Hoon Corner - A Subjective Report from World of Racing Games

Phew, that was hard work! I swear, I haven't had such a busy two weeks in a long time. Contrary to what you might think, it's not related to this trade show called "the not-E3." Yes, without this event, I wouldn't be able to forward this hot news about Forza Motorsport and The Crew Motorfest. But still, I would have two major launches left to discuss, one more announcement (also coming this year!) and there’s also NFS Unbound finally waking up from its lethargyslumber. So let's not waste more time. 3,2,1 GO!

Forza Motorsport books a term date for in October

In fact, I don't have much to add about Forza Motorsport besides what I wrote in separate messages articles over the past few days:

1. You need to pay an extra $20 for Forza Motorsport to play 5 days earlier and get 38 additional cars
2. Forza Motorsport finally on real gameplay footage
3. Forza Motorsport without Internet connection won't even allow you to start a career; players are upset

You'll find gameplay below. I'm sure you already know the launch date, but here it is: October 10th. So, all I need to do now is share my opinion on everything that has been said and shown over the past week.

Let's be frank - – I will definitely be playing Forza Motorsport. But at the moment, I am not impressed with what I've seen. Currently, the production doesn't seem to be a break point or a completely new opening for the series, which would compensate for such a long time of waiting for it.

In large part, it's the fault of too "casual" gameplay. We have heard about the revolution in driving and weather simulation, in artificial intelligence, and in visual effects, but Turn 10 did not let us take a good look at any of these elements.

It's hard to get a feel for of realism during the race with full auto - -assist and low difficulty settings turned on. Racing at for about half a lap. Changes in atmospheric weather conditions, on the other hand, were triggered artificially triggered and presented for a few seconds. And then YouTube's compression has harmed the visual aspects quality of the gamefootage.

Moreover, a few irritating details caught my eye. Among which tThe most noticeable are was the too close and static cockpit camera that seemed too close and static, as well as the steering wheel still limited to 180 degrees of rotation. Such a simplification in a game that claims to be a racing simulation isn’t nice.

Nevertheless, I saw a few things that pleased me. I like the post-launch career plan for the game, I like the Forza Motorsport 3 and 4 -inspired structure, and I like the pre-race car showcase known from Gran Turismo 7. The option of track practice and separate scoring for each turn could also be a great feature.

Besides, I'm intrigued by this RPG-like "car upgrading" system. Being rewarded with access to more and more powerful improvements parts for a particular cars, as we collect experience points? Sounds good. Let's just hope the number of parts for specific cars will be fairly large. We don't want repetitiveness to ruin the game.

However, this doesn't change the fact, that there are too many question marks about the new Forza. We can only wait for more gameplay content, with the hope that Turn 10 studios will not hesitate to share it. Let's pray that this time it won't create new concerns, but only clear up the previous ones.

I also recommend you the alternative impressions from the Forza Motorsport show, written by DM:

1. Forza Motorsport Hands-off Impressions. Catching Up With Competition, But Can't Take the Lead

September is the month of The Crew Motorfest

A month's break, uffphew. This much time should be enough to enjoy The Crew Motorfest, starting on September 14, and then move on to Forza. Based on the materials from Ubisoft Forward, we can assume that The Crew Motorfest will be a pretty good game. I have other sources to confirm these words, but unfortunately, I must remain silent.

New trailers and gameplay (below) confirm what seemed obvious from the moment when game was announced - – Ivory Tower wants to chase Forza Horizon, maybe even start stepping on its heels. This is visible in the presented promo video materials - – most of the time, only cars are seen here. The presence of motorcycles, airplanes, and boats has been reduced to a minimum.

Inspiration from Forza's Playlists can also be seen here. The game features a series of thematic challenges dedicated to specific brands, countries and eras. And of course - – an option to reverse time. Ivory Tower even gives a pokes in at Forza's face by offering meet-up areas, where players can show their cars off to each other.

There i’s also another detail that takes on special meaning in the context of the just described Forza Motorsport. It seems that The Crew Motorfest has taken care to include a 900-degree (by eyeroughly) steering wheel rotation angle in the cars. Now, Turn 10 studio should canbe really be ashamed...

