''Forza Motorsport 5'' is a 2013 racing video game developed by Turn 10 Studios and published by Microsoft Studios for

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

. It is the fifth ''Forza Motorsport'' and sixth overall installment in the '' Forza'' series. The game was revealed on May 21, 2013 during the Xbox One reveal event and was released on November 22, 2013 as a launch title.

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...

, who was featured in the previous installment, '' Forza Motorsport 4'', returned to narrate alongside James May and Richard Hammond, who co-presented alongside Clarkson in '' Top Gear''. The narration was used for the game's commentary when choosing a new event, championship, or league. ''Forza Motorsport 5'' received generally positive reviews, with aggregate review websites GameRankings and Metacritic giving a score of 79.49% and 79 out of 100, respectively. Reviewers praised the game's visuals and artificial intelligence, but were critical of the lack of content in relation to its predecessor, '' Forza Motorsport 4''.

Gameplay

''Forza Motorsport 5'' is a

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

racing video game. Players compete in events around the globe using real licensed cars on a variety of real world and fictional courses. It features an arcade mode, meant more for quickplay of races, and a career mode, which is focused on long-term play. Career mode spans several racing disciplines, spanning from racing of common commuter cars to those in racing series such as Super GT and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters as well as other

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

series. To help players acclimate to the simulation style of racing, assists such as an ideal racing line, anti-lock brakes and traction control can be used. Players can compete in various championships, which are divided based on vehicle manufacturer region, vehicle age, power, drivetrain, racing discipline, and other categories. Each championship consists of multiple races. Additionally exhibition races can be run, which are single events. Awards are generally better with championship races, while exhibitions require less of a time commitment from the player. The game offers both split-screen multiplayer and online play through Xbox Live.

Development

The game ships with 200 cars from over 50 manufacturers and 17 circuits including Spa, Bathurst, Yas Marina, and Circuit de la Sarthe. There are monthly car packs, including 10 cars each available to buy as downloadable content (DLC) for the first 8 months after the game's launch. The possibility of tracks, such as

Nürburgring The () is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

, being available to purchase as DLC after the game's launch was considered, but instead Turn 10 Studios has released new tracks as free content for users, including Road America in February 2014, Long Beach in April 2014 and the Nürburgring in June 2014.

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 British Grand ...

and the fictional ''Bernese Alps'' racetrack, based on the

Swiss Alps The Alps, Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main Physica ...

, were carried over from ''Forza Motorsport 4''. The sound design team used FMOD Studio to try new techniques for the game. The car audio model accepted inputs such as throttle position, engine load, boost pressure, gear selection, clutch position, and RPM (independent for engine, turbo, supercharger, and transmission). The team hired Skywalker Sound to create an action movie

soundscape A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term, originally coined by Michael Southworth, was popularized by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ...

based on a lap of the Bernese Alps track in ''Forza Motorsport 4'', and as a result tailored the game audio for player engagement versus passive movie watching. At

E3 2013 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 (E3 2013) was the 19th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, with many press conferences taking place at nearby venues including the Microsoft Theate ...

, first-hand gameplay, new features, and cars in "Forza Vista" mode were shown. Also at the event, it was revealed that for the first time in the game's history there would be open-wheel cars including the Dallara DW12 IndyCar and

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

cars, including the McLaren M23 driven by James Hunt and the Ferrari 312T2 driven by Niki Lauda in the 1976 Formula One season. The Lotus E21 driven by Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean in the 2013 Formula One Season was also revealed on November 5.

Soundtrack

Lance Hayes, the award winning composer who had composed the previous two Motorsport installments, had returned to compose his final Forza soundtrack alongside English composer, John Broomhall. In contrast to its predecessors, there are no licensed songs from popular artists that play while racing, instead substituting them for the original score by Lance and John. Also, in contrast with ''Forza Motorsport 4'' and '' Forza Motorsport 3'', the score features an emphasis on

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

, in addition to the ambient electronica sound established in previous entries. The soundtrack was released alongside the game itself on November 22, 2013, exclusively as a digital download.

Reception

''Forza Motorsport 5'' received generally positive reviews, with aggregate review websites GameRankings and

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

giving a score of 79.49% and 79 out of 100, respectively. Shaun McInnis of ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' said the game was "built on the romantic thrill of motorsport in all its forms, and that love for its subject matter is all but impossible to resist." Luke Reilly of ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' called it "an essential destination for the automobile obsessed" and "a very hard game for a revhead like myself not to love." In his review for ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

'', Arthur Gies praised the game's "aggressive, convincing AI", saying it made "every offline race feel like a multiplayer competition". Gies went on to say that "Turn 10 has charted a course for the future of the series — and created the Xbox One's first must-own game". However, a number of critics complained about the relative lack of content versus its predecessor, ''Forza Motorsport 4''. '' Edge'' noted that the game "has lost some 300 cars, over 20 locations and countless tracks", losing "the variety of racing that made it great" and that it was "a launch game with all the spectacle and disappointment we’ve come to expect from launch games". Matthew Kato of '' Game Informer'' called the game's revised career mode "a mistake" and that ''Forza Motorsport 5'' "takes a big step forward only to be held back by what it has removed". Writing for '' EGM'', Ray Carsillo said that while the game "maintains the tradition of providing great control along with some stunningly realistic graphics", ultimately it was "a surprising step backward for the ''Forza'' franchise". On February 18, 2014 Microsoft announced that ''Forza Motorsport 5'' is the fastest-selling racing game in

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

history. More than one third of Xbox One owners have bought the game. ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

'' estimated the sales to be around 1.3 million copies. On June 16, 2014 ''Forza'' Creative Director Dan Greenawalt announced that half of all Xbox One owners have played the full version of ''Forza Motorsport 5''. During the 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded ''Forza Motorsport 5'' with " Racing Game of the Year", along with receiving a nomination for " Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering".

References

External links