Your Xbox One and PC are getting a Forza 7 game that Microsoft says is ‘racing reborn’ with over 700 cars.
Onstage at E3 2017 Microsoft officially announced the next entry in its long-running racing series, Forza Motorsport 7. The game will release later this year on October 3 and will be available for Xbox One, Xbox One X and Windows 10.
The best part is that this racing sim is built for 4K, with more realistic graphics, which goes a long way to further detail its amazing-looking 700 cars.
Read on below for everything we know about the upcoming game, which includes dynamic weather, full PC support, and, for the first time, drivers that are able to step outside of their cars.
At E3 2017 Microsoft unveiled the game’s debut trailer. Check it out below.
Forzo Motorsport 7 will launch on October 3 on the Xbox One and Windows 10 .
Although the game will support the Xbox One X, where it will run in 4K at 60fps, you’ll have to wait until November 7 to play this version since this is when the console launches.
Microsoft has unveiled a whole host of features for the game, which include dynamic weather, support for numerous input devices, and driver avatars than can step outside of the vehicle.
For the first time in the series, in Forza Motorsport 7 the weather will change during your race.
Clouds will move across the sky, casting moving reflections on the surface of the track. The game looks particularly impressive on the Xbox One X, where the HDR is used to create a blinding light as the sun breaks through the cloud cover.
The changing weather will also have an impact on the feel of your race.
What can start with overcast clouds can quickly turn into torrential rain, which will eventually form dynamic rain puddles on the track, affecting the handling of your car.
However, the game’s creative director was keen to emphasize that Xbox One S owners would not get a compromised experience, and that features such as dynamic weather would still be available on the lower-end console.
With Forza Motorsport 7 being the first game in the series to come to PCs, the developer said it was keen to support as many different USB devices as possible.
This means that you’ll be able to use a variety of USB steering wheels, but you’ll also be able to plug in wheels designed for the PS4 .
Controller support will also extend to the DualShock 4.
The game’s creative director confirmed that the team have even experimented with supporting USB guitar peripherals, but stopped short of promising that this functionality would make it into the final game.
Once playing Forza Motorsport 7, the game’s visuals can be customized to reflect the fact that you’re playing with a wheel. If you’re playing from the game’s cockpit view, you can toggle the in-game steering wheel on and off if you’d like a more realistic view when using your own physical wheel.
The game has been used prominently to show off Microsoft’s upcoming console where it will run in Ultra HD at 60 frames per second.
However, the game’s creative director was keen to emphasise that Xbox One S owners would not get a compromised experience, and that features such as dynamic weather would still be available on the lower-end console.
The game will be fully integrated with Microsoft’s streaming service Mixer, and will offer race spectating through the service.
Turn 10 has confirmed that it will be possible to stream music in-game from your OneDrive account.
Interestingly you’ll also be able to have your music play in-game from speakers based around the track if you’d rather not break the game’s immersion by having it play over the top of the experience.
Now entering its 12th year, there are still lots of features we’ d like to see make it into Forza.
Come now, Turn 10 Studios, we’ ve waited long enough. You can’ t proudly bear the name ‘motorsport’ and not include vehicles of the two wheel variety. We’ d love to see superbikes join the fray (and, if we were being greedy, dirt bikes, too)
Codemasters has done great work with RaceNet, its online community system that ties all its games together. It would be great to see Forza Motorsport 7 develop its own community further, providing tools to run race seasons, stream the races for spectators on Twitch, and provide tools for commentary. More tools for recording in-game footage and editing it together would also be much appreciated.
Back in 2015 with Forza Motorsport 6, Microsoft made a big deal about drivatar, the cloud-based system that built an AI racer based on your style and ability which could race against your friends.
It was a neat idea but we’ d like to see what else Turn 10 can do with the idea and how it can develop the feature. Maybe, instead of building an AI avatar like you, creating persistent rivals designed to counter your racing style.
Cloud-based systems were a big part of Microsoft’s pitch of the Xbox One but few of its games have really taken advantage of the technology. Forza Motorsport 7 is an opportunity for Microsoft to show us what it can do.