Only the driving model doesn't seem to be much different from what we saw in The Crew 2 - – it's still an arcade. Fortunately, beta participant reports suggest that driving cars in Motorfest is indeed a much greater challenge and also more fun than in the "second" game. And I have reasons to believe them.

So, should we expect the arrival of a worthy rival to Forza Horizon? It's still too early to predict - – but the new installment of The Crew promises to be at least an interesting alternative which will motivate Playground Games to make more of an effort. And that's what I wish for all of us.

F1 23 is a pleasant surprise.

I won't deny that, at first I made a little bit of fun of F1 23, but in the end, after spending many hours with it - – I'm surprisingly satisfied. The implemented story mode keeps a pretty good solid level and can be really engaging. F1 World is an enjoyable, but albeit a bit silly enrichment, and the visual aspects, although the engine is old - – looks better and more natural compared to F1 22.

But the real Ppole position in F1 23 is occupied taken by the improved driving model. The Ddeveloper has improved the behavior of the racing cars and the performance of the force feedback function. Improvements in these two aspects have made the vehicles much more predictable and stable. Driving without assistances is still a challenge, but cars are not losing grip so violently when we overdo it at high speed – this makes driving much, much more enjoyable than last year.

Supercars have particularly benefited from the changes in physics. Of course, they are still just additions to Formula 1 and Formula 2, and the number of cars has not changed in comparison to F1 22. But that doesn't change the fact that there's a lot of fun of driving them. With such a good driving model, Codemasters could easily make a competitor for Gran Turismo 7 or Forza Motorsport. If only they would like to...

My positive feelings correspond with the opinions of the press and players. The average rating of F1 23 on OpenCritic is 84% (based on 25 reviews). Also, the first impressions of Steam users are very good - – at the moment, the game has 89% positive reviews (out of 616). However, the situation may still dynamically change, since the launch took place yesterday.

Forza Horizon 5 welcomes celebrities again

Recently, because of the upcoming Forza Motorsport launch, her its younger sistersibling, Forza Horizon 5 has fallen into the shadowsa bit of neglect. She It was only given a brief segment during the recent Forza Monthly broadcast, in which the upcoming Series 22 was teased, with a full presentation announced for Monday.

As expected, for the next four weeks, the Horizon Festival will once again host the Donut Media team. This time, however, in contrast to the rather weak Series 14 from November, the attractions related to the YouTube stars seem to be much better thought out.

The main attractionstay of Series 22, called "Upgrade Heroes,", will be a new story (Horizon Story), which is an adaptation of one of Donut Media's more popular programs – HiLow. The hosts buy two copies of the selected model and modify them "fancy"with high-end (Hi) or "on the cheap" (Low)and low-end parts. That i’s why the story in the game will be branched, allowing letting us to support one philosophy or the other.

On the stream, they also presented one of the cars added to FH5 in the update - – 2023 Formula Drift #64 Forsberg Racing Nissan Z. The second new car was revealed on Twitter; it's Formula Drift #51 Nissan 240SX of our compatriot, Adam Knapik. It i’s noteworthy that a user of the Forza series forum spotted a possible third and fourth car. Most likely, it will be Pagani Huayra R and a Lotus Emira (interestingly, Emira has just been confirmed for Forza Motorsport).

Finally, I remind you that in FH5, the exploratory Series 21 is coming to an end, and the reward on the Festival Playlist this week is the 2022 GMC Hummer EV – a new, electric, disgustingly heavy (4 tons) and powerful (about. 1000 KMHP) incarnation of the famous American off-road vehicle, whose legend was born during its service in the US Army.

NFS Unbound comes to life with a "battle" streakpass.

The waiting is over - – after more than six months since the premiere, Need for Speed Unbound will receive the second major update: Volume 3. It will be released on June 20th.

Criterion Games studio has finally found a way to make Unbound a so-called game-as-a-service. The company hasn't looked far - – it reached for solutions that were already tested in the "genre" and implemented batt... sorry, Speed Pass Speed Pass.

75 rewarded ranks are waiting to be achieved in the form of cosmetic items and one car - – a specially modified Dodge SRT Viper (2014) - – for completing various challenges. If someone doesn't feel like spending so much time playing, they can simply buy the new DLC and get a tuned 2015 Mustang GT plus boost 10 levels up.

