With the official launch behind us, what cars, tracks and game modes will be arriving in post-launch updates for Forza Motorsport?
WATCH: New Cars, Tracks & Game Modes?! Forza Motorsport News & Updates
With the official launch behind us, we’re looking forward to the future. According to developers Turn 10 Studios, the Forza Motorsport reboot will be a “live, connected, and ever-changing racing platform” – so what cars, tracks and game modes are coming down the line? What fixes can we expect to see? Let’s dive into what’s been confirmed so far, all the rumours, and what we think the future holds for Forza Motorsport.
Image: TOP SPLIT
Forza Motorsport has plenty of aspects that need to be fixed – and we’ve got another video coming soon that’ll go into depth on exactly what, why and how – but in short, here’s the major features that need to be improved.
The game feels pretty terrible on a wheel right now. Forza clearly wanted to appeal to sim racers in their marketing – the game even still describes itself as a “cutting-edge simulation” on Steam – so if Turn 10 wants to attract serious sim drivers to the Forza Motorsport reboot, they need to make some serious changes. In comparison, Gran Turismo 7 is decent on pad, but comes into its own on wheel, and Forza needs to aim to do the same.
Next up, Forza’s AI shows promise, but has big problems, and in many ways is a step back from Forza Motorsport 7. Once in clean air, the frontrunners have good speed, but they’re terrible at wheel-to-wheel racing, always managing to be either far too aggressive or far too passive – and the AI utilised for assessing in-race penalties has attracted equal criticism for its inconsistency.
Moving on to the Builders’ Cup – it’s a repetitive chore that leaves you with Level 20-ish cars that you’ll likely never touch again. Turn 10 can always add more Tours, but the Career as a whole needs to be more fun, less of a grind, and be a more meaningful part of the wider game.
Last up for now, there’s a bunch of low-hanging fruit that should have been in the game on release: proximity markers tailored for different camera views, better PC optimisation, and the fixing of major game-breaking bugs, such as invisible circuit textures, broken multiplayer lobbies, and rewind-related glitches.
Earlier this week, Turn 10 stated they’d been reading player feedback, listening to concerns and working on improvements and fixes, with some coming as early as next week, so we hope to see positive progress made towards some of these issues shortly.
Image: TOP SPLIT
Three tracks are confirmed to be in the works; Yas Marina – the Abu Dhabi GP circuit – is coming in November, an as-yet-untitled circuit will arrive in December, and their “most accurate Nordschleife ever” – notably missing on release – is slated to arrive in Spring 2024. Each track will be a free update, and according to Turn 10, we should expect more free circuits to be added in future.
On top of these three circuits, it seems like future tracks will be added based on what the community asks for. Over on the Forza blog, Turn 10 have twice mentioned – the first time way back in April – that Interlagos is the top suggestion on the forums so far, and although the home of the Brazilian GP hasn’t featured in Forza Motorsport before, if each circuit really is “built from the ground up” like they claim, we imagine it’ll arrive in Forza sooner rather than later.
Fujimi Kaido, the fictional 16+km track last seen in Forza Motorsport 4, also received enough votes to earn a mention on the blog. Of course, just being mentioned by Turn 10 isn’t a confirmation that Fujimi will return – and Hakone already ticks the “circuit built around Mt. Fuji” box – but a modern-day interpretation of the fondly-remembered track would give Turn 10 the opportunity to showcase Forza’s visual capabilities, give Microsoft a flashy tech demo of what’s capable on the Xbox Series X/S hardware, and earn some much-needed brownie points with the community.
Other top community suggestions include Bathurst, Road Atlanta, Tsukuba and more – and if you’d like to make your voice heard by casting your votes for the tracks you’d like to see, head on over to the Forza forums.
Image: TOP SPLIT
The Car Pass – part of the Premium and Deluxe editions, and available in the in-game store – guarantees 30 new cars, one per week, to its holders. The 2018 Experion Racing Golf GTI and 2019 Dodge Road Racing TA Challenger have already been delivered, with the 1999 NISMO R931, 2020 BMW M2 Competition Coupe, 2019 DC Racing Oreca 07 and 1991 Roush Racing Ford Mustang arriving in the next four weeks. The other 24 cars have yet to be revealed, but judging by these first six, I anticipate we’ll be seeing many more iconic road racers hit Forza Motorsport in the near future.
Outside the Car Pass, by doing a bit of sleuthing and theorycrafting, we can also take a good guess at some other cars that might be on the way. In one of the official trailers, we can clearly see both drag-strip racing and Formula Drift cars, and although neither is in the game yet – more on that later – we’re expecting new cars to be added for both modes when they arrive, with possible examples including the Nissan 200SX, the Ford Mustang RTR, and the Nissan 350Z.
