Forza Motorsport 5 - Limited Edition (Xbox One)

Shock and awe..!! Cool must play NICE SIMULATION GAME

I'm a Forza 4 addict and this game is the reason I bought Xbox One. So hopefully that helps you know where I'm coming from. The Cars: Amazing. Simply amazing. By far the most detail I've seen from a console game. Every car can also now be ogled in ForzaVista which had me playing with my Mazda MX-5 for quite some time opening doors, retracting the roof, revving the engine, an flipping the headlights on and off. The selection is indeed a giant step down from FM4 in terms of quantity, but I can forgive that given the insane level of detail and the fact that despite a limited selection, they made pretty good choices on what to put in. It is not a glut of supercars, but is instead the typical Forza mix of everyday cars, supercars, hypercars, racing cars, and classics. There are a few omissions that I found rather glaring right off the bat, for example no Lancia Stratos and no MK6 or 7 VW GTI. These can be forgiven though given such tasteful additions as an Ariel Atom V8 and (finally) a North American 2013 MX-5, and other cool cars like the insane Renault Clio V6. Driving: Forza veterans will feel at home here, sort of. All the assists except rewind can be turned off as I prefer, and the manual w/clutch option is still there. However the difficulty of driving without assists (or as the Topgear crew might say "the electronic nannies") has been dramatically increased. Between the tighter feeling tracks and the larger number of opponents and the fact that my MX-5 was very hard to control with the assists turned off, there was a good and satisfying amount of tension in the races, despite the presence of the rewind safety net. Fortunately, with the increased difficulty, the money prizes were reworked and now as long as you net a podium finish (3rd or above) you will get the maximum money prize. Damage does not detract from your winnings now, but using the rewind feature does. The rumble triggers also really enhance the experience, I can feel when I am about to break traction, the thrum of the engine as I shift, and the pulsating as I lock up my brakes. It all adds up to make a thrilling, and challenging but fair driving experience, especially from the vastly improved cockpit view. Upgrades: Nothing has really changed here except they are no longer free if you get affinity level 4 on a particular make of car. You still have your basic options of Quick Upgrade, Engine, Platform & Handling, Drivetrain, Tires & Rims, Aero & Appearance, and of course my favorite Conversion. Paint: Here is where some long desired changes have finally been implemented. You can finally paint stock wheels. And finally matte is an option (yay for matte white wheels!). There is the usual huge selection of vinyls, and now you can fit 3000 shapes on each side except front and rear bumper which are limited to 1000. Additionally, there is just a huge number of paint options. Gloss, matte, metal flake, two tone polish, two tone semigloss, two tone matte, carbon fiber, camos, wood, chrome, polished aluminum, gold, the number of options is simply fantastic, and I can't wait to see what people create. Money and Misc Stuff: A few changes here. First the vehicle performance index has been changed slightly. Not a huge deal, but the ratings don't seem to translate to previous Forzas. Money is earned by racing, and if you put something up on storefront from what I understand, but now it is also earned by your Drivatar, a representation of you that is based off your driving habits and earns money when you are not in game. Money is also earned when you increase your driver level as before. The affinity system has been reworked though, and now for example when I race a Mazda and level up Mazda's affinity, I will get a percentage based affinity bonus of cash with every race I finish in a Mazda. Menu and interface: It took a few minutes to get sorted on this, but the new cleaner and quicker menu system is a VAST improvement over previous efforts. Conclusion: As a long time Forza fan I found a lot to love about Forza 5 just from my few hours playing. I will be back with updates if my opinion changes on anything, but I can honestly say this is the most impressive Forza game yet. Above all else it is the driving experience and the cars beauty both audio and visual that truly floors me here. If you are obsessed with cars as I am I can't recommend this game enough! Update: I found a few things that bug me. Number one as others have mentioned is microtransactions. I have never liked the token system, and sadly now they're available to use on everything that you use in game CR for. It's easy enough to ignore, but if you are impatient and want the million dollar cars immediately you won't be happy, and you'll probably be tempted to buy tokens, please I ask that you don't as that will only lead to more microtransactions down the road. The second thing that bugs me is that aside from the nice steel book and a small number of exclusive cars (that will undoubtedly become available to everyone later) there is zero reason to get the Limited Edition. VIP membership is nice I guess, but it doesn't seem to have a huge benifit yet other than being gifted a few cars. Thirdly, ForzaVista is not quite as fleshed out as I would have liked. On a lot of the low end cars you can't even pop the hood or the trunk, or even the rear passenger doors, and yet on some you can. There isn't the nice full body of narration either like there was in Forza 4, and Clarkson no longer talks about each car. Instead you get one blurb for each car by a random woman. Still great that every car can be looked