Two of the largest racing franchises are getting ready to release new games in their series: Forza Motorsport with Forza Horizon, and Need for Speed (NFS) with Need for Speed Most Wanted. Both franchises promise that their game is loaded to the core with famous gameplay features, as well as introducing new features. But the question is, which game stand above the other as the greatest racing game of the year?

The first of these two games to come out is Forza Horizon. The key selling point of the Forza franchise is the realism to their driving mechanic, always a staple feature in the games.

Developed by a different company, Playground Games, Forza Horizon looks to expand upon the series with some new features that have never been seen in any of the past Forza games. Horizon introduces an open world environment that lets players free roam around the map to explore or drive from race to race. The game further expands the car selection and customization; building on Forza’s vast collection of the hottest and most popular cars around, including Aston Martins, BMWs, Ferraris, and many others.

Horizon also has an online mode in which players can challenge their friends to races. “King” and “Infection” are two multiplayer modes that incorporate the open world environment. These two game modes and many other returning online matches will push the limits of the player as they compete to be the best against other human players.

Forza Horizon looks to be a promising installment to the Forza Motorsport franchise, but will the open world environment add to the Forza experience or will it hinder the design and gameplay of the series?

The week following the release of Forza Horizon, the NFS series will be coming out with Need for Speed Most Wanted. Most Wanted is a high definition comeback to the NFS Most Wanted game previously released back in 2005. With the success of the reboot of NFS Hot Pursuit by Criterion Games, the developer has been signed on once again to develop Most Wanted.

The game lives up to what the original version was like, with the addition of the Autolog from Hot Pursuit. Autolog 2 is advertised as a new means of online play in which it gives the player a more personalized and customizable means of online interaction. Autolog 2 for Most Wanted takes the online features from Hot Pursuit and expands them even further by letting players customize their broadcast feeds and recommendations for challenge and competition updates.

But the key feature advertised for Most Wanted is survival. As a staple for most NFS games, drivers must not only race against others in high speed races, but must also survive against waves of cops trying to shut down the race. But the police don’t only pursuit the driver in races, they are also on full force in the free roam mode.

Most Wanted looks to be a grand revival of its predecessor as well as a more advanced update to the new features that were added in Hot Pursuit. But will this high octane adrenaline rush be able to compete with the realism of Forza Motorsport’s newest installment? The important thing to understand is what the two franchises push for in their games. Forza focuses on the realism of racing and pushes the boundaries with the feel and look of the cars that most racing games don’t dwell too much into, while Need for Speed is all about intense arcade racing action.

Both franchises are looking to take their genres of racing to whole new levels. With Forza Horizon coming out October 23, and Need for Speed Most Wanted coming out October 30, players will choose for themselves which game will come out on top.

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A hallmark of Forza 4 is that it is easily accessible to a novice racer.  It has a menu system that would not confuse a small child, yet is still challenging to an adult. You will not need to worry about a complex series of licenses that you will need before you can begin your first race.

New players to the Forza series, or perhaps players looking to get a leg up on the competition, can look here for few helpful tips on how to make the Forza 4 experience more enjoyable. The drifting, especially in Rivals Mode on the Japanese tracks, will require patience and, as with previous iterations of Forza, lots of practice.

Depending on the settings of the game, there is already a tendency with some cars to swing out in a race, but to do this on purpose while maintaining speed takes focus and skill. This time around, the drift feature seems more accessible to new players, but does require a frustrating amount of skill, at first, to keep a totally clean lap.

TIP: Maintaining a clean drifting lap is essential. Do not bump into a wall, do not spin out, and do not even think about using the rewind feature. It will not do you any good, no matter how high your score is, because it will not count. Do not be afraid to fiddle with the settings either.

Free Play is always an easy way to get some practice without being dragged into a seven race championship in World Tour mode. The fictional track in the Bernese Alps is a special treat because of its changes in elevation, off-camber (against the natural mountain curvature) turns and wide, blind corners.

Players who have played the Forza 4 demo will surely recognize this track and take advantage of that knowledge the first time they see this in Career Mode.

TIP: The edges of the Bernese Alps track are outlined, but do not slow the car. Take advantage of this in practices and races.

Throughout the whole game, it pays to be picky. To do so, you will need a car from a specific manufacturer and use it in the races that have an Affinity Bonus. The Affinity Bonus is an advantage for those auto enthusiasts who collect every car in the game and use every upgrade possible.  Just a single hour of play will yield 100 percent of a single manufacturer’s upgraded parts for free.

TIP: Pay attention to the cars you select when you get reward vehicles. Randomly selecting whatever car looks fast may hinder your future affinity levels if you are forced to use them, due to the way the World Tour mode adapts to each car you are currently racing.

Anyone who has played the third Forza game for over a few hours will earn bonuses as well. Loyalty has its privileges since the bonuses imparted to players who import their profile get a huge credit bonus and a starter car that is not so slow you will go to sleep driving it.

Tip: The World Tour mode will adjust one or two tracks to your new car, while still giving you options to race against lower class opponents in the cars that you have already won.

Following the racing line all the way through the game may seem like the ideal way to go, and for some, it will certainly have its advantages. Beginning with the racing line will give you the ideal color-coded speed you should be doing through each corner, and it tells you where to turn in and accelerate out. However, do not blindly follow the racing line or the AI racer in front of you, because it will slow you down.

