Forza fans have had a couple of solid months to digest interviews, press conferences, reveals, and forum postings, but what does it all mean? For every question answered by Greenawalt and crew, that answer raises two more questions. It’s like trying to wash a fucking Gremlin: more unbathed Gremlins appear every time you get one clean.
With four months to go until launch for Forza 5, we still have a good amount of time to speculate, and more actual and factual information coming at us every day. So, with an air of dignified excitedness, here’s a bit of what we know so far.
The Track & Car List...So Far
2008 Aston Martin DBS
2013 Aston Martin Vanquish
2010 Audi R8
2013 BMW M5 F10
2013 Chevrolet #1 Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12
1976 Ferrari 312-2
2013 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta
2011 Koenigsegg Agera
2012 Lamborghini Aventador
1976 McLaren M23
1993 McLaren F1
2010 McLaren MP4-12C
2013 McLaren P1
2012 Pagani Zonda Cinque
2012 Pagani Huayra
Turn 10 has stated that Forza 5 will have hundreds of cars, almost certainly more than Forza 4, which should put it over the 500 mark. No word yet if the garage capacity has been enlarged to accommodate avid collectors and duplicate cars in different classes.
Open wheeled and Indy cars have also been verified, and a couple of them already appear on the car list. A few lightweight open-wheeled cars could cause problems for the Radical R8, which has enjoyed almost a singular presence, just below the radar of R1. Potential go-karts from Caterham, BOC, and Ariel could give the Radical a run for its money if they make the cut and don’t get screwed by the PI system. Could we also see a game version of the very cool, yet underperforming, Plymouth Prowler?
Only 5 tracks have been verified for Forza 5, and only one is a new track to the series:
Indianapolis
Prague
Laguna Seca
Top Gear Test Track
Sebring
The Ol’ Stuttgart Stutter
One brand that players will not see at launch is Porsche. Turn 10 has verified,however, that super tuner RUF will be making a return with its trademark high performance and mega horsepower 911 models.
Does this feud between EA and Turn 10 mean that we will not see Porsche this game, or is Turn 10 waiting to hit us with another 20 bucks down the road?
The Return of Drivatar and Autovista
Drivatar, a largely unused feature from the first Forza Motorsport, is coming back to the Forza series in a big way. So big, in fact, that it’s the only feature that Dan Greenawalt wants to talk about in interviews, other than the game’s 60 frames per second graphical integrity and reflective surfaces.
The historical version of Drivatar gave players the ability to teach the AI their driving style and, theoretically, the AI would mimic that style by going out and competing in races that the player delegated to the Drivatar, while taking a slice of the profits. Basically, it’s a hired driver that has been sandbagged with the player’s idiosyncrasies, which was a hard sell for players who bought a racing game to race, not to delegate races to an idiotic AI driver.
Turn 10 has not only updated the concept behind Drivatar, but also its application. Players no longer have to specify Drivatar training when they wish to teach the AI a few things: this Drivatar training is constantly and unobtrusively occurring any time the player is racing, either single player or socially. Drivatar may have been an unused feature in the first game, it may very well be the main event in Forza 5. Cloud computing teaches the player’s Drivatar to drive like that player, and that Drivatar will be available in multiplayer races for other players to challenge themselves against, even when the player is offline. The power of the cloud allows AI to be 600% more realistic, will permanently end griefing, and means the end of single player racing forever...okay, that may have been a bit of an exaggeration, but the addition of realistic AI has some very exciting potential. Preferential treatment will be given to those folks on your friends list, meaning that you can choose to race against their Drivatar over some anonymous clown, so it’s like always racing with your friends without having to strap on a headset. Or listen to them belch into their microphone. Or tell fart jokes. I need new friends...
Remember when you got home with your unopened copy of Forza 4 and couldn’t wait to pop it in so Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson could verbally walk you through Forza 4’s Autovista feature? Yeah, me neither. However, Forza 5 is promising an upgraded Autovista and will now feature all 3 presenters: Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. I give this feature a whoop de-fucking-doo. If Turn 10 wants to associate themselves with every car fan’s favorite show from across the pond, why not allow the presenters to lend their voices as announcers and include a Blu-Ray disc of Top Gear’s Greatest Hits or something?
Unanswered Questions
We still know very little about Forza 5, and if history is to repeat itself, information will be doled out very slowly. Will Turn 10 finally fix their PI system? Will AWD cars be competitive this time around? Does the presence of Drivatar indicate changes to the storefront, auction house, or monetary system? Will a player’s Drivatar utilize vehicles from that player’s garage? Will Turn 10 limit moderators’ abuse of storefront bans? Will painters and tuners be given more toys to play with in Forza 5? Has anyone seen Pickle lately?
A new Forza game is always exciting, but the fact that this game is on a new console makes the wait almost excruciating. My interest in this title is very high, and I will pass on any relevant news as it happens. We still have a few months to go until launch...come on, November!
Feel free to post any specific questions in the comments section so we can get them answered, if possible. This community has a voice, and we want Turn 10 to hear it.
