Forza Motorsport 1 review: A true Gran Turismo 4 rival?

With a new Forza Motorsport around the corner, I played the original Xbox version to see where it all began – and whether driving games have progressed as much as we think.

With many gamers coming from Sony’s legendary PlayStation 1 and 2, the Xbox needed a good driving game and that’s where Forza Motorsport stepped in. At the time racing simulators were cool, Gran Turismo was king and its first two games were, for me anyway, the most special.

It was fortunate, then, that Microsoft’s first games console had loads of racers over its lifetime. Not only was the brilliant RalliSport Challenge a launch title, there was also Sega GT 2002 that in some instances shared a disc with the also brilliant Jet Set Radio Future.

Then there was OutRun 2006: Coast to Coast, probably the best version of it, plus Burnout Revenge, Juiced, Midnight Club, Need for Speed, Colin McRae, Richard Burns Rally, Sega GT Online, Auto Modellista, R: Racing Evolution, Ford Racing, Big Mutha Truckers, MotoGP, V-Rally, Quantum Redshift and many more.

But my absolute favourite was Project Gotham Racing, the first two games of which made for the original Xbox and the third for Xbox 360. Not only did they look good, drifting through London in a Ferrari F50 was as memorable and ridiculous as it should be.

Launched six months before the Xbox 360, it was even easier to overlook the humble beginnings of Forza Motorsport. A game that would become one of Microsoft’s most popular franchises, with a new Xbox Series X and S-friendly game said to be arriving in 2022.

Pedal to the medal

Beginning life as a thoroughbred racing simulator, the Turn 10 Studios team of 20 realised that accuracy and fun are rarely best of friends.

So over its two and a half years of development, which saw three delays, the handling was made more accessible. But not too much as its main aim was to combat Gran Turismo – which had become a series known for its alleged realism.

Such a big task was no easy feat. And so the developers dangled a tantalising 230-odd digital cars from 60 manufacturers when Forza Motorsport launched in May 2005.

Not as many cars as rival Gran Turismo 4, but then the Polyphony Digital, formerly Polys Entertainment, and its iconic racing game series had multiple variants of the same cars. It was not such a bad look for Forza Motorsport – which seemingly focused on quality, not quantity.

It helped that Ferrari and Porsche featured unlike in its rival. But, sadly, not Lamborghini while BMW’s inclusion was limited to racing cars. So no hooning around in the mighty Z3M breadvan.

Car customisation was also more prominent. Whereas in GT4 you could not change engines or body panels except the rear spoiler and alloy wheels, Forza Motorsport had side-skirts, bonnets, window tinting, decals and even the ability to paint different areas. Music to the ears of anyone groomed on Need for Speed and the Fast & Furious movies.

All that was really missing was rally, which Gran Turismo 4 had and it was awesome. Still, Forza’s mixture of circuits, A to B and autocross cone shenanigans was compelling and ensured a lengthy career mode, especially if you cranked up the difficulty.

In terms of circuits, the Xbox racer had 31 including the tricky Laguna Seca and legendary corkscrew, Road America, Road Atlanta and my home country’s Silverstone. But obviously not Trial Mountain.

Plus you got the rather fun dockyard, which was more akin to Project Gotham Racing, plus uphill and downhill climbs in Japan. Oh and the Nürburgring. Or ‘Green Hell’, as Sir Jackie Stewart called it. Not so many circuits you struggled to memorise layouts, but not so few you got bored fast.

What really helped Forza Motorsport stand out though, in addition to car damage better than later games, was the suggested line. This was a coloured indicator on screen that shows you when to turn and when to brake, updating in real time based on your speed.

Yes, the racing game equivalent of training wheels had arrived as well as a difficulty system still used in current Forza games. But not the rewind function, autosteer and autobrake features, as these arrived in Forza Motorsport 3.

Basically the more simulator-esque you made the game, the more credits you earned and the faster you levelled up. This could be done by removing the suggested line, upping the AI difficulty, disabling traction control and manually changing gears to name some options. Fans of realism were rewarded by up to a 100 per cent bonus in credits.

I use the word ‘realism’ deliberately because Forza Motorsport was underpinned by a physics engine that, honestly, still feels relevant. Despite the move away from complete simulator nirvana, each car had different characteristics and tuning potential and both were reflected in the handling.

A 583-kilogram 1956 Porsche 550 A Spyder, for instance, liked to take off when fully upgraded, such was the amount of power under the bonnet and lack of aerodynamic trickery. To tame it meant delving into the tuning menu to adjust the toe-in and toe-out, camber, differential and so on.

If you’ve played Forza Motorsport 6, 7 or even the less realistic Forza Horizon games, you will instantly recognise the tuning options. I’m amazed how cutting edge the original game was, but more on that later.

Starting out

Just like in Gran Turismo, you start out with a modest bank balance, a relatively small choice of cars and some furry dice. Okay, not the last one. Races were split into different categories, with entry restricted by car model, type, its Power Index rating (based on horsepower), whether it’s stock or not and your player level.

