Forza Motorsport 5 came to the newly launched Xbox One as a bit of a half-baked game, for all who played it it was obvious that the game was rushed out in time to be a launch title for Microsoft’s new state of the art games console.
Thankfully for all involved, the sixth version of the iconic gaming series takes those foundations and shakes Forza Motorsport 6 into a game that towers above its competition.
Starting from the even the very first race, you can tell that Forza 6 is something spectacular – racing the Ford GT around Rio is breathtaking and gives you a perfect taste of what’s to come with a setting buzzing with action on and off track.
Moving from the introductory series – which is rather redundant if you’ve played any of the previous games before – into the full-throated career mode, the only game mode of any great substance, you are immediately presented with a number of options.
Annoyingly, unlike Project Cars, you have to start with the hot hatches and move up the racing ladder – not a problem if you don’t mind that sort of thing but there is A LOT of racing before you start getting into the fast stuff.
However, when you do it is so worth it. BTCC cars, Le Mans Prototypes and Can-Am weapons make everything that precedes it completely worth it.
Indeed even the races are good, 24 car grids are more realistic and the wet-weather mode starts to give a taste of what could be offered. Unfortunately for the new weather modes it isn’t dynamic so if an endurance race starts wet guess what? It’s going to end wet as well.
The addition of a handful of BTCC cars is a nice touch (Credit: Forza Motorsport)
While 24 cars does offer up more of a challenge, it is made considerable worse when Drivatar AI is involved. Meant to be a better experience for all involved because it uses other gamer’s ghosts to race against, it makes the whole thing considerably worse because the AI is terrible – racing lines are completely ignored and normally flat out corners see cars slow considerably.
It’s not all bad news though, the new showcases – which feature multi-class endurance races (thank god) and various other engineered situations provide a good distraction from the main career mode and let you drive vehicles you might not have otherwise considered.
Also of note is the sheer quality of the game, the cars – almost 500 of them – are rendered so superbly it’s like staring out your window at the real thing. The same goes for the tracks, the addition of Brands Hatch, Lime Rock Park, Watkins Glen and most importantly the Nurburgring look great and will no doubt be replicated inch perfectly in Forza 6.
Battling traffic, at Le Mans, at night, is a thrill that can’t be beaten (Credit: Forza Motorsport)
The only problem though, is that there doesn’t feel like enough of them. The loss of tracks like Motegi, Suzuka and Mugello which have regularly appeared in previous games is a big blow and that makes the tracks that are left get repeated more often than you’d like – especially when you look to R Factor, or even Project CARS and see how many tracks you get with those two.
While most things feel like they belong in the game, one thing that feels out of place are the cards. They are meant to be there to give perks, challenges and driving additions in-race but to be honest the effect they have is barely minimal – it’s just a useless feature I would be surprised to see repeated in future games.
Don’t let these things distract you though, Forza Motorsport 6 is worthy of the best-in-class title and it will take an absolutely world-beater of a game to knock Microsoft’s effort off the throne.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-info”]Game Title: Forza 6 Motorsport[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”entypo-info”]Availabile on: Xbox One[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”entypo-info”]Reviewed on: Xbox One[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”entypo-info”]Category: Racing[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”entypo-info”]Modes: Single Player, Multi Player [/list_item]
[list_item icon=”entypo-info”]Developer: Turn 10 Studios[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”entypo-info”]Publisher: Microsoft Studios[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”entypo-info”]Official URL: http://www.forzamotorsport.net/[/list_item]
[/list]
