It’s been a while since we last got a new Forza Motorsport game, but Turn 10 Studios is finally delivering the series’ next instalment this year with what’s being dubbed as a reboot. Since its meaty reveal last year, we hadn’t seen too much of the game, called simply Forza Motorsport, in the months that followed, but recently as part of the Xbox and Bethesda Developer Direct, we did get another extended look at the racing sim. Plenty of new details have emerged on the game as a result, and here, we’re going to go over a few key points that you should know about.
ROSTER
The roster of vehicles is one of the most crucial aspects of any racer, and this is one area where Forza Motorsport has been traditionally strong (though not without exceptions). The upcoming instalment, it seems, is going to be well stocked right off the bat as well. Turn 10 Studios has confirmed that the game will have a roster of over 500 cars at launch. That’s not quite as sizeable as the massive roster of over 700 cars that 2017’s Forza Motorsport 7 launched with, but 500+ isn’t a number to scoff at by any means. The developer says this roster will feature over 100 new introductions to Forza and the highest ever number of modern race cars in the series’ history, while over 800 unique upgrades and custom modification will also be offered for customizing your vehicle. While a full list of cars included in the game at launch hasn’t yet been revealed, a large number of manufacturers will be represented, including the likes of Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Buick, Bugatti, Chevrolet, Ford, Jaguar, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes, Porsche, and many, many more.
CAR MODELS
Forza games have always prided themselves on the painstaking level of detail they pour into the vehicle models, in terms of both their interiors and exteriors, and it’s not surprising in the slightest that the upcoming Forza Motorsport is looking to take that even further. Turn 10 says the in-game car paints will look significantly better, owing to the fact that they’re not sourced from a spectrophotometer, which, according to the developer, will “give each paint coating a significantly more realistic light response across colors, metal flake and gloss levels.” Meanwhile, the game will also boast context-sensitive damage to vehicles, dynamic dirt building that will vary based on multiple factors, and simulated paint thickness, chipping, directionality of damage, and dirt layering.
TRACKS
Almost as important as the roster of vehicles in a racing game is its roster of tracks, and Turn 10 has offered some details on what to expect on that front as well. The developer confirms that Forza Motorsport will feature 20 unique racing environments at launch, which, like the vehicle roster, is less than Forza Motorsport 7 (which had 30 environments at launch), but is nonetheless a solid amount right out the gate. These environments will, of course, feature multiple track layouts. Fan favourite tracks like Maple Valley, Laguna Seca, and Spa-Francorchamps are returning, while five of the locations are also going to be entirely new introductions, including Kyalami in South Africa.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETAIL
Forza Motorsport games pour a great deal of detail into the environments that you race through, and this is another area where the upcoming title is looking to kick things up a notch. Turn 10 says it has captured environments using “highly detailed photogrammetry and laser scanned data”, supposedly enabling an unprecedented level of authenticity. Environments will boast physically based lighting, volumetric fog effects, highly detailed vegetation and overgrowth, and a fully procedural cloud system, not to mention crowds consisting of tens of thousands of fully animated 3D spectators. Turn 10 says the game’s environments will have ten times the level of detail seen in previous Forza Motorsport games.
DYNAMIC RACES
Forza Motorsport is looking to deliver a “constantly evolving” racing experience, so that even within a single race, the track will look and feel different from lap to lap. A lot of that is apparently going to be down to the introduction of the dynamic time and day and weather systems, with all of its factors impacting things such as track temperatures, wet driving surfaces, and rubbering in. Thanks to these systems, Turn 10 says no to laps will ever look or play the same.
AUDIO IMPROVEMENTS
Turn 10 always likes to stay ahead of the curve with its audio design, and to that end, it’s making several leaps with the upcoming Forza Motorsport. For starters, it’s the studio’s first ever game to be mixed natively for audio formats like Windows Sonic and Dolby Atmos, while the audio system has also been completely rebuilt to make for a more immersive and authentic experience. That entails high fidelity audio recordings, an expanded archive of sounds, improved tire and suspension audio, and new touches like regional track announcers. Meanwhile, the game will also make use of hardware-accelerated convolution reverb, which, according to Turn 10, will “accurately reproduce how sounds in the game world interact within an acoustic space” and “dynamically adapt to surroundings” as you race through courses. As you’d expect, the audio experience will also change dramatically based on whether or not you’re playing in cockpit view.
RESOLUTION AND FRAME RATE
Forza Motorsport games are always veritable technical showcases without fail, and Turn 10 has never managed to squeeze out every ounce of technical juice from whatever hardware it has worked with. Early on in the Xbox Series X/S’ life, it looks like the upcoming racing sim is going to be a showcase in its own right as well, which is also reflected in its performance and resolution targets. On Xbox Series X, not only will the game run at 4K and 60 FPS, all environments are also rendered with real-time ray tracing on-track. That includes ray traced reflections on all smooth mirror and flat glass surfaces, as well as ray traced global illumination. As for the Xbox Series S, Turn 10 has previously confirmed that the game will run at 1080p and 60 FPS on Microsoft’s less powerful console.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Turn 10 is also touting significant improvements to Forza Motorsports physics simulation, which, according to the studio, represents an advancement over past games greater than Forza Motorsport 5, 6, and 7 combined. The developer says these changes and improvements have been inspired by feedback received from players, and are geared towards making things such as acceleration, braking, and corners more fun and authentic. The developer also says that Forza Motorsport’s new single player career mode is going to be focused on car building, though further details haven’t yet been provided.