Xbox's spring plans are set in motion

The curtains have closed on Xbox and Bethesda's Developer Direct. The roughly 45-minute showcase spotlighted a taste of the year ahead for Xbox studios, running the gamut from updates on big launches to an out-now surprise.

It was, I think, a pretty solid showcase. Direct and to-the-point, the studios under Microsoft's banner showed off just what's in store in the coming months and year. Granted, this isn't all that Xbox has in store; we didn't see Starfield, though we knew we wouldn't going in.

This felt like a nice check-in for the new year. A few games finally locked in their release dates, the Forza team at Turn10 got to show off their rad tech, and Tango Gameworks dropped a surprise. Here's the rundown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Et8r1413Y

Everything shown at the Xbox & Bethesda Developer Direct

Minecraft Legends kicked the show off with a spotlight on its multiplayer. I'll admit, while the action-RPG hadn't hooked me in before, the build-and-battle set-up of its PvP looks like it could be fun. Brawling with mobs and ransacking the enemy's base, or forging an impenetrable fortress of your own, could be a good time for gaming groups with disparate tastes. Mojang and Blackbird Interactive's new Minecraft spin-off arrives April 18, 2023.

Next came the Forza Motorsport team, highlighting the work its putting into the next Motorsport entry. No date on this yet outside 2023, but the cars look and sound great. Big fan of the red convertible Mazda they highlighted during the stream.

Tango Gameworks was next on the mic, and they used their time to reveal Hi-Fi Rush, a departure from their usual horror-inspired games. It's a rhythm-action game with a ton of style and color, and if you like the look, I have great news for you: it's out now on Xbox Series X|S and PC. A nice little "out now" surprise!

The Elder Scrolls Online revealed that its next expansion, Necrom, is on the way. It's a very Morrowind expansion, set in the Dunmer City of Dread. And what's more, all previous expansions will be free for a limited time. Seems like a decent thing to check out if you can't wait for Elder Scrolls VI.

Lastly, Arkane Austin took the stage with Redfall, its vampire-infested RPG-shooter. The co-op action looks solid, and there's a lot of town to retake from the dreaded horrors. It won't be long until your party can venture into Redfall either, as the new Arkane adventure arrives on May 2, 2023.

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That's the eighth game in the series, not the franchise itself

When Microsoft unveiled "Forza Motorsport" back in 2020, a few heads turned. Not just because the trailer looked good! But because of the confusing name. This is the eight entry in the franchise, but Turn 10 and Microsoft are sticking with that title.

Turn 10 says it's the "most technically advanced racing game ever made," and includes ray tracing, and "fully dynamic time of day" mechanics. It'll also feature tire and fuel management, tire compound nuance, and "advanced materials and shaders," with ray tracing making the game pop a lot more in terms of engine bay detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hrsYu8Vy04

The enhanced damage mechanic is also a huge focus, which gets as literally granular as dirt buildup. Microsoft says that the ray-tracing elements are via the "Xbox Series X and S consoles." The insane environmental upgrades are obvious based on the trailer, as they confidently showcased a zone that seemingly looked like a real-life area. It's convincing! I thought Gran Turismo looked great on PS5, but the differences between some of the Forza stuff here seems like it'll look even better.

Forza Motorsport is coming spring 2023 on PC, Xbox consoles, and cloud devices. And on Game Pass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL4h5cMONIs

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The king is dead, long live the king

Forza Motorsport 7 gives off a great first impression. Professional drivers introduce you to the various disciplines of racing while you get to reenact the crowning moments of their career. The game gives you an allotment of “mods” to boost the credits you earn and the campaign mode’s first category briskly moves you along to make you believe this is going to be a high-octane experience.

Sadly, that momentum lets up pretty quickly. While the actual race mechanics of this latest entry in Turn 10’s flagship series are stellar, the introduction of loot boxes and the decreased amount of credits offered really makes collecting cars a drag. This is not the Forza we’ve always dreamed of, even if it is in 4K.

Forza Motorsport 7 (Xbox One, PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Turn 10 Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Released: October 3, 2017
MSRP: $59.99

From a purely gameplay perspective, Forza 7 is really solid. The handling model isn’t exactly realistic or strictly arcade style, but a nice balance between the two. Each player can take hours tweaking various mechanics from tire pressure to weight distribution, or you can just pick a car that looks fancy and take it to the track. This is a game that can be as involved as you want or as hands-off as you need.

The introduction of dynamic weather and time of day is also a big deal. Most racing games give you static options for whether it’s raining or day time, but that isn’t always the case with real-life racing. Sometimes a downpour can happen right in the middle of a grueling endurance race and that doesn’t mean the entire race resets or stops. Forza 7 replicates that beautifully with rain that can start on the final lap or somewhere in the middle and even has water accumulate to cause further hazards.

It’s a great element to keep longer races feeling interesting, since dialing in tuning options and basically sleep walking through 10 laps is pretty common in these games. Usually when you gain a huge lead, you’ll basically never see another opponent again (unless you lap them). Now, the dynamism offered from these new systems means you’ll have to be extra careful with your tuning to last.

The best compliment I can give Forza 7 is that it is wildly customizable. There are so many options you can adjust that this game will be as challenging as you want it. If you want to make the campaign longer, why not adjust the race length to “Super Long” and go for 35 minutes? These options aren’t limited to the gameplay, either, since tweaking the look of your vehicle is practically a game unto itself.

