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[GHG]

Never heard of them to be quite frank. To be honest I don't care what other outlets do. I run my business how I like to run it and we operate with our set of rules and what works for us and we never had problems.

Also, if you bothered to watch our review, I've discussed all of my personal flaws with the game from the get go. There is a reason it's a 20 minute video and not a 10 minute rush lazy job like most reviews are. We actually go over game mechanics and try to explain to the consumer how the game works and what the intent is behind the design and if it is objectively making any sense.

As a matter of fact I even sent an email to their PR team asking questions about the intended design of the car leveling system.

They replied back saying they will ask the devs/turn 10 and that was last week. (Had the game since 26th) they never replied back with an answer from the devs. So I am assuming they either forget or decided to dodge. Regardless, time went by and we needed to get it done and it won't be my responsibility to pester them again about it, that's their responbility and problem.

With that being said, I reviewed the game as is without their answers which is unfortunate. I've worked with Microsoft for many years, our lowest rated game we ever game them was State of Decay 2. It was released an extremely poor state and had game breaking bugs. I believe we rated it a 6 out of 10 or something like that if my memory serves me right.

Fair enough regarding your review specifically.

Worth a buy has more subscribers and views on his channel than many of the outlets that do get given early access review keys these days. He's talked about having to turn down review keys before because of the unreasonable guidelines/rules that come with them sometimes (not being allowed to use your own footage, not being allowed to talk about certain aspects of the game, needing to say certain things will be fixed in a patch when there's no evidence that they will, etc), and he's also talked about being blacklisted and the reasons given to him.

Your experience might be different but from what he and some other outlets have talked about, if you don't play by the rules that they set out then they make it difficult for you to do your job.

 

[Freeman76]

Or people just want more than "fine" games after years of waiting.
That does not mean that fans of the series/genre won't enjoy it even with limits and flaws.

Nope, they just want something to be unhappy about. Nothing about this game, according to the reviews, is just 'fine'. What you want is perfect, which doesnt exist.

anyway, i'm out of this argument, otherwise i'm just contributing to the problem.

 

[Elder Legend]

Fair enough regarding your review specifically.

Worth a buy has more subscribers and views on his channel than many of the outlets that do get given early access review keys these days. He's talked about having to turn down review keys before because of the unreasonable guidelines/rules that come with them sometimes (not being allowed to use your own footage, not being allowed to talk about certain aspects of the game, needing to say certain things will be fixed in a patch when there's no evidence that they will, etc), and he's also talked about being blacklisted and the reasons given to him.

Your experience might be different but from what he and some other outlets have talked about, if you don't play by the rules that they set out then they make it difficult for you to do your job.

There are some cases where the embargo rules are a tad weird, but as you said it's the name of the game. Thankfully, most of the publishers I've worked with are usually lax with their rules.

The only annoying things ive witnessed with embargo rules were usually spoiler related stuff or streaming. Someimes they word them in such a way that you are not even sure what's allowed to be in the captured game footage and what is not. So what we do in cases like that is double check and clarify by asking questions .

Also, I've never seen or come across a rule where you are not allowed to capture your own footage. That sounds absurd.

Not allowed to talk about certain aspects of the game usually relates to story/plot spoilers which are understandable.

As for patch fixing, that happens quite a bit. There are many games these days with day 1 patches or patches that happen a few days prior to the release. For the most part those fixes are noted in the review pdf documents. And if I don't know what is getting fixed, then you need to ask them to send you information over if it's not provided anywhere else.


Ubisoft, Microsoft and Sony are pretty easy to work with. The easiest however was always Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Entertainment have their own PR agency that's different from Activision Blizzard. So stuff like WoW, Hearthstone, Diablo and so on were very easy to get access too.

But anything else from Activision like CoD or Spyro/Crash games are handled by a completely different PR agency company.

PR agencies that handle indie games are also very easy to work with as well.

 

[Certinty]

Doesn’t look or sound anything special but purely because it will have far better AI than GT7, I’ll give it a go.

 

[Sanepar]

Wow I was expecting more...

 

[calistan]

They replied back saying they will ask the devs/turn 10 and that was last week. (Had the game since 26th) they never replied back with an answer from the devs. So I am assuming they either forget or decided to dodge. Regardless, time went by and we needed to get it done and it won't be my responsibility to pester them again about it, that's their responbility and problem.

I can't say I'm surprised.

 

[YOU PC BRO?!]

A big concern people had with the entire 'GamePass' push was the potential for a drop in general quality. That there would be an incentive to push mediocre products out simply to 'pad' the ever-expanding GamePass library.

