Recent reviews by sonic7emerald

Xbox Gamertag: chierimerhi
First Forza: Forza Motorsport 3
CPU: Ryzen 5 5600
GPU: GTX 1650
Control device: Xbox controller
Playtime: 21 hours (during early access)
Overall: 6/10

I've been playing (or "beta-testing") this game during the early access period and my god, I genuinely wanted to enjoy this game more but there's so many things that marred what would have been a blast of experience. I'm still going to keep playing it, don't get me wrong, but if I have to review the game based on the state it's released in then I really cannot give this the Steam thumbs up. Sorry. I do expect this game to get better as time goes on, since this is one of those live-service games, but let's pretend this is what I get at the game store on a disc and review it that way.

Good aspects:
- Multiplayer: This is where Turn 10 has put what seems like 90% of their effort into improving from the pile of mess that is the Forza Motorsport 7 hoppers. And man, what a difference that made. Special shoutout to spec events and their take on skill-based matchmaking with both driver and safety rating. Stuff like OP cars in spec events and a somewhat inconsistent penalty system (very strict with track limits but inconsistent with collisions) still needs to be addressed, but there is a lot of potential for these events to be bangers. In terms of open events though, there is a serious issue with car PI balancing I will explain a bit more in the bad section. Suggestion to address the open events balancing issues would be to introduce extra rules like power-to-weight ratio restrictions.
- Sound: MAJOR improvement from Forza Motorsport 7, although compared to Forza Horizon 5 it is a bit of a mix. I think most race cars have much improved sound, some surprisingly sounded like the GT7 versions. Music is also much better than Forza Motorsport 7.
- Dynamic time and weather: Building upon where they left off at Forza Motorsport 7, Forza Horizon 5 etc, this is a much needed feature that I am glad to see implemented in better detail. The game tends to look better at night, for some reason. Rain effects look awesome too but I am a bit surprised there is no puddles anymore. Would appreciate weather radar though.
- Controller support: Typical Forza, amazing with controller. Feels largely similar to Forza Horizon 5 though surprisingly.
- Physics: Again, feels like Forza Horizon 5? Which is strange, given that game is supposed to be more arcade-like, but by no means does that mean I don't enjoy the physics. You can ride most kerbs with a lot more confidence now compared to in Forza Motorsport 7. There are some "sausage kerbs" that will screw you over if you ride them though.
- Cockpit views: Thank you for the FOV options. End. Oh, and good to see some improvement with the steering wheel animation finally, now that we can turn 360 degree total instead of 180 total.

Bad aspects:
- The fact that this game is live service: There are clearly stuff that they have ready like a few GT cars, Formula Drift cars etc, that are withheld for monthly updates. This game is using live-service model as excuse to hold back stuff that have been in previous games (look at stuff like 935, CLK-GTR from Horizon, as well as tracks like Mount Panorama, Brands Hatch, Daytona etc.)
- CaRPG: The grind to get enough car parts for upgrades on each car gets very tedious. I do kind of like the idea of having to work to upgrade the car. but instead of locking parts behind levels, Turn 10 could have made it so that all parts are available at the start and you just need to earn Car Points to obtain the parts. Also, it would be better to have each manufacturer share a pool of Car Points so that you can share upgrades between cars of the same manufacturer and also get discount on upgrades.
- Forza Aero: It is ancient relic at this point and the fact that it still exists is astonishing. Hope whoever responsible can find more aftermarket options to add into the game asap.
- Old car models from Xbox 360 and OG Xbox: There are still many cars with old car models that carry over inaccuracies. These are well documented for many years on Forza forums and with a "reboot" title I expect more effort put into fixing these models than what I have seen so far.
- Single player career: Does it want to be serious in the sim aspect or be arcadey? It seems to not have its mind made up in terms of which direction it wants to go. A lot more option should have been available to customize the experience if they wanted to cater to both style, like having options to adjust the race weekend structure so that you can either do the same thing as in older Forza or have a full race weekend structure.
- Car division, car class and PI: Some car divisions are obviously improved like the current IMSA GTP being its own division, early prototypes being separated into two groups (Group C and Early LMP). On the other hand some divisions make no sense at all. What is the Essenza SCV12 doing in Forza GT fighting with GT3, GTE, GT4 (?!) and V8 Supercars? Open class lobby is funny because 70s F1 cars get to be much better than other cars in R class.
- Paint mode, Photo mode, Replay mode: Listed these three in the same point of complaint, since they all have the issue of lacking QOL improvements after years of using the same system. Start by introducing the QOL from Horizon 5
- Proximity radar: Nitpicky, but I would appreciate having a proper proximity radar of other cars instead of the current proximity arrow.
- Adjustable TCS and ABS: Again nitpick but Gran Turismo 7 has different levels of TCS and ABS you can adjust in race, so why can't that be the case here as well?
- Server issues: I have had multiple disconnections in online races at around GMT+11 9pm-11pm throughout all 5 days of early access. Also I sometimes have lag spikes in race and on occasions I would lag into another car and causing a collision to be flagged. Can Forza please improve the server infrastructure?
- Bugs: The list of bug noted by the support team and online videos is large, and it is disappointing that the 6 year of development time still managed to leave so many bugs in existence right now. Improvement is needed fast, and Turn 10 needs to have a more well-polished game in future.
- PC optimization: Major issue for the PC release of this game. Again, look at the long list of PC/Steam version bugs documented on your own support website Turn 10! This also needs to be addressed asap. Yes it is playable right now, but not near optimally for me.

Final words:
Obviously there are aspects that I have not touched on in this review, either because I can't (I don't have wheel right now, also Steam character limit!) or because I forgot. After all, there are way too many stuff I wanted to say about this game so I am bound to miss out on something. I really want to give this game a chance. There really is potential for a solid platform for online racing because the groundwork there is done quite well, and this is about as good Forza online racing gets. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the rest of the game, and it is quite saddening to see 6 years of development not leading to the major leap that Turn 10 promised. Some major strive will be needed to make this game recommendable to other players if they are to pay full price, and I need to see that happen to have faith in Turn 10's post launch support. If you are a Game Pass player and can get the base game for free though by all means go for it, particularly for those that like car racing in general. It is surprisingly easy to get up to speed if you are somewhat good at Forza Horizon 5.