Rant-astic! is a new category I created specifically for the purpose of hatefully ranting on awesome games that I love. Just because a game is great doesn’t mean it can’t have a few WTF moments, or consist of a handful of small nits I just gotta pick. Doesn’t mean I dislike the game, it’s quite the contrary, the more I love something, the more those little things can drive me nuts!
The lucky recipient of the inaugural Rant-astic is the wonderful Forza Motorsport 7. In fairness, it wasn’t Forza that inspired me to create Rant-astic, that lovely award goes to Horizon: Zero Dawn. Even though my list of rants about that game were numerous, I just never got around to putting my fingers to the keyboard. Then it passed, and one can only truly rant about something when the feelings are fresh, and pure.
But today, I’m feeling ever so inclined, because for all of the love I have for the Forza Motorsport series, there are some things about this game that just make me wish I had someone, anyone to talk to about these things, that can make a difference. Dan Greenawalt, you wouldn’t happen to be a loyal PopCult & Pinups reader, would you?
Sigh, I didn’t think so. But regardless, here we go.
Homologation is nice, but it’s not a substitute for auto-tune. I understand why homologation exists, and I can fully get behind this philosophy for online racing. But to remove auto-tune is a big bummer, because I am not a gearhead, and I’m not a tuner. When I’m racing against the A.I. in a single player race, with the difficulty raised, homologation makes it impossible for me to win. While I’m not the best racer in the world, I’ve been playing long enough to know how to take the apex of a turn to maximize my speed. But when there are five cars in front of me going exactly the same speed as I am, it gets pretty damn hard to catch up. Drafting only gets you so far. The answer to this is to tweak my specific tune to get a slight edge, while remaining within the parameters of the class requirements. The problem is, my knowledge is limited to “make the car faster.” If I wanted to be a gear head, I’d go tinker with the likes of all those ridiculously finicky race sims on the PC. But I don’t have the time or patience for that. I want my auto-tune back!
Cardboard cut-out trees are really disappointing. I get it. There are a lot of systems at play at any given time. Drivatars, environmental effects, clouds, rain, physics, 24 cars on the track, etc. But that doesn’t keep driving through Maple Valley amongst a wall of cardboard-prop trees from being a major buzzkill. I’ll admit that most of the other tracks don’t bother me as much with their paper trees, but this is Maple Valley! The trees are what this track was known for! It’s in the name! The rest of this game looks so amazing, it was such a disappointment to see those towering autumn trees reduced to alpha channel planes. How can Forza Horizon 3 consist of an entire open world full of geometric trees, but one closed course can’t at least have them in the front? Now I could be looking at this through rose-colored glasses. Maybe past Forzas have also used flat planes for trees and either I didn’t notice or the resolution was too low to really tell, but nonetheless it’s extremely obvious in FM7 and I honestly really wish it didn’t bother me as much as it does. I don’t even know why it bothers me so much. Maybe I just like trees?
C’mon man.. just.. the trees..
This is a game in search of an identity. Forza Motorsport is starting to have a sibling rivalry with its upstart younger brother, Forza Horizon. And to be honest, FH is really beginning to flourish. The first Horizon was a noble first try. It was a very good attempt but ultimately limited by the technology, namely an aging Xbox 360 on its way out. But thankfully they tried again with Horizon 2 and had a legitimate hit on their hands, the main drawback being some scenery that got a bit too same-y over time. They corrected this problem in Horizon 3, and the series hit a high that I don’t even think Motorsport has enjoyed yet. This is all fine. I adore the Horizon series. It stands alone in a genre that has been taking itself way too seriously for far too long.
But while all this great stuff has been happening in the open world side of things, Motorsport has been having a bit of an identity crisis. They had a thing going with the Top Gear license, which gave it sort of a showcase, tv-show vibe, but ever since then, it’s been a very quiet affair. While the racing is still as fun as ever, there’s a genuine lack of purpose to the whole thing. There’s no sense of place. Granted, a series like Horizon has much more freedom to explore different avenues to express itself, but at the same time they almost seem content to let Motorsport fade into the background.
I’ll give them a pass for the moment, though. It’s obvious they were focused on the new Xbox One X hardware and 4k technology and such, and they did deliver over 30 locations this time around. But now I want the racing to have meaning. WHY am I racing these races? Your physics and graphical enhancements are in place, now I want the experience to have purpose. Give us a story. Want a great example? Go play the first GRID.
