Forza Motorsport 6 Review (XB1)

  I don't consider myself a “car guy” by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, I've done more than my fair share of driving in my days because of various jobs I've had, or driving up the East coast of the United States to help someone move (and I've racked up some pretty impressive speeding tickets along the way) but... I also don't trust myself to change the oil in my car. I've had broken sway bars in my 2002 Ford Focus for the past month or so because my mechanic assures me it won't kill me while I'm driving so fuck it. There's routinely a good foot-deep deposit of empty coffee cups and cigarette packs in the passenger side of my car (which I haven't washed in years). Whenever anyone talks cars, I usually have no clue what the fuck they are talking about and politely nod and give the occasional, “huh”. Yet I love the Forza series to death and still remember opening the first game for the original Xbox, studying the diagrams teaching the proper terminology and techniques for drafting and passing. I've been hooked since day one, and Forza Motorsport 6 is easily the best game in the series.

  Two years ago Forza 5 was the perfect launch title for the Xbox One; the cars and tracks were immaculately detailed, giving a good benchmark for not only “next gen” visuals but what the added horsepower and improved controller could add to a genre that marks it's progress with more realistic physics and a better “feel”. Forza Motorsport 6 takes the groundwork laid out by it's predecessor and improves on every aspect, and tops it all off by adding features that fans have been asking for for quite some time. The bullet point presentation may sound iterative or expected, but the additions and improvements simply result in a fantastic, undeniably solid simulation racing game I can't stop playing.

  Having lived in New England my entire life, I'm accustomed to driving in some real shitty weather. For the first time in a mainline Forza title I can put some of those skills to use. Forza Horizon 2 introduced rain to the series, though it was mostly a visual impairment with some minor effects to the acutal driving mechanics. Forza 6 takes that foundation and does what Forza proper does: it simulates what driving in wet conditions will actually do to a car's handling. Wet grass is your mortal enemy. Deep puddles pool up on the track, and hitting them in a drift or accelerating through them will cause some nasty hydroplaning. The seasoned driver knows better than to hit the gas before they've broken the plane, or uses their knowledge of the track to avoid them altogether. Either way, the tar itself is slippery as fuck, and only gets worse with each consecutive lap when your tires heat up and lose traction. The rain effects on your windshield are incredible, and in open top cars you even get the appropriate streaking on your helmet's visor so it's doubly effective. The only thing that breaks the effect is the lack of obnoxious, blinding heavy misting you'd get from the cars in front of you, but from a playibility standpoint it makes things easier. Nighttime driving is another fan request that makes it's debut, and it certainly makes driving appropriately darker and more intense with only your headlights to guide you through certain turns and makes some tracks absolutely stunning (Yas Marina was made for this).

  Forza is all about the act of driving and the love of cars, and Forza 6 makes your Xbox controller do things you didn't think were possible. The rumble triggers were a highly touted feature that many games don't do much to take advantage of.  Forza is a prime specimen of why they're awesome. You can feel every bump rolling through your palms, and every surface type has it's own haptic personality. Your tires may squeal to let you know you're about to fishtail, but the vibrations in your hand reinforce the visual and aural cues. As you grow your collection of cars and start racing some of the top line, ridiculous monster racing machines you'll get that sinking feeling in your gut as you swear you're fighting to keep them from flying off the track, into the sky like a jet plane. The brand new Formula E vehicles are so finely tuned it's not so much about managing your braking versus acceleration as it is babying your gears around turns.  Hairline adjustments on the trigger are so goddamn sensitive and perfect you don't so much feel like you're adjusting pressure as controlling the car with your mind. That might sound like overzealous hyperbole. Nope.

  The career structure is nothing short of brilliant. Previous games doled out slow, steady progression where you started off in sensibly priced vehicles you may have owned at one point or another and made your way up the ranks. While that basic concept is still there in Forza 6, the ramp up is much quicker and doesn't require as much of an investment in credits (which equals time/grinding), and peppered throughout the basic path are Showcase Events. These optional (but come on... do them) races range from gimmicks like driving through bowling pins for points, to racing a Formula 1 car in pouring rain where you can barely see through the tiny windshield, one on one showdowns with Top Gear's The Stig, etc. Not only do these diversions keep the career fresh, they're an amazing incentive for any player that's less than motivated to keep pushing forward toward bigger, badder, faster vehicles as they provide a free preview of what's to come. You don't get to keep the cars you drive in these events, but you certainly want to own them as soon as possible... The main mode here isn't excessively daunting; the end credits were rolling before I knew it, but of course backing out to the main menu assured me I was only about twenty percent complete with the available career races and events. There's a lot of content here, and it will take a monumental effort to finish everything the game has to offer. I'm down.

  Something worth mentioning here is the amount of options available to customize your experience. There's a shitload of them. The “Options” menu is your friend. Forza 6 by default is extremely accessible; almost arcade-y with a full driving line and every assist turned on. You could leave it like this and basically hold the gas down while occasionally steering the car and play the entire game like that. Turn everything off and you're left with a hardcore, uncontrollable simulation only suited for those complete pyschos with a dedicated “racing room” with obscene rigs and multiple displays hooked up for the ultimate driving experience. Tweak and tune to find the sweet spot for you, keeping in mind that there's an incredibly smart risk/reward system in play where the further you push the envelope toward “sim” the greater your credit reward will be. But leave it in cockpit view no matter what, you pussy. Driving this cornucopia of options further home is the new Mod system, where you earn packs of Mod cards through either a purchase with in-game credits or getting them randomly with a wheel spin you earn after each Driver level increase. These are usually minor perks for your car like a better starting position or a small boost to your braking or tire grip, or there are “dare” cards that increase the difficulty for more credits. This isn't exactly a game changer, but it's at least an optional layer on top of an already full featured base game.

  If there wasn't enough to do already you can dip your toes into the unparalleled painting or tuning market. This has been a Forza staple from day one, and I'm no artist or gearhead, but I can certainly appreciate the talent other people possess. I'll pick the paint job that the most creative effort has gone into every time, and as for the tuning... I have no clue. Again, not a car guy... I do lament the lack of an actual auction house from previous games, which takes away some of the incentive from selling your work and makes finding good designs unnecessarily difficult. I remember back in the day you could quite easily find some hardcore porn cars right alongside your Star Wars paint jobs with very little effort... now most “suggested” designs are pretty boring. Fucking nanny state we live in...

  I'm not crazy invested in racing online, partially because I'm not that great of a driver and partially because the stress gives me heart palpitations, but from the games I've played Forza Motorsport 6 seems engaging and features rock solid netcode. The visuals take a slight hit, but the smoothness and speed are a worthy tradeoff. The usual class based races are there along with more “fun” gametypes like Tag, but what really interests me is the new Leagues. These are ranked matches where you start off with no contact, "ghosting" rules in the Grassroots League (where I currently am...) and work your way up to more technical, demanding competition. These are timed, and you acquire points and are rewarded accordingly the better you do in the allotted time period. This gives scumbags like myself a real sense of progression and a tangible way to gauge improvement.

  Forza Motorsport 6 has cars. You drive them. It's fun. Play it.