It’s not often that I have the opportunity to talk about gaming — I’m pretty much the only gaming enthusiast here at TFL — but let’s talk about the next generation of racing games. I’m beyond excited for what’s coming, from Gran Turismo 7 on the PlayStation 5 to this: the upcoming “Forza Motorsport” for the Xbox Series X. Microsoft previewed the game as part of its upcoming games showcase for its upcoming powerhouse console, and the new hardware is letting the game developers crank the graphics up to eleven.
Following the typical convention, this one will be called Forza Motorsport 8, but the lack of a number in this trailer may suggest we’re about to go in another direction here. Perhaps this will essentially be a “reboot”, if the game is radically different than the last two entries we’ve seen for the Xbox One, or it may get its full name for the release, whenever that happens.
So, what’s in the trailer? In impressive clarity, the “in-engine” footage shows Mazda prototype racers, a BAC Mono and the Apollo Intensa Emozione, just to name a few. You also get fully-modeled racing drivers, as well as some action at Laguna Seca. Of course, the trailer shows a shot of the Corkscrew, just to show off how detailed this next-gen engine is going to be.
What makes it possible
Of course, the Xbox Series X brings a whole new level to console performance. You can bet developers are going to wring every inch of that out in their games, Forza Motorsport included. Sites like TechRadar break down the numbers between the new console and its Xbox One X predecessor, if you’re a nerd like me and want to learn more about that. In short, the new console will support up to 120 frames per second gaming or up to 8K resolution (though not at the same time). In Forza’s case, you should be able to get 4K resolution at 60 FPS. That means you’ll get both incredibly smooth and incredibly detailed gaming, moreso than we have in the past.
The new Forza Motorsport will also support ray-tracing for improved lighting effects — a technology that debuted a in 2018 on Nvidia’s “GeForce RTX” discrete PC graphics cards. There’s no word yet as to when the new Forza Motorsport will launch, and an accompanying presentation revealed the game was still “early in development”. That means we may see it sometime in 2021, and the game will be available on PC as well as Xbox Series X.
