Turn 10 Studios and Microsoft's upcoming racing title Forza Motorsport 5 is one of the few racing titles that are confirmed to arrive this year. The game is set to arrive exclusively for the next generation Xbox One and will be a launch title for the Microsoft's next generation console.
Alongside the likes of the popular McLaren P1 in its list of vehicles, Forza features as many as 15 confirmed cars in the game, including the Pagani Huayra, and the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta. A teaser video at E3 was released featuring in-game footage showing the cars in action (seen below). As of now, the list of confirmed cars includes: 2008 DBS Link and 2013 Vanquish Link (Aston Martin), 2010 R8 V10 Link (Audi), 2013 M5 F10 Link (BMW), 2013 #1 Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12 Link (Chevrolet), 1976 312-2 Link (Ferrari), 2011 Agera Link (Koenigsegg), 2012 Aventador Link (Lamborghini), 1976 M23 Link, 1993 McLaren F1 Link, 2010 MP4-12c Link and 2013 McLaren P1 Link (McLaren), and the 2012 Zonda Cinque Link.
The game is set to feature a number of racing tracks in which the player can compete against AI or other players. The tracks that are confirmed so far include Laguna Seca, Spa Francorchamps, Indianapolis and Prague. However, the game will neither feature day-night racing nor a weather system.
One of the foremost features of the game is the introduction of cloud technology and its processing ability that can help players create agents, which will not only represent the player, but drive as well. Turn 10 studios' Dan Greenawalt explained in an interview with Major Nelson's Xbox channel: "Forza is always known for pushing AI and in the past we called it the Drivatar so in Forza Motorsport 1 and all the way through 2, 3 and 4, we used Drivatar technology and that's a learning neural network. With Forza Motorsport 5 we are doing something all new."
"We've moved the Drivatar system in the Cloud so that it can process incredibly heavily...it means basically super computer level of processing and that means you now have an Agent, something which drives for you."
He further detailed on the topic stating that now when the player is in a race, he gets to race together with a friend or someone in the family. "I get to race against a version of them that can recreate their tendencies, their style, their way of driving, their speed and then when I log in, you have been playing against me, I get paid out the in game credits because of the work my Drivatar did. This fundamentally changes how you do single player," as scripted by Gamingbolt.
It was also revealed previously the Xbox One version of Forza Motorsport 5, on launch, will arrive in 1080p resolution running at 60 frames per second. However, this contradicts Microsoft Studios VP Phil Spencer's previous statement that the company won't force developers to stick to pre-defined frame rates or video resolutions.
While in an interview with Gamespot, content director of Turn 10 Studios' John Wendel stated: "I believe we're uniquely positioned to deliver on that challenge. We're a huge epic game that's going to be running at 1080p, 60fps on the next-gen console, so it's an incredible opportunity on one hand, but you have to be incredibly flexible and agile and self-aware on the other hand."
To play the game, players will need to have a ready internet connection and will need to connect the Xbox One (with the game disc inside) to authenticate it. Happily however, this will be a one-time process, with Dan Greenawalt also explaining the same in an interview with IGN: "So when you first boot up the game, we're going to ask you to log in," he explained. "And when you log in you're going to get the Drivatars and you're also going to get a whole bunch of content: tracks and cars."
"Our production schedule is such that we are putting them in as late as possible and that means making them free as downloadable content on Day One." However, that is at least the minimum that needs to be done in order to play the game.
"We basically have designed the game to work with all that content no matter how late is coming in, in order to make the biggest game possible." Greenawalt later went on to compare the situation with the way a refrigerator works.
"You have to fill it up with food the first time," he explained. "And from then on, you connect whenever you want when you want to update your food. The Drivatars are as fresh as they are. It's not like they're going to degrade, but when you're looking for new stuff - fresh stuff...it's going to keep evolving. That's the nature of this Drivatar system."
Speaking about Drivatar, for those who are not aware, it's a feature that enables a ghost version of the player to race on his or her behalf, using the player's repeated behavior and tendencies as a mimic.
"You do have to connect the game in order to get the latest Drivatars, because we need as many people training them as possible. And so rather than having just a launch-day set that was created by us, every day that people race is going to make the Drivatar set that much more accurate, that much more diverse, that much more interesting," Greenawalt added.
"All of the cloud and online features make the game far, far better," Greenawalt summed up. "In fact I'd even say revolutionary. The things we're doing with opponents and Drivatar are not something that anyone can envision unless you've played it. But we're trying to get as much of that into the unconnected, offline mode as well."
Forza Motorsport 5 is currently scheduled for a November 2013 release.