Forza 5

[TCrouch]

Thanks, Scott. I always do the "next day" type stuff, but apparently when submitting payment info it reset itself to the generic "NewEgg 3 Day" or whatever.

That sucks.

[Spooky]

So what's the consensus on this game here? I really hate the idea of the micro transactions they every review and user review has bashed this one for. I also am just a very casual driving game player. But I wonder if that might work in my favor...? Meaning that since I am more of a casual player I don't care about hundreds of car types and dozens of tracks. Sure it's nice to have more content but I'll never play enough to use more than 10-15 cars and will NEVER master more than a handful of tracks. On the other hand, if I have to grind and grind and grind just to get come of the more fun and fast cars then I'll never be able to get there.

Thoughts?

[TCrouch]

I haven't felt like I was grinding at all, at any point. Just by racing you're going to collect a lot of credits. But then, if you go to Forza Rewards, you may get a bunch anyway and never have to grind. I got gifted 4 million credits so I bought the McLaren MP1 for the achievement. I've still got 2.something million left. So if you've played previous Forzas, you may have rewards anyway.

I have had zero problems with any microtransaction model. I DID have an issue with the limited car/track selection when playing with my brother, though. We could fire up GT6 and race on side-by-side wheel stands on my couch and have a blast like a local arcade--but on Forza we had a very limited track selection, limited cars to choose from (rentals, etc).

If you're a casual guy it may not bother you at all. You will be able to master all of the tracks included and just race them in different cars. But you WILL notice the controller and the feel. I can't tell you how much cooler the tactile triggers are for gas/brake. When you turn assists off and know exactly where the tires are braking traction when stopping, or when you're spinning the tires on corner exits through feel in the controller--that's really, really cool.

I don't think FM5 is a bad game at all, and I don't get upset thinking it's microtransactioning me to death. It just feels a little light on content currently to me (and obvious wheel issues), and it sounds like that may not bother you at all.

[dbdynsty25]

I love FM5...I'm not a hardcore racer, and I don't feel like I'm grinding like I do in most of the GT games. The limited number of tracks is kind of annoying, but if you're not mastering 10+ then that won't matter anyway. The controller is PERFECT for FM5...with the only instance of the rumble triggers being actually useful and not annoying. After maybe two or three hours of playing, I was in my upgraded car (GTR Black Edition) and the game really opened up. Pair that with the 4 million dollar reward the other day and I've got a ton of nice cars to run in. As soon as you can buy the faster cars, you can skip around to other events and the faster races and just skip all of the lower class races if you don't care about 100% completion.

It really is a fantastic game and to me it's the best real next gen game besides NBA 2k14.

[Spooky]

Thanks guys - if I were to buy this today would I be able to get in on the $4mil reward?

[TCrouch]

You'd want to go to the forza rewards link earlier in the thread and see. You can see what rewards you're eligible for by going to their site and signing in.

[TCrouch]

Well...Mix...THANKS for the encouragement

"Thank you for shopping at Newegg.com.

Your tracking number has been generated and your package/order will ship out today."

[mixdj1]

Awesome! Can't wait to hear your impressions of the wheel.

[Aristo]

Thanks guys - if I were to buy this today would I be able to get in on the $4mil reward?

It all depends on how much Forza you have played in the past. I got $3 million. But honestly, I didn't need the money, as I was enjoying the career mode as it is. You make a ton of money by just playing the game, plus, everyday you play, your avatar drops more credits into your account depending on how ny races and how well it has down. I'm sure I am well of $100 grand in just Drivatar Rewards.

The only thing that annoys me is the lack of Nürburgring, since I figure it will be part of a DLC package later.

[TCrouch]

If anybody's curious, jump to like 42:50 in this video to see how those drivatars behave in a race at Bathurst.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAXB-Kp9Ays

That was really, really entertaining. Looking forward to the wheel now that I see what Darin and Shaun think of it.

[Spooky]

Wow guys...just f*cking wow! This game is super slick. It really screams "next gen" in many ways (not just graphically). Thanks for the input that got me to purchase this.

[XXXIV]

Wow guys...just f*cking wow! This game is super slick. It really screams "next gen" in many ways (not just graphically). Thanks for the input that got me to purchase this.

