''Forza Motorsport 5'' is a 2013
racing video game
Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...
developed by
Turn 10 Studios
Turn 10 Studios is an American video game developer based in Redmond, Washington. The company was established in 2001 under Microsoft Game Studios (now known as Xbox Game Studios) to develop the ''Forza Motorsport'' series for Xbox platform ...
and published by
Microsoft Studios
Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...
for the
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 base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
. The game was released on November 22, 2013 as a
launch title
This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players.
0–9
A
...
. The game was revealed on May 21, 2013 during the Xbox One reveal event.
Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' an ...
, who was featured in the previous installment,
Forza Motorsport 4
''Forza Motorsport 4'' is a 2011 racing video game developed by Turn 10 Studios and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360. It is the fourth installment in the ''Forza'' series. It is the first title in the series to support the Kinect ...
, returned to narrate alongside
James May
James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter of the motoring programme '' Top Gear'' alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from 2003 until 2015. He also ...
, and
Richard Hammond who co-presented alongside Jeremy in ''
Top Gear
Top Gear may refer to:
* "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission
Television
* ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme
* ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...
''. The narration was used for the game's commentary when choosing a new event, championship, or league. It is the fifth ''Forza Motorsport'' and sixth overall installment in the
''Forza'' series.
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
''Forza Motorsport 4'' is a 2011 racing video game developed by Turn 10 Studios and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360. It is the fourth installment in the ''Forza'' series. It is the first title in the series to support the Kinect ...
''.
Gameplay
''Forza Motorsport 5'' is a
simulation
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...
racing video game
Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...
. 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
Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...
and
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM, German Touring Car Masters) is a grand touring car series sanctioned by ITR e.V. who have been affiliated to the DMSB-FIA since 1984. The series is based in Germany, with rounds elsewhere in Europe. The ser ...
as well as other
sports car racing
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...
series. To help players acclimate to the simulation style of racing, assists such as an ideal racing line,
anti-lock brakes
An anti-lock braking system (ABS) is a automobile safety, safety anti-Skid (automobile), skid Brake, braking system used on aircraft and on land motor vehicle, vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses. ABS operates by preventing t ...
and
traction control
A traction control system (TCS), also known as ASR (from german: Antriebsschlupfregelung, lit=drive slippage regulation), is typically (but not necessarily) a secondary function of the electronic stability control (ESC) on production motor vehicle ...
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
Split screen may refer to:
* Split screen (computing), dividing graphics into adjacent parts
* Split screen (video production), the visible division of the screen
* Split Screen (TV series), ''Split Screen'' (TV series), 1997–2001
* Split-Scree ...
multiplayer and online play through
Xbox Live
The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...
.
Development
The game ships with 200 cars from over 50 manufacturers
and 17 circuits including
Spa
A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...
,
Bathurst,
Yas Marina, and
Circuit de la Sarthe
The Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, also known as Circuit de la Sarthe (after the 1906 French Grand Prix triangle circuit) located in Le Mans, Sarthe, France, is a semi-permanent motorsport race course, chiefly known as the venue for the 24 Hou ...
. There are monthly car packs, including 10 cars each available to buy as
downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...
(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 Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...
, 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
Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...
in February 2014,
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
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 Towcester, Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 ...
and the fictional ''Bernese Alps'' racetrack, based on the
Swiss Alps
The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps (german: Schweizer Alpen, french: Alpes suisses, it, Alpi svizzere, rm, Alps svizras), represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss ...
, 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
Skywalker Sound is the sound effects, sound editing, sound design, sound mixing and music recording division of Lucasfilm. Founded in 1975, the company's main facilities are located at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in Lucas Valley, near Nicasio, ...
to create an action movie
soundscape
A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised 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 Theater ...
, 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
Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari (Parma), Italy he created "D ...
DW12
IndyCar
INDYCAR, LLC, is an American-based auto racing sanctioning body for Indy car racing and other disciplines of open wheel car racing. The organization sanctions five racing series: the premier IndyCar Series with its centerpiece the Indianapolis ...
and
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
cars, including the
McLaren M23
The McLaren M23 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Coppuck, with input from John Barnard, and built by the McLaren team. It was a development of the McLaren M16 Indianapolis 500 car. A Ford Cosworth DFV engine was used, which was pr ...
driven by
James Hunt
James Simon Wallis Hunt (29 August 1947 – 15 June 1993) ''Autocourse Grand Prix Archive'', 14 October 2007. Retrieved 4 November 2007. was a British racing driver who won the Formula One World Championship in . After retiring from racing in ...
and the
Ferrari 312T2
The Ferrari 312T was a Ferrari Formula One car design, based on the 312B3 from 1974. In various versions, it was used from 1975 until 1980. It was designed by Mauro Forghieri for the 1975 season, and was an uncomplicated and clean design that ...
driven by
Niki Lauda
Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda (22 February 1949 – 20 May 2019) was an Austrian Formula One driver and aviation entrepreneur. He was a three-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion, winning in , and , and is the only driver in Formula ...
in the
1976 Formula One season. The
Lotus E21 driven by
Kimi Räikkönen
Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "The Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One Wo ...
and
Romain Grosjean
Romain David Jeremie Grosjean (; born 17 April 1986) is a Swiss-French professional racing driver, competing under the French flag in the NTT IndyCar Series, driving the No. 28 Honda for Andretti Autosport. Grosjean had previously spent nine ...
in the
2013 Formula One Season was also revealed on November 5.
''Forza Motorsport 5'', the fifth installment in the ''Motorsport'' series and the sixth in the ''Forza'' series, was released as an
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 base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
launch title on November 22, 2013. The game expanded on the ''Top Gear'' partnership by having
Richard Hammond and
James May
James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter of the motoring programme '' Top Gear'' alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from 2003 until 2015. He also ...
provide commentary alongside Clarkson. The Autovista mode was renamed Forzavista, and new to the series are
open-wheel car
An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...
s and integrated cloud computing, which collects and uses driving data from connected players to shape Drivatar behavior and through which user-generated paint jobs can be downloaded. Responding to inquiries about the amount of content featured in the game, Turn 10 Studios' Dan Greenawalt explained that the company emphasized quality after determining that the cars and tracks it had designed needed improvement in advance of the next generation of consoles. The result was a decrease to 203 cars (excluding three from the Limited Edition Day One Version) and 14 tracks and the two inventories being redesigned, some entirely, using laser-scanning technology. The 2013
McLaren P1
The McLaren P1 is a limited-production mid-engine plug-in hybrid sports car produced by British automobile manufacturer McLaren Automotive. Debuted at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, sales of the P1 began in the United Kingdom in October 2013 and all ...
is the cover vehicle.
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
''Forza Motorsport 3'' is a 2009 racing video game developed for Xbox 360 by Turn 10 Studios. It is the sequel to ''Forza Motorsport 2'' and the third installment in the ''Forza'' series. The game includes more than 400 customizable cars (more t ...
'', 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", orc ...
and
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
, 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
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
and
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
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'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game 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 distri ...
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 that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...
, 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
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
'' 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
''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
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 created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...
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 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson.
Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...
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''.
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
2013 video games
Forza
Microsoft games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Split-screen multiplayer games
Video game sequels
Video games developed in the United States
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Video games with downloadable content
Xbox One games
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Spike Video Game Award winners
D.I.C.E. Award for Racing Game of the Year winners