SDCC 2013 Video Game Round-Up: ‘Forza 5’

I admit, I never caught on to the Forza craze that is ever so popular now. For all gamers out there who can relate to that sentence, and who at least like racing games a little bit, you should be excited for Forza 5 by the end of this article.

Let’s start with Forza‘s new user interface. The new UI admittingly looks a lot like the current Xbox 360 dashboard. There’s nothing really snazzy or new about the design, but it works as it is able to condense everything you need and want to know in the realm of Forza. This “living hub” constantly updates with information on races, your friend’s races, new tracks, and the happenings in the game.

Forza 5 will also feature hundreds of cars. That’s right, hundreds, some of which include Indie and Grand Prix cars. Those of you familiar with the film Rush will also recognize two vehicles from that film usable in Forza 5. Gamers will also be able go into vista mode with these two cars, as one of the new features in Forza 5 is the ability to go into vista mode with every car featured in the game. This is espicially exciting since Forza 5 will be running on a new graphics engine in 1080i and 60FPS. In fact, the developers of Forza had a hand in influencing the graphical chips used in the Xbox One.

In order to capture the realism behind how a car looks, developers sought to capture the visual imperfections in order to reach perfection. Face it, we won’t see half these cars in real life. Forza is the closest we’ll get and the developers are trying to make it as realistic as possible. To give you an example, tires in the game are going to be up to date will real life data provided with Cal Span. Another example lies within the materials used to create the cars in real life, including each coat of paint used for each vehicle. Doing this allows light to be reflected in different ways as the car is crusing down the track; Since there are three layers, any damage sustained to the car will be represented in such a way that gamers will be able to see the car’s material underneath the paint. In short, damage will be unique and specific.

Career mode will host 50 or more events in each league that will provide more than 60 hours of gameplay. As you progress through your career, each path will be different depending on the car that you choose. As you purchase new cars to race with, Forza, with the power of the cloud, will show you new car suggestions based on your past purchases. Think Amazon or Netflix’s “because you watched ___”. Also, all paintjobs will now be free.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about Forza 5 is the redesign of the Drivatar. The drivatar is a representation of you as a racer, and it knows the kinds of paintjobs and cars you like. As you drive, the system will be learning your tendencies and will constantly improve. What’s best is that your drivatar will race for you while you’re away and you will get rewards for winning said races. Drivatars will also have failsafes in the event the player starts to cheat or does not play by the rules. Rest assured that any player who constantly drives backwards through tracks will not have a drivatar that does the same. Instead, their drivatar will just really suck. This brings us to our next point; if you spend a long time away from Forza, your Drivatar will reflect that. If you come back and have a bad streak, your Drivatar will also reflect that. In short, always play Forza and never stop playing Forza.

Forza 5 will also feature a full orchestral soundtrack recorded at Skywalker Sound. This will sound great as you race through cities based in real life, just minus the stop signs. Gamers will also be happy to know that every mode in the game will gain you xp and allow you to level up.

Lastly, Forza 5 will be using dedicated servers for multiplayer. This will be especially great when playing online against opponents you’re comfortable with. Gamers will have the chance to hone in on the type of player they’re comfortable racing against. If you like clean, serious racers, you’ll have ’em as opponents. As for me, if you see a 24k Gold P1 racing like a dick, it’s probably me.

Have a chance to check out Forza 5 already? Share your thoughts below!