When The World Of Racing Games And Driving Simulators Was In The Hands Of Other Companies, We Were Introduced To A New Title. 

Forza Series, first seen as Forza Motorsport, was the beginning of a boundless world. At first, no one thought the title would be a pillar and an eternal legacy in the world of racing games. But Forza and its development team grew step by step. Well, in every title, we can see the rate of growth and promotion.

Although these ups and downs are evident in every franchise, the growth of this family can be seen from another angle. The level of creativity, inspiration, and proper role modeling of the competitors was able to add brilliant elements to the game.

Following this issue, we witnessed the success and admiration of this family. It has been 16 years since the release of the first version of this franchise, and we are nearing the release of a new title of this family. So we decided to take a look at the history of this collection.

Forza Motorsport

In 2005, a title with a driving simulation structure was published. This title became available exactly at the height of the competition between the old titles of this class, such as Need For Speed ​​and Gran Turismo. As strange as the release of a new and different title at such a time, it was even more bizarre that the studio that developed the title was an anonymous brand. In other words, Turn 10 Studio released Forza Motorsport as its first official project. The game was only available for the sixth-generation Xbox console at the time of release. Although neither the production studio nor the target platform of this game was very famous at that time, the game shone brightly. To be more precise, this game was released during the reign of PlayStation 2.

As you would definitely expect to hear, the game has many elements. In fact, the observance of these elements and details made the game successful in competing with other titles with a long history. At Forza Motorsport, we saw more than 200 cars that we could experience driving in different directions and areas. In addition to these cases, the mentioned title also makes good use of the possibility of playing the game online. The creators announced the development time of this version, which was actually the first version of the Forza franchise, two and a half years. This time has been announced, taking into account the announced delays at the time of publication. The remarkable thing about this title is that there is a story in the background. But this story is not so bold that it can say that the game is supposed to tell you a story.

“We wanted to create a title to compete with the Gran Turismo franchise,” said the publisher and development team about why Forza Motorsport was built. “We wanted to have our Gran Turismo on the Xbox,” says Microsoft director Kiki Wolfkel. So we tried for a long time to reach it and even surpass this family. It is interesting to know that this game has not been completed only with Microsoft and Studio 10. To improve the experience of this title on Xbox Live and, of course, advertising, collaborations were made with EB Games studio at that time. Microsoft also used its usual advertising of several celebrities, actors, and singers to advertise the title.

What became clear after the game shone was that Microsoft did not just look at it temporarily. They wanted to create a big franchise to compete with other big competitors in the genre. Finally, as we said before, the game was well-received. At its release, Forza Motorsport had sold 200,000 units in the UK and 100,000 units in North Africa. This was a great statistic in its own time and given the circumstances of the time. The game was not only welcomed by gamers, and critics also gave it an outstanding 92 out of 100 points. The title was later made available with support for older games on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox X / S series.

Forza Motorsport 2

In 2007, almost two years after the release of the first version, this time again Microsoft entered the field with a new title, Train 10, with a new title. The second member of the Forza family, Forza Motorsport 2, became available in 2007. This game, like the first version, was released exclusively for the Microsoft representative. This time, of course, instead of the Xbox, we saw the title on Microsoft’s seventh-generation console, the Xbox 360. In this version, gamers could compete and experience the feeling of driving in different parts of the world. This choice was able to attract good user satisfaction. Of course, unlike the first version, this version did not have a specific director, which is perhaps the most significant flaw of the game.

On the other hand, like the first version, the second title of the Forza franchise uses a relatively ordinary story. Of course, the lack of a story in the title of the simulator was logical, but its existence can be considered one of the reasons for its being more attractive. However, we do not have a specific story in this version, and in fact, there is no focus on this part. To participate in the seventh generation and fierce and breathtaking competition with other games available this time, the production team decided to make changes. These changes mostly make in competitive situations. The multiplayer section, the number of cars, and the driving lanes were other important detail sections. Apart from all this, the visual effects of the game and the graphics of the cars, and the lighting grew significantly.

The first title of the Forza franchise in the seventh generation could compete well with other existing agents. Support for features such as wireless command, 60fps, or 720p resolution were all reasons for the game’s success at the time of release. In addition to the above, the existence of special vehicles can not ignore. Overall, the Forza Motorsport 2 received a meta-90 rating. A decrease of two units accompanied this score compared to the first version. The key point to note is that Train 10 kept its graphics engine secret and did not disclose details in this episode, as in the first episode.