What really starts to impact the whole experience is how Microsoft and Turn 10 have needlessly and thoughtlessly introduced loot boxes. While microtransactions haven’t yet been included (even if they were present in the last few entries at launch), things have taken a considerable turn for the worse with these loot boxes. The biggest change is that racing assists no longer offer bonus credits, meaning your options for boosting your earnings are limited to AI difficulty, race duration, or loot boxes.

Dubbed “prize crates,” these loot boxes will drop limited-use “mods” that will dole out bonus credits based on certain stipulations. Some of these will restrict you to particular assists (like “Brake Line Only” or “ABS off”) while most are simply win conditions (“Come in Top Three” or “Win by 50 meters”). While that is fine, in and of itself, the fact that these mods have limited uses or that the game pays you so little is infuriating.

To test this theory out, I put myself up against the ultimate challenge in any racing game: an Endurance race. I selected one of the specialty events that limits mods and took a 23-lap race around Spa. It took me roughly 58 minutes to finish that race and I was awarded 190,000 CR, which is decent enough. With a few mods enabled on the next five race series, where each race was about four laps, I earned 200,000 CR in 20 minutes. That is asinine.

It hampers the whole idea of even offering assists, since making the game challenging is basically for your own fulfillment. You aren’t going to be receiving a better payout, so why play without braking assistance or with full damage modeling turned on? You might as well put the damage on cosmetic, enable the new auto-driving function, and just hold the gas until you win. It screws up the balance of the campaign mode entirely.

The awkward pacing of the whole thing doesn’t help matters much, either. I understand that there is only so much you can do to make a racing game ramp up in difficulty, but what happened to the alternative event types? Each of the six cups in the career mode has three special events and that’s it. The really fun “car bowling” game mode and the awesome “passing challenge” (where you’ll need to meet a quota of passes in a race) hardly come up and the track diversity is severely stunted.

For a game that features 32 tracks and 200 configurations, why am I constantly racing on Brands Hatch and Spa? Even my beloved Sebring only comes up a few times and you rarely race the full circuit. The career starts to feel like Groundhog’s Day, where you’re either repeating the same track with more laps or just going through the motions for the umpteenth time.

To really put the cherry on top, the gigantic roster of cars is actually locked behind different tiers. Through a car collector tier system, the more expensive and faster cars are all locked until you level yourself up by buying cheaper vehicles. I can understand the idea of wanting players to earn their keep, but with credits being dialed down so much, how am I supposed to save up enough credits to buy my Dodge Viper when I have to buy crappier cars to even unlock the ability? It seems needlessly obtuse and like its sole purpose was to push players towards microtransactions.

It doesn’t help that if you buy any of the currently available DLC, those cars are offered for free in game and boost your car collector score. If you ever wanted a clear example of pay-to-win, Forza 7 offers it on a silver platter. I have no idea why these changes were made, seeing as how they don’t make progression particularly engaging.

For that matter, why is the auction house still not online? I also don’t even know what Forzathon is, since its option on the menu is plastered with a “coming soon” descriptor. Even if fans might argue that something like Forza 5 was undercooked, at least it launched with all of its modes available.

These issues could be mitigated by the multiplayer if the previous iteration’s modes were included. I guess in an effort to really nail the cross-platform netplay, Forza 7 has an incredibly striped down online component. There are time trials and something called “Rivals” (which is essentially another method of time trials) and then just some generic options for lobbies that restrict play to specific car types. It's neato that there are 24 racers all going simultaneously, but what happened to things like “Cat & Mouse,” “Tag” or “Car Soccer?” Everything from the past installments is gone, which makes online feel like an afterthought.

At least it runs really smoothly and the lobbies aren’t limited to strictly PC or Xbox One players. I honestly don’t even know how many people I met playing the PC version, but everything works without much fuss. I can also confirm that split-screen is limited to the console version of Forza 7, so all you PC gear heads will have to make due with online for your multiplayer fix.

Graphically speaking, Forza 7 sets a new bar for fidelity. This is one gorgeous game, practically photo realistic in its presentation. While Xbox One players will be locked to 1080p, the PC version has the capacity to reach 4K resolution and it is mind blowing. You would be mistaken for believing this was a television broadcast of an actual event with how detailed it can be.

That doesn’t mean oddities won’t pop up, as I did encounter weirdness with shadows bouncing around during night races, but Forza 7 looks like a hugely polished triple-A game. Its sound design is also just as superb, accurately taking engine noises and featuring full surround sound support. This is definitely a showcase game for your home theater equipment.

For as spectacular as the whole endeavor might look, though, this mostly feels like an odd step backwards for the series. Forza 7 boasts the largest car and track roster of the entire series, but the subtle tweaks to the career mode feel like they were made in an effort to push people towards spending more money. While you currently can’t buy prize crates with actual cash (Turn 10 is looking to incorporate that in the future), the damage is done from their mere introduction.

I really hope that Turn 10 takes an honest look at what these prize crates have done to Forza, since the game is otherwise solid. I would have an easier time accepting some flaws if I could make honest progress in the career mode or have a chance in hell of acquiring the cars in a reasonable amount of time. Instead, Forza 7 just makes me think of how much time I’ll be wasting and what else I could be doing instead of racing on Spa for the 90th time.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]}

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Three cars on three tracks

You'll be able to try Forza Motorsport 7 a couple weeks before launch on October 3. Turn 10 Studios is prepping a demo for September 19, and it'll be a chance to put your PC through its paces.

