As a veteran player (Reward tier 12) I stepped away from Forza Motorsport for approx. 18 months while we wait for the next installment of the series. I spent some time in some other racing games, including; Horizon 4, Assetto Corsa, Project Cars 2, F1 2019.
I’d thought I share my experience and comments on what a found returning to Forza Motorsport 7 after a long absence. I was using controller, and mostly racing in spec production FRR hopper, free play custom races and the 100 miles of SPA endurance (unbeatable AI and simulation settings).
1) Menus, Graphics and Appearance; Menus are very nice and logically laid out (particularly after update), Graphics look fantastic. In the end FM7 became a very polished looking game.
2) Playability; This has to be the biggest plus and why Forza is my most played racing game, it’s great to be able to just pick up and play when short on time (most of the time). It’s playable on controller rather than setting up my wheel, etc. You can customize your cars and preferences much more than other games.
3) Physics & Handling; This was my biggest disappointment coming from others (above). I would describe handling as over exaggerated, cars in stock form just feel very arcade. Small movements have dramatic results, making it very hard to be smooth, accurate, and generally control the cars. Body movements seem way too exaggerated under brakes, acceleration, corners like your driving a trophy truck. Corresponding suspension movements (telemetry) are highly erratic causing grip to feel very ON,OFF,ON,OFF. Like when you run very slightly too much speed into corner, the UNDERSTEER you can experience is a bit ridiculous. Letting off throttle to shed speed and transfer some weight forward but it takes an unrealistic amount of time for grip to return. Traction on anything other than racing tyres seems way too low, low torque S2000 should not be able to light up a 245 section sport tyre in 2nd and 3rd gear (real life example; my car with 245 section, 240 tread wear street tyres can barely spin them in 1st with triple the wheel torque). When tyres slip they shouldn’t lose all forward drive, it would be nice I tyres could slip more before going into full burnout. Particularly low torque cars at high speed. Perhaps it’s the price you pay for the playability and making it work on controller (wheel can be more precise),
4) Gameplay; AI needs to be overhauled, particularly noticeable when coming directly from F1 2019. On unbeatable it frustrating how they brake mid corner and then seem to have way more horsepower on straights, but still their overall lap and race times aren’t that challenging. Online the biggest problem is still the community (sorry but it’s true), even in the FRR hopper, with same equipment, the amount to ramming, blocking, pushing, and just plain crap driving is really frustrating. Tried leagues in search of more quality races (used to primarily play in pinnacle) but couldn’t even find a lobby. I would like to see FRR combined with some sort of ranking/sportsman system brought into all hoppers.
In summary, returning to FM7 felt very hit and miss. I won about 8 FRR races (out of about 20) and had some good little battles when I could get clear of the pack, but there were also many more occasions where it was just a painful experience and reminded me why I stopped playing. Single player is just too boring, looking forward to much improved AI. Forza has so much potential, I REALLY hope they can live up to that, especially given the development time for the next Motorsport.
Link below to my “Future of Motorsport” post.
https://forums.forza.net/turn10_postst149627_A-Letter-to-Turn10---Suggestions-for-future-of-Motorsport.aspx