Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel Accessories

Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel Product Details

Released on 14-Oct-2011

• Forza Motorsport 4 Review

  Forza Motorsport 4 Review

  Racing rivalry

  
  

  Forza Motorsport was the plucky young upstart to Gran Turismo when it first raced onto the scene in 2005, but now in its fourth iteration, it has arguably established itself as the leading racing simulation on the market. Over the course of the last seven years, Forza has grown to match its great rival's vast and impressive car collection over 500 are featured in the latest game, although licensing squabbles prevented Porsches from making the final cut as well as its roster of painstakingly recreated racing courses.

  There's not a big distance between the two franchises, and ultimately it boils down to a matter of taste, but the younger series' unmatched level of accessibility and its comprehensive online features might just give it the edge approaching the chequered flag.

  World Tour

  
  

  Forza 4's single player World Tour career option bounces you around the globe to compete in races over the course of ten seasons. Rather than dictating which events you participate in, the game picks the location and lets you choose any event of your choice that has a race located at the track in question.

  On top of the standard lap-based races, there are a range of event types. These include King of the Mountain, which sees you race a single opponent down a mountain road while cutting through much slower traffic, wacky Top Gear branded ones such as car bowling, which sees you belting it around the Top Gear test track trying to smash into as many pins as possible, and multi-class events, which place wildly different cars on the same track.

  Take the race online

  
  

  Multiplayer is where you can be most expressive, tweaking every last parameter of events, cars and control options if you please, with support for up to 16-player races. Or you can jump straight into a basic online contest and the game will automatically pit you against a rival of similar ability.

  Whether you win or lose, completing races and challenges will earn you lashings of experience points that go towards your next driver level and new cars, as well as 'affinity' to a particular car manufacturer, giving you discounts on parts. Every single time you play the game, in any mode, you get the rewarding sense that you're progressing, earning and achieving.

  A racer for everyone

  
  

  Perhaps Forza 4's biggest selling point is the level of accessibility it offers, with varied control and race options making it perfectly suited to newcomers and veterans alike. Whether using a regular Xbox 360 controller or a force feedback steering wheel, the handling is fantastic. The behaviour of the cars is second to none, incorporating tyre/track interaction, suspension performance, and body roll momentum. With all the driving aids disabled, experienced players will lap up the challenges involved in mastering their chosen vehicles.

  For novice players, Forza 4 features both steering and braking assists that will help you get around the track. Those who feel overwhelmed by too many options can also use Kinect motion controls exclusively, which simplifies the gameplay to steering a car using an invisible wheel, with acceleration and deceleration handled automatically. It might not be a genuine option for achieving record lap times, but it opens the game up to a much broader audience. Kinect can also be used for head tracking purposes, enabling you to look towards the apex of a turn as you drive through it and shifting the camera in the direction you're facing.

  Premium driving experience

  
  

  From its simple to navigate and slickly presented menus to its authentically recreated cars and tracks, almost everything in Forza 4 looks absolutely stunning. The lighting is particularly impressive and it's one of the first driving games we've played where as much attention to detail has been given to the background scenery as it has to the inside of your cock pit and your more direct surroundings.

  Forza 4's pitch perfect driving experience, gorgeous graphics, varied online gameplay modes, and it's ability to satisfy both racing nuts and more casual driving fans combine to deliver the biggest and best racing game on Xbox 360 yet.

  GAME's verdict

  Good:
  + Suited to veterans and novices.
  + Packed with content and online features.
  + Stunning visuals.

  Bad:
  - Single player mode not as feature rich as online.
  - Single player mode not as feature rich as online.
  - No Porsches.
  

  Review by: Tom 'Speed Freak' Ivan
  Version Tested: X360
  Review Published: 14.10.11

  Published: 14/10/2011

  Published: 13/10/2011

• Forza 4 Review

  Forza the win.

  Do you have a passion for cars? Sleep at night under your Ferrari duvets in a bed modeled after a Testarossa, and wake to the smell of petrol and burning rubber being pumped through your humidifier? We've got a feeling that you're quite going to like Forza Motorsport 4 then.

  Sony's always had Gran Turismo as its automotive mascot, the shiny perfection of Polyphony's series sitting perfectly with the PlayStation brand. Microsoft, on the other hand, countered with Forza, a game that's as precise and exacting as the corporation that bankrolls it. One thing the games have also shared with Microsoft, however, is that they're a bit soulless.

  Forza Motorsport 4 does away with that in various ways. The first is the most obvious: Forza 4 looks stunning. Cars are bathed in a rich, realistic light, with the tracks displaying the kind of warmth that's previously been absent from the series - the famous Nordschleife has arguably never looked better, while semi-imagined locations such as the Bernese Alps are drop dead gorgeous.

  The car's the star

  
  

  The cars are really the stars though, in more ways than one. Autovista, a new Kinect-compatible mode, allows you to get up close and personal, and as beautiful as the cars are the real marvel is developer Turn 10's exemplary work - the attention to detail is astounding, with each rivet and bump perfectly recreated.

  Looking at cars is one thing, but driving them is quite another - thankfully, Forza 4's made plenty of progress in this regard. Handling is impossibly lively - no matter what you're driving, Forza 4 seems to be keen to get the rear end out and send you into a lairy powerslide. Gran Turismo this most certainly isn't, but it's no less fun for that - teasing cars around corners and catching them as they threaten to break away never fails to raise a smile.

  Even if you don't want to indulge in the handling at its most extreme, Forza 4 has much to offer. As ever, Turn 10 has worked tirelessly to ensure that the game is playable by all. There are assists and variable difficulty levels to take the pain out of driving.

  Keep Kinected.

  
  

  This year's model goes a little further as well, using Kinect to make sure that if you want it really easy all you've got to do is mime a steering wheel. It works surprisingly well, as does Kinect-enabled head-tracking, but for the real racers they're just slight diversions. Thankfully there's a lot of meat for that particular crowd to get tucked into.

  Top Gear makes an appearance, and if you can cast your mind back all the way to last year you'll remember that it's not the first time that the BBC's best have popped up in a racing game. This time out, though, the license has been used to its fullest.

  Jeremy Clarkson makes an appearance, narrating the Autovista mode as you poke around a supercar, but it's the test track that's the real star. A barren strip of land in Surrey's Dunsford, it's a far from spectacular backdrop - but it's been worked in well. The Kia Cee'd, the famous Reasonably Priced Car from the series, makes an appearance, allowing you to see how your lap times compare against the stars.

  What's best, though, is how you can compare times with your mates and those playing the game in the wider world of Forza. Rivals mode is Forza 4's big addition to its online features, and it's quite brilliant - you'll be pitted against a time from a similarly skilled rival, and post a belter yourself and it'll be posted for others to beat.

  It's the kind of brilliant feature that makes up for the fact that Forza doesn't offer much in the way of new tracks or rides - what it offers instead is a smart and exhilarating refinement of one of the best raving games of this generation, and one of the most thrilling games of this year.

  

  Forza:
  + Looks stunning
  + Rivals mode is inspired
  + Handles beautifully

  Againsta:
  - Not enough new content
  

  Published: 14/10/2011

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