There’s an arcade mode to blitz through, with cars and circuits rewarded for winning. Career, meanwhile, included point-to-point, amateur, professional, championship series and endurance categories – the last involving pit lanes for fuel and tyre changes. Take that, Project Cars 3. Win races, earn money to spend on new cars and upgrades – rinse and repeat.

Within each category were races of various kinds, including a focus on mid-range and front-wheel drive layouts. Heated rivalries such as Eclipse vs Integra, Viper vs Corvette and Impreza vs Lancer also featured.

Some races were not just locked to certain vehicles, but also your player level as previously mentioned. So there was a reason to return to previous categories if you wanted that 100 per cent completion glory.

Usefully, Forza Motorsport told you what cars you would be up against and also what cars you had in your garage eligible for each race, meaning less backing in and out of menus.

Already you can see Forza Motorsport was heavily inspired by Gran Turismo, but it did avoid its rival’s licence challenge and there were many other features that set it apart.

The Drivatar glory days

Arguably the most interesting was Drivatar. An AI system that drove for you, with its ability governed by your performance in the prerequisite Drivatar challenge mode and subsequent free training.

Once up to speed, your Xbox could race for you like in the Gran Turismo B-Spec feature. This was particularly useful for lengthy endurance races. But it had a downside. The fact it rated you with a per cent for each corner could be a painful experience. Even for those who knew the difference between lift-off oversteer and trail-braking.

What was odd is that Forza Motorsport 2 did away with the player-trained Drivatar system. You just got to hire different racers and the AI opponents learned from how you drove, which was still clever but less involving.

A wasted opportunity? Perhaps, as Turn 10 went to the trouble of asking Microsoft computer scientists to develop a machine learning system that monitored and replicated your driving style – to reasonable success. The research was actually part of a project to see if a computer could analyse F1 drivers and know who was at the wheel.

Although no Forza game has used Drivatar in the same way since, the technology matured on Xbox One, as it could then assimilate driving data from millions of online players. It’s no coincidence that an option was added in Forza Motorsport 6 to make the AI opponents less aggressive. It wasn’t the AI’s fault – it had learned from watching us drive like dickh****.

To succeed in Turn 10’s first game, it wasn’t just your ability to maintain speed, nudge apexes and be consistent, you needed to buy a competitive car and drive like a good sportsman – especially if up against the ‘hard’ AI difficulty level.

This is because AI drivers adapted to your style. Punt them into a barrier on turn one and, well, let’s just say you did not want them behind you at the next corner. Revenge was swift and brutal.

On the flip-side, if you raced cleanly and respected the rules like you in iRacing on PC the AI pushed hard but in a way that was less detrimental to your rear bumper. And neck. Although it still erred on the side of aggressive.

Compared with Gran Turismo 4’s boring and predictable opponents, of which there were two fewer, Forza Motorsport made them feel human and infallible. It was not uncommon to look in your rear-view mirror and see them smack into a barrier.

In a time of rubber-banding, *cough* Forza Horizon 4, when the practice of AI that defies physics to keep up is common, Forza Motorsport was and still is a breath of fresh air. With that said, there were times when getting away, such as through S-bends, was too easy.

Most races also usually had one particularly effective car such as the ridiculously fast TVR Speed 12 and Chrysler ME Four-Twelve. And similarly one racer was seemingly unaware of what the accelerator pedal did, leading to sizable gaps between cars.

The handling

For such an early racing game on the original Xbox and despite turning the volume down on realism, Forza Motorsport was surprisingly accurate. With a steering wheel, available at the time, you got a hearty taste of what you get in racing games now.

It was possible to draft behind other cars to benefit from the aerodynamic slipstream, fit grippier tyres for higher cornering speeds, decelerate faster with bigger brakes and exit corners more efficiently when limiting wheelspin.

Oversteer was never difficult to handle, partly thanks to the controller rumbling as traction was lost, but it saved time if avoided. Cars also felt hefty enough to punish those who braked too late. Smooth meant fast and that is exactly how it is in real racing.

I also like that you received a time penalty for going off track. A nice but not too nice system to discourage those laughably effective shortcuts seen in Gran Turismo 4.

Some critics noticed there was an arcadey overtone to Forza Motorsport. Yet realistic stuff such as locking the brakes, trail braking, weight transfer, the impact of kerbs depending on ride height and going on two wheels if you set the suspension settings too stiff were all present.

Credit is also due to Turn 10 for Forza Motorsport’s damage system. Smacking into walls would see body work fall off, steering pull to one side, engines perform far less effectively and, amazingly, car paint was left on the barrier you just scraped along. How often do you see that?

At the time, Gran Turismo 4 fans boasted of greater realism. Having played both back-to-back, I would say it’s close. Handling in Sony’s racer feels intuitive but cars are lighter, which isn’t necessarily accurate.

You also have less grip than you expect – and as someone who has driven on track with normal, semi-slick and slick tyres I find that strange. Looking at footage of both and based on my own track experience, I would be inclined to go with Forza.