This is still the only game out that I want for either system so I wont do it! but as a big fan of every Forza game before.....you guys are killing me!

[dbdynsty25]

Wow guys...just f*cking wow! This game is super slick. It really screams "next gen" in many ways (not just graphically). Thanks for the input that got me to purchase this.

Told ya.

[Diablo25]

I picked it up over the weekend and I'm enjoying it. Gorgeous game and fun.

[Bakes]

Would you guys recommend Forza for an 8-9 year old or is it too complex? I'm not a big racing game guy. Debating this or NFS.

[Spooky]

Would you guys recommend Forza for an 8-9 year old or is it too complex? I'm not a big racing game guy. Debating this or NFS.

I'd recommend NFS for an 8-9 year old over Forza. I have both and NFS is probably easier to just drive around and be crazy and have fun. That said, it's interface and structure is actually fairly complex but gameplay wise it's probably the better choice.

[Bakes]

That's what I had assumed. Thanks!

[dbdynsty25]

Would you guys recommend Forza for an 8-9 year old or is it too complex? I'm not a big racing game guy. Debating this or NFS.

I don't know...I actually think there would be more fun to be had for an 8-9 year old in Forza. Being able to design your own cars however you want and have them show up on the track would have given me hundreds of hours of entertainment when I was that age. But it depends on the kid I suppose.

[TCrouch]

Yeah, depends on the kid. As a kid, I'd have preferred to be a cop (or a racer) and just go slamming into everything that moved, probably. NFS in a landslide IMO.

Forza is just so sterile if you look at it from a kid's point of view. Nothing flashy going on, and how many have the patience to create anything cool in the paint shop?

[pk500]

I don't have a next-gen console. But I have 12-year-old and 8-year-old sons who are into racing, and I'd still get NFS before Forza. The simpler, arcade driving model and brain junk food attraction of driving like hell to evade the cops appeal to EVERY kid and many adults who refuse to grow up.

[TCrouch]

Indeed. My first experience with NFS was just loading it up as a cop, and I was barely out of the tutorial. Next thing I knew, I saw some real player (I didn't know it did this at the time) who went racing by. I flipped on the lights and spent the better part of 15 minutes chasing that bastard. I had no special abilities or anything, and he kept hitting me with some shockwave, and other player Cops joined in. He kept losing everybody. Everybody but me, at least

I stuck on his tail and really beat the crap out of his car, but he knew where all the gas stations to drive through to repair were, and would keep repairing up. He'd flip a 180, and I'd stay in hot pursuit (pun intended). Bottom line, I tried as hard as I could with a dude who was really good, and eventually he wrecked me before I could wreck him. He only had about 20% of his car left, running like mad, and got away.

I was tense, heart-racing, excited, etc. And that was only my FIRST experience with the game. As for Forza, it's a great game. But for a kid, the previous experience will be miles ahead of a sterile racer like FM5, where racecraft and positioning and human-like behavior matter much more than just putting your foot to the floor (or finger to the trigger base, I guess) fun.

[DivotMaker]

FYI.....

http://m.ign.com/articles/2013/12/12/fo ... rag-racing

[DChaps]

Got the wheel yet Terry? I have seen mixed reviews. The insidesimracing guys seemed to like it, but I have read some other reports of cheaply made pedals, deadzone, and strange FFB behaviour.

[DChaps]

As previously noted by Divot, Brian Ekberg has posted official news today on the upcoming Forza patch and the economy changes, wheel fixes, etc.

http://www.forzamotorsport.net/en-us/news/wir_12_13_13

Forza Motorsport Week in Review 12-13-13 by Brian Ekberg
Welcome to the Week in Review! We’ve got another busy edition for you this week, including a peek at the Halo-themed car coming soon to Forza Motorsport 5 VIP members, an update on the new forum launch and the upcoming car redemption page for Forza Motorsport 5 Limited Edition owners, and more. But before we get to that, I want to get you all caught up on the news about our next content update.

The latest content update for Forza Motorsport 5 is coming soon! This update will bring some momentous feature additions to Forza 5, including new race modes such as drag racing and multiplayer “Tag.” In addition, this update will bring some important adjustments to the Forza Motorsport 5 economy, including increasing the amount of credits earned for racing and lowering the prices of the best cars in the game. This content update, which will also include numerous other game improvements, is a significant addition to the Forza 5 experience. With the update currently in certification and awaiting final release, here’s a detailed look at the changes coming your way very soon.

