Although you lucky guys in the US get the game a bit earlier than us in the UK, I have been looking into Forza 4 for quite some time and have also played the demo a fair bit.  I am going back to my gaming roots in this post with my first thoughts on the title. (Note that I will be back with a full review in a couple of week’s time when I have been playing the full title).

Graphically Stunning

The first thing to note about the game is that it pushes the Xbox 360 to the very limits; I have truly never seen a car game look as stunning as Forza 4, which is a bold claim considering how amazing Gran Turismo 5 looked last year. The level shown off in the demo is set in the Alps and this really shows that Turn 10 not only put a lot of detail into the cars but the environment too, it’s like you are truly driving through the mountains!

One of the best parts of the game for me involves looking at the cars in fine detail in the showrooms and adding your own design to the car with improved design tools that were seen in Forza 3. Once again you can not only add a sweet paint job to the car but also fine tune all of the vehicles parts to make it perform how you want it to in a race.

Top Gear

Another big feature of Forza 4 is the fact that Turn 10 have partnered with Top Gear in order to further define the experience of the game. Not only is the Top Gear track now in the game but so are games such as Top Gear Bowling and Football. These can be played online and in the case of football 8 VS 8 games will be the norm.

On top of this comes Autovista with Jeremy Clarskon where (on certain vehicles), Jeremy will take users on a brief overview of the history of the vehicle, all while the camera moves around the parts he is discussing. The best part about this section of the game is that Clarkson hasn’t held back on his normal witty remarks about the vehicles.

Kinect Features

Although you have the option of sitting in front of the television and using Kinect to steer the car in a race, this isn’t what I am looking forward too at all. The feature that looks the most interesting is the one that works whilst you use the Xbox 360 controller!

The car is completely controlled by the hands stuck firmly on the pad but moving your head naturally when you turn corners will result in the driver on screen moving too, this is the Kinect integration that hardcore gamers have been crying out for!

You can also walk around the cars when they are in the showroom using Kinect and do things such as open doors, and start the engine, it’s all looking pretty cool

Sheer Number Of Cars

The game itself starts with over 40 manufacturers present and within this, over 500 cars! The reason I say starting with is because that even though the game isn’t out until Friday, there are car DLC packs sitting on Xbox Live already. At the end of the product lifespan expect the number of cars to reach the 600+ mark!

So although the game isn’t out in the UK until Friday, it is already shaping up to be pretty fantastic. Are you thinking about buying the game?

Ryan works with one of the best car leasing companies in the UK, Nationwide Vehicle Contracts. They also cover a lot of gaming posts over on their blog!