Despite some technical misgivings we rated Forza Motorsport quite highly when it launched in October 2023, but others haven’t been quite as impressed. Take a trip around to Steam and you’ll quickly notice a “mostly negative” user rating across nearly 5,000 user reviews. There’s a range of complaints: Some users are struggling with bugs and performance issues, while others find it lacking in content and “personality,” as one negative review puts it.
Three months after the game’s release, developer Turn 10 says significant changes to address those complaints are on the way “in the coming months.” The update posted to Steam focuses on what the studio said are “the top three areas of feedback we haven’t addressed directly,” including car progression, Forza Race Regulations, and AI drivers.
Car progression is a “divisive topic,” Turn 10 said: Some players like it, but “for many others it isn’t delivering the upgrade experience that they expect from Forza Motorsport.” Developers are looking into making changes to the system that will keep what works and change what doesn’t, but players shouldn’t expect any major movement on that front soon: It’s a “top priority,” but Turn 10 warned “it will take some time to properly evaluate options, make the necessary code changes, and thoroughly test those code changes.”
Forza Race Regulations, the system that identifies and penalizes infractions on the track, is also due for a change. Turn 10 said players have complained that it’s “inconsistent or unfair” in its judgments, and so over the next few months it will be collecting telemetry data from “long-time competitive Motorsport players” in order to figure out what’s not working and then make tweaks as needed.
And finally, the AI, which is apparently not great: AI-powered drivers sometimes brake inappropriately, accelerate too slowly, and stick to racing lines too closely. “We understand how important it is to have fair and competitive AI in Motorsport and our top priorities in early 2024 are addressing overly aggressive AI, while also getting a cleaner race start into turn 1 where many of the issues above most severely manifest and impact players,” Turn 10 wrote.
(To be fair to the AI, turn 1 can be a nightmare for real-world drivers too.)
So there are no immediate big changes coming to Forza Motorsport, but at this stage—and the state of the user review situation on Steam—I would imagine Turn 10’s priority is simply to reassure everyone that their complaints aren’t going unheard. The reaction to the message on Steam is decidedly mixed: Some fans are happy to know the studio isn’t washing their hands of it, while others are angry that the game launched in its current state and it took this long to acknowledge it.
There are more changes coming than just the issues listed above: Turn 10 said they’re “just a few examples of what we have seen most often and know you care passionately about.”
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