What is clean cut, however, is that driving in the first Forza Motorsport was more exciting. Races were less predictable. Carnage was inevitable sometimes. This was a far cry from Gran Turismo, in which you felt like you were interrupting a heavily scripted procession.

The lost features

A downside to playing the first Forza now, except for my glacial reaction times and failing eyes, is that some of Forza Motorsport’s best features are gone. The death of Xbox Live for the original Xbox console, officially anyway, means you miss out on worldwide multiplayer.

And that’s a big shame because online racing was, in hindsight, a big feather in the Forza cap. Despite this feature being talked about before launch, Gran Turismo 4 missed out although it did get a Photo Mode instead. Arguably a superior option to Forza’s replay theatre.

It’s kind of sad really that the demise of Xbox Live for the original Xbox means you’ll never get to experience the fun of those drift lobbies. Where a race was set to 50 laps so everyone could enjoy going very, very sideways. Tokyo Drift, style. Minus the neons.

Still, system link is a thing so you could, in theory, get together with another seven original Xbox consoles and ham it out. Or make use of the two-player split-screen.

Visually arrested

As for good-old polygon handling, the PS2 was the less powerful console but developers had got good at eking out performance. Gran Turismo 4 looked detailed and distinctive – better in many ways than Forza Motorsport despite lower specs.

The fact Forza came so late in the Xbox life-cycle yet could only output at 480p did not help, neither did the 30 frames per second frame-rate. A number of games at the time were 720p, while a handful were 1080i such as the Matrix game.

But then many people will have played using the old Xbox’s standard AV cable, which gave a blurrier image compared with the lovely component alternative I am using for this video.

FYI: My soft-modded Xbox and its 2TB hard drive is connected to my monitor via an Elgato Game Capture HD and HDMI cable, with an Xbox 360 component cable adapted for the original Xbox.

I was concerned Forza Motorsport would be painful viewing on a 1080p or 4K display, but you stop noticing quite fast. Sunlight bouncing off metallic paint, respectable scenery whizzing by – it’s not bad although looking on a high-res screen and with YouTube upload compression maybe you will beg to differ. In fairness, Times Square looked better here than in Gran Turismo 4.

With that said, the driver was a bit low-effort and wooden, as if the Top Gear Stig’s low polygon cousin. You also got the odd frame-rate drop and I wouldn’t sit too close to the screen if you’ve just been playing Forza Motorsport 7 or Forza Horizon 4.

There were also some oddities such as the fact the Bentley #8 car had a number 6 and that two of the BMW offerings were identical except for the number. #42 or #43. And one of them was a McLaren F1 GTR powered by BMW.

As for sound, some engines were really good. As good as some games now, which is depressing. Some, however, were laughably synthetic. Kudos to the developer though for having different engine notes for each exhaust, at least for the cars I tested.

Meanwhile both Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo 4 had memorable soundtracks, with Grammie-nominated Dutch composer Tom Holkenberg, AKA Junkie XL, in charge of the Forza tunes.

But if his tuneage wasn’t your cup of tea, the original Xbox let your enjoy your own songs within the game’s menu. It’s been nostalgic racing to the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, Basement Jaxx and At the Drive In – albums ripped to my Xbox many moons ago. What do you mean you don’t like Justin Timberlake?

Another positive of Forza Motorsport was that it could be enjoyed on the Xbox 360 via backwards compatibility. But sadly not the Xbox One or Xbox Series X or S, for now anyway. Maybe if those licensing hurdles can be surmounted.

End of the road

So what have I learned from going back to the original Forza Motorsport? That racing games have progressed in many ways, particularly visually and in terms of the accessories like steering wheels, racing seats and sequential shifters.

I mean, 4K Forza Horizon 4 looks fantastic with my ASUS RTX 3080 pushing the polygons. And Dirt Rally 2.0 or WRC 9 with a proper sim racing rig are epic.

But progress in other areas is not as significant as the marketing would have you believe. I’m amazed how many features seen here are missing or have been removed from follow-ups and competitors alike. I mean, how long did we have to wait to see Forza night racing again? Years.

It’s no coincidence that Forza Motorsport’s quality and vision has stood the test of time. It was and still is one hell of a racing game. Taking on Gran Turismo was a mammoth task and doomed to fail. Yet the finished product was more sophisticated.

How many developers thought it would be a good idea to hire someone who worked on Pokémon to add a ‘gotta-collect-‘em-all’ element to a racing game? That’s dedication. Turn 10 meant business – I just hope it’s as thirsty to succeed with the new Forza Motorsport. Because right now racing games could do with some innovation.

Truth be told, there’s a certain feel to these old racing games that nothing has really replicated since – and that’s bearing in mind I never played this Forza at launch so nostalgia is less of a factor.

Despite all those jagged edges, I’m still playing the original Forza Motorsport. Unlocking every car and trying to perfect my Drivatar. If a game can still entertain more than 15 years later, it must’ve done something very right.

And that’s it for my first A Tribe Called Cars retro racer review. If you liked it, show me some love by liking, subscribing and sharing. There are many games I would love to share with you so stay tuned. Feel free to be all nostalgic in the comments and tell me what games I should be looking at.