As with tracks, Turn 10 are taking community suggestions for new cars over on the Forza forums. The top suggestion is currently the Mazda Furai; the one-of-one concept car last seen within Forza in FM4 – but it has been seen more recently in 2022’s GRID Legends. Other top suggestions include the all-electric Volkswagen ID.R, the Gen 3 Formula E car, and the full Le Mans Hypercar roster – and once again you can vote for the cars you’d like to see over on the forums.
How will we acquire these cars? Not through loot boxes! Turn 10 denied any loot boxes back in June, stating that car acquisition will either be showroom purchases with in-game credits, or rewards for completing Tours – and as new single-player and multiplayer experiences hit Forza Motorsport, there’s bound to be plenty of opportunities to acquire new machines. Speaking of which…
Image: TOP SPLIT
The single-player Career in Forza Motorsport is pretty barebones right now. Turn 10 have already affirmed that the Builders’ Cup is “designed to evolve and expand over time” with new championships and events, and so with the mode facing its fair share of criticism so far, we anticipate it won’t be too long before they start making changes.
Outside some obvious additions, such as the ability to skip practice from the pre-race menu, with a vast array of the game’s 500+ car roster yet to be properly utilised in the Builders’ Cup, new single-player content should be easy enough to put together – and with monthly content updates promised by Turn 10, this should be a straightforward way to deliver fresh experiences on a regular basis. Endurance races, new tours, multi-class racing; the possibilities here are endless – we’re just hoping that Turn 10 can put their car and track variety to good use.
Back in July, the Forza team announced that both drift and drag modes wouldn’t be available on release – implying that they would arrive in future; all the more likely as both drift and drag upgrades are already in the game. When will these modes arrive? We’re not sure, but considering it took almost a year for drag racing to be added to FM7 post-launch, assuming that they’re working from what they’ve already built, we anticipate any new modes will arrive early next year.
Multiplayer is undoubtedly the focus of Forza Motorsport, and whilst the touring car and GT races have been very popular since release, fans are already craving more. So far, we’ve only seen short and medium-length online races, so naturally longer races will likely arrive in future. Gran Turismo 7’s Daily Races have created some absolute bangers on occasion, and we’d love to see Forza Motorsport take a similar approach.
There’s also the question of multiplayer championships – a key feature of many other multiplayer-focused racing games. Whilst there’s been no word on if or when they’ll arrive, we’d be hard-pressed to imagine that Turn 10 aren’t working on some form of race-by-race competition for Forza Motorsport. Again, GT7 has nailed this in the past with the Builders’ and Manufacturers Cups, so there’s plenty for Forza to learn and adapt from.
Image: TOP SPLIT
On top of cars and tracks, Turn 10 are also taking suggestions on the forums for other features to be added to Forza Motorsport.
Back in July, they mentioned three top community suggestions, those being pit stop animations, better cockpit steering animations, and the addition of race flags. Since release, other rising suggestions include revamping the CarPG system, uncapping the multiplayer FPS limit, and triple monitor support for PC players.
Whilst we don’t think the CarPG system will undergo any fundamental changes, some suggestions, such as level progression being tied to the model, rather than to the specific car – so you don’t have to start from scratch if you purchase a car you already own – seem like a no-brainer, especially as the introduction of drag and drift modes means some players will want race and drift versions of the same car.
Personally, I’d like to see the proximity markers pop up for cars ahead of you, and for them to be tailored for each camera view, not one-size-fits-all – or even better, the option to switch the markers for a proximity radar, since the markers do a pretty bad job of communicating just how close you are to touching other cars. A spotter would also help massively, building the in-game immersion whilst communicating your position relative to other cars on track.
Turn 10 does have a history of implementing features based on community suggestions. The introduction of ballast to Forza Motorsport appears to come from a forum post back in October 2022, so with so many thoughts, views and opinions being expressed, let’s hope that Turn 10 are listening.
If you want to know our thoughts on Forza Motorsport so far, check out our review here, and if you’re a new player looking to get ahead, check out our 5 tips here.
After a lengthy delay, the premier class of F1 Esports is set to return with…
The developers of Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione have released the first teaser for…
The Simagic GT Neo is Simagic’s attempt to create the best value entry-level wheel in…
Rain, the road license split, new cars & tracks, UI updates, more 3D curbs, a…
Forza Motorsport has released to mixed reactions. Will the new content, fixes and changes in…
Rain is imminent! Plus, there's new cars and tracks, an improved protest system, AND updates…