Forza Motorsport (2023)

[jztemple2]

First, some weird behavior of rain on a windshield. Look closely and notice how there are two vertical lines where the rain might be being wiped, but the wipers don't go there



So I'm at level 91. I've completed the Modern Tour and the Legacy Tour and now I'm working on the Enthusiasts Tour. There is also another one of those limited time tours available which I'll jump into as soon as finish the Track Specials events which I'm doing in a Holden



I've found that I really don't like the Rivals events, not just that I'm not good at them but also the grinding to beat the next guy then the next guy, etc. It simplifies things if I just stick with the Builder's Cup events and the races I create myself. The Advanced Race creator is pretty good, but I wish there was some more options.

I'm really impressed with the weather effects. I was just running a race at Grand Oaks which started off with just a light rain. After several laps suddenly the light rain turned into a downpour and since I'm on stock tires I didn't have an option to switch to rain tires in the pits. It became like driving on ice and I had to use Rewind a few times just to finish. Of course I didn't notice any of the AI cars going to the pits either to switch to rain tires. I'll have to be careful to save a replay of any race where that happens again and see if there are AI cars pitting.

The Difficulty setting works OK for the most part, but at certain tracks the level four difficultly I'm running which normally keeps the races pretty tight just doesn't work that well. This is true especially at high speed tracks like Le Mans in the old configuration with the three mile long straight. I was gaining ten seconds a lap on the fastest of the AI cars. Maybe the devs will address this in a patch.

Forty hours played and no problems at all so far, except that issues early on with frame rate at Ultra on the Laguna Seca track. Now that I've switched to High graphics the game stays pretty steadily at 60 fps almost all the time.

[Reemul]

I like the Rivals mode, I just rival against friends. Enjoying this so far but had a couple more crashes as well.

[Fardaza]

So I'm at level 91.

Sheesh. How many levels are there?

[coopasonic]

So I'm at level 91.

Sheesh. How many levels are there?

If it's anything like Forza Horizon, there is no character level cap. At 200, it wrapped around and you got a star or something and it kept wrapping and adding stars (or something like that).

I think I am around level 25, but jzt had a 5 day head start (and I also work full time )

I like the Rivals mode, I just rival against friends. Enjoying this so far but had a couple more crashes as well.

Same on the rivals, I don't care about overall rank, just beating jzt. For the new featured Rivals race it may take a bit as I need to come up with over 200k in spare cash. As a non-VIP player, that's a pretty good chunk of change. It doesn't rain money and wheelspins here like it does in the Horizon games.

[jztemple2]

Same on the rivals, I don't care about overall rank, just beating jzt.

That's pretty low hanging fruit

Yup, going with the Premium Edition does make earning cash easier, not to mention that you get lots of free cars to start with and a free car each week for some period of time.

[geezer]

Finally have a bit of a break from work next week.. Gonna have to dive in and catch up with y'all on this.

[jztemple2]

Nürburgring Sprint course in the fog, first lap, lots of bumping

[jztemple2]

Updates from the devs, first This Week in Forza Motorsport

Visit the Showroom to acquire this week’s new Spotlight car at a discount, the 2020 KTM X-Bow GT2. Drive it in the Built for Race series in the Career Mode Track Tour, the Spotlight Series in Featured Multiplayer, and the Road America Featured Rivals. Also in Featured Multiplayer, check out the Formula Mazda Spec Series and A Class Open Series.

And now, Forza Motorsport Community Update

Hi everyone. It’s been a week since Forza Motorsport entered Early Access and since Forza Motorsport released for Premium Edition owners and, in that time, we’ve been reading your feedback and listening to your concerns. Forza Motorsport has been designed to be a racing platform that will change and adapt over time. This includes tweaks to the gameplay systems, features and quality of life improvements, as well as new content that will be introduced every month.

Ever since players got their hands on Forza Motorsport, the team has continued developing new fixes and is committed to ongoing improvements, some of which will be released as early as next week. Stay tuned for the details and full release notes on our Forza Support website and Forza Motorsport channels.

While this first update focuses on quality of life and stability issues, we look forward to continuing to listen to, and evaluate, our players' feedback in future updates.

Thanks to all our players for being part of the Forza Motorsport community and for your continued support and patience. We will keep you updated on when those changes start to roll out.

We’re excited to shape the future of Forza Motorsport together. Share your input and tell us about your experiences with the game on the official Forza Suggestions Hub.

