Forza 4

[jztemple2]

I didn't sell mine either, thankfully.

Right now I'm downloading the Bonus Track Pack, which is the High Speed Benchmark Ring and the Top Gear Soccer Field, which is for MP.

[jztemple2]

I see one significant change from FM3. You can now buy cars not only with in-game credits but also with tokens purchased with Microsoft Points. One token is 80 MSP, six are 400 MSP and thirteen are 800 MSP. Most cars seem to go for one token. The most expensive car I could find, the Ferrari 250 GTO at ten million credits, is available for three tokens. Others might disagree, but I think this is a smart move on the part of MS and Turn 10. Totally optional, but for the car collector probably worth the extra shekels.

[Reemul]

Well that's good to know, i can get my F3 save up to £60k, also sadly made level 5 so far so a couple of cars as well.

[Reemul]

I see one significant change from FM3. You can now buy cars not only with in-game credits but also with tokens purchased with Microsoft Points. One token is 80 MSP, six are 400 MSP and thirteen are 800 MSP. Most cars seem to go for one token. The most expensive car I could find, the Ferrari 250 GTO at ten million credits, is available for three tokens. Others might disagree, but I think this is a smart move on the part of MS and Turn 10. Totally optional, but for the car collector probably worth the extra shekels.

Also those of us that don't get enough play time in due to kids and can pick up a few really hard to get cars. I know my son is obssessed with a few cars so it will be easier to buy them than make him wait as at nearly 5 is patience his rather limited (to about 5 mins )

[Reemul]

Also can you only be in 1 community club?

[Harkonis]

Right now Kato and Clanwolfer can both invite and accept invite requests as well.

[jztemple2]

Right now Kato and Clanwolfer can both invite and accept invite requests as well.

I requested through Kato. I just finished the First World Tour Championship with my Vauxhall (sponsored by MTV) which included knocking down oversized bowling pins on the Top Gear test track 

[Harkonis]

I'm excited and happy to report that multiplayer online racing provides big paydays, even when you don't place high.  F2 did it right, but F3 did not.

I got 8k after a 3 lap race even after 4k damages were subtracted.  I came in 5th.  That's better money than most career matches so far.

[jztemple2]

I'm excited and happy to report that multiplayer online racing provides big paydays, even when you don't place high.  F2 did it right, but F3 did not.

I got 8k after a 3 lap race even after 4k damages were subtracted.  I came in 5th.  That's better money than most career matches so far.

This is good because I see I can't hire a driver in Event List races. Bummer, some of those endurance events were very long.

Also it turns out I can't share a car with the club if it has locked decals from someone else on it. Also bummer, as I was trying to share my Binford Tools Delorean.

UPDATE: This appears to be new. Once you get a high enough affinity with a manufacturer,  all upgrade parts are FREE, even for other cars you might buy from them.

[wonderpug]

I'm excited and happy to report that multiplayer online racing provides big paydays, even when you don't place high.  F2 did it right, but F3 did not.

That's good news.  Any other significant upgrades from the last game standing out? 

[Teggy]

Go ahead and invite me. I don't have the game yet, but I will eventually.

[Harkonis]

I'm excited and happy to report that multiplayer online racing provides big paydays, even when you don't place high.  F2 did it right, but F3 did not.

That's good news.  Any other significant upgrades from the last game standing out? 

seems to be tons of small quality of life improvements.  Very nicely done overall.

Harkonis in a reasonably priced car is pretty fun too. 

Between Rivals mode and online racing, I might not touch the career much.

BTW, I'm trying to race with 100% assists off this time through.  Including no brake line (which is tough on new tracks)

Only problem I have with the way assists are is when you get to the high end sports cars, some have stability and traction control by default in real life and I wish those cars just had it on in the game at no penalty.  There's a reason they come with it

[Harkonis]

I'm excited and happy to report that multiplayer online racing provides big paydays, even when you don't place high.  F2 did it right, but F3 did not.

