Forza 4 = Disappointing

I am not really good at videogames in general anymore, but in particular I have never been good at driving games.  Oh sure, if a game like Burnout came along where you were actually supposed to wreck cars, or the old Demolition Derby games on the PSX for example, I could do well.  In spite of that I enjoyed the first couple GT games, with GT3 being particularly special in my book.  Everything after that was a waste, but up to that point I could make decent progress and still enjoy the game.  Then Forza came along with its driving line, simplifying things for people like me who can't judge brake points or distances or really can't even tell which way the road is about to turn.  I enjoyed that quite a bit, it allowed me accessibility to a genre that I really had to struggle to even play let alone enjoy.  The collecting aspect was pretty cool too.

Forza 2 came and again I had fun, I even got into the designing and made quite a bit of in-game money selling logos I made.  Forza 3 was even better, and once again because of the accessibility I could jump in like the rest of the hardcore racing peeps and have fun and succeed in the game.  I am by definition what is considered a casual gamer when it comes to this genre.

Now Forza 4 was out, and it was a no-brainer pickup for me.  I really thought this would be more of the same; dozens of hours of driving enjoyment along with collecting and painting.  I was even looking forward to grinding out 150 levels this time out.  And then I noticed something peculiar in the gameplay, something I had seen addressed in the reviews (as a positive no less) but didn't really wrap my head around the concept until I experienced it.

In the past if you set the difficulty lower, the effect was a reduction of power in the AI cars.  Now some people wouldn't want this and I can completely understand that.  But I suspect that the people who don't like the AI hampered are the same people who drive with no assists and can rattle off car stats for probably most models in the game.  But thats not me.  I don't have the skills to contend with a high speed car on a challenging track AND a competitive AI.  I really didn't mind the AI getting dusted behind me, I had no chance against them otherwise.  If it weren't for the AI power reduction in the earlier versions of the game I probably would've ended my Forza purchases after the first game.  I would complete the races alone if I could...of course they wouldn't be considered "races" then, would they?  And I know you can adjust the settings to force the AI to drive stock versions of their cars and eliminate class restrictions, but you take a massive cash hit every race for doing that.  Plus you can't make those adjustments in the World Tour mode, and thats where I'm running into my issues.

Another problem that occurs for me in this scenario is the rubberband AI.  I know, Turn 10 and many fans of the game deny the existance of such a thing.  But I'm here to tell you that it exists in the series, it always has.  Just a few moments ago I had an AI car make up almost 4 seconds on me in the last 5 turns of a final lap.  And that was with me nailing all 3 and 4 star turns in my run.  So yeah, rubberband.

Anyway I'm really disappointed in the way Turn 10 decided to implement the AI this time out.  I'm guessing they did it in response to the people who post on their forums.  I would suggest that the people who post on those forums are the same people I mentioned before, the people who casual AI settings wouldn't mean a thing to because they would never use them.  But what they've done in making this adjustment is they've alienated a casual racing gamer such as myself.  I'm guessing I'm not going to be the only one who doesn't get anywhere near the playability out of this title they were expecting.  And to be honest I don't see myself purchasing any future versions of Forza unless they revert the AI back to the way it used to be.