My strikethrough and edit reflects what was shown in original posting. The dev got a load of flak for calling it "early access" by all the room temperature IQ mouth breathers that inhabit the Steam forums looking for something to whine about

[jztemple2]

So this afternoon I played through the Track Tour Built to Race Event:


Since the KTM X-bow GT 2 was on sale with a deep discount (actual price about 211K), I bought that to race in the event.



For the first race I battled a wildly handling car and I had to turn on ABS, traction control and stability control.


After the first race I suddenly realized that I didn't have to accumulate a bunch of car experience points (CXP) so I could unlock a bunch of upgrades, the X-bow already being equipped with things like adjustable anti-sway bars, shocks and springs. I did a lot of tuning and that helped a great deal with the handling.


However, Road America in the wet was still a wild adventure.


The last race was at Virginia International Raceway, the Grand West circuit. VIR is my least favorite track. Lots of little curves and many of them behind crests so they can't be seen.


I chose to start third, muscled past the first two cars early and then hung on (and used rewind a lot ) to get an eventual victory and be the "Built to Race" winner.

[coopasonic]

Since the KTM X-bow GT 2 was on sale with a deep discount (actual price about 211K), I bought that to race in the event.

That's the car you need for the new featured Rivals event, come join us. It took me quite a few laps to top Reemul, now its your turn!

[jztemple2]

Since the KTM X-bow GT 2 was on sale with a deep discount (actual price about 211K), I bought that to race in the event.

That's the car you need for the new featured Rivals event, come join us. It took me quite a few laps to top Reemul, now its your turn!

[jztemple2]

My Steam review:

Spoiler:

Excellent game, a worthy successor to the Forza Motorsport line. The decision to use the car experience points (CXP) for upgrades rather than spending credits works very well. Graphics are very good and the immersion factor is excellent; at one point in a race at Laguna Seca, a flock of bird suddenly flew out of a tree next to the track. The weather effects are top notch for rain, fog, etc, but what is also so impressive is the detail factors, like during a race how fog which was there at the start of the race begins to burn away and sunlight suddenly appears on parts of the track.

The car selection is very good as well, although I wish there were more lower class cars, although I'm sure I'm in the minority there. All the expected ways to make designs and paint jobs are there like they were in FM7 and FH5. The upgrading process is very good and does vary from car to car.

In 46 hours I've had no crashes, only one lock-up, no graphic glitches or issues and running on High graphics setting gives me a solid 60 fps at 2560x1440. I'm not using DLSS as I don't find bleeding edge graphics that important in a racing game. The game starts fine every time. I have had the situation where in the middle of a race there will be a pause and a pop-up message saying the internet connection was lost. I click "retry connection" and everything is fine. This has happened about a half dozen times in 46 hours and never twice in the same session, so I think that is more than acceptable.

The car physics feel very good, not at a level of iRacing, but for most folks they are just fine. They are more than adequate if you are using a controller and even with my G920 wheel and pedals I'm very impressed with the fidelity of the experience.

I have some minor gripes about setting up custom races in the area of choosing weather, it isn't as comprehensive as say Automobilista 2 but otherwise all the settings you need for doing any specific race are there.

I know some folks are having various issues with the game, but I'm not seeing any of the problems they are citing. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe my rig is just better suited for the game, but I have no complaints in that regard.

So to sum up, I'm very happy with the game and looking forward to more content being added.

[jztemple2]

For those who might be having trouble with the game on Steam, a dev posted this: Steam Community Workarounds

Throughout Early Access the Steam community has been contributing suggested fixes and work arounds for various issues. These are not developer supported fixes but may be helpful in some cases. With that in mind these are listed by issue below.

I have posted in the thread suggesting that they change "Throughout Early Access" to "Since Premium Edition release" otherwise they are going to get a lot of flak like they did in another post.

[jztemple2]

I'm taking a break from Forza to play some Assassin's Creed Mirage (and to let my ankles get a rest!) but before I stopped I checked my in-game mail and found another way to get some cash. To get an achievement I uploaded a tuning set-up I'd made, but I hadn't realized that it could be a money maker:

[jztemple2]

Back to playing Forza. I don't bother making my own designs, I just find something that looks racecar-ish and use that:

[jztemple2]

Racing into the sunset at Mid-Ohio

[jztemple2]

Fair warning, if you enter one of the Builder Cup series (those events with five or six races) with a car that is already part way up it's development from level 1 to level 50, you cannot switch cars between those races. I've been starting off each series with a level 1 car, but for the series I just did, I had a Mustang at level 25 so I used that. After four of the five races I had reached level 50, so the car points I was getting during the fifth race were essentially wasted . So best to start each series with a low level car if not level 1.