I intend on diving into the new FM once I'm fully done with Starfield. Starfield has been adequate though surprisingly dated in many ways. It sort of sums up how disillusioned I have become with Microsoft of late. They seem genuinely incapable of hitting the highs of the past. There is no killer app, nothing that would be considered a 'system seller'. As a huge fan of the Forza series, having owned every game to date, having waited so long for a new entry, being the first Forza Motorsport on the latest Series devices, its nothing short of a catastrophe if this game doesn't review very well.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Doesn’t look or sound anything special but purely because it will have far better AI than GT7, I’ll give it a go.

A couple of reviewers have pointed out the bad AI, so I'll suggest going in with tempered expectations.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Wow I was expecting more...

 

[Heisenberg007]

Pure Xbox's review:

Pure Xbox: Forza Motorsport Review

Here's the summary from the bottom of the review -

It's funny they put "incredible audio" at the very top of their pros list. The audio design is quite bad. Seriously, do NOT "crank it up to the max" lol.

Ermz, who is also a Sound Engineer, talks about the audio design here and showcases a bunch of different in-game sounds. [timestamped video / 08:10]

 

[BoxFresh123]

Went 90+. I think it could hit 90 but always a good chance it slowly hits a 88/89 ish.

Should score high regardless.

As per the predictions. I expected higher TBH.

 

[Elysium44]

PC version sounds broken at launch, people reporting poor performance and random crashes.

Forza Motorsport's PC Performance Is Highly Disappointing [UPDATED]

We tested the new Forza Motorsport game on PC. Unfortunately, its performance is currently disappointing even on a high-end configuration.

wccftech.com

edit - nm I just noticed this was posted in another thread here.

 

[Snake29]

Something to keep in mind because I see misleading comparisons here and there between Forza and GT7 on trackside details. like crowd density, track crew, camps like campers and stuff. These are all event based in GT7. If you are driving a time trail by yourself, there is hardly any crowd or track crew present. GT7's trackside details are based on what event is going on at the time. If it's a big race, then the grandstands are completely full, there are people everywhere along the tracks etc. A nice detail that gets missed seemingly, but is used as a misleading comparison, to indicate that GT7 has hardly any audience, when it varies from event to event.

 

[Elysium44]

Something to keep in mind because I see misleading comparisons here and there between Forza and GT7 on trackside details. like crowd density, track crew, camps like campers and stuff. These are all event based in GT7. If you are driving a time trail by yourself, there is hardly any crowd or track crew present. GT7's trackside details are based on what event is going on at the time. If it's a big race, then the grandstands are completely full, there are people everywhere along the tracks etc. A nice detail that gets missed seemingly, but is used as a misleading comparison, to indicate that GT7 has hardly any audience, when it varies from event to event.

I've got GT7 and I didn't even know that. Nice feature.

 

[Erebus]

PC version sounds broken at launch, people reporting poor performance and random crashes.

Forza Motorsport's PC Performance Is Highly Disappointing [UPDATED]

We tested the new Forza Motorsport game on PC. Unfortunately, its performance is currently disappointing even on a high-end configuration.

wccftech.com

edit - nm I just noticed this was posted in another thread here.

That's disappointing. Wasn't the last Forza Horizon pretty well optimized on PC?

 

[Big Baller]

Something to keep in mind because I see misleading comparisons here and there between Forza and GT7 on trackside details. like crowd density, track crew, camps like campers and stuff. These are all event based in GT7. If you are driving a time trail by yourself, there is hardly any crowd or track crew present. GT7's trackside details are based on what event is going on at the time. If it's a big race, then the grandstands are completely full, there are people everywhere along the tracks etc. A nice detail that gets missed seemingly, but is used as a misleading comparison, to indicate that GT7 has hardly any audience, when it varies from event to event.

Like irl. Forza with the sold out crowds was and is so laughable stuid.

 

[Elysium44]

That's disappointing. Wasn't the last Forza Horizon pretty well optimized on PC?

Very much so.

 

[Elysium44]

Like irl. Forza with the sold out crowds was and is so laughable stuid.

At least they've got rid of the crowd all snapping cameras with bright camera flashes on a sunny day this time.

 

[Orbital2060]

Pretty much what I expected for review scores, and reactions in this theead from the usual suspects. Welcome to my ignore list.

Looking forward to friday - super excited about the ray tracing implemented. Sounds like the most advanced ray tracing yet in a console game. As far as Im concerned, this where next gen starts - for Xbox. Finally an app that takes advantage of most of the hardware features of the console.