But, there's one completely new car - – the iconic DMC DeLorean - – as well as various additional challenges for both single-player mode and Lakeshore Online. Also, we got some gameplay improvements (e.g. an option to change the time of day in multiplayer and fast travel to hideouts and meeting placesspots). And of course, there’s a few more DLCs with modified cars. All the changes are listed here.

Having in mind that the first Speed Pass is to be available by August 16th, we can expect that the next update for NFS Unbound will not be released earlier than in two months. Not too soon, but it would be some progress after waiting three months for Vol. 3.

AMS2 almost made it for the Spanish GP.

As usual, the new features added to Automobilist 2 seem to please more than anything that has happened in any other game. The Ggame has been updated to version 1.4.8.1, introducing three main, fresh features:

1. All players received got a new vehicle – Formula Junior, which is a "generic" representative of the previously unavailable historical racing car category, reflecting the machines from the early 60s., which have approximately 100 mechanical horsepower and and weigh about 4900 kilospounds
2. The DLC with the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya track debuted. Known for hosting the annual Spanish Grand Prix (Reiza studio almost managed to release the add-on in time for the that race). The package costs $6.99 on Steam and currently includes two modern versions of the object: with a decelerator at the end of the thread or without it.
3. oOwners of DLC Racin' USA Pt3 received the promised vehicle - – Formula USA 2023, which is an unlicensed car compatible with the latest IndyCar racing regulations (Reiza studio was unable to obtain a license from Motorsport Games).

Additionally, the update marks another milestone in improving the game's physics. The Ddeveloper decided to focus on tire, suspension, and aerodynamics simulation, which will affect the controls and will cause a better sense of the cars "connecting" to the road.

So far, only some cars have been updated (mainly various types kinds of formulas). The rest will be modified along with the 1.5 update, which we can expect in the first half of July (yes, Reiza Studios is late again – but we forgive these developers, patience with them always pays off).

Small but crazy - – Formula Junior is a lot of fun in a tiny package. Source: Reiza Studios.

F1 Manager 2023 with an upcoming release date

F1 Manager 2023 is another game that benefits from a shortened promotional campaign. Right now, I can add the release date, gameplay trailer (below), and other specifics to it.

The game will be released on July 31st on PC, PS5, XSX/S, PS5 and XOne - – just eleven months after the release of the 2022 edition. People who order the Deluxe edition will play four days earlier. On Steam, the price of the basic base edition is $54.99 - – $10 more than the previous installment. The system requirements are the same (at least for now).

Rennsport in a closed beta

The long-awaited beta tests for Rennsport started commenced on June 6th, practically overnight after the announcement of the date during the Rennsport Summit 2023 x ESL R1 Spring Major in Munich. The launch was accompanied by the publication of the first real game trailer (below).

Invitations to participate in the closed beta were sent out partly on a first-come, first-served basis, partly in the order of registration, and partly randomly. You can still apply - you can do it here.

At the moment, the content of the game is not very rich (nor original, as many bored with Assetto Corsa Competizione pointed out):

1. five cars: Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II, BMW M4 GT3, Mercedes-AMG GT3 2020, Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), Praga R1;
2. four tracks: Hockenheimring, Monza, Nurburgring (Grand-Prix-Strecke), Spa-Francorchamps.

Unfortunately, the Porsche Mission R and the Goodwood hillclimb route, which the creators boasted about last year, are missing - – at least for now.

The full version's launch is scheduled (tentatively) for December 2023. Rennsport is currently being developed only for PC only.

Le Mans Ultimate announced

The Motorsport Games company has finally given us a reason to believe that they a’re actually creating making games, and not just desperately trying to make ends meet. The company has announced Le Mans Ultimate. A simulator based on the license of the world's most famous endurance race. We have heard about the game for a long time.

The project is developed by Studio 397 - – the same studio that has been developing the well-known and respected rFactor 2 for years. And this is an argument that allows us to believe that the project will actually be successful... even if the launch is scheduled slated for December 2023 (at the moment only for PC), and the developer currently has only two cars and one track ready for testing, which were included in the demo version provided to participants of the recent 24-hour Le Mans race.

The game is expected to include a wide range of cars. Not only Hhypercar -class vehicles, but also LMP2 and GTE -class machines. Similarly with the tracks, apart from Circuit de la Sarthe, we will race on Monza, Bahrain, Sebring, Portimao, or Fuji.

