Why do I want Turn 10 to ditch the Drivatar system in Forza Motorsport 8 for a more explicit AI.
After a significant drop in information during E3 2022, we are no longer in the dark about what Forza Motorsport 8 will offer. But what's not being discussed at all about this state-of-the-art racing game? Yes, I just said - racing. Turn 10's Dan Greenawat or Chris Esaki didn't mention the actual race once.
This is strange given the series' previous embrace of its AI drivers. The "Drivatar" system has been hyped for a decade for allegedly learning gamers' driving styles and synthesizing their own virtual representations to compete in their place when they're offline. The system was never perfected, and in many Forza games, one Drivatar was often ahead of everyone else and could not be caught.
But more importantly, the differences between models during the race made Forza Motorsport 6's racing experience at launch very disappointing, even though everything around that core concept was dripping with high-quality Turtle Wax. The races in Forza Motorsport 7 are much better, which is why I gave the game a direct 5/5 when I was reviewing. But even so, times have changed in the five years since.
Surviving by car
The name of the new game is particularly telling. Dubbed "Forza Motorsport 8," it eschewed nearly 20 years of naming conventions to provide a concept rather than a sequel. But if the Turn 10's goal is to ultimately simulate motorsport itself, it needs to do more than just provide dynamic time transitions, detailed scratch damage, and fuel/tire protection. It needs to add personality to its car.
Why? Well, there's a reason Drive to Survive is so popular on Netflix. In 2022, motorsport is no longer about cars, it's about people. Not only drivers, but also team leaders, housekeepers, medical teams and TV presenters. Every race weekend is now a media event filled with cameras, social media blowouts and daily rider polls. If Forza Motorsport 8 really wants to elevate the extraordinary GT Turismo 7, it should also take advantage of that angle, which will be difficult considering the series has always been about cars.
Of course, there are some games that have tried to do this before. It's cool that GRID Legends combines social media messages that change depending on the outcome of the game – as does its competitive system, which allows for the transmission of in-game resentment and friendship between matches. GRID Legends even uses real actors to depict drivers who so far only appear as names above computer-controlled drones. It's imperfect, but any game that tries to add personality to your opponent does keep in mind, though admittedly not always for the right reasons.
Looking back, you'll hear sound snippets from games that did so. "Get out of my way" in Destruction Derby on PS1, or Katie Justice yelling "Attention, man!" " It's all ingrained in my memory in Dirt 2. I wouldn't recommend Forza Motorsport 8 to use sound clips and have competitors talk to you for now, but it does need something to give it more emotional impact to the race. Maybe an F1 2021 style engineer talking to it using voice recognition through your headset? That would be trump card.
Looking to the future
In the past, Forza Motorsport has been criticized by some as a "simulation game" because it presents itself as a serious analogue, but reduces certain elements to make it more "arcade" and more appealing to the mass market that doesn't like it. Being interested in gear ratios is as interested in beautiful lens flares. With a new emphasis on simulation, coupled with rubber, tire management, and new 8-point calculations for the physics of each wheel, wouldn't it make a lot of sense to have a more serious career mode?
Of course, this should be optional – Forza's traditional 5-minute matches always have room to jump from class to class and even jump between disciplines every few minutes to keep more casual players interested. But how do you keep everyone's interest by dropping Drivatars and reintroducing named drivers? After all, the original game had them. Is it hard to imagine a return to more explicit AI on reboot?
If so, then some drivers really behave differently on the track, some dangerously change direction when braking, or others act safely in order to earn points in long races? If the name pool is small enough, you can begin to understand which driver reacts in which way in any given situation. When you squeezed him out in the last game, will the guy in front give you space? Or do young nouveau riche always leave you to decide whether to have an accident or not?
The AI and racing experience is the last side of Forza Motorsport 8, and it's been kept under wraps, so I sincerely hope there are some big things that haven't been announced yet. The climate has changed. Technology has improved. If Microsoft really wants to take back the crown from GT Turismo 7, this is the area with the most potential.
Forza Motorsport 8 will be released in 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X. While you wait, why not jump into one of the best racing games you can play right now.