where you are served up special treats. There are a total of 10 to 15 events to choose from in each of the six major championships. Marvellous. Gone are the days when you had to rewind the same track with the same vehicles over and over again. In "Forza Motorsport 7", you decide where you want to go.
The only thing that annoyed me about the career mode was the stupid voiceovers. Not even in "Gone in 60 Seconds" do they talk so pompously about driving. You'd think they were trying to recruit you into a cult. My goodness, can I finally get started?
A racing dream for all drivers - especially with a steering wheel
The driving experience is as you would expect from the series: absolutely great. However, I found it a little too easy at first. I'm probably better than I thought. The many hours spent playing "Forza Horizon 3" have paid off. But then I realise that you can set different driving aids. A glance at the menu reveals this: I'm playing on Easy. So I carefully switch to Medium with fewer driving aids. In the very first bend, I drive straight ahead. Bugger, nothing with hidden skills. Just like in "Forza Horizon", there's also the practical rewind function, with which you can simply undo mistakes. It all depends on the level of difficulty.
This is also where the wheat is separated from the chaff. Professionals naturally switch off the driving aids such as ABS, racing line or rewind function. But that's not all. The tuning menu will make every car mechanic's eyes water. Here you can fine-tune everything down to the individual gear. If you don't feel like it, let the game decide. Beginners and professionals alike will get their money's worth.
A steering wheel provides additional realism. I have the Logitech G27 with pedals and gears at my disposal. This allows you to turn the realism screw even further. But you have to be strong too. Because with the steering wheel, the races are much more strenuous, but also a hell of a lot more fun. You can feel your vehicle much better here and if you speed into a bend too quickly, the steering wheel twitches a lot. However, this also makes the game a good deal more difficult. The controller is much easier to steer as you can react more quickly. Thanks to the vibrating triggers of the Xbox One controller, it's also a lot of fun.
Graphics and weather effects
No question, "Forza" looks stunning. Whether it is the best-looking game of all time, as is claimed, I dare to doubt. In my opinion, the presentation possibilities of racing games are too limited for that. Yes, the cars look like the real thing and so does the tarmac. But even the most detailed tarmac remains tarmac in the end. The racetracks are realistic replicas of real tracks, but this soon exhausts the variation possibilities. Here, "Forza Horizon 3" could draw on the full potential with crazy locations and races. However you want to look at it, "Forza" is still a feast for the eyes. This is most impressively demonstrated by the weather effects.
Not only is there practically everything from sunshine to night driving to torrential rain, but the weather can also change during the races. Sometimes you start in bright sunshine and after one lap it's pouring with rain. This not only looks beautiful, but also makes the race much more varied. Sometimes I had to really pull myself together not to crash into a wall because I was admiring the sunrise.
Only the spectators are as static as ever. Turn10 should perhaps take a leaf out of "Fifa"'s book. If colleague Luca is to be believed, they even move! Uiuiui. That will probably only come with the next console generation. Most of the time, you're racing past the spectators so fast anyway that you can only recognise streaks.
The PC version looks slightly better than the Xbox One version. And I'm not playing in 4K. The textures are sharper and there is no annoying edge flicker when SMAA is activated. And of course you could push the graphics even further with supersampling. You also benefit from higher frame rates on the PC. The Xbox One version is fixed at 60fps, but has HDR. Thanks to very good optimisation, you don't need a killer PC to achieve a higher frame rate. Let's see what the Xbox One X can tease out in November.
What a good racing game also needs is rich sound. And "Forza" roars from the rooftops. Provided you have a decent speaker system or headphones, you can look forward to a real orchestra of engines.
Lootboxes?
With every race and progress you collect money. You invest this either in new cars or in loot boxes. Depending on the price, they contain outfits, mods (optional handicaps that secure additional prizes) or entire vehicles. At the moment, the loot boxes can only be purchased with in-game currency. However, the currently inactive menu items Marketplace and Auction House do not bode well.
Practical crosssave function
One feature that few will need, but is nevertheless extremely practical, is Play Anywhere. If you buy the digital version of "Forza", you can play the game on both PC and Xbox One. And the best thing about it: the saves are synchronised. So you can game on the big screen and if someone else is using the TV, you can continue playing on the PC immediately.
Conclusion
"Forza Motorsport" has managed to step out of the shadow of the genre reference "Gran Turismo" with continuous improvements. Now, with "Gran Turismo 7", its closest competitor is also releasing a new instalment just a few weeks later. And "Project Cars 2" has also just been released. We will soon find out whether the Japanese can overtake the competition again. Regardless of how the race turns out, you can't go wrong with "Forza Motorsport 7". Virtually nowhere else can you find so much scope packed into top graphics. Tuning options to the limit, every vehicle drives completely differently, the changing racing conditions - all this together makes "Forza" one of the best racing games ever.
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.
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