These same pros and cons have been leveled at the series for years, and it’s clear at this point that Turn 10 is content to tweak the presentation of races more than the races itself. IDG / Hayden DingmanĪnyway, this shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s played a mainline Forza before. In Forza you always start at the back of the pack, no matter how well you did in your previous race or how skilled you are compared to your competition. This is compounded by the fact that Forza still doesn’t include any sort of qualifying system-a glaring omission after playing Project Cars for any length of time. A unique challenge.Įven so, we’re still talking sim-lite (or arcade-sim if you prefer). My favorite is the backside of the fictional Dubai street course, where sand starts whipping across the asphalt. Track conditions seem emphasized this time around, too. At higher levels you’re going to want to tune your car, run practice laps, and all that. It’s not, and when you stop leaning on the Rewind crutch-tap “Y” to back up the race 3 to 5 seconds, perfect for when you do spin out- and turn off all the assists, Forza 7 can approach sim levels of complexity. Forza’s cars have a lot more traction than I think is strictly realistic.
And I know that for a fact, because I spent 45 minutes driving a Porsche around a track in Project Cars 2 before I managed to make it a full lap without spinning out. Even with all the handling assists turned off, I felt like I could push cars in Forza 7 pretty hard-certainly harder than I’d be able to get away with in Project Cars 2. Even with a checkbox for “Limit Aggression” checked, those hairpin turns still just devolve into car-wrestling. Five years into Forza’s Drivatar experiment, where you race against AI facsimiles of your friends, and all I’ve really learned is that my entire friend group drives like it’s buy-one-get-one admission for bumper cars. Then again, so are all my friends, apparently. Yes, I’m one of those Drivatars you hate to race against. So how does it play? I’ll admit I’m not much of a sim racer enthusiast, preferring the antics of a Forza Horizon or other arcade racers, and have a tendency to play sim racers as if they were just a more challenging arcade racer-drifting, full throttle, music blaring, and more than a little contact between me and my fellow racers. I can deal with some interface quirks as long as the key pieces function. There were a few quirks, like the Square button being used for Cancel instead of Circle, but the Force Feedback wheel itself worked fine, as did the pedals. Even my PS4/PC-specific Logitech G29 ($282 on Amazon) was recognized-a fact that surprised me, given this is technically an Xbox game.