Turn 10 Studios’ Forza Motorsport has been one of the more divisive titles in the series since launching last October. While it received positive reviews from many critics (check out ours here), fans criticized it for major bugs like an infinite loading screen, the car leveling, and AI.
In a new community message, game director Andy Beaudoin, creative director Chris Esaki and executive producer Trevor Laupmanis outlined the three major areas of feedback, starting with car progression. Acknowledging it as a “divisive topic,” they said, “It is clear from looking at feedback that while many of our players are enjoying the system as is, for many others, it isn’t delivering the upgrade experience that they expect from Forza Motorsport.
“To address this, we are exploring changes to the system. Our goal with these changes is to retain what is working for those that enjoy it while resolving the issues many of our most dedicated players have with the system.” While it will take time to “properly evaluate options, make the necessary code changes, and thoroughly test those code changes,” it’s a top priority for the team this year.
As for Race Regulations, Turn 10 is aware that they’re “not working as intended in some situations. We have heard about inconsistent or unfair penalties in instances of intentional ramming, being pushed off the track, and spinning cars pushing drivers off the track. We have also heard that high-speed collisions sometimes have no penalties while low-speed collisions have mild penalties.
“It’s important that we capture all the data we can about a race when FRR rulings happen in error, so over the next few months, we will be working with some long-time competitive Motorsport players to gather direct telemetry from them while they’re playing. They will be capturing these instances and feeding data to our team so that we can issue tweaks to make FRR more accurate and reliable. We appreciate your patience as we work on improving the system.”
Finally, the team will address AI drivers criticized for abrupt braking, braking too hard, and much more. “We have seen feedback about our AI’s driving behavior: abruptly braking and slowing down; not accelerating out of exits, braking too hard on mild corners, and following racing lines too strictly. We understand how important it is to have fair and competitive AI in Motorsport. Our top priorities in early 2024 are addressing overly aggressive AI, while also getting a cleaner race start into turn 1 where many of the issues above most severely manifest and impact players.”
The above three issues and others are “constantly” in the works. How they’re implemented is “driven by the desire to improve the experience regularly and consistently in a way that does not sacrifice stability and minimizes any downtime.” It likely means that Turn 10 doesn’t want to rush any changes that could adversely impact the game.
Forza Motorsport is available for Xbox Series X/S and PC. Its latest update added Hockenheim as a new track, new Spotlight cars in Career Mode’s Contemporary Tour and more. Head here for more details.