The Xbox One and Windows 10 demo will be split into three showcases. You'll have access to the Porsche 911 GT2 RS on Dubai's scenic Jebel Hafeet pass, the Mercedes-Benz Tankpool racing truck on Italy's Mugello Circuit, and the Nissan NISMO GT-R LM on the Nürburgring Grand Prix track.

I'd normally skip the demo, but I'm too interested to see how this runs on my PC.

Forza Motorsport 7 Has Gone Gold with Demo Arriving Sept. 19 [Xbox]

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PC specs revealed

Forza Motorsport 7 is the first Forza Motorsport in history to launch simultaneously on Xbox and PC. Actually, FM6 Apex was the first in the series to come to PC and that was months after the original's release and free-to-play. 

When Forza Motorsport 7 launches in early October, what's it going to demand of our PCs? Racing games are often visually incredible, so take that into consideration. Also factor in that FM7 seems positioned by Xbox to be the most important title for the Xbox One X from a performance perspective -- the game that showcases the hardware's ability to run something at 4K resolution and at 60 frames per second.

As part of its gamescom showing, Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 revealed the PC specs that FM7 will require (along with 36 compatible controllers and racing wheels). For the baseline experience, here's what's necessary:

Minimum specs (720p at 30fps):

• OS: Windows 10 (x64)
• Processor: Intel i5-750 2.67GHz
• Memory: 8GB RAM
• Graphics card: Nvidia GT 740 / Nvidia GTX 650 / AMD R7 250X (all with 2GB VRAM)
• DirectX: DirectX 12 API, Hardware Feature Level 11

However, your rig will need to be considerably more beefy to run Forza Motorsport 7 under ideal conditions:

Ideal specs (4K at 60fps):

• OS: Windows 10 (x64)
• Processor: Intel i7-6700K 4GHz
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• Graphics card: Nvidia GTX 1080 / AMD RX Vega 64
• DirectX: DirectX 12 API, Hardware Feature Level 11

For those who are unsure how their PC will fare (or for those who just want to get behind the wheel as quickly as possible), there will be a PC demo for FM7. No date was announced, but it seems like a good way to figure out if your setup is equipped for this brand of simulation racing.

Forza Motorsport 7 @ Gamescom 2017 [Forza Motorsport]

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Snow drift

Blizzard Mountain is about as certain of a prospect as there is when it comes to add-ons. Take the perennially excellent Forza Horizon series and put it on ice. It's that simple.

This works because any Forza Horizon DLC will work. The framework is just that good. A little snowstorm can't bury this game; it can only accentuate it.

Forza Horizon 3 Blizzard Mountain (PC, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: Playground Games
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Released: December 13, 2016
MSRP: $19.99

Australia gets snow, apparently. You wouldn't know it by Forza Horizon 3's take on the outback because that's all deserts and rainforests and cities. But Blizzard Mountain's first action is to dangle a car from a cargo helicopter (not actually put it in the chopper) and to jettison off to a winter wonderland.

That's the exact moment -- 10 seconds in or so -- that you know everything will be alright. Blizzard Mountain's decision to suspend a car from a helicopter with the driver in it and then drop the car to the ground so it can race away to a festival, well, that's about the most Forza Horizon move imaginable. Some ice on the roads won't make Jack a dull boy.

Blizzard Mountain functions as a self-contained, miniature version of Forza Horizon 3. It's set in a much smaller area (there are 50 roads to discover as opposed to the base game's 488) with much fewer activities to partake in (there are 26 races as opposed to the base game's 63). All of the standard fare Horizon 3 stuff is there -- speed zones, bucket list challenges, danger jumps, etc. -- it's just less of it and with inclement weather. Showcases, the over-the-top action-filled races, are sadly omitted.

The progression of Blizzard Mountain also mimics Horizon 3's but with a twist. Instead of fans, we're out to collect stars (although, this may be because I had already maxed out my fan count in the main game). Every tenth star unlocks a handful of new events and brings us one step closer to being crowned King of the Mountain.

It's this star system that adds an extra layer of Horizon-like spirit to Blizzard Mountain. Each race has certain constraints to fulfill in order to earn all three stars. One star is awarded for completing the race. Two are given for completing and winning. Getting all three stars will require winning and performing an objective. This last feat is tied to the arcade nature of Horizon 3 and requires accomplishments like hitting a points goal throughout the race or nailing a certain number of ultimate air jumps.

The beauty of this is that it bridges the gap between the "win at all costs" mentality of the races and the "screw around and score points" mindset of the open-world. It asks that the player drive faster than the competition, but also that they do it with style. This rectifies a dissonance that I hadn't even realized existed, but the experience feels more put-together as a result. It's an improvement that should absolutely be carried over to future Horizon titles.

As the theme of this add-on indicates, it's really the conditions that are the main attraction of Blizzard Mountain. Cold weather makes for some exhilarating racing whether it's on black ice, through snow-packed fields, or across frozen lakes. Sliding cars around with just enough control to feel like a skilled driver proves to be endlessly entertaining. Barreling through a whiteout is appropriately tense and dangerous. Plowing through snowmen is devilish fun too, mischievous like a teenager smashing pumpkins on Halloween.