And last, but not least… Where are the Car Clubs? There has got to be something you can do about this. I don’t even really care about this that much, but if you want your online community to have legs, these are the simple additions that should be there -nay, that were there. Stop removing features! If you want a great template of stuff that should be in your game, go back to Forza Motorsport 4 and just.. do that again.
If for some reason, dear reader, you are reading this and thinking to yourself, “Man this game sounds like shit,” fear not. The game is still great, and I’m still enjoying it. But I want it to be all the things I know it can be. With new, hungry racers like Project CARS 2 on the scene, Forza needs to stay relevant if we want to see it again, and the direction it’s going is not up. Constantly removing features that Forza was known for in exchange for some prettier road textures won’t cut it. The more robust Horizon becomes, the slimmer Motorsport gets. It’s only a matter of time before Horizon consumes Motorsport and offers a bonus mode of circuit races that once used to be an entire game. And that would be a sad day indeed.
UPDATE: As I was playing Forza 7 again this morning, one more big rant welled up inside of me, and it occurred to me that I didn’t bring it up on here before, even though I should have. Well I am now.
Why do I still have to drive like an asshole to win? Drivatars are a good idea on paper, and I still believe they can be in-game as well. But there have been critics of the A.I. ever since it was implemented, and there’s one big reason; Drivatars are a self-fulfilling prophecy of road rage and poor etiquette. Let me explain.
Drivatars are A.I. controlled opponents using driving data from real players. You, me, and everyone else that plays Forza has our play style recorded and an algorithm is made using our turning abilities, braking, tendency to spin out, and also our aggression. You see, it also records how often we hit other cars. The problem with this is that Turn 10 starts you in the middle of the pack in every race. This is by design. When asked about integrating qualifying laps in order to get the pole position, Turn 10 denied the idea. I’m paraphrasing, but they basically said that they wanted Forza to be about racing and coming from behind, not about starting in the lead and just not screwing up.
But here’s where things get messy. You always start in the middle of the pack. And you always get caught in the banging and rubbing that comes with the first few turns. While you’re playing bumper cars, the lead car is quickly gaining a lead. You have two choices on how to approach your race: You can play by the rules, follow proper racing etiquette, and come out of the third or fourth turn sitting comfortably in 6th place, or you can shoot off the starting line as fast as possible, take the first turn using as many opponents as you can as a slingshot, and hope that you’re as close to the front as you can be in order to use the remainder of the race to finally take the lead. I can guarantee you this is how the vast majority of the gaming crowd does it. Because why not? You’re playing a single player race against imaginary opponents. Use any means necessary.
But then that racing data gets synced to your Drivatar, along with thousands and thousands of other racers doing the same thing. In essence, we have a game completely populated with asshole drivers. Everyone has to drive like a dick in order to gain the advantage over other dick drivers. It’s self perpetuating. The cycle will never end.
Unless… Turn 10 finally integrates qualifying laps. If you allow players to set a qualifying time, they’re no longer stuck in the thick of the battle. They no longer have to slam and jostle their way to the front. They can take their clean lines, and follow their proper etiquette, and set faster lap times. That means we have more better drivers out there, and in return, Drivatars that would (in theory) behave less like a kid driving a go-kart and more like a professional. And, if you don’t want people starting out in front all the time, those better Drivatar opponents should be setting some pretty hefty lap times. I personally would be just fine with a second or third, or maybe even fourth starting position. But 12th just fucking sucks.
The inclusion of the aforementioned homologation just makes it worse. Now you’re starting me out in the middle of the mosh pit, and you took away any bit of horsepower advantage I might have been able to use to get ahead. Thanks!
Actually, thinking about it just now, the homologation would be a perfect fit for those qualifying laps. Since everyone is now on an even playing field, it’s about player skill and not about who has the fastest car. Turn 10, you’re eliminating your own excuses for not doing this.
Whew, okay. I think I’m done. I cant’ believe I forgot to mention this in the first place. It’s probably because it’s not a new gripe. It’s been an issue since they first included Drivatars. I think I actually prefer the “window of opportunity A.I.” that I suspect they used before. But that’s a whole other argument.