Drag Racing
First up, we’re adding two significant game modes to Forza 5: drag racing and multiplayer “Tag.” Drag racing in Forza Motorsport 5 is the ultimate test of car tuning, reflexes, and pure power, and you’ll be able to take your favorite drag-tuned rides to the Airfield track and test their mettle on quarter-mile, half-mile, and full-mile drag strips. Drag racing will be available in both Free Play and in Multiplayer game modes.

Multiplayer is where drag racing comes alive in Forza Motorsport 5. No need to argue which car is quickest – grab your friends and your meanest drag cars and settle the issue the way it was meant to be settled: on the strip. In addition to support for drag racing for up to 16 players in a single lobby via one-on-one heats, we’re also adding support for eight-player drag races, where all eight cars are on track at the same time on quarter-mile, half-mile, or full-mile strips. At the launch of the content update, we will have two drag racing hoppers available online: Ultimate Drag (for tuned cars of any class) and Ultimate Drag RWD (rear-wheel drive only, any class is eligible).

Tag Mode
The other big feature addition to Forza Motorsport 5 is the introduction of Tag. Tag is about as far as you can get from the traditional racing and drifting found in traditional Forza online competition. In short, Tag is about pure automotive mayhem, full of action-packed driving, huge wrecks, and lots of strategy. Tag is only available in multiplayer in Forza 5 and comes in three distinct flavors:

Keep the It: One player begins the match as “It.” The goal is for the “It” player to keep “It” status for as long as possible. “It” status transfers each time someone makes contact with the “It” player. Once the match timer has completed, the player with the most “It” time wins.
Tag Virus – One player begins the match as “It.” Each time an “It” player makes contact with another car, the “It” status spreads like a virus. The last uninfected player standing wins the match.
Pass the It: Similar to “Keep the It”, one player begins a “Pass the It” match with “It” status. “It” status transfers each time someone makes contact with the “It.” At the end of the match, the player with the least amount of “It” time wins.When the update goes live, we’ll have three multiplayer hoppers available for “Tag” fans: S-Class Virus, A-Class Keep the It, and A-Class Pass the It.

Economy Changes
This content update includes the first wave of adjustments to the Forza 5 economy, which we initially announced in early December. These adjustments are based on player behavior within the game, as well as feedback received from the Forza Motorsport community. First of all, we are dramatically increasing the rate at which credits are being earned in the game. For example, driver level payouts have more than doubled (from just over 15,000 credits to 35,000 credits). Players using average difficulty settings will also see approximately a 60 percent increase in credits earned per hour of play -- a number that can dramatically increase by upping the Drivatar difficulty and assist settings used during races. Wherever your skill level lies, however, you’ll be earning more credits per hour in Forza Motorsport 5 to spend on the cars that matter most to you.

In addition to increasing the payout, we have also reduced the price of the best cars in the game. In fact, the cumulative price of all on-disc cars in the game has decreased by 45 percent. To use a specific example, the Ferrari 250 GTO, one of the most expensive cars in Forza Motorsport 5, will cost 2 million credits after the content update, down from 6 million credits when the game launched. By comparison, that same car cost 10 million credits in Forza Motorsport 4.

By increasing the amount of credits available to players and lowering the prices of cars, it’s never been easier to earn the best cars in the game; in fact, thanks to these economy updates, Forza 5 will be able to earn their dream cars in approximately one-fifth the amount of time it took to earn those same cars in Forza 4. Naturally the most exclusive cars in the game will still take some strategy (and some saving) to acquire, but these changes mean that even the fastest cars in the game are now within every Forza 5 player’s reach.

Forza Rewards
As long as we’re talking about the economy, it’s worth reminding fans about Forza Rewards, our loyalty program where players can earn in-game gifts each month just for playing Forza games. With Forza Rewards, Forza players are ranked by “Tiers” based on a number of factors across different Forza games. Since the launch of Forza Motorsport 5, Forza Rewards has gifted more than 500 billion in-game credits to Forza 5 players. This month, we dramatically increased the number of Forza Reward credits in Forza Motorsport 5; a Tier 1 player, for example, earned 1 million credits while a Tier 6 player earned 6 million credits. So, if you haven’t redeemed your December rewards yet, or you just want to see what Forza Rewards is all about, head over to the Forza Rewards site and find out what you are missing.