I got 8k after a 3 lap race even after 4k damages were subtracted.  I came in 5th.  That's better money than most career matches so far.

This is good because I see I can't hire a driver in Event List races. Bummer, some of those endurance events were very long.

Also it turns out I can't share a car with the club if it has locked decals from someone else on it. Also bummer, as I was trying to share my Binford Tools Delorean.

UPDATE: This appears to be new. Once you get a high enough affinity with a manufacturer,  all upgrade parts are FREE, even for other cars you might buy from them.

My current plan is to buy or select as the reward a car from each manufacturer and then get to affinity 4 before I start tweaking.  4 is very fast and free is awfully good.  One of the devs had mentioned they want people spending their money on cars and paint/decals/setups and not on parts.

[Teggy]

I'm excited and happy to report that multiplayer online racing provides big paydays, even when you don't place high.  F2 did it right, but F3 did not.

That's good news.  Any other significant upgrades from the last game standing out?  

BTW, I'm trying to race with 100% assists off this time through.  Including no brake line (which is tough on new tracks)

And so you should, so anyone else has a chance in hell of beating you.  In fact, can we make you run with half-inflated tires? Which button drops a spike strip?

[jztemple2]

My current plan is to buy or select as the reward a car from each manufacturer and then get to affinity 4 before I start tweaking.  4 is very fast and free is awfully good.  One of the devs had mentioned they want people spending their money on cars and paint/decals/setups and not on parts.

Sounds good to me. Probably should spend my time with manufacturers that have more than one car, like DMC  

[Dreamshadow]

Cannot wait for tonight to get home and play!  I'm hoping my World of Warcraft raid gets cancelled tonight.

Send me an invite for the GTF team.  What is the bonus track pack?  And will I be able to buy a vip kit later on, as I pre-ordered my Forza 4 too late for the collectors edition?

[Harkonis]

Looks like rivals mode also counts towards affinity and doesn't even require you to own the car used.  Progression is going to be painless.  More of doing what you want and having fun and less grinding.

Kato and I did a race with 12 AI drivers, and he got 9th and still got 8500k after 3 laps.  I did not even finish due to damage, and still got 3k.  No excuses for not playing with the group this time.  You don't have to win to get good results.

[gellar]

Looks like I'll be getting this after all as a friend from MSFT sent a copy my way as payment for a bet he owes.

[drifter]

Who has car clubs?  I sent a request to IkeV for his, not sure if you are on my freinds list still or not Hark; you may have dropped me.

Racing is fun again.  I let my son choose and he picked the Nissan Micra had a lot of fun with that car running the first 5 tracks.

[drifter]

Harkonis sent you and Kato a freind request.

[jztemple2]

I finally beat Hark on the Top Gear Rivals challenge, assisted in part that it was an "F" class event and partly because I drove over a dozen laps watching his ghost. And partly I'm sure because he was eating lunch or working a crossword puzzle or something like that. The only assist I had on was the braking zone line. I still need that when driving so many cars. I also had on Rewind, but since using it would have invalidated the lap, I probably should have turned it off. Silly me.

I don't know if it's the Pirelli input or some clever coding, but with TCS, ABS and Stabilty Control turned off even driving an F class is amazing fun. I'm using a standard 360 controller and it works just fine.

[Zinfan]

Also can you only be in 1 community club?

I had read somewhere that you were limited to just one car club at a time, makes sense to me.

[Zinfan]

Still waiting for the UPS driver to arrive at the house with my copy of the game, I think I'm on his route home since I never get UPS stuff before 5pm local and sometimes after 6:30.  Will be starting up using the MS wheel as my late decision to get the Fanatec CSR wheel means it has yet to ship.

[Harkonis]

I finally beat Hark on the Top Gear Rivals challenge, assisted in part that it was an "F" class event and partly because I drove over a dozen laps watching his ghost. And partly I'm sure because he was eating lunch or working a crossword puzzle or something like that. The only assist I had on was the braking zone line. I still need that when driving so many cars. I also had on Rewind, but since using it would have invalidated the lap, I probably should have turned it off. Silly me.

