It’s been a rocky start to the life of the new Forza Motorsport. Though received well by critics at launch, Microsoft’s flagship racing game hasn’t been taken by its community with the same level of love. It only takes a glance at the game’s Steam page’s ‘Mostly Negative’ user rating to figure that one out. However, developer Turn 10 Studios has vowed to fix several key complaints – but people are still quite unhappy.
Last week, Turn 10 published a blog to give a message to the Forza Motorsport community, reflecting on 2023 and to “acknowledge the top three areas of feedback” that players have been left feeling disappointed.
Its first point focuses on the game’s car progression system. For the eighth iteration of the Motorsport series, the latest title has done away with a simple system of buying upgrades with credits as and when you feel like locking them behind a level-based system with ‘Car Points’ unlocked as you progress.
Turn 10 said: “It is clear from looking at feedback that while many of our players are enjoying the system as is, for many others, it isn’t delivering the upgrade experience that they expect from Forza Motorsport”, adding that it is “exploring changes to the system”.
Forza Race Regulations, the game’s built-in penalty system, is under its own steward’s review, with complaints focused on “inconsistent or unfair penalties in instances of intentional ramming, being pushed off the track, and spinning cars pushing drivers off the track.”
Finally, AI is another topic of controversy with Forza, with complaints on “abruptly braking and slowing down; not accelerating out of exits, braking too hard on mild corners, and following racing lines too strictly.”
While Turn 10 publicly acknowledging concerns could be seen as a positive, the community hasn’t reacted all too well. Mainly, the lack of any timeline or explanations as to how they will address the problems is a bugbear.
A Reddit thread with a link to the blog gives a good overview of those overall feelings. User u/rechamber summed it up with “Empty words and a load of hot air. Until big changes are actually actioned, then this post is a waste of time”, with u/crasy8s adding “No call to action, no roadmap, no progress update – this is a yap session.” It only takes a browse-through to see more along these lines.
We’ll keep a close eye on Turn 10’s plans going forward, and let’s hope we can all enjoy a better game.