 

[Jadsey]

Given the normal drop off in scores, a Forza game is going to end up at Sub 80!

And people keep telling me GamePass is a good thing.

I sold my Series X after playing Starfield, which is a dreadful game....pleased with my decision.

 

[skyfinch]

Something to keep in mind because I see misleading comparisons here and there between Forza and GT7 on trackside details. like crowd density, track crew, camps like campers and stuff. These are all event based in GT7. If you are driving a time trail by yourself, there is hardly any crowd or track crew present. GT7's trackside details are based on what event is going on at the time. If it's a big race, then the grandstands are completely full, there are people everywhere along the tracks etc. A nice detail that gets missed seemingly, but is used as a misleading comparison, to indicate that GT7 has hardly any audience, when it varies from event to event.

From the preview videos, FM does this too. On Mugello during practice, not a lot of people were sitting in the hillside. During a real race, the hill was full of spectators.

 

[acm2000]

PC version sounds broken at launch, people reporting poor performance and random crashes.

Forza Motorsport's PC Performance Is Highly Disappointing [UPDATED]

We tested the new Forza Motorsport game on PC. Unfortunately, its performance is currently disappointing even on a high-end configuration.

wccftech.com

edit - nm I just noticed this was posted in another thread here.

and yet?

 

[Jormatar]

Wow pretty mid reviews for a Forza games. Guess I'll be sticking to GT7 for now.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

and yet?

1440p on a 4090 is a good thing now? Game is locked 60 too.

 

[Hugare]

Funny how the spin-off (Horizon) became bigger than the main series in terms of reception

I respect them for taking some risks, but it really didnt pay off, it seems

Rough year for Xbox

 

[Kacho]

1440p on a 4090 is a good thing now? Game is locked 60 too.

Depends of the monitor you have lol

 

[T-0800]

Doesn’t look or sound anything special but purely because it will have far better AI than GT7, I’ll give it a go.

Doesn't GT7 have Sophie AI or whatever it is called. I've heard good things about it.

 

[xVodevil]

Hype once again got to me, but well... might have to refund after all and wait for some content with some proper tracks on a sale even later this year..
I'm sure it's fine probably and still gonna test it but doesn't sound like premium price worthy for now.

 

[Caio]

I was expecting a better score, even though 82-84 is not bad at all.

 

[DenchDeckard]

whats the sim guys saying? Too arcadey still?

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

whats the sim guys saying? Too arcadey still?

It's a bit better with the wheel (SuperGT was a bit positive in his preview), but overall 'forza feeling' is here to stay.

 

[acm2000]

1440p on a 4090 is a good thing now? Game is locked 60 too.

only locked in multiplayer, and native 1440p with all the ray tracing maxed getting 110fps, yes thats good

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

1440p on a 4090 is a good thing now? Game is locked 60 too.

I am on a 4090 playing 1440p but ultrawide and game only locks at 60 in multiplayer

And look at his max frames at 240 so yeah a 4090 is needed.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

I would have picked 80-85, seems it’s at 85 on MC. Probably will settle somewhere around there. Seems like another amazing FM. Can’t wait to dive in. Been forever since I went balls deep into a sim racer. By the time FM got good last gen, I was too worn out by the shitty previous games and loot box BS to care, and GT hasn’t been exciting since GT4.

 

[analog_future]

Edit - I spoke to soon. Score settling at ~85 is great.

 

[LakeOf9]

Six year hiatus and you come back with one of the lowest rated games in the series?

 

[L*][*N*K]

the Microsoft Tax is not real.

 

[DenchDeckard]

My 88 was off! Looking forward to jumping in later...but I want my WHEEL!

 

[analog_future]

1440p on a 4090 is a good thing now? Game is locked 60 too.

I mean, it benches at 101 fps at 1440p maxed out with ray tracing though. Which at native 4k would put it somewhere in the 50-60fps range. That's not terrible with RT on and no reconstruction happening.


With DLSS Quality on a 4090 you'll be pulling in like 90fps at 4k with all settings maxed out and RT on. That's more than acceptable.

 

[GHG]

There are some cases where the embargo rules are a tad weird, but as you said it's the name of the game. Thankfully, most of the publishers I've worked with are usually lax with their rules.

The only annoying things ive witnessed with embargo rules were usually spoiler related stuff or streaming. Someimes they word them in such a way that you are not even sure what's allowed to be in the captured game footage and what is not. So what we do in cases like that is double check and clarify by asking questions .