I don't know if it's the Pirelli input or some clever coding, but with TCS, ABS and Stabilty Control turned off even driving an F class is amazing fun. I'm using a standard 360 controller and it works just fine.

btw, I think I beat you before you even posted   The game told me you beat me, so I went there and beat ya.  This time I didn't use a stock car.

Thin J on the other hand is a very tough nut to crack.  He's consistently faster than me, but he does use assists.

[jztemple2]

Shame that Thrustmaster isn't making this wheel for the 360. It would go great with my F1 2011 game as well as FM4.

[gellar]

Holy boner.

[JayDee]

hehe, Thrustmaster.

Yes, I'm 12 years old.

[EngineNo9]

Man, since I won't have my copy until tomorrow I think you guys shouldn't be allowed to play or discuss the game yet.  

[Reemul]

Man, since I won't have my copy until tomorrow I think you guys shouldn't be allowed to play or discuss the game yet.  

Friday for us Europeans 

[IkeVandergraaf]

BTW, I'm trying to race with 100% assists off this time through.  Including no brake line (which is tough on new tracks)

Only problem I have with the way assists are is when you get to the high end sports cars, some have stability and traction control by default in real life and I wish those cars just had it on in the game at no penalty.  There's a reason they come with it

I've been trying this too.  In the single player, I won't use the racing line, but I'll generally run a few practice laps in free run with the line on just to learn the track.  The only exception I've been using is that I've been using manual shifting but not clutch.  That's just too much button-pushery.

I've been loving the World Tour mode.  I like how the additional race types add some nice variety.  The one that I've been having trouble with though is the bowling races.  Haven't beaten one yet.

I got a couple of invites from Hark yesterday, but by the time I got in the lobby, they were already racing and I didn't have the patience to wait, so I went back to the SP.  If anyone sees me on today, feel free to send me an invite.  Currently unemployed, and the woman has midterms!  There's been this annoying loud hiss whenever I hook up the mike though, and I don't know whether/how it will affect things in game.  I'm using a Turtle Beach headset.

I'd like to see the GT and Qt3 car clubs combine.  There's a fair amount of crossover, and I think a bigger pool would benefit everyone.  I'm not an administrator of either, though, so that's just my two cents.

Anyhoo, off to race more!

[Clanwolfer]

Had a tremendous amount of fun with this last night. There's a few of us in the house all racing, so it was pretty much going nonstop from the end of work to midnight.

I must, must, MUST get back into driving manual - I tried the Top Gear challenge a few times, and just could not get off the line fast enough to beat Hark's ghost. I was taking the last turn much faster and almost caught him, so I'm pretty sure that will put me over the top if I can just shift competently for the rest of the race.

Pretty happy with the car selection up through the early 20s in level. I was worried when I got all the bonus cars from importing a level 50 profile that I wouldn't have enough time racing in the lower classes, but even now I don't have a single class A in my garage - it does a good job of letting you fill out the classes one at a time. World Tour mode is a lot of fun.

I'm on the road for the next few days, so I think tonight I'm going to try to set times for all the Rivals mode entries I can get to tonight. I'm hoping to set decent times on at least a couple so that when I get back I have tons of notifications of times to beat.

And I'm loving the driving model so far - it really makes a huge difference where that traction is coming from, my GT500 and Elise are all over the place while my AWD Golf sticks to the road like nobody's business.

[jztemple2]

I must, must, MUST get back into driving manual - I tried the Top Gear challenge a few times, and just could not get off the line fast enough to beat Hark's ghost.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your comment, but usually it's the the second and subsequent flying laps where you score your best times. I found it so critical to get off the last turn smoothly so as to get the power down in order to get the best lap. And to beat Hark it had to be a clean lap which is much harder and especially on the Top Gear track.

[Harkonis]

Some challenges require a standing start.

Using the clutch has greatly improved my acceleration when I don't screw things up.  I will continue to ignore people who beat me but use more assists

The Hummer can be great fun, but I