[jztemple2]

Forza Motorsport Update 1.0 Release Notes

We're working to improve your Forza Motorsport experience. Below you will find a summary of items fixed or improved upon in Update 1.0.

For full release notes including Xbox changes see: https://aka.ms/FMUpdate1

Check out the article for the full Steam list. I thought this was important:

Adjusted car part unlock levels to increase player upgrade options at lower car levels. Most car parts should now be unlocked within a single Builders Cup series.

[jztemple2]

So I finished four of the Builder's Cup tours, all but the one that is by classes. I decided to do the series that was released today, the Track Exotics:


Being a bargin hunter, I decided to go with the 2014 Ferrari FXX K, which is on sale this week:


It's got all sorts of neat doors and hatches:


However, it is really powerful:


So I'm racing it with TC, ABS and STM enabled, which normally have turned off:

[jztemple2]

Well, that was a disappointment. Because the Ferrari FXX K is a race car, there are almost no upgrades available for it. So there's little point in doing all the practice sessions to the full length of the timer to accumulate the max amount of car points. Bringing up the car level achieves nothing after the first few levels. So I just skip practice and ran the five races. It's fun for a while, driving a hypercar, but I'd rather be tooling around in a lower class car and tweaking the heck out of that.

By the way, I asked Google Bard "what are the different car classes in the newly released forza motorsport game?" and got this answer. Bard did miss that there are Class E cars in the game.

The different car classes in the newly released Forza Motorsport game are:

• Class X - The highest performance class, with cars that have a Performance Index (PI) of 999. These cars are typically hypercars and Le Mans prototypes.
• Class P - Cars with a PI of 901-998. This class includes a variety of high-performance sports cars, such as the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder.
• Class R - Cars with a PI of 801-900. This class is a mix of sports cars and muscle cars, such as the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500.
• Class S - Cars with a PI of 701-800. This class is a good balance of performance and handling, and includes cars such as the BMW M4 GTS and the Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
• Class A - Cars with a PI of 601-700. This class is a good choice for beginners, as the cars are relatively easy to drive and control. Examples include the Mazda MX-5 Miata and the Subaru BRZ.
• Class B - Cars with a PI of 501-600. This class includes a variety of everyday cars, such as the Honda Civic Type R and the Volkswagen Golf R.
• Class C - Cars with a PI of 401-500. This class is mostly made up of entry-level sports cars and muscle cars. Examples include the Ford Mustang GT and the Chevrolet Camaro SS.
• Class D - Cars with a PI of 301-400. This class is mostly made up of compact cars and hatchbacks. Examples include the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla.

Forza Motorsport also has a number of other car classes, such as Classic, Off-Road, and Formula. These classes are not used in competitive racing, but they can be used in other game modes, such as Free Play and Car Meet.

It is important to note that the PI system in Forza Motorsport is not perfect, and it is not the only factor that determines a car's performance. Other factors, such as tuning and driving skill, also play a role.

[jztemple2]

After a break to play some Cities Skylines 2, I'm back on this game in a more causal way, putting in some time here and there. The new Featured Series unlocked today but it's for Prototypes, high performance racers and I'm not really interested in a class where I have to turn on assists just to keep it on the road. Plus I would have to spend a quarter of a million credits just to get the cheapest car that's on a discount.

So I'm now doing the final Tour, the Open Class one, the one that has series for classes C, B, A and P. I'm driving a Hyundai Veloster N Forza Edition. That "Forza Edition" moniker means that adjustable items like sway bars, springs and dampers are already available on the stock machine. With a little performance tweaking I got it up to a C497 PI with a limit of 500. I then tuned it using my ForzaTune app.



For each race I get a few "mandatory" laps of practice then 10 minutes more to drive more laps to practice. The races are only a few laps long. When I race with a difficulty of 4/8 and start mid-field, I usually can pass everyone and be in the lead with a lap or two to spare. However, if I crank the difficulty to 5/8, I can barely pass one or two cars a lap and sometimes none. So if I'm going to stick with that 5/8 I ought to start the furthest up I can which is 3rd on the grid.

I also decided to try some Quick Events with the same Hyundai car. I set everything to random I could:


The game selected the VIR North course (VIR being one of my least favorite tracks). It was dark but at least it was clear. I set the difficulty to four. And here I am on the starting line with the Veloster:


I was starting 12th of 24, which in the Quick Events is where the game starts you. The first few corners are crash fests where I usually come out worse. By the end of the race (three laps) I had gotten to fifth which wasn't bad when you consider the four cars ahead of my were all of a higher PI.