Also, I've never seen or come across a rule where you are not allowed to capture your own footage. That sounds absurd.

Not allowed to talk about certain aspects of the game usually relates to story/plot spoilers which are understandable.

As for patch fixing, that happens quite a bit. There are many games these days with day 1 patches or patches that happen a few days prior to the release. For the most part those fixes are noted in the review pdf documents. And if I don't know what is getting fixed, then you need to ask them to send you information over if it's not provided anywhere else.


Ubisoft, Microsoft and Sony are pretty easy to work with. The easiest however was always Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Entertainment have their own PR agency that's different from Activision Blizzard. So stuff like WoW, Hearthstone, Diablo and so on were very easy to get access too.

But anything else from Activision like CoD or Spyro/Crash games are handled by a completely different PR agency company.

PR agencies that handle indie games are also very easy to work with as well.

Thanks for the insight, much appreciated.

It was CDPR that prevented reviewers from using their own footage for Cyberpunk and limited them to using b-roll.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

Standard shit. It's boring at this point.




ACG first impressions, said its "a bit hit and miss".

Those Xbox review sites exist solely to pad out scores for Xbox games don't they? That means these games are worse than what their score suggests.

 

[Elder Legend]

Thanks for the insight, much appreciated.

It was CDPR that prevented reviewers from using their own footage for Cyberpunk and limited them to using b-roll.

We didn't get a chance to review Cyberpunk. Looks like they were doing it because they knew the game was buggy as hell and didn't want people to purposely make.the game look bad or capture certain things. Was this for a review or a preview of some sorts?

 

[GHG]

We didn't get a chance to review Cyberpunk. Looks like they were doing it because they knew the game was buggy as hell and didn't want people to purposely make.the game look bad or capture certain things. Was this for a review or a preview of some sorts?

For the full review of the game.

They did that along with forbidding any outlet from talking about the state of the last gen console versions until well after the embargo.

My view is that the only thing they should be allowed to enforce is the date and time for the review embargo, anything else should be fair game and they shouldn't need to be selective about who they do and don't give review copies to.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

It’s reviewed exactly as I expected based on preview coverage. The only question was how generous certain outlets would be to boost this into the high 80’s. Low-mid 80’s seems about right and a good basis for a GAAS that will be developed over the course of the gen.

I did expect T10 to knock it out of the park graphics wise. But it seems the focus on RT has been very time consuming and technically heavy. They’ve really left the door wide open for the next Gran Turismo to be a serious technical tour de force. Will be I nteresting to see what PD can do when working with PS5 and PS5 Pro.

This is the problem though. Who the hell wanted this to be a GaaS?? Nobody. What was once a great single player experience with a lot of content and a standard multiplayer mode is now forced into a model that makes things worse. And they want $70-$100 for it. Gamepass is allowing them to justify turning these games into GaaS. I hate what Microsoft has become this gen man.

 

[GHG]

I mean, it benches at 101 fps at 1440p maxed out with ray tracing though. Which at native 4k would put it somewhere in the 50-60fps range. That's not terrible with RT on and no reconstruction happening.


With DLSS Quality on a 4090 you'll be pulling in like 90fps at 4k with all settings maxed out and RT on. That's more than acceptable.

From the ermz review posted above:

Although he stated the DLSS setting seems to be bugged and that turning it on and off didn't seem to change anything, so it's not clear whether that's with it off or on in some capacity.

Will have to wait for some benchmarks from the PC hardware outlets.

 

[JackMcGunns]

The Forza team always does well, I'd say around 85 after the dust settles, and that's a great meta average btw.

 

[Insane Metal]

It's funny they put "incredible audio" at the very top of their pros list. The audio design is quite bad. Seriously, do NOT "crank it up to the max" lol.

Ermz, who is also a Sound Engineer, talks about the audio design here and showcases a bunch of different in-game sounds. [timestamped video / 08:10]

LOL why is there so much fire when cars collide? Reminds me of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

Edit

Full 3D spectators?

Bonus

And that is from the PC version maxed out. Ouch.

 

[amigastar]

Damn, after Starfield another title for MS who doesn't deliver on full scale.

 

[Zathalus]

Game seems good, scoring in the 80s on aggregate. Most seem to enjoy it but it has a few obvious flaws.

It's a pity Forza and GT are simply not up to the standards they both set during the PS2/PS3/360 days.

 

[mckmas8808]

These games always review well , 85-90

That would have been more guess as well.