Wheel Improvements
Finally, this content update will add various improvements across a number of different aspects of the game, including some upgrades for those playing Forza 5 with force feedback wheels like the Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition. With the update, players will be able to change the max degree of rotation (up to 270 degrees) within the game, and we have increased the maximum amount of available force feedback for wheels.

This is our first content update for Forza Motorsport 5, but it won’t be the last. We’re committed to listening to feedback from the Forza Motorsport community and will continue to improve the game with updates in the future. As always, let us know what you think on the forums, we want to hear what you have to say!

Halo: Spartan Assault VIP Car – Coming Soon!
This week, we raised the curtain on our Halo: Spartan Assault car. Created by our own Robin (aka Little Vixen), and showed off during Monday’s 343 Day livestream, this liveried Ford Mustang Boss 302 will be coming to Forza Motorsport 5 VIP owners in the near future. For more on the car, check out this week’s edition of Rear View Mirror and don’t forget, Halo: Spartan Assault is coming to Xbox One on December 24!

Distractor Face Livery Contest
Also in this week’s edition of Rear View Mirror, John kicked off a fun “distractor face” livery contest which will run through December. For the uninitiated, a distractor face is a goofy livery item, usually featuring a silly face, that gained in popularity in Grand Am racing. Popularized by Roush Racing, at one point there was even a contest to get your face on the rear of the team’s car.

For our distractor face livery contest, you can use any face for your distractor face, but please keep it clean. This contest is limited to Forza Motorsport 5 entries; other than that the only rules are the distractor face needs to live on the left rear of the car. Whether that is on the bumper or the rear quarter panel is up to you. You can design a livery for the entire car if you wish, but only the distractor face will be judged.

The first place winner will receive 1 million Forza Motorsport 5 credits, and John may offer additional prizes depending on overall turnout and entry quality. Post your entries in the contest entry thread; John will be judging the entries all month long!

Forum and LE Page Updates
Those of you expecting to see the new FM.net forums probably noticed that they didn’t launch this week. We are still working feverishly to get the new forums up and running and we hope to have them available to you very soon. In the meantime, I wanted to remind Forza Motorsport 5 Limited Edition owners that we will soon launch our Limited Edition car redemption page. As described in the Week in Review from November 27, this page will allow Forza Motorsport 5 Limited Edition owners to select and redeem the car their choice from any on-disc car in Forza Motorsport 5. As described in the announcement, this page and this offer will only be accessible to LE owners.

We’ll be bringing you more news on the FM.net forum relaunch and the LE car redemption page soon.

Forza 5 Liveries Featured on OXM
Finally, I leave you with a fun story we found on OXM.com this week, highlighting some of the best Forza 5 custom paint jobs so far. From Afro Samurai to jet-skiing in Grand Theft Auto V and a truly sweet Titanfall livery, this collection of cool designs showcases the power of the new livery editor in Forza 5, as well as the boundless creativity of the Forza community. Congratulations to everyone whose work was featured!

That ties a bow on this week’s WIR. Next week will be our final edition of the year, followed by our Year in Review on December 27. See you then!

[TCrouch]

Got the wheel yet Terry? I have seen mixed reviews. The insidesimracing guys seemed to like it, but I have read some other reports of cheaply made pedals, deadzone, and strange FFB behaviour.

It shipped, but I forgot to change the shipping to next day, so I won't have it until Monday. Sorry, mate.

I've seen those references too, and almost every one of them seems to have somebody who's clueless about the firmware update. So my gut tells me it's ignorance and operator error (and a wheel that shipped that required a firmware update to start with, but it is what it is nowadays).

I'll get it, update it, and mount it up to my XL21 wheel stand and run it through its paces on Monday night. Might be Tuesday, as UPS gets to my house so late (8PM almost) that by the time I do all of the stand swapping with the T500RS, it'll be pretty late. I haven't seen if the T500RS pedals would connect to it--that'd be pretty cool. But I'm assuming they won't, since that would make their "TX300" set coming out useless.