Forza Motorsport 4 Information Roundup

Fans have been asking a lot of questions about Turn 10's biggest game yet, Forza Motorsport 4. Turn 10 Creative Director Dan Greenawalt has been answering some of those questions in a multi-part interview on the official Forza Motorsport 4 website. Here is a summary of a few of the key gameplay features that featured in the interview.

Importing your profile from Forza Motorsport 3

After you finish your first race in Forza 4 using the same gamertag as you used to play Forza 3, the game will ask if you would like to import your profile. This WILL NOT affect your Forza 3 profile in any way. If you are connected to Xbox LIVE at the time, you will be gifted credits depending on your level. Regardless of whether you are connected online or offline though, players will be gifted with these level-dependent cars:



Also, if you have any of the following cars in your Forza 3 garage, you will be given the equivalent car in Forza 4:



Importing your livery designs from Forza Motorsport 3

All the cockpit, damage, and shader upgrades has been changed on all of the cars in between the two games. Unfortunately this means that entire liveries can't be imported. However, layer groups (the car-agnostic groups of vinyl shapes that can be plastered on any car) can be imported in the livery editor area. Players have to select "My Designs" in Forza 4 and will have to import all groups - partial imports are not possible.

How many cars are there?

There will be approximately 500 "premium" cars between discs one and two. The first disc will contain 300 cars, leaving the remaining 200 to be stored on the second disc. Of these cars, 320 are cars that have been updated from Forza 3, and 90 have been updated from the Forza 3 DLC packs. This leaves 90 cars that are new to Forza 4.

As well as those that are on the discs, the "American Muscle Car" DLC pack will be available on release date, which will be available free via download code to those who purchased the Limited Collector's Edition. Turn 10 are planning to add an average of ten cars per month, with new DLC packs starting in November.

Which tracks didn't make it into the game?

Two environments have been cut from those imported from Forza 3 - New York and Sidewinder can not work with the new engine. The short version of Amalfi Coast remains in the game with small modifications to gameplay, but the long version of the track also had to be removed. Finally, the full Le Mans Circuit de la Sarthe and the Old Musanne circult remain, but the Bugatti version had to be removed.



It isn't all doom and gloom though. There are several new tracks still to be announced, but of those that have, the new Bernese Alps track made an appearance in the Behind The Scenes Part 1 developer diary, and Hockenheim received a developer walkthrough too. Every new copy of the game will also include a download code for the Top Gear Soccer Field and the Benchmark Test Track.

The newest circuit to be revealed is the Infineon Raceway in the US. Here's a trailer showcasing the track in all of its glory:



How does the new Affinity Mode work?

Unlike Forza 3 or Forza Motorsport 2, the cars no longer level up. Instead, players gain manufacturer-specific XP that lead to manufacturer-specific levels. This is only affected by the number of miles that a player drives, and not by selling cars. For example, racing in a BMW will give players BMW-specific XP, but buying and selling BMW cars will not change the level of XP. The highest manufacturer-specific level is level 50; getting to level five takes approximately 30 minutes of racing time.

For getting to level 50 you will be rewarded with "manufacturer-specific part discounts (up to 100 percent free parts), large cash bonuses (up to 150,000CR), as well as Badges and Titles for your Forza Player Card". To give you an idea of the sort of time investment that you will need, Turn 10's target is to have less than 1% of players with any manufacturer at level 50 within the first 24 months. You may not be pleased to know that one achievement will involve getting a manufacturer affinity to level 50.

Badges and Titles

Forza 4 will include nearly 400 graphical Badges and an unspecified number of motto-like Titles for use on your player card, which is accessible in the 'My Profile' area of the user interface. Badges such as country flags or World Tour completion will be unlocked by default, whereas others are progression based (player levelling) and some are "more quirky". Several Badges and Titles have multiple levels, including all of the manufacturer affinity badges. Sticking with our BMW example, players become a BMW Fan at Affinity Level 1. The second tier is unlocked at level 10, and the third tier is unlocked at level 25.



Changes to the driver level cap

Turn 10 has decreased the amount of time that players will take to reach level 50, so that cars are earned more quickly. At every level up to this point, the game will offer players a choice between several gift cars. Event unlocks are also tied to player level, but these can all be unlocked within a few hours of gameplay. Classes B and A will be unlocked quickly at level 5. Classes S and R3 will be unlocked at level 10. Finally, classes R2 and R1 will be unlocked at level 15.