at, just wish they'd added more narration. Fourth, the cockpit view when racing is only visible in the forward quarter again. I was really hoping that since they had to model every interior of every car for ForzaVista that they would make the cockpit view so that when you look behind you would see the rear windscreen, rear seats/interior, but instead you look behind and it's a bumper camera which really damges the immersiveness of driving with the cockpit view. Fifth, there is no storefront or auction. When I think back I remember hearing about this, but I guess I forgot about it and didn't realize how much I'd miss it. I used to make some awesome custom camo vinyl groups in FM4 and now I no longer have a storefront to show them off. These were two features that really should have been kept (regardless of the money glitching), and it's baffling to me that they ditched these staples of the online Forza community. Sixth, and final point, despite clearly having the ability to render headlights switched on, and seeing some cars race with running lights on, there is no option to turn them on/off while racing. L3 and R3 are even unbound and free to do this. This is a pretty minor point, but there are some tracks, like Bathurst which is set at dusk, where racing with headlights on would look really cool. A couple of other good things to report however. First is money is real easy to come by. Race payouts aren't any higher, but I seem to level up quicker, and after roughly 15-20 hours I have 1.5 million CR in the bank and roughly 1 million CR worth of car in the garage (not counting gifted cars). Secondly, they brought back and improved the rivals system slightly. Even in regular racing you are always kept aprised of who's time you beat, and who's time is up next. Thirdly, the Grand Prix and F1 cars are great and, based on what I know about them, accurate. You have to keep your speed high to maintain grip (just like the real thing, speed is needed to keep the tires hot and sticky and the downforce high) and while they don't disintegrate if you crash they are extrememly fragile and even a moderate impact can seriously impact the vehicle's performance. Fourth, I am just really enjoying savoring each car I buy. Despite this game's flaws (some of which are quite serious), I cannot help but enjoy it. This is why I plan to keep my rating at five stars. Yes there are six things which I listed that would make this experience near perfect, but I am someone genuinely obsessed with cars, and this game itches that scratch better than any other game in recent memory.

Believe it or not, the arrival of the Xbox One marks the first time that Microsoft's exclusive racing franchise has coincided with a console's day one debut. With that, there are some growing pains that Forza fanatics may not be too pleased about; but, it certainly kicks off the beginning of a new generation of console racing on the Xbox platform. Let us get many of the negatives out of the way, first and foremost. There is no auction house. There is no vehicle gifting between gamers.There is no more Storefront, in the form that fans have come to know it as. Furthermore, Forza Motorsport 5 sacrifices much of the 400+ vehicle roster that existed with its predecessor, while scrapping some the series' more popular racing environments. To these points, some have, understandably, become disheartened with the sudden turn of events; however, it may be worth noting that this is only the start of (presumably) the next decade of the Forza brand. Immediately, Forza Motorsport 5 establishes itself with its detailed racing locales, all of which (with the exception of some fictional environments) have been completely reworked through the use of laser scanning techniques which replicate the racing surfaces and their surroundings to any accuracy measured in mere centimeters. Those vehicles that did survive the cut have, too, been revamped with more detailed textures than the four previous Forza Motorsport iterations combined. The result is some of the most stunningly replicated automotive icons and racing environments seen in any videogame and on any platform. Making a return is the renowned livery editor which allows designers to create intricate images and paintjobs using abstract shapes and vinyl art. What comes of this seemingly abstract feature are the most remarkable community-created content pieces in all of videogaming, of which can be shared through the newfangled Storefront that no longer charges users a share of their Forza currency per download and, instead, pays out Forza credits to the creator for the use of their designs. Simply put: the above remains to be the only aspect of Forza Motorsport 5 that provides an online economic system; however, any mediums where Forza credits or vehicles can be exhanged has been removed. Whether this decision on behalf of Turn 10 Studios was to minimize opportunities for cheating or was impacted due to the change in Microsoft's Xbox Online online policies, prior to release, is uncertain. Whether or not this is expected to change with Forza Motorsport 6 is also unknown. One additional piece that has caused Forza gamers some grief is the Drivatar system - a new take on an old feature that attempts to mimic the driving style of Xbox Live gamers through artificial intelligence used in single-player racing modes. The concept is brilliant, in itself, but the execution has proved a bit wonky. Drivatars are seemingly over agressive and, in two to three lap career races, the computer-controlled Drivatar tactics are far less sportsmanlike and more bumper car-esque. To be fair, on some occassions, Drivatar offers up some rather intense racing