It helps that Blizzard Mountain offers handy amenities for the occasion. This expansion introduces snow tires, which are crucial for some events (the game goes so far as to warn you if you're starting a race without them). Any car can be used but it seems as if Blizzard Mountain would prefer you drive the ones provided with the add-on. They're already properly outfitted. Those are: the 2016 Ford Gymkhana 9 Focus RS RX, the 1966 Ford F-100 Flareside Abatti Racing Trophy Truck, the 1975 Lancia Stratos HF Group 4, the 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Group B, the 2016 Nissan Titan Warrior Concept, the 2016 RJ Anderson #37 Polaris RZR-Rockstar Energy Pro 2 Truck, and the 2016 Subaru #199 WRX STI VT15r Rally Car.

If there's a knock against Blizzard Mountain, it's that Forza Horizon 3 was already a robust package. Australia's bursting at the seams with all sorts of activities, and it'll take dozens of hours to complete them all. Blizzard Mountain's for those who are ready for more, because that's exactly what it is: More. The setting is just a nice novelty. Dashing through the snow is a fine form of escapism from the hot Aussie outback, but it's not an essential one.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Get the tissues ready

With politicians and angry parents blaming video games for the world's troubles, it sometimes becomes hard to see the good that gaming can do. Be it kindling relationships between friends or bringing back nostalgic memories, games are more than just distractions on the idiot box. Take this recent story from Forza Horizon 3 as a prime example.

A reddit user by the name of Redditsgamers was playing Horizon 3 when he happened to run into his friend. The part where this story transforms from a regular tale of schoolyard antics is when the user mentions his friend has been dead for a year.

"So I am just cruising the Coast when I see a XBL name i haven't seen in a while. It was my buddy Drew. Sadly Drew passed away about a year ago. He was only 19 years old. Anyways i see his driveatar, I Immediately pull up behind him and challenge him to a race. It was pretty surreal it was like i was playing with him again on xbox. It was bittersweet, but just another reason to love this game. Thank you for bringing me that moment with him."

While I may knock the Xbox One and Microsoft's policies, the Driveatar system really is a pretty big game changer. Having data collected about your driving habits and applying it to future races is definitely a next-gen idea and I'm happy it has allowed someone to reminiscence on the good times they had in their life.

This is also very similar to an old story about a kid racing the ghost of his father in Rallisport Challenge on the original Xbox. Not only is that a tearjerker of a story, but it shows that gaming can be more than just flashy colors and loud noises.

Forza Horizion 3 let me race my buddy who passed away last year and for a few mins he felt alive. Thank you for that! [Reddit]

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Delist her? I hardly knew her!

_{[Thanks to user Rabite for the tip]}

Forza Horizon 3 will be releasing next week and the original Forza Horizon was recently added to Xbox One backward compatibility. Everything seems to be going swell for the spin-off series. There comes a time, though, when we need to part ways; it looks like Turn 10 has decided to put the forerunner out to pasture.

As noted in the Forza Hub, Forza Horizon will be getting delisted from the Xbox Live Marketplace soon. This includes the digital sale of the game and all of its expansions. If you have any interest in getting a digital version of this title, you have until October 20 to grab it.

Horizon was featured in this month's Games with Gold promotion, though its time in the spotlight ended a few weeks ago. This isn't as dramatic a case as with Castle of Illusion, but I find it so strange how Microsoft works to add a game to backward compatibility and then stops selling the title.

Forza Motorsport Week in Review 9-23-16 [ForzaMotorsport.net]

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With a response from Microsoft

One of the biggest criticisms of Forza Motorsport 5 was the career progression system and its over-reliance on microtransactions to advance at a reasonable rate. It was such a deal-breaker for some that Turn 10 reversed its ways and didn't include them at all in Forza 6. The developer said that the only way they'd be added is if "players asked for them."

Well, that apparently happened, as Forza Motorsport 6 has introduced a "Token" system over the weekend. Tokens can be bought for as little as 100 for $.99 or as much as 20,000 for $99.99. In a post on Forza's site, it's said that this currency can be used to buy cars and mod packs.

It's hard to imagine a scenario where players asked for microtransactions to be added into the mix. It's much more plausible that Turn 10 waited to avoid taking heat from reviewers. Whatever the case, players who don't want to see it don't have to; the menus have an option to keep Tokens from appearing on the heads-up display.

Introducing microtransactions two months after launch is an unusual tactic. We reached out to Turn 10 to see if the developer will offer some insight as to why it waited so long, if and how players actually asked for this, and if this will affect the progression pace of Forza 6's career. This is the verbatim response we received:

"Forza Motorsport 6 was designed, tuned and play-tested from the ground up without Tokens. Now that we’ve confirmed that the game economy is balanced and fun for our players out in the wild, we are offering them as a matter of player choice. Some players appreciate using Tokens as a way of gaining immediate access to content that may take many hours to acquire in the normal course of play. There is also an option within the in-game menu to turn off Tokens entirely. We are dedicated to creating open-ended, evolving experiences that are built with and for our fans."

A PR representative attributes this quote to "a Microsoft spokesperson." It's highly unlikely that anyone from Turn 10 offered their sentiment. Also, the quote largely ducks answering any of the questions asked, specifically whether fans actually asked for the inclusion of microtransactions and why a two-month wait took place. However, it was noted separately that nothing in terms of career progression has changed.

