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Forza Motorsport 4 (Xbox 360)

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You either love Top Gear, or you don't...

Posted 2nd November 2011, 9:40am in Games / By Stephen Ackroyd


There's a perverse stream to the modern racing game. In the deep, dark past of Outrun and Screamer (we're showing our age - Ed) you were put in control of the supercar of your dreams from the word go. You didn't ever have to even pay attention to which key was supposedly for breaking, and crashing? Those other cars are merely devices to bump round a corner quicker, surely?

These days, it's different. In 2012 you're hammering the handbreak to speed round a corner, desperately avoiding the barrier, and you're doing it in a Citroen C1.

Yes, the racing simulator of today loves a bit of realism - so much so you'll spend time behind the wheel of the very car in your driveway before it'll let you anywhere near the good stuff. We're not sure how anyone actually manages to race our 'sporty' hatchback, but to Forza 4's credit, we never really give it much thought either. Even in the most mundane of vehicles, this is a game that understands speed.

Levelling up in itself is no slouchy procedure. Going up through the ranks of flash wheels is no chore; earning points through races, or buying a new toy with your Microsoft points, you can upgrade to something you'd have been happy to hang as a poster of your wall in double quick time; something, it seems, our local Carcraft refuses to match. Bastards.

A new trick for Forza's latest iteration is the ability to gain affinity with a manufacturer, rewarding knowledge of what you eventually want to be driving. Play the right route and you can find yourself with reductions that leave upgrading virtually free. Once you're at that stage, tweeking and toying with your set up becomes the ultimate in geeky tinkering.



Driving itself is brilliantly intuitive. If you're a fan of racers, you'll take to it like a duck to water. Responsive controls, accurate physics and a series of assists that will allow even the most cack handed of back seat drivers a decent chance - it's easy to forget you're sat on your sofa making a series of embarrassing noises to yourself.

Not quite as potentially embarrassing as playing a game with a voiceover from Jeremy Clarkson, mind. You're going to fall into one of two camps here; you either love Top Gear, or you don't, but the integration here really is quite something. With the chance to take to the Top Gear track, fans of the show are likely to be impressed. Fans of well considered literature, on the other hand…

On the downside, there are only five new tracks added to a selection ported over from Forza 3, all of which can make things feel a little familiar. However, the 16 player multiplayer (up from 8 in the last iteration) keep multiplayer interesting well beyond the life of the single player game, while the Rivals mode lets you effectively race your friends whenever you want, competing against ghost car replays aiming to beat their score.

There's little to suggest that Forza 4 is in any danger of reinventing the wheel, but with solid improvements to a game that was already in a gold standard class, it's a solid investment - if only because you can race your own motor without getting a ticket. Result.

Forza Motorsport 4 is available now for Xbox 360.

Rating: 8/10

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