action that beats out any experience prior artificial intelligence has had to offer. Where Forza Motorsport 5 sticks true to its brand is in its vehicle physics, tuning and sound design. Each car has unique driving characteristics that are emulated through a complex system that calculates the vehicle's inherenet capabilities and tire performance, derived by way of thorough testing and modeling. While there are some faults, it is difficult to deny how realistic the physics simulation is in Forza Motorsport 5. Toss in the ability to cutomize and hand tune specific vehicle components, and the racing experience comes to life on the Xbox One. In terms of sound, Turn 10 Studios has always been notorious for its exceptional quality and realism. Vehicle sounds are crisp and representative of their true nature. On the user interface side, the Turn 10 Studios teams has opted to continue with a more dramatic and orchestral soundtrack. Speaking of the user interface, Forza Motorsport 5 sports an entirely new yet familiar look in the menus. Reminiscent of the new Windows tile look, navigation is clean and sensible. Unfortunately, loading times before and after races have not been significantly decreased, while other aspects have seen improvement. All-in-all, Forza Motorsport 5 is a satisfying debut to the Xbox One console; but, it should be expected that its efforts on the new generation hardware are a work-in-progress. It won't take much time for future iterations to catch-up where Forza Motorsport 4's vehicle and track list left off, and new bugs and glitches are sure to be worked out, moving forward. For those yearning for their new generation racing title, Forza Motorsport 5 is the one to beat and still features far more licensed models than any other game currently in its market. I encourage Forza Motorsport fans, new and old, to pick this one up with the understanding that things are changing - while it may take some time to get used to, the future is very promising for this fan-favorite franchise.

Forza 5 is an excellent racing sim. I have and still do play MANY racing "sims". Whether it's on PC, Playstation, or Xbox I've probably played it or still do play it. My focus is on physics, AI and the quality of what I get when it comes to this particular series. Typically PC sims deliver quality tracks, physics, and cars...but not a lot of content up front (thankfully there's a good community to add things). Some console sims deliver a lot of content, but lack in quality physics or AI, while others focus on other things. I'd say while Forza 5 has a bit less content than the last entry, due to a rebuild of the entire game engine and some cars, what they have delivered is incredibly well done. The physics, with all assists off, are incredible. Very few racing games allow you to actually "FEEL" as if you're in control of a real car. You can feel the "edge" in this game. Each car feels unique and realistic. The tracks that are in the game (hopefully we get more son) are very well realized. Feeling the wheel (and seeing it on screen) shake and shudder on certain tracks is right on. Great stuff. When it comes to AI...I'd say I've not raced any better. It almost seems like the AI is getting better as I play too. I don't mean better as in more difficult, but better as in "smarter'. It's a really interesting experience. I initially could take most of the AI with no problem, however, in some of the higher class races the AI is putting up some serious battles...with me and between themselves. Honestly, this is GREAT to see. I've become accustom to AI that breaks too early (even in my recent experience with GT6 this happens at ridiculous times) or that simply seems to follow a line behind each other like they're on a Sunday drive. This seems to be fading away with Forza 5. The AI can act anywhere from sheepish to absolutely daring and suicidal....and no, that's not a bad thing..lol. Anyway, this is an excellent racer through and through. I've completed over 100 races and have only used about half of the cars in my garage. I've got so much money I don't know what to do with it, and can't wait to play through all the classes and events. Great game....hope they bring a ton of content in the future.

Let me start by saying that this game has great gameplay and is absolutely beautiful. If it was as simple as that it would be 5 stars. I give this 2 stars simply due to Turn 10 Studio's lack of communication. As many are aware Turn 10 is changing the currency system after hearing about the micro transaction system. I agree that this was not good to put in the game and agree with the fact that they are changing it for the consumer. They have gifted cars to the VIP players. Thats all fine and good but my real problem is this.... I and many other players redeemed the code included in the game and never got the cars or tokens promised to us. I understand that it is a new console so bugs happen. I was not entirely upset when this happened and figured it would get fixed sooner rather than later. However, it has been 3 weeks and still no cars. Making matters worse is that aside from a statement the day the game released stating that they are aware of the issue and working on a fix they have yet to acknowledge this problem again since then. It seems as though they are just focusing on the first problem and ignoring this second one. If they had kept me updated it would likely get 4 or 5 stars but the mere fact that they are ignoring this issue makes everything so much worse. Be warned that if you buy the limited edition you MAY not get the cars promised to you. It has worked for some people so I am not gonna say don't buy the game but be warned.