Forza Motorsport 3

Based on the previous two versions, Train 10 and Microsoft sought to build a third version of the family. It was as if Forza Motorsport had become a new tool for Microsoft’s extravagance on the Xbox 360 console. From publishers to designers and programmers, the entire production team was all ready to launch another masterpiece. Two years after Forza Motorsport 2, 2009 saw Forza Motorsport 3 for the Xbox 360. This game also prepares exclusively for this seventh-generation console. The engine with which made his title remained secret and was not officially announced. This version can be considered the beginning of many elements of this family. Elements that we still see in newer versions.

We said above that this title, and this family as a whole, became a tool for Microsoft’s extravagance and power. To prove this, we can only say that you can access more than 500 upgradeable cars in this game, both in appearance and engine. These 500 cars were representatives of 50 car companies, and 400 could be used in the regular version. Regardless of the number and variety of cars, we also see a good variety of routes and roads. There were more than 100 lanes for racing and driving along with 8 other cars. If you are a fan of this genre and this style of games, you know very well that such statistics do not even exist in some of today’s titles.

What we need to mention next is the inspiration from another franchise called American Le Mans. According to the creators, some of the elements of the competition were inspired by the family mentioned above. Major changes in this version include the addition of crossovers and long chassis. Also, a new section adds to the gameplay that you could drive from inside the car. Other moves such as drift and drag add to the game, which in total were able to provide a completely original experience to Forza’s audience. A new flow that refreshed the whole blood collection.

In advertising and game publishing, this time, director Dan Green Walt stepped directly into the field to take responsibility for advertising. To make his advertising more effective, he took the stage directly at E3 2009. There have also been many attempts to instill in the audience that they are experiencing a real feeling. For this reason, they used the real model of Audi R8, the image of which was placed on the game cover for advertising. As the developers say, they had challenges in simulating the physics and precision performance of artificial intelligence. Implementing and upgrading the photo mode was another challenge that developers had to implement.

Running games at 60 frames is still one of the most challenging issues for developers today. However, the creators were able to overcome it at the time of publication. Implementing the 720 resolution and playback rate was difficult given the seventh-generation console hardware built-in 2009. The possibility of going back in time first discuss in this version of the franchise. German that we have seen before on games like DIRT. Over time, various add-on packages were released for this title. Add-on packages were a new theme for Train 10, which later created more detail in the family.

Listening to music while driving is an experience that makes driving feel more complete and enjoyable than ever. In this title, we had 12 beautiful cracks that we could use while driving. The total time of these tracks is 65:53 minutes, which you can enjoy listening to with a little searching or buying. At the end of the game, Forza Motorsport received 3 meta-92 points from critics and positive feedback from users.

Forza Motorsport 4

Forza Motorsport 4 can be considered the initial maturity of the Forza series. Forza, the fourth official and main member is the first title to support Kinect. Also, for the first time, a connection was made between this family and the BBC network. Exactly when the Top Gear program reached its peak in 2011, the news of its addition as Top Gear was released to Forza Motorsport 4 in collaboration with Jeremy Clarkson. In 2011, the Forza franchise also had good conditions. Almost everyone in the world knew its name. With the addition of this new section, few who had not heard the name of this title also became familiar with this title and subsequently with this franchise. On the other hand, according to the feedback received from Forza Motorsport 3, Train 10 achieved its success formula well.

Forza Motorsport 4 brought a lot of innovations, but not as much as the third version. But everything that was seen as an element in previous versions was seen in this version as maturely as possible. The game is still available exclusively for the Xbox 360 console. Like the other versions in this section, there is no news about the name and details of the graphics engine of this family or just this version. The vision behind the wheel had become very realistic. Graphics and visual effects were also greatly improved. The music was as focused as the third game. In the mentioned game, we had 15 tracks available.

Advertising does in the form of what we saw in Motorsport 3. Of course, this time, we did not see the game director on the E3 stage, but we saw the real Ferrari 458 model, which was exactly on the game cover, in the ad fields. What became clear over time was that Forza had become a realistic brand of driving experience, not just a racing title like other existing games. This made everything from physics to machine design much more real. For example, you can compare the dimensions of cars, rims, and other details with real examples. This realism in the controller, wireless steering, visual effects, sound, and Kinect made the audience feel at their most realistic when drifting and driving.

The development challenges for this version for Microsoft and Turn 10 remained. But as we said before, they had found a new hobby called the add-on pack. This hobby takes so seriously that some of them were very close to being independent. These new contents and packages were released under different conditions, and each of them added sections to the game. In total, another brilliant representative of the Forza franchise was able to finish with 91 points. Forza Motorsport 4 received this award and won other awards. For example, we can mention the most anticipated award of E3 2011.

So far, we have dealt with the history of 4 members of the Forza family. But we are not done with this collection yet. You can read the story and history of this collection in the next article.