Tip: A better way to use the settings is to have the “braking line only,” preferable to many intermediate drivers and those who are brave enough right off the bat to go at the game full throttle. Use only the braking line, and you can learn the course more intuitively from the start without the very bright, neon green arrows.

Following the tire tracks, instead, makes the experience of racing in Forza much more natural and allows for greater variation in driving style. While there is an ideal line for every track, there are some corners that have allowances for slight shifts in the racing line and driving style depending on the type of car being used.

A car with better acceleration might allow for harder braking, rapid turn into a corner that decreases speed, then hard acceleration out. In other cases, a car with lower acceleration, but higher top speed, might be served by being cornered. This maintains a higher overall top speed. Both are successful strategies and a number of variations do exist, so racing lines are not entirely 100 percent static in the game.

TIP: Before you buy it, do a test drive in Free Play. Learn the car’s personality, and see if you can work with it. This is an easy step many forget.

As a general note, instead of hugging the inside corner during a turn which reduces speed-per-turn, use the Apex Cornering Method. It is the accepted practice by most racing professionals today. The Apex Corner derives its name from how a car should turn in from the outside under moderate braking, just barely brushing the top, or apex, of each corner, then accelerating hard out.

While this method might not be the shortest distance between two corners like science would suggest, maintaining the highest rate of speed-per-turn is the actual key here. Incidentally, the tire marks already laid into each track are those of the Apex Corner.

TIP: Off-camber turns, as mentioned above, are especially fun using the Apex Turn because of the greater change in elevation.

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They say that competition between rivals stimulates the greatest amount of improvement. It is true for cellular phones, hamburgers, and as always, the gaming industry. Therefore, the latest installment of Forza Motorsport 4 is shaping up to be the perennial racing game to beat for the foreseeable future.

Starting off with a bang, the scope of Forza 4 seems larger than ever before, evolving in unexpected ways. The host of cars and most tracks will be well-known to veteran players of the series, as these details will make them feel right at home. Loyal fans from Forza 3 will find that they gain an upfront bonus in credits and at least one high class starter car right off the bat in Forza 4.

The usual suite of tuning modifications returns as well. The menus for the general career mode and the Event List look fairly familiar, but the menu changes are like comparing two Ferraris from separate decades. The real difference lies in the driving of the automobiles themselves and brings the game to life.

Beneath the hood of Forza 4, beats the heart of a seemingly new game upgraded from previous versions. The concept of sunlight and how it impacts your Forza world has been completely redone to show a much more vibrant and realistic lighting scheme. This model is more in keeping with the capabilities of the human eye, seeing several different layers of light almost weaved together and no longer limited by the capabilities of one’s television set.

Driving dynamics have been changed to allow for a more tight-knit set of racers on track, keeping the racing experience lively and challenging. A greater degree in braking pressure is also evident, leading to varying styles of braking within the game. This superior sense of weight and reality in each car makes for dynamic braking changes in every facet of cornering.

One can easily make corrections on the fly in weight distribution and vehicle direction in a thrilling, finger-snapping second. Just watch out for increased brake pad wearing. Opponent AI is also affected in this case. Now cars are more evenly matched in career mode, so there is no more overpowering other cars that are several race classes beneath you during a race.

The single player World Tour mode is much more organic, with the previously uninteresting career mode replaced by a much more rewarding progression. Though the player does not select the track played, they do have the ability to impact the class of race being driven and the rewards given.

Varying between an extra set of experience point bonuses in brand affinity or a mystery bonus of either two for those who feel lucky, these three choices give the player expanded options in how to progress through what would otherwise be a tedious career mode.

Within hours of playing, the major manufacturers that a player has used the most often now give the player free access to all those manufacturer parts with the Brand Affinity system. One of the newest features that is sure to set the racing world on fire is the ability to see how you stack up to one of the world’s largest racing scoreboards.

Want to challenge players from any number of countries and time zones? Go ahead and enjoy with the new Rivals Mode, which includes a small reward for each race won. Here, you will be racing against a ghost car from another actual human being, one that is not afraid to scratch the paint or make the tires squeal a little bit.

Another notably new feature, the Autovista mode, will give players a closer view at some of the most desired supercars available on the consumer market. This mode is enhanced by the voice of Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson. On each of the featured 24 cars, Clarkson’s voice is featured once in the dozen or so interactive icons that the cars possess.

The rest are narrated by Englishmen Peter Egan, whom fans will recognize as the narrator from Forza 3. Furthermore, the inclusion of their Top Gear test track should give fans of the Forza series yet another avenue of the racing world to enjoy. We can only hope that more cars will be announced in the future for Autovista.

The sound design of each car is a welcome distinction, featuring a more vivid symphony of gears and exhaust notes that border on the more throaty side of the spectrum. The crash sounds on most settings, however, seem more akin to bumper cars than a real smash of metal on metal. Also, the focus on the cars is so great, you will never notice the crowd which does not move at all.

In closing, the sounds and visual of the game are better in every way on a consistent basis. The driving is crisp, and the overall feel of the game is excellent. Forza 4 manages to expand itself in a variety of ways, yet also keeps the Forza formula alive and well. Minor and major changes have served to enhance the game and increase its polish and appeal.

In the grand scheme of things, this game may eventually be eclipsed by another, but that day will not be for some time, and that battle will not be easy.

Image Courtesy of  xbox.com

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