It is now 10 years ago since the first Forza Motorsport was developed by Turn 10. Back then, nobody thought that this Xbox exclusive game could be one of the most popular Xbox racing game series ever. The developers released this year’s Forza Motorsport 6 for the Xbox One just in time for the tenth anniversary of this series. The developers scheduled to keep their throne with this latest version. We will find out if they deserve it.

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Who played the previous game Forza Motorsport 5 knows that the game’s small scale was one point that has been criticized, but the developers changed that for Forza Motorsport 6. They included more than 480 different cars which is twice more than in the previous game. They are also 26 different tracks to ride on with more than 100 track variants in this game. We love that Turn 10 offers a great mix of Small Cars, Limousines, SUVs, Roadsters, super-sport-cars and Pure Racing Cars to choose from. We think that everybody will find the right car for himself.

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Player will be able to drive with older cars like the Ferrari 500 Mondial, but they will also find new cars like the Mazda MX-5 coming in 2016 or, the highlight of this game, the upcoming Ford GT which is also on the game’s cover.

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Unfortunately, the developers added made-up tracks as the world wide known tracks like Monza, Yas Marina, Spa or the Nuerburgring. Fans of this series will notice that this game includes many tracks from the previous game, but Rio de Janeiro, Brands Hatch, Daytona and Watkins Glen are the four new tracks.

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First, let’s talk about the carrier-mode which is split in five part. Each of the seasons is made up of three series and each of this series is built up by several races. Players collect Credits for good race results. You can buy new cars or level up your driver with the help of this credits.

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What we like is that we can choose the car we want to use in the next race. Unfortunately, we can not choose how long the race has to be which means we can not choose how many rounds we want to drive on the track.

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We wished the game would offers more tasks we have to solve. Most of the time the only goal is to end the race and to be in the top three. Because of this missing ‘additional tasks’ it could happen that the ‘normal races’ will be quickly boring.

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But there is also the other side of the coin. We love the presentations in this game. The well known Presenters of Top Gear Magazine tell us in a some animated movies about the specificities before we start a new series or unlock a new class of vehicle.And there is more. The developers add more than 80 Show-Races. This offers the required variety for the game. We do not want to spoiler too much but the greatest thing is that we also can race against the faceless and world wide known Top-Gear-Race-Driver ‘The Stig’. We had a lot of fun with this race-types and we are happy that the developers added with this some alternative compare to the other races.

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Because of all this different series and all this different vehicle-categories you have more than 50 hours to race. To offer players more than just the task we talked about, the developers add the Mods. This Mods changes like Burn Cards or Skulls in some shooters specific parameters or rewards. For example, you can activate the Risk-Mod which forces you to play from the view of the cockpit. It also deactivate the ideal linie but you get 20 percent more credits at the end of the race. Some of them give you an EP-Boost some others upgrade the handling and power of your vehicle on specific tracks. You can use the most of this Mods more than one time but some of them only once You can get new Mod-Packages by using your credits or if you get a level higher.

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What we also like is that there are no micro-transactions in this game. That means that you can not buy new Mods, EP-Boosts, etc. with real money.

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What we also like about this game are the great driving-physics. On the one hand it is really fun to drive with this cars, on the other hand we noticed the simulated weight of them. We also noticed that the developers put a lot of work to transfer the differences between front or rear-wheel driving cars, the delay of the the brakes, the car’s behavior at the limit, the collision and the response of the tires of all these cars. We love that they have looked so well on all this details and differences. This all let the cars feel credible and comprehensible.

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We also like that Turn 10 developed this game for casual gamers and real hardcore racing game fans, too. That means, that it is possible to deactivate driving Aids and to transform this game into a great simulation. In addition to that, we have to say, that we love the outstanding controls and how they react on our commands. We think that this game works very well to play the game with the standard Xbox One controller.

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Races in rain or at night are not something new for the Forza franchise. But this is the first time they added this two conditions in the Forza Motorsport racing simulation. We noticed early in the game that it is a big difference to drive at night or in rain than with normal weather conditions.  Because of the night you can not see very far. We had a really strange feeling while we raced with high speed on the tracks. It’s really exciting because you can only see as far as your headlights shine.

We also loved to race in the rain, it is simply sensational. This feels so real because Turn 10 not only simulates a wet track, they also added full functional aquaplaning. We think that der races at night and in the rain are a great addition to this game. Unfortunately, the weather or the time of day did not change in the game and there also no races in a rainy night. What we do not understand is, that you can not play all conditions on all tracks. We hope that Turn 10 will change it with the next update.

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We think that Forza Motorsport 6 is a benchmark for other racing games. This game is not only because of  the racings at night or in rain or because of the fabellous drive-physics. We think the game is something special because of the feature they call Drivatar. This feature allows that you do not drive against stupid AIs. Drivatar allows that you drive against other player’s ghosts. Accordingly, every race is varied and unpredictable. In addition to that you drive now against since now with 23 drivers. What we like is that the other drivers also make some comprehensible mistakes, what means that they for example break to early or crashes into the barricades. It is alo possible to change the level of difficulty. They also added for this game a new system. This allows to chenge the ‘Risk Appetite’ of the  Drivatars.

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Now let’s talk about the multiplayer part. Up to 24 players can race against each other at the same time. We we like is that they added a Matchmaking-System in this game. This system called ‘League’ assigns classifies the player according to his playing styles and skills. That means that you drive with other players with the same characteristics. We can say that we had a lot of fun to drive against other players but we can not say if this system will be successful for a long time. We are also fighters for the good old nights in which you met friends at home, eat some pizza, drink some beer and play some game together. That’s is why we want to say THANK YOU TURN 10 for adding a Split-Screen-Mode into this game.

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But there is a lot more to do in this game. The developers also allows you to tune your car. They also added a extensive paint editor, a photo mode and the ability to exchange design and setups with each other.

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One last big topic, how does the game looks like: Forza 6 looks fantastic. The car models are full of details, we examine the racer from all angles in Forza Vista mode and enjoy the the realistic reflections, the remarkably realistic material appearance or even by how vividly the manufacturer’s logos and reference numbers at the bodies.

The Tracks looking fantastic, too. The developers also added some small details like Helicopters, airplanes or dancing balloon-men along the course that give us the special charm of a real racing track.

We also enjoyed the light and rain-effects. We love how realistic the headlights are working at night. We also enjoyed the view on a beautiful sunset and how hard our wiper worked against the rain. But there is much more very small details that makes this game alive and things that we wished other racing games would have this, too. For example, sand on the racetrack, Haze which you see in the distance and much much more.

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We think that sound is so important for games that it belongs to the design as well because it helps the immersion. And yes, Forza Motorsport 6 has a great sound design. Fans of cars will also hear details like the sound of the turbo-louder. We do not want to talk about the music in this game because there are so many genres that everyone has a different taste. We think the music is let’s call it ok which means it did not bother us while driving.

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All in all, we think that Forza Motorsport 6 is the showcase racing game for the Xbox One. It is a realistic and individually adaptable racing game at the same time. We think that because of this game’s large scale you will have fun with it for month. We think that Turn 10 added a lot of variety between the ‘normal’ races and some fun races. Because of the great driving physics, the great and various rival’s AI and because of the playability, we think that Forza Motorsport 6 is one of the best racing games we ever played on a console. In addition to that the developers added the races at night and in rain which we loved to play. Thus, the tracks becomes more challeng. We also love the high graphical level which is rich of details. The game looks fantastic.

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At the end we just want to say: Turn 10 Team, thank you very much for such a great game, happy birthday and all the best for Forza Motorsport’s ten year anniversary.

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Tested and written by Marcel Krafczyk

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