What have we come to where it's now acceptable for AAA titles to be built around microtransactions and DLC packs?
We get enough of this microtransaction junk on mobile games, and it is completely unacceptable for this stuff to start showing up in major console/PC titles. The game is built to force you to buy tokens with real money to get your favorite cars in a reasonable amount of time. Thus far in my experience (roughly 15 hours), most races only offer you a 10,000-20,000 credit reward for winning a race (and I race with assists off and with a high affinity car). Races take approximately 10 minutes a piece. So the maximum credits you can earn per hour is about 120,000 credits. Now, the only modern F1 car in the game costs 2 million credits. At the current credit rate, it would take you SEVENTEEN HOURS to afford to buy many of these cars (or spend $10+ on tokens to buy the car). It's just ridiculous, and I will likely be selling Forza here in the future. It was the main reason I purchased an Xbox One in the first place - I loved Forza 4 and was a top 10 leaderboard driver - but Forza 5 is, at most, a pathetic game that is falling in line with the rest of the industry: 1.) Release initial game with very little content. 2.) Release DLC every month at a cost of $10+ per DLC. 3.) Develop the game so you have to either grind for a long time or use real world money to purchase in game items.
The vanilla game is just bland - most of the cars you want to have are DLC (and a fair amount of them are the top leaderboard cars - so if you want to place high on the leaderboards, get ready to fork out money for incredibly over-priced car packs). One or two cool cars per pack forces you to buy all the car packs to eventually end up with half a dozen cars you actually want.
Graphics are terrible. Things look pretty if you're not moving, but once you start moving, the game does weird things. Perhaps it's just my copy or install, but the graphics on my game look awful. The scenery flashes and switches resolutions constantly. It's incredibly distracting.The rock chips on your car after a race also look terrible - like they forgot to finish rendering the game. I don't understand this, as Forza games of the past had brake-dust and rock chips that looked really good.
The physics are also incredibly flawed that the game is basically unplayable if you want to drive realistic racing lines. Any attempt to cross over, brake, or drive on a curbing (the usually-red-and- white stripped strip that lines the exit and apex of a turn) results in your car being shot into the air at random, and you lose control.
Controls just don't feel fast enough. I feel like I'm catching the spin, since my controller is jammed all the way in opposite lock, but when I look at my wheels on the replay, the tires are straight. The steering wheel does not turn fast enough and precise enough. This has been a problem in past Forza titles, but it is magnified in this game because of the tendency to spin rather quickly in Forza 5. Trying to catch a tank-slapper is virtually impossible.
Adding to these woes is the suddenly horrible Forza server. Forza 3 and Forza 4 both had exceptional servers: I could hop into a room and race for hours with only the occasional car glitching because somebody had a bad connection. But Forza 5 reminds me of my Gran Turismo online experience. The server is just terrible for Forza 5. Cars glitch around everywhere - lagging back and forth, left and right, hovering and slamming into the track, lagging through an field of players and sending their cars spinning and flying off the road. I played Forza 5 online for nearly 3 hours, and every room i joined was the same - even when I played with players who had excellent internet connections. The server is just garbage, and close bumper-to-bumper racing with club members that I was able to enjoy in Forza 4 cannot be done in Forza 5.
Incredibly disappointed in you, Turn 10. Forza used to be revolutionary, now it's just garbage. 4/10, and i feel that's even being generous.
