Forza Motorsport 7 UK release date and availability
Forza Motorsport 7 is now available to buy the UK following a 3 October 2017 release, and is available to play on Xbox One and PC (sorry PS4 users!). If you want to buy the game right now, you can head to GAME to pick up your copy for the Xbox One. You’ve got two options – the Standard Edition which costs £44.99, or the Ultimate Edition which costs £79.99 and comes with a 1:43 scale model of the new cover car, the 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS. For those that want to buy Forza Motorsport 7 on PC, your best bet is to head directly to the Windows Store. Like with the Xbox One, the PC variant is also available in standard (£49.99) and ultimate edition (£79.99), although the scale model is exclusive to pre-orders at GAME.
Forza Motorsport 7 review
Forza Motorsport 7 aims to take the hugely popular series and make it more impressive than ever, and we think developer Turn 10 Studios has succeeded in doing so. Let’s give you a little background before we delve into the juicy details.
Campaign
Along with the hugely popular multiplayer that still sees over 5m monthly players on Forza Motorsport 6, Forza 7 includes a single-player campaign titled Forza Drivers Club. It’s a motorsport-inspired campaign broken down into 6 championships with over 700 cars available to drive, and a whole host of tracks too. Within each championship, there are a range of series for you to choose from, each with a different style or class of car. There’s a focus on diversity – if you want to drive high-end supercars, you can, but if you want to race a souped-up truck or knock over giant bowling pins while drifting in a limo, you can do that too. It’s the diversity of cars and modes available in the campaign that helps keep it interesting, helped by a handful of real-life events for you to take on in-game, like breaking the current land speed record at the Nürburgring or taking part in classic F1 races from yesteryear. And Forza rewards you for playing the campaign, in the form of exclusive gear and cars that are unlocked as you progress through the championships. As you collect more cars, you’ll go up in tiers, providing access to improved rewards and access to more interesting series in the various championships you take part in throughout the campaign. Another change is the ability to customise your in-game driver with a range of costumes, from standard racing suits to a stylish little polo-and-jumper combo and everything in-between. It provides more of a personal experience, and also helps you to stick out a little bit in a sea of other drivers when competing online too – especially when standing on that podium! But that’s enough about the Forza Motorsport 7 campaign. It’s time to talk about what everybody wants to know: how it looks, and how it performs.
Graphics and performance
Forza Motorsport 7 is the one of the most visually breathtaking games we’ve ever come across, especially when running on the Xbox One X at 4K@60fps, although it looks just as impressive running on PC or the standard Xbox One. It’s hard to put into words just how gorgeous the game is – and not only the cars, but the environments, weather system and even the tracks themselves. You can see every little detail perfectly, and is as close to looking like ‘real life’ that we’ve ever seen. Taking to the track, we were blown away by the attention to detail. The race started rather overcast, but within minutes it turned into a torrential downpour, creating puddles on the track. It effected steering as it would in real life, and made the experience much more intense – suddenly you’re worrying about much more than getting the fastest speed. But it’s the little things that make the difference in Forza Motorsport 7, like the rain droplets on-screen (and on your car) moving depending on the G-Force of the car at any given time, and the individual bits of gravel on the track. The more you look, the more you see, and we can’t get enough of it. Each track has a unique characteristic, from mundane dips in the track to mini sand-storms and sand being swept across the road as you drive by in Dubai tracks. And, in true Forza fashion, the sand particles will react as you drive through/past them.
And we haven’t even mentioned how stunning the cars look. As with the environments, the attention to detail is impressive. Along with looking exactly like they do in real life, the developers spent time analysing individual parts of each of the 700+ cars available in Forza Motorsport 7. Why? If any part of your car would rattle or shake when driving in real life, you bet it’ll happen in-game too. It adds to the immersion of the game, and it’s actually a shame that it’s not VR-ready as we imagine the attention to detail would provide one of the most immersive VR racing games available. There’s also a photo mode, allowing you to change the camera angle, focus and even add visual effects to get the perfect shot.
Control and handling
Forza Motorsport 7 may look like a game for pro racing gamers, but the wide range of assists available means that even those that haven’t played a racing game before can have a decent chance at winning races. The handling is superb; the cars react exactly how you want them to, even when using a controller rather than a steering wheel, a challenge for some racing game developers. Even with most assists turned off and the AI turned up full, it’s an enjoyable (if not tough) driving experience rather than a frustrating and punishing one, even on tracks we’ve disliked when driven on in other games. It’s the perfect blend of racing sim and game, perfect for all kinds of gamers. And while it isn’t a new feature in Forza Motorsport 7, we love the rewind functionality offered in the game. While fans of racing sims may not like the feature, it gives those of us who aren’t pro drivers a chance to retake corners or fix any mistake we make during the race. There’s nothing more frustrating than holding pole position for most of the race, just to take a corner a little fast and spin out. With the rewind functionality, you get a second chance at taking the corner, and it helps you learn to take corners better. Practice makes perfect, after all.
It’s when all this comes together that you get the full Forza Motorsport 7 package. Stunning environments, realistic weather systems, gorgeous and incredibly accurate car models and a thoroughly enjoyable racing experience. It’s hands-down one of our favourite racing games to date, and we cannot wait to get back behind the wheel once again.
Multiplayer
As with previous games in the Forza series, Forza 7 is set to offer a multiplayer mode with a range of racing modes available. You’ll be able to use the cars that you’ve unlocked/bought in the campaign, or rent a selection of cars for a price. While it should provide long-term entertainment for Forza 7 players, the servers are yet to be turned on so we’ve not been able to play it ourselves. We’ll update our review in the coming days with our opinion of the multiplayer capabilities, so make sure you head back soon. Lewis Painter is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor. Our resident Apple expert, Lewis covers everything from iPhone to AirPods, plus a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming hardware. You’ll also find him on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel.