Forza Motorsport Week in Review 11-13-15 [Forza Motorsport]

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I only ever use Grunt Birthday Party

Forza 6 will feature a range of new mods, based loosely upon the Skulls feature from the Halo games, and some will be rarer than others. 

"Mods are game modifiers, similar to perks in Forza Horizon 2 or Skulls in Halo 4, that you can unlock as you play in Forza Motorsport 6," says a recent update on the Forza website.

"Mods can only be used in either Career or in Free Play modes – players cannot use Mods in multiplayer or Leagues races or in Rivals events. Mod packs can be won as part of the Prize spinner (described above) or purchased for in-game credits. Different Mods affect your race in different ways. Mods come in three main categories."

Here are the details...

Dare

Dare Mods challenge the player to get out of their comfort zone and perform with specific driving requirements that will test their skills. Players will earn credits bonuses if they succeed in a race with a Dare mod added. All Dare Mods can be used as many times as the player likes, but only one dare can be used at a time. Higher level Dare Mods include more difficult challenges and much greater rewards. Also, because many dares lock the player into harder difficulty settings, the player gets double rewards for using them: first, the dare Mod rewards the player directly. And second, the locked assist setting continue to provide scalars as well – i.e. if the Mod give +15% cr for driving without STM and turning off STM provides +10% by itself, the player receives both scalars. 

Some examples of Dare mods include:

• Severe Power Decrease – Power decreased by 8%. Hit the objective to earn +20% credits.
• Manual With Clutch – Manual transmission with clutch. Hit the objective to earn +20% credits.
• Back of the Pack – Start in 24^th Grid Position. Hit the objective to earn +30% credits.

Crew

Crew Mods give the player a specific performance advantage during a race, depending on the Crew Mod used. Crew Mods don’t offer specific bonus rewards but can give players an advantage in a race, especially when going up against more skilled Drivatars or trying to optimize your car’s performance on a given track. These are like an extra level of tuning or upgrades. The player has to use strategy, knowledge of the track and knowledge of the car in order to get the most out of these Mods. 

Some examples of Crew mods include:

• Chassis Expert -- -7% weight, +3% grip
• Braking Engineer -- +20% braking, +5% power

Boost

Boost Mods give the players a specific advantage during a race or a bonus for performing well in a race. Boost Mods might increase the total amount of credits you can earn after a race, or give you a bonus to XP or credits for performing certain in-game feats. Boost Mods can only be used once – after they are used in a race, they will be automatically discarded from your Mod inventory.

Some examples of Boost mods include:

• Pristine Drafting – Earn 3,000 credits for Perfect Drafts up to 18,000 credits. 
• Ghost – Your car has no collisions for the first lap of this race.
• Superior Payout – Earn +60% credits for a single race

The website mentions "obtaining" the mod packs, but doesn't detail how they'll be obtained. However,  you should be able to tell which packs have a better chance of offering rare cards, even though you won’t be able to see which Mods are in a pack until you’ve opened it.

Did you enjoy the perks feature in Forza Horizon 2? Do they bring a new dimension to the starting line, or do you prefer to race unfettered by them? As always, let me know below!

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Raindrops keep fallin' on my hood

When I looked at my E3 schedule this year and saw I had a Forza Motorsport 6 meeting at the Microsoft booth, I expected they wanted to talk to me about cars. That's the crux of Forza after all: cars racing really fast and looking really pretty while doing so. Oh boy, was I ever wrong.

Well, half wrong to be fair. There were the obligatory one-liners about 450 different vehicle, customization, cockpit views, yada yada yada. But, it didn't take long before Ryan Cooper of Turn 10 began chatting about the Forza Tech engine and one thing that it supposedly does really well. That one thing is rain.

Cooper said that Turn 10 "deconstructed rain" in an effort to provide a "precise and immersive experience." The developer's really focusing on physically-based materials for Forza 6, and a significant portion of that has to do with the way cars interact with water.

The rabbit hole goes so much deeper, though. Forza Motorsport 6 has 148 different surface types, all of which react uniquely to water. They each have their own characteristics regarding porousness, meaning that rain will absorb into the ground or pool up on the race track depending on the surface.

Did you think the rabbit hole ended there? Turn 10's not offering water physics just anywhere -- only in the places that it makes sense. An example Cooper gave us was that it never rains in Dubai so players will never see rainfall there. From our understanding, there isn't even the option to set up a custom race with rain on that track.

If Turn 10's obsession with water sounds a bit like overkill, well yeah, maybe it is. It got to the point where another journalist and I just said "Rain" to one another whenever we crossed paths for the rest of E3. I attribute it to what I call the "EA Sports Complex." The racing in Forza has been carefully honed over the course of a decade now. Just like EA Sports and its titles such as Madden and FIFA, Turn 10 can afford to focus on the smaller facets of its game in an effort to inch ever closer to realism.

We have no real indication how well all this rain will actually turn out. The hands-off demo we saw looked great, but it was obviously a tightly-controlled environment. Notably,Project CARS attempt at rain was where the game was visually at its best, but it also took a significant toll on the Xbox One and caused gameplay issues. If anyone has the best chance of skirting that problem, it's Turn 10 who's a first-party developer and presumably has the full support of Microsoft's resources. If the game isn't optimized well enough to handle all these effects, you'd have to assume they wouldn't be such a priority -- not yet, at least. 

