In a letter posted to the Forza.net website, Turn 10 have announced a whole suite of features and improvements coming to Forza Motorsport in the coming months including cars, tracks and modes.
Tracks
Two tracks will be returning to the franchise, in October, the fictional Sunset Peninsula and later in the year, Mount Panorama, the street circuit in Bathurst. Sunset Peninsula hasn’t been in Forza since Forza Motorsport 4 on the Xbox 360 and Bathurst has been in every Forza since Forza Motorsport 5.
The long-awaited introduction of Bathurst will also include a Featured Tour celebrating Aussie cars and racing.
The Mount Panorama track in Forza Motorsport 5, 6 and 7 remained mostly unchanged and had a very static race day atmosphere with no weather or time of day changes available. It is assumed that the track coming later this year will be updated to the standard seen across the other tracks in the latest Forza Motorsport release.
Modes
Spectator mode is being reintroduced into the series with overhauled features, coming to Private Multiplayer in September. Here is a brief rundown of the features:
- Full-Field Dynamic Driver List and Lap Counter
- Dynamic data loop “ticker” that can display data such as pit stops
- Track map
- Driver and car data of the driver in focus
- Two new camera types:
- Rail Cam (a camera the Turn 10 cinematics team have access to)
- Point of Interest (static cameras placed around the map)
- Customisable HUD
A new Drift Mode is also coming later this year:
In Drift mode, players earn Drift Score based on speed, angle, and duration of each drift. Your score must be successfully “banked” to count towards your overall points. The driver who has the highest Drift Score when the timer expires is considered the winner.
Drift mode will be available in Free Play and Private Multiplayer. In addition, players will have the ability to host drop in and out Drift Meetups in Private Multiplayer and can set their highest scores on the leaderboard in a selection of Drift Rivals.
With this update, we will also add Drift-specific HUD elements that can be enabled in Gameplay & HUD settings. Looking ahead, we are also planning to add a Drift Meetup public lobby to Featured Multiplayer in the future.
Creative Hub
The media tab is becoming the Creative Hub and the letter describes it as being similar to the one available in Forza Horizon 5.
The Creative Hub will be where all your designs, tunes, photos etc will be held and every player has one so you can browse other players collections easily. The team are also going to introduce Share Codes and new search and sorting options in a future update. Updates to the Edit Layer Tool and Livery Editor are also on the way, again, bringing it more aligned with Forza Horizon 5.
New Free Play Weather Options
Soon, in Free Play and Private Multiplayer, races will be able to be tagged with three weather types (start, mid, end) and these will change throughout the race and the probability of weather will also be tweakable. List of weather options:
- Partly Cloudy
- Overcast
- Cloudy
- Looming Clouds
- Thunderclouds
- Lightning Clouds
- Patchy Fog
- Thin Fog
- Dense Fog
- Summer Drizzle
- Drizzle
- Light Rain
- Moderate Rain
- Heavy Rain
- Rain Thunder
- Rain Lightning
Audio Proximity Radar
Since the successfully introduction of the visual proximity radar, Turn 10 are working on an update that will include an audio-based option, which will no doubt be a solid addition to the accessibility features.
Race Regulations
Turn 10 have increased internal resources dedicated to the Forza Race Regulations and machine learning systems. They are hopeful that this will result in more frequent updates to the system and aid in their ability to provide detailed data to go along with it. The objective being “..to improve the overall accuracy and consistency of its race adjudication and the penalties it distributes to drivers.”
Advanced Ghosting in Multiplayer
Lastly (but not least), Turn 10 are tackling the griefing issues in Featured Multiplayer:
In a future update, we’ll introduce a new advanced ghosting system that predicts some of the most popular griefing incidents in Featured Multiplayer races, including high velocity collisions. The goal of this change will be to improve the quality of racing while ensuring clean drivers don’t feel like they need to rely on the auto-ghosting that is enabled when pausing the game. Once ready, this feature will be enabled in all Featured Multiplayer events, however it can be disabled in Private Multiplayer, ensuring event organizers have the flexibility and choice on whether they use these features in the races they host for their community.
It is great to see Turn 10 continue to push the latest Forza Motorsport along, expanding it with features and content fans have been keen for and bringing some of the systems within the game up to the high benchmark that was set for this title. There is no doubt the community at large but especially the Australian player base are excited to see the return of the sorely missed, Mount Panorama, later this year.
1-Up Games 
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