Forza 5 was probably Microsoft's Premier launch title. I've owned and played all the Forza series up to this one and was honestly looking forward to it. Did it live up to the expectations and hype? The answer to that unfortunately is a resounding no. First the good. The graphics on Forza 5 are stunning to say the least. The tracks, reflections, cars and attention to detail are very well done (however some do get annoying). Sound wise, there isn't very much to the game apart from obviously the engines. When playing the game, Turn 10 have decided to make a lot of the races in the early morning which means there is a low sun angle. Now whilst this may look very pretty it very quickly gets on your nerves. For example, you are racing against the clock on Road Atlanta doing a cone slalom race on the short track. You have to weave your way through a bunch of cones and get over the finishing line in a prescribed time to earn gold, silver or bronze. Every cone gate you miss adds 5 seconds to your time. So you are coming up over the rise on the short circuit and turning into the sun which effectively whites out the road. You get so much sun glare that you can't even see the cones that you are trying to drive through so you miss 3 or 4 gates and have to do the lap again, this time remembering that there are gates that you basically can't see. Now whilst this may look visually great and "realistic" for that time of day, in reality it is just annoying. I noticed Turn 10 starting this trend in Forza 4 and they have taken it to the next level in Forza 5. It really adds nothing to the racing and is just there to make the game look prettier. At the end of each race you have to sit through a 30 second or so animation of your car coming to a stop from 3 different angles, I guess to show off the damage done to the front of your car. This is nice the first few times you see it but again it quickly becomes annoying as you can't skip it, especially when you have seen it 100+ times. Split screen 2 player mode is very buggy with texture tearing and in a lot of races the sky textures completely disappear to be replaced with just black, almost as if you are racing in the dark. But this only happens on the bottom of the split screen, not the top one. Another bug when you are playing 2 players is when your friend picks up the controller and connects (for some weird reason the game insists you sign into the Xbox itself as a guest), then it says the initial controller has been disconnected. You reconnect the initial controller and now that controller is no longer the primary one and you have to swap controllers with your friend. I'm not sure however if this is an Xbox issue with the Kinect trying to be too clever for itself or whether it's Turn 10's fault, but again it is annoying. For the most part, driving the cars seems fairly similar to Forza 4, although I'm certainly not convinced that these are modeled after real world car handling. Driving a Ferrari 458 at just over 30 miles per hour into a turn and the back end starts sliding away. No way, my SUV won't do that and it's not a supercar. If the handling of a real world 458 was that bad Ferrari wouldn't be able to sell any (I've actually driven a real 458 around a local track here and I can tell you it does not handle in that manner, it is a superb car to drive). I bought the Limited Edition game for the extra cars, the 1250 credits (which should have bought you any car in the game but doesn't even come close) and the VIP membership. Like others here, I have not received my day 1 cars, my Limited Edition cars etc. This is something Turn 10 needs to fix ASAP. Why spend the extra money for no benefit? Track wise, there are two excellent new tracks, Abu Dhabi formula 1 race track and Prague. These are simply superb and if you ever get the Lotus Formula 1 car that is available in the game, excellent to drive around but overall there just simply aren't that many tracks (maybe about a dozen) and some of the tracks don't even have alternative routes. It feels like there are around 1/2 the number of tracks that Forza 4 launched with. Rather than try and make more money with micro transactions and car packs Turn 10 should release more track packs as you quickly get bored with racing the same 10-12 tracks and configurations again and again and again. The game overall just feels rushed and buggy, like Turn 10 weren't quite ready to release it but were under pressure due to the hard deadline of the console launch. Hopefully they will release patches soon to fix quite a lot of the problems that appear in the game. Overall it's a fairly fun game to play even though IMO the game is not finished. It's not as good as previous Forza games and Turn 10 should stick to what they are good at, car handing, tracks etc. and stop with the silly visual effects like reflections and racing into the sun. Given the amount of problems with the game at this point however I honestly couldn't really recommend it unless you are hardened racing or Forza fan. A disappointment.