The hype surrounding Forza Motorsport’s eighth incarnation – simply titled Forza Motorsport for clarity – is building ahead of its release on the 10th of October 2023 on PC and Xbox Series X|S.
Turn 10’s long-running series – first seen on Xbox in 2005 – focuses on the serious side of car culture, setting itself apart from Forza Horizon’s fun, open-world approach, but has always straddled the line between casual and hardcore fans thanks to its forgiving physics and impressive visuals.
Forza Motorsport’s latest gameplay video exemplifies this perfectly, showcasing the game’s cover stars – the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray and Cadillac Racing V-Series.R – in racing action around Maple Valley and the cherry blossom-lined Hakone circuit respectively.
Maple Valley and Hakone showcase
The all-wheel-drive hybrid E-Ray – set to go on sale in 2024 – sounds the part at least, mimicking the real-world sound from the ‘Vette’s raucous V8 motor. On the track, the E-Ray looks solid – as you’d expect from a car with total traction – with the verdant scenery of Maple Valley highlighting the Forza reboot’s graphical prowess.
The gameplay is apparently taken from the early stages of Forza’s single-player mode, with players encouraged to participate in practice sessions ahead of races – forgoing the traditional qualifying sessions of old.
Around Hakone, the GTP/LMDh-class Cadillac Racing V-Series.R makes a pitstop – showing off Forza’s neat pitcrew animations (minus seeing wheels coming off or going back on) – with the authentic touch of its electric motor being used on pitroad. Once the stop is complete, the car sets off to re-join the circuit, firing up its V8 engine with an impressive roar. Nice.
Hakone looks incredible during the night-time multi-class race, with the Cadillac displaying a sure-footedness associated with high-downforce cars, sharing the track with a who’s who of the GT and prototype racecar world; including DPis, GTEs and GT3s.
Honda Civic Type R at Grand Oak Raceway
We then get to see a preview of Grand Oak Raceway and the much-vaunted Builder’s Cup, where players are tasked with upgrading their chosen car to keep pace with the AI competition.
Disappointingly, players start out with a brand-new, high-performance car, taking away the thrill of tuning a jalopy into a race winner – a formula that Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport games nailed in their early iterations.
The apparently standard Honda Civic Type R takes to the track with Forza’s audio front and centre, with extremely loud turbo wastegate noises (I’ve never heard a standard Civic sound like a Group A rally car before) and slightly strained tyre squeals detracting from what looks like a well-sorted and forgiving handling model.
The four-cylinder Honda exhaust note also sounds a little disappointingly artificial, with the car collision sounds cutting through the audio mix with all the subtlety of a Helmut Markko put-down.
Players can look forward to earning experience points during races in the Builder’s Cup judging from the footage, earning XP from performing overtakes and completing clean lap segments. It could prove a little distracting seeing these notifications pop up mid-race, however, but we’d hope they can be turned off in the final build.
What are your thoughts on Forza Motorsport’s latest gameplay showcase? Let us know in the comments below.