Rain usually means gloom for most people in real life. Turn 10's pinning its hopes on rain making for a fun and realistic experience in its video game. After all, who doesn't love speeding through giant puddles? And, all that water should have those cars at their absolute shiniest.

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Good racing, mate

The original Forza Horizon impressed us back in 2012 with its ability to incorporate what we already loved about Forza Motorsport into an absolutely massive open-world sandbox racing game, while not completely ditching its simulation roots and easing new players into an arcade-simulation racer hybrid. It also helped that the game was really nice to look at.

Playground Games and Turn 10 are back with Forza Horizon 2, and I am so glad they are.

Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox 360, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: Playground Games (Xbox One) / Sumo Digital (Xbox 360) / Turn 10
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Released: September 30, 2014
MSRP: $59.99 (Xbox One) / $49.99 (Xbox 360)

If you're familiar with the first Forza Horizon, you'll feel right at home. The Horizon Festival is taking place again, except this time it's all the way over in southern Europe by way of France and Italy. Your role is, yet again, to become the top Horizon racer by collecting different colored wristbands as you win championships and work your way up the ladder.

Your progress is tracked a couple different ways. Obviously an overall level is raised by completing activities, and every level gives you one Wheelspin. The Wheelspin is a slot machine that either gives you a credit payout or a free car. I've gotten some sweet rewards from this thing. Tracking your progress is really easy with a win/loss ratio, but in Horizon it's all about how cool you look while doing all this.

Drifting, near misses, getting air, and destroying things in the world can all add to a skill chain if done in a row. After accruing up a certain amount of points, these unlock skill points that can be spent on perks. Everyone loves perks. These are pretty standard, and increase things like bonuses, XP, or unlock certain abilities that make life easier. 

There's a couple characters that interact with you over the course of the game; Ben and Ashley. Ben is the guy. He's the type of guy everyone wants to know, party with, and, in Horizon 2, he's that guy everyone wants to drive with. He's the guy leading the Horizon Festival, after all. Be prepared to hear him say "mate" at the end of every single race. I promise it gets funny eventually.

Ultimately, he ends up helping the player learn the mechanics of the game, suggesting where they should go next, and even hooks them up with new rides every once in awhile. Ashley is the mechanic that fixes up all those new rides, and that's all she's really present for outside of being a support character.

As far as story and character development goes, that's as in-depth as it gets in Horizon 2. That's really all one expects from a racing game, anyway. It's non-intrusive (nor over the top) to -- and provides a good foundation for -- the real focus: racing.

Forza Horizon 2 doesn't attempt to shake up the tried-and-true racing formula. The championship event races break down into one of two types: beat everyone to the finish line in one long sprint or in a traditional lap-based race. Instead of structural variety, Horizon instead relies on locale and visual variety to keep players interested. This was totally the right call.

Forza Motorsport 5 was already a visual treat, but the heavily modified engine used in Horizon 2 is absolutely breathtaking. All of the 200-something cars are painstakingly detailed (interiors and all) as always, and are convincingly true-to-life. Southern Europe features back country, densely packed urban areas, coast towns, and everything in-between. It's a very, very big world that's incredibly open and just begs to be explored.

For the first time, Forza now has a dynamic weather system. Truly, this is the standout visual element in the game. Sunsets and sunrises are amazing, and never look the same as the cloud placement/density changes their appearance every single time. At any moment, thick clouds could fill an entirely blue sky and, suddenly, there's a downpour of rain. Radio personalities will also comment on this when it happens, which is also pretty cool the first few times it happens. This isn't just a visual trick either, as rain will puddle up in the roads, bead up on the cars (and windshields), and create slick conditions.

The visual effect on the windshield is particularly jaw-dropping; light will refract off of each individual bead of rain and cause visual interference just as it does in real life. Windshield wipers will automatically clear the windshield, and will leave a line of water wherever their turn radius ends. You have never seen something like this done in a racing game before, and it's something you really need to see for yourself.

In motion, everything comes together to create one of the best-looking titles out there right now. Horizon 2 runs in full 1080p at 30 frames per second, never dipping below that. Some may have an issue with a racing game running at 30 FPS, but it's honestly no problem here. Everything runs incredibly smooth and feels perfectly responsive. If I wasn't told it ran at that frame rate, I would've been none-the-wiser.

Having a vast, detailed world can still feel empty fairly quickly if there's not a lot to do, and thankfully Horizon 2 does not come up short in activities to partake in. Outside of over 150 championship events, there are Showcase events, barn finds, Bucket List activities, speed traps, and online modes.

Showcases have the player up against some type of machinery (not a car) in a head-to-head race. They're easily the craziest out of all the events, and, despite being blatant smoke and mirrors, created some of the most memorable moments in the game. Since there's so few of them, I won't spoil any of the surprise. Definitely be on the lookout for these every few championship events.

Barn finds are nothing new, and still task the player with finding an old, rusted-out vehicles in abandoned barns around the map. They're actually pretty difficult to find. I found an army jeep in one of them, which felt particularly silly to bring into a racing event, but things like that fit right in with the rest of Horizon. It's just a fun atmosphere.

Bucket List activities are pretty straightforward as well. These also involve finding cars around the map, placed on the side of roads. However, these cars are usually the best in the game and give a taste of what they're like by completing small activities in them (with varying degrees of difficulty). Speed traps are simply just cameras that radar how fast you're going on a particular road. Sometimes I'd try and beat my personal best on these over and over before I realized I spent a good twenty minutes doing this.