You may have realised that I just said "up to this point"; well, that is because the level cap has increased. The highest level is now level 150, and Turn 10's target is the same as that associated with the top Affinity Level - to have less than 1% of players at level 150 within the first 24 months. The reward for levelling up past level 50 is a large credit bonus, ranging from 100,000CR to 350,000CR, based on the level.

The developer is expecting to see "lots of players in the level 20-30 range", and "a hardcore Forza fan should be in the level 50-75 range". Those above level 100 have "put in some serious time". Your level will also be displayed on your player card.

Autovista Mode

Autovista mode will include 25 experiences on the disc, but only four of these will be unlocked from the beginning. The 2012 BMW M5 will also be available as free DLC on release day. Unlocking the rest will involve completing challenges in that specific car. Challenges can include hot-lapping, car-passing, and TopGear bowling. In addition to this, two of the Autovistas are Easter Eggs that can only be unlocked by completing a set percentage of the other Autovista experiences.

Each of the cars involved in these experiences is rare, and Greenawalt fully expects that "most people will never see these cars in the wild". I have to admit, I'd be very surprised if you saw a Halo Warthog in the wild. That link contains commentary by Cortana; for commentary by Jeremy Clarkson, check out our coverage here.

Unicorn cars and changes to the Auction House

The three Forza 3 unicorn cars - Camaro SS, Scooby S204, and RX7-R - return in Forza 4. Those players who already have these three cars from the previous game will be able to import the cars across into Forza 4 from the outset. The new game will have an additional 14 unicorn cars, enabling more community contests and more reward choices.

The Auction House, an important source for these cars, has been changed so that its layout has a closer resemblance to the storefront and quick searching is an easier process. Unicorn cars also have their own tab so that they aren't grouped with the normal community auctions. This also allows Turn 10 to keep a closer eye on unicorn auctions and enables them to change the flow of unicorn cars according to availability.



Rivals Mode

Rivals Mode allows players to compete against a friend over seven channels of events. The player is automatically assigned a rival in every event; this is usually an Xbox LIVE friend. Failing that, players can manually choose any player on the leaderboard as their rival. The rival is represented by a fully liveried ghost car. Bonus credits are awarded for beating your rival, but these are based on that rival's leaderboard percentile rank and the size of the board. Large bounties result from beating a rival in the top percentile on a well-populated board. If your rival is a friend or fellow club member, they will receive a message that invites them to beat your time.

Players can use Rivals Mode exclusively for levelling up and advancing through their careers if they so choose, as the credit and basic XP payouts are identical to the career and multiplayer modes. The seven channels mostly feature ten events each, with each being held on one track while players adhere tospecific race rules:

• Community Monthly - the number of events varies monthly and can feature any set of rules from the six channels below. This channel may also feature advanced car restrictions (drive-types, year, classes) and overrides (cockpit only, no ABS, manual only).

• TopGear - these events are chosen by the TopGear staff, hence the name. Each event is restricted to a non-upgraded specific model, for example, the “Reasonably Priced Car” event where players perform one lap of the TopGear Test Track whilst driving a Kia Cee’d.

• Spec Hot Laps - these events are based on motorsport heritage or great car / track pairings. Again, each event is restricted to a non-upgraded specific model.

• Open Time Attack - this channel caters for the class-based events where tuning skills play a large part in the outcome. Cars that are optimized for these events can be shared with other members of the player's car club, and can be used regardless of whether the original owner is online.

• Track Days - players race through lower-class pedestrian car traffic whilst generally driving a medium- to high-class car. The events are mostly class-based, but can include specific year limitations too. Nürburgring Nordschleife and Fujimi Kaido are two of the circuits used in this channel.

• Autocross - these class-based events take place on race tracks with gates. Missing a gate will incur a time penalty. Car setup is critical here.

• Drift - This event is fairly self explanatory. The new tyre model and simulation steering (both of which you can read more about here) have taken drifting to "a whole new level" - more difficult to perform, but extremely predictable and addictive when done correctly.



Using user hosted public lobbies

I'll let Greenawalt explain this one:

When you “Create Race” you have the option to make it “Public.” In Forza 3, these were always private. When you go to “Find Race,” there is an option to search “User-Create Races.” Here you can search by general category (i.e., circuit, timed race, drag, drift, custom, etc.) or even set advanced search settings per category. For example, advanced search on “Tag” includes filtering by “It” Class and “Not It” class and advanced search on “Drift” includes class, drive-type and collision mode.Forza Motorsport 4 is due to be released on October 11th, 2011 in North America, October 14th in Europe, and October 20th in other territories. Check out the details for the Limited Collector's Edition here. The pre-order bonuses are here, and details on the pre-order incentives program are here.