I'll probably finish the CBAP Tour then continue with the Quick and Advanced Event races. There are over forty class E cars for me to go through and rank up as I race them so I'll have plenty to entertain me.

[jztemple2]

So I'm up to 78 hours on the game, level 183 and I'm still enjoying it. I haven't had a CTD or a lockup, the graphics look good and while I might question some of the design decisions, like no practice or qualifying for Free Play races, I respect the developers' right to try to focus the game on what they perceive people want. I also am wishing there was more variety to the Tours, I've finished most of them and it would be nice if they focus more on the cars at the lower end of the performance index.

And yet I seem to be in the small minority of folks on Steam who are enjoying the game. The almost 3500 reviews are "Mostly Negative", with only 37% giving a thumbs up. This seems to be a case similar to Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield (and really going back to Assassin's Creed Unity) where I'm able to run the game fine while lots of others have serious issues. The Metacritic review average is 84 which makes me think the game is running fine on Xbox.

I will caveat my positive opinion by noting that I haven't touched multiplayer, having no interest in that area.

[Moliere]

I completed the Modern Tour and some of the Muscle car tours, but eventually it didn't seem to have a purpose. Driving the same tracks with random cars turned into monotony. It was a way to multitask listening to podcasts. No real plot, progression, or career path.

[jztemple2]

I found my joy in taking a level 1 E class car through a series of races, getting CXP to upgrade and taking on more serious competition. Right now I have the Chevy Monte Carlo SS up to level 23, having just added a supercharger.

I also race at random tracks with random weather and at random times of day. But I probably don't do more than 30-45 minutes a session.

[ydejin]

The Metacritic review average is 84 which makes me think the game is running fine on Xbox.

I will caveat my positive opinion by noting that I haven't touched multiplayer, having no interest in that area.

I’m on Xbox and have about 30 hours into the game and haven’t run into any issues. Like you I’m only playing single player though with a lot of time spent on Rivals.

[jztemple2]

I've fired this up on Steam after not playing for a couple of months. I had burned out and also I had some foot trouble which thankfully hasn't bothered me so far tonight. Since I have the Premium Edition I've gotten a bunch of cars dropped on me to try, but right now I'm racing a D336 Lancia Delta with minimal upgrades and it's a blast.

It's a shame so many folks have issues with the game, although many of those I see are "it's not what I expected/wanted, I'm going to give it a negative review".

[Reemul]

The main thing I wanted was a decent career mode and it does not have that at all. it's a shame but plenty of options to play something else.

[jztemple2]

I'm not really playing FM any more, but I thought maybe some folks would be interested in this update which adds the Nürburgring Nordschleife to the game. As I have had this track in so many other games before it's not that special to me, but it might be for some folks.

The main thing I wanted was a decent career mode and it does not have that at all. it's a shame but plenty of options to play something else.

This is why I'm pretty much playing only Automobilista 2 now. AMS2 doesn't have a career mode but does have championships, either pre-made or custom ones you can build yourself. FM2023 has series which are kind of like championships, but there is no option to create custom ones with practice and qualifying.

[jztemple2]

So, haven't posted here in awhile. But there is interesting news from the FM world, including a new DLC that is free if you grab it in the first week....
Forza Motorsport adds Endurance Races Just in Time for The Big Race!

Forza Motorsport Update 9 is here and we're celebrating events renowned for pushing both car and driver to the limit in Endurance Month!

Endurance Month highlights the tenacity and focus of one of the most unique racing formats in motorsport history with new endurance races, a debut car, and one of the most iconic endurance racing tracks in the world, Sebring International Raceway.

Suit up and drive like a member of the Porsche 2024 endurance racing team with the 2024 Porsche #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 and a custom Porsche Racing Suit. In celebration of one of the biggest events on the racing calendar, we’re making the Porsche 963 Combo completely FREE for all Forza Motorsport players during its first week of availability. Experience an incredible endurance hypercar at the cutting-edge of both technology and design. Claim yours today at no cost from the Microsoft Store and Steam!

And the (for the time being) free DLC:

[jztemple2]

I've missed posting a couple of updates, but here you go. 11.2GB for me.

[jztemple2]

Interesting associated article: What Happens When Forza Wants To Put Your Car in an Iconic Racing Game