At any point, two button clicks will take you to the online lobby system. No menu navigating or lobby juggling needed, as it just works within the game and brings you together with strangers or friends in the full game world. You can participate in road trips, championship events, or explore parts of the map together. It's the type of thing where the structured events are certainly fun, but I imagine the community coming up with pick-up games that add to the multiplayer's longevity.

The avoidance of too much menu navigation extends into the rest of the game as well. If you have a Kinect hooked up, a digital personal assistant named ANNA can take your commands and make life a whole lot easier. ANNA allows you to just about play the entire game without ever using a menu of your own doing.

Say you know you just want to do the next championship event -- you can have ANNA set the GPS navigator to take you to whichever one is nearest. She'll also provide suggestions of things to do occasionally, or you can just outright ask her what it is she thinks you should do next. This system creates a nice flow, and truly enhances the experience. It's the perfect use of the Kinect.

I'm all about a stellar soundtrack, and Horizon 2 nails it. There's something to be said about driving a Lamborghini through a super dense field somewhere over 150 mph, barely able to see, with Chvrches is playing in the background. A soundtrack where Chromeo, The Clash, or Thee Oh Sees are just as likely to play as Vilvaldi, Schubert, or Tchaikovsky excites me like nothing else. Playground Games really knows how to make a road trip playlist.

With the original Forza Horizon, we were a little disappointed in the frequency and length of the loading screens. Unfortunately, that's still the case here. Again, the loading screens aren't overwhelmingly long, but they appear before and after every single race. All that time adds up to quite a lot. It's understandable that they're there, but I could've done with less of them.

If you were a fan of the original or its simulator brother, there's no reason to pass up Horizon 2. It's simulation enough to not lose longtime fans, while easing the realistic driving just enough to allow new players to jump in and not feel like the car physics are working against them the whole time.

Every element in Forza Horizon 2 adds up to an exceptional experience. The story isn't over the top so as to get in the way of racing, driving feels as good as it ever did in Forza Motorsport, there's a ton of things to do, and the game looks absolutely beautiful -- especially the long-awaited dynamic weather system. Forza Horizon 2 is a must-have on the Xbox One.

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The difference between a game with set tracks, and an open world

So it seems Forza Horizon 2, unlike Forza 5, will not be running at 60 frames per second.

While it will still display in 1080p, the open-world nature of Horizon doesn't seems to play nice with the idea of a locked 60fps rate, especially considering the game will be streaming and loading in data constantly. Playground Games and company have instead adopted a zero-tolerance policy where frame rate dips are concerned, in order to ensure a consistent driving experience.

Some of you may remember that the first Forza Horizon was also locked at 30 frames per second. Speaking to IGN, creative director Ralph Fulton explains, "I think what we did on Horizon was demonstrate that, and this is really important, a locked frame rate that's absolutely solid and never drops is the most important thing for our game, 30 [frames per second] actually enables us to realize that experience."

Still, the team is not oblivious to the fact that some will be miffed at this news. "I think I remember that's always a hot-button topic, until a game comes out and people go, 'Oh, this actually really works.' But 1080p was an absolute must for us; it's the benchmark for next-gen."

Forza Horizon 2: Resolution, Framerate, Music, & More Detailed [IGN]

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And more cars, if you're a season pass owner

Additional tracks for Forza Motorsport 5 is a very good thing indeed, I think we can all agree. Especially when they're delivered as free DLC. Like the Road America track before it, Turn 10 is giving away another course, southern California's Long Beach Circuit, starting tomorrow.

As per usual with add-on tracks, Long Beach will be playable across all of Forza 5's modes. There's also a Long Beach Booster Pack containing five new vehicles on the way, although this is unsurprisingly only free for Car Pass owners. Those cars are: the 1977 Ford Coyote Gilmore77, the 1974 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale, the 1956 Jaguar D-Type, the 1998 Mercedes-Benz AMG Mercedes CLK GTR, and the 1971 Ferrari #2 Ferrari Automobili 312 P.

Free Update Adds Long Beach Circuit to Forza Motorsport 5 [Xbox]

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Plus five new cars, if you have a Season Pass

It's a pleasant sight indeed to see "Forza Motorsport 5 DLC" and "free" in the same sentence.

The game, which one in three Xbox One owners have picked up, according to Microsoft, is getting a free track based on Road America today. Beyond the usual, this Wisconsin course presents four alternate ribbons "that will test the limits of each and every player."

Forza 5 Season Pass owners are getting a little something extra in the form of the five-car Road America Booster Pack, also out today. It includes the 2006 #2 Audi Sport North America R8, 1995 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, 1968 Ferrari 365 GTB/4, 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1, and the 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series.

Forza Motorsport 5 Free Road America Track Add-On Now Available [Xbox]

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If it does happen, it's going to be a long wait

Speaking to IGN about the possibility of Forza Motorsport 5 getting night racing or weather effects, creative director Dan Greenawalt emphasized the amount of work that would need to go into such additions to the game. "When we do things, we do it all the way," he said. "That means physics, that means changing conditions, that means everything. So that is not the sort of thing that is easily undertaken in a patch."

