I attended the first day of Eurogamer Expo 2013 today, and had a chance to get hands-on with Forza Motorsport 5. Here’s my opinionated preview on it.
Forza Motorsport 5 was the the second chance I had to get my hands on the Xbox One controller, and it’s impossible to speak about Forza without complimenting the way it uses the controller. The haptic feedback rumble in the left trigger as you brake, and the right trigger as you accelerate or change gears is exhilarating. Don’t worry, it’s not going to vibrate out of your hands mid-race, but it’s noticeable there. In my opinion, it improves the feel of driving your car around the track.
Equally, I have nothing but praise for the visuals. From the lens flares and the sun reflecting off the track, to the smooth curves of the cars and the intricate details of any damage; everything in Forza Motorsport 5 looked stunning. You’d expect that from it, as it runs natively at 1080p, and 60fps, but it’s truly something else to experience it first hand.
The driving feels very realistic and there are a host of options in game, as with previous Forzas, that let you make it as difficult as you want. This realism is a bit too much for me though. Forza 5 is not very forgiving, and it definitely for someone that plays a lot of driving games, or thoroughly enjoys driving simulators.
I personally prefer my driving experiences to be less serious, and less realistic in the way of being forgiving if you make mistakes round corners or avoiding other cars. This certainly doesn’t mean that Forza Motorsport 5 is a bad game, it’s just not the game for me, and probably isn’t for you unless you like your driving to be more like simulators that arcade racers. As previously stated by Turn 10 though, Forza 5 is not a hardcore simulator, and isn’t trying to be. In all honesty though, Forza 5 isn’t the most serious driving game out there, and it’s not trying to be either. However, if Forza isn’t for you, then maybe my preview of  Need for Speed: Rivals will suit you better.
Regardless of preference, it looks like Forza 5 will be a stunning game that will show what the Xbox One has to offer early in the console’s life. It is a launch day title for the Xbox One which releases on September 22nd in 13 markets.
