Spike VGA Debut: Forza Motorsport 4

[BadTB25]

I got mine yesterday.

Cool. I get to start playing after I return from the field in 2-3 days.
In the meantime, I've played a bit of NFS: Hot Pursuit. Looking forward to playing this one, although I gave up pretty quick on the previous titles. I'm more of an arcade racer, but I am determined to really give this one a good shot.

 

[Rangers]

wow already ?

Not everybody is supposed to take 6 years to make a driving game

 

[nightshade]

Technically its still 5-6 years for Turn 10, you have to take into account the research they did for previous two games as well since that's not going anywhere.

 

[AlNom]

Technically its still 5-6 years for Turn 10, you have to take into account the research they did for previous two games as well since that's not going anywhere.

What sort of logic is this

 

[Rangers]

Well I hope they update the graphics engine accordingly. That's always a concern with fast turnaround games.

 

[AlNom]

Well I hope they update the graphics engine accordingly. That's always a concern with fast turnaround games.

Considering what they achieved between each game, I'm not as concerned about the 2 year cycle. It will really come down to their visual/art direction.

 

[nightshade]

What sort of logic is this

Well its not like they'll be starting their tech development from scratch, is it ? Neither will they have to do a lot regarding the data for the cars/tracks already present in previous two games. What I'm saying is that by now they already have 4-5 years of experience developing for the same console, and their engine/code has seen constant improvements/optimizations all this while (or did Forza 3 used a different one ?).

 

[AlNom]

I'm trying to understand why you're singling out Forza when there are plenty of game series that started early in the gen that by your definition, their latest iterations should now be considered to be 4+ years in the making now. For example, starting with Call of Duty 2, Unreal Engine 3 games, Framework Engine titles and every other game engine that has had more than one retail release.

Am I to understand that every title Epic Games has released has been too soon? Every Call of Duty released by Infinity Ward or Treyarch (between the titles each studio handled themselves). Dead Space? Assassin's Creed? The Mass Effect series?

 

[Karamazov]

Great improvement in the lighting departement, now it look more photorealitic, no more cartoonish.

I wonder how much they can improve the graphics during gameplay/replay. We'll have to wait a bit more to find out.

What graphical enhancement would you like to see ?

 

[nightshade]

I'm trying to understand why you're singling out Forza when there are plenty of game series that started early in the gen that by your definition, their latest iterations should now be considered to be 4+ years in the making now. For example, starting with Call of Duty 2, Unreal Engine 3 games, Framework Engine titles and every other game engine that has had more than one retail release.

Am I to understand that every title Epic Games has released has been too soon? Every Call of Duty released by Infinity Ward or Treyarch (between the titles each studio handled themselves). Dead Space? Assassin's Creed? The Mass Effect series?

Because its a racing game, where the tracks and cars get repeated in the sequels. Hence once they gather the necessary data/information they don't really have to do it again atleast until an engine overhaul or a change of hardware.

I'm not singling out Forza, my whole point was that without the work they did on previous installments, it wouldn't have been possible for Turn 10 to develop and release a Forza game in 2 years straight....and yet offer everything that Forza 4 will when it releases next year.

 

[AlNom]

Because its a racing game, where the tracks and cars get repeated in the sequels. Hence once they gather the necessary data/information they don't really have to do it again atleast until an engine overhaul or a change of hardware.

Re-evaluating what went right and wrong during development is something that happens for any engine, perhaps even more so when there are frequent releases that require new pre-production cycles to determine what needs to be done next. With each pre-production, I would consider it to be a fresh cycle since they need to lock down features as opposed to a monolithic release with moving targets.

To put it another way, I don't think it's fair to consider the fourth retail release to be the total accumulation of years in the making when each title has gone through its own Pre-production, production, post-production, and QA periods - i.e. the goal of the first game isn't the production of some new game years down the line.

 

[corduroygt]

Forza 4 looks ok, but oh why US Top Gear instead of the vastly superior UK version? Even the car nuts in the US know and watch it.

 

[dragonelite]

i'll be glad when the can put this concept stuff from 3 into forza 4.

Concept wall for forza 3
http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/12/2010/02/turn_10_office_25.jpg

 

[Gubbi]

What graphical enhancement would you like to see ?

They should just fix the lighting. Increase ambient light and increase contrast, free and instant improvement. Lighting is the reason GT5 look better than F3, the graphical assets by themselves are as good as GT5.

Other improvements:
Online play (I liked F2 online better, but that may just be me set in my ways)
More cars on track.

Stuff I don't care about:
Photomode
Polygon count of cars
Auction house. Don't make me waste time trying to find a particular car online because I can't buy it from a manufacturer, when I have plenty of in-game cash and just need the bleeding car to compete in a particular event.

Cheers

 

[kagemaru]

Been having a blast playing Forza 3 lately, a couple buddies picked up the ultimate edition, so that got me back into the game. All I'm hoping for, outside of the usual improvements mentioned in this thread, is some good head tracking using Kinect. Don't give a crap about controlling the car using Kinect, but good head tracking might be cool.

Lighting is the reason GT5 look better than F3, the graphical assets by themselves are as good as GT5.

The shaders on the cars are a bit better in GT5 too IMO. I agree with your point though.

 

[nightshade]

Online play (I liked F2 online better, but that may just be me set in my ways)

Its not just you, FM3's online was indeed a disaster compared to FM2. You didn't have custom games which was the community fav, you couldn't save specific tunings for specific tracks, you couldn't set up your cars in pre/post race lobby.


Also I need a better and more interesting career mode, something that's actually a career mode instead of just playing through the calender.

 

[kagemaru]

Its not just you, FM3's online was indeed a disaster compared to FM2. You didn't have custom games which was the community fav, you couldn't save specific tunings for specific tracks, you couldn't set up your cars in pre/post race lobby.


Also I need a better and more interesting career mode, something that's actually a career mode instead of just playing through the calender.

I haven't put much time into the online mode with FM2 or FM3, but I did play a custom game with a bunch of friends once in FM3, we played cat & mouse and it was a blast. Is that what you're talking about?

Also, IMO the career was much improved in FM3. FM2 grew old for me and I just couldn't finish it. I can at least see myself finishing FM3

 

[Neb]

Considering what they achieved between each game, I'm not as concerned about the 2 year cycle. It will really come down to their visual/art direction.

This. Changing TODs/color scheme can make for a major difference for free. Baking or using photos mapped to geometry will also help out a lot. But I was going to say that F3 lighting and color scheme looks quite alike GRIDs and I sure know how much more realistic GRID can look by just altering colors and lighting values with no perfomance impact.

 

[Gubbi]

Also I need a better and more interesting career mode, something that's actually a career mode instead of just playing through the calender.

In defense of FM3, the race calendar and auto upgrade features is what makes FM3 easy to pick up for people who are new to racing sims. The calendar gives a sense of purpose and the auto upgrade balances power and grip.

I absolutely hated the snake/viper tracks in FM2.

In FM2 I had a friend driving a Golf R32 with 450+ bhp on stock tires. I also like the way Forza handles assists, giving a bonus to credits for disabling assist. Driving without damage just creates bad habits (like one of my old colleagues who likes to dive bomb into turn one in GT5).

In FM3, after calendar season four you need something else to take the challenge up a notch though. something like the license system in the GT games.

Cheers

 

[Gubbi]

The shaders on the cars are a bit better in GT5 too IMO. I agree with your point though.

They look better, but are they more advanced ? IMO, T10 could improve image quality by just tweaking what they already do: Increase ambient light and take the specular reflections down a notch.

Cheers