The development of the mentioned content will be simplified by the fact that a large part of it is available in rFactor 2. Let's just hope they properly improve graphics for Le Mans Ultimate, because the visuals in the older game look really ugly in some places (especially the tracks). The developer also needs to create a career mode and assist system that will allow people without steering wheels to enjoy the game.

And another interesting fact - – Studio 397 plans to develop LMU for a longer period of time. Against prevailing trends, the title won't be the start of a new series that will allow the developers to make money year after year. However, let's remember that plans can change dynamically...

1. Le Mans Ultimate on Steam

iRacing challenges Forza Motorsport.

The glory days of Forza Motorsport didn't last long. It's time for the third season of iRacing. This Ccontent-rich update features the Cadillac V-Series R, the same one that we can spot on the Forza Motorsport cover. And here's a list of new features:

1. three vehicles: Cadillac V-Series.R GTP, Ligier JS P320 and the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992);
2. two racetracks: MotorLand Aragon in Spain, Willow Springs in the USA;
3. new version of the Chicago Street Course racetrack (Grant Park 220);
4. major improvements to gravel racing, mainly in terms of surface simulation and tires performance;
5. new three-dimensional vegetation generation system (currently used in Willow Springs, in the future, it will be applied in other locations);
6. option to share races with AI for more vehicles and a multitude of route variants

For more details, click here. Of course, you have to pay for all the new vehicles and tracks Below, you will see a demonstration of the Cadillac V-Series.R -Check out the iRacing channel on YouTube if you are interested in presentations of the rest of the novelties.

MotoGP 23 in the shadow of Formula 1

The release of these two games within just eight days of each other had to end like this - – while F1 23 seems to be on everyone's lips, MotoGP 23 is basically dying.

After over a week since the premiere, there are only ten reviews of Milestone studio's work game on OpenCritic. But at least they are quite positive, with an average rating of 77%. Critics generally praise the depth of the career mode and the attempts to make the game more accessible for to beginners (with varying success), but they also agree that it's difficult to persuade someone who did play the previous installment to purchase this one.

Players' opinions on Steam show a greater focus on significant changes in the driving simulation (usually appreciated), but also on annoying technical shortcomings and the artificial intelligence, which still bends the laws of physics, acts thoughtlessly, and can generally be frustrating. That's why the game currently has only 67% of positive reviews (out of 176) on that platform.

Motorcycle Courier (Turn 10, Assassin's Creed)

1. It turns out that Forza Motorsport is not the only project that Turn 10 is currently involved in. It also helps another studio, Hutch, create an unannounced mobile game focused on modding and tuning cars. Fortunately, this assistance mainly comes down to guidance in the creative process, so their involvement shouldn't distract the developer too much from creating their flagship product.
2. Milestone Studio dispelled doubts about the presence of racing bikes in RIDE 5. On the occasion of the 24-hour Le Mans, they published a post encouraging us to try endurance racing in the game and presenting another new track – Circuit de la Sarthe in the Bugatti Circuit variant – in a short gameplay. The release of the game will take place on August 24.
3. Trackmania has had many interesting thematic events, but I haven't seen anything as crazy as this yet. Ubisoft announced a crossover of this game with... Assassin's Creed: Mirage, in which we will get five tracks in Baghdad and a car with special livery. It launches on June 19th. Check out the trailer for the event below – there's even a leap of faith!
4. It seems that THQ Nordic intends to continue their offensive in off-road racers. eXputer reports that the publisher has commissioned Rainbow Studios (developers of, among others, MX vs ATV: Legends) to develop a sequel to the game Baja: Edge of Control, which was released in 2008 and received a remaster in 2017. The project is reportedly at an early stage of production and has a release date pre-set for 2025.
5. In the last two weeks, there has been another unusual "motolaunch" Aerosoft, a company specializing in various simulators, has released the game CityDriver, in which we are to feel like a real, down-to-earth driver, improving and handling various daily hustles while driving around Munich. On paper, the concept looks intriguing, but the execution turned out poorly – only 43% of reviews are positive on Steam. Players scolded the game for a series of shortcomings (with optimization at the forefront) as well as the voracity of the creators.
6. Circuit Superstars for the Nintendo Switch finally got a release date . – Launch date is set on June 21st.