Continuing, he explains that "To build a new track that would work at night and in wet would mean a bespoke track ... If we wanted to make one of those tracks work with the added particles or projected shadows, and of course adding the physics to do something like night and wet, it means re-engaging those tracks. I’m not trying to give an excuse, I’m trying to give context as to why this is an order of magnitude higher than something like Drag and Tag, and other things we're looking at from the community."

The creative director did note "it's fair that people ask for the features they want, and we're here to make fans happy," but, don't count on this stuff winding up in Forza 5. "It's not where we chose to put out investment," he said. "We chose to be 1080p and 60 frames per-second, and have that solid performance."

Forza 5: Night Racing and Weather is 'Not a Minor Thing' to Add [IGN]

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More than just a few laps

Forza Motorsport 5 has been on my Xbox One launch list since its announcement; I knew this was a game I had to have from the beginning. I've played it several times over the past years at trade shows and other events, but every instance was little more than a few laps around a course.

Honestly, outside of showing off the fancy new visual muscle and some of the new Xbox One controller perks, none of these showings did the game any justice. Even as a racing fan, these hands-on experiences were a bit of a bummer.

Microsoft made it all better last week by giving us hours to spend with the game. I was able to start from the very beginning of the game, working my way up, just as you'd do on the first day you bring a new racer home. While Forza 5 was already at the top of my to-buy list, this lengthy run with the game made me want it even more.

Forza Motorsport 5 (Xbox One)
Developer: Turn 10
Publisher: Microsoft
Release Date: November 22, 2013

In spending a fair bit of time with Forza 5, one of the biggest surprises for me was just how different the AI is compared to previous series titles. Turn 10's Drivatar AI system has a silly name, but it is legit, and it makes a huge difference in how races feel. Gone are the pre-programmed lines for AI cars to follow. They're replaced by cloud-fueled profiles, each containing the data of your friends, and each assigned to different AI cars in your races. This means that you're now racing against the tendencies of real people. Fellow Forza fans need to know that AI cars are no longer predictable, meaning that your old tricks won't work. This alone is a game changer!

Again, in previous hands-on sessions, I never got a feel for the Drivatar system. This time around, the system was populated with the Drivatars of the Turn 10 staff as well as others that have had a chance for an early test or two. In Forza 5's career mode, even in my early races, I found that the challenge level is greater than any previous series game. Simply put, if your friend drives like an asshole, so will his Drivatar. One of Turn 10's staffer Drivatars had no problem plowing me or faking me out in passes. I'll say that I easily whizzed past Larry Hyrb's Drivitar, though.

Now, instead of mindlessly trying to weave through AI cars to finish the early races to work up to more interesting cars, as would normally be the case in previous games, I was already wrapped up in the action from the beginning, playing like I was up against real people. In this early case, I was trying to take the asshole-ish Drivatar down while placing at least third. Even in my starter car, a 2013 Subaru BRZ, I found myself fully engaged in the first five minutes of play. The very first race was fun! How many racing games can you say that about?

Don't get me wrong: I loved all the previous Forza games. But after experiencing Drivatar's depth and realistic level of challenge, I don't know if I can play the older titles anymore.

Another surprising discovery was how much of a difference the difficulty level setting made when it came to enjoyment. Instead of your standard easy/normal/hard setting options, Forza Motorsport 5's difficulty settings are tied to the Drivatar system. Picking from the six available options (easy/medium/hard/pro/veteran/custom), I got cocky and picked Hard at the beginning. Among other challenges, I found that the asshole Drivatar was doing his part to hold me back in subsequent races, which had me placing 6th in one. I eventually backed off the difficulty to Medium, which changes assist settings and XP payout bonuses, but also turns down the intensity of the Drivatars players are up against. Trying Pro, I failed miserably. Easy wasn't a challenge. I found that setting the difficulty so that I was just barely placing in the top three brought the most enjoyment. 

Forza 5 builds a Drivitar for each player from their race data. The system collects how you race, pass, hit apexes, and more, and then generates your Drivatar to be sent out to the cloud to race on your behalf on others' systems. I'll apologize in advance for my Drivatar. After a few hours of play I found that I had generated a Drivatar so evil that it made the Turn 10 opponent from earlier look like an angel.

I don't need to go into how gorgeous this game is, do I? We've gone over that plenty of times before. You've never seen a racing game look this good. Forza Motorsport 5 has the looks that makes you happy about spending hundreds on a new console. The screenshots and videos you see online do it no justice.

I had a blast working through the first few hours of Forza Motorsport 5's Career Mode, and that had a lot to do with the freedom it provides. You no longer have to constantly switch cars and race types. Turn 10 explained that players could stay in their beginning car for their entire career if they wanted. I stayed in my BRZ for many races, though the siren call of sleeker sports cars and unlimited credits eventually took over. All the cars I'd want in my own garage, including the Jaguar XKR-S, Mercedes Benz C63 AMG, and the Lexus IS F, had to be taken for at least a couple of laps before my time was over.

I played as long as they would let me, cruising around the photorealistic Bernese Alps, or Sebring in America. I was too busy losing to enjoy Bathurst in South Wales, Australia, and too focused on my turns to get a look at a new course, Yas Marina, in Abu Dhabi, UAE. I laughed as I plowed through obstacles like trash bins and signage on the Top Gear test track in Dunsfold, England.  

They literally had to stop me and pull me away. I can't wait to get Forza Motorsport 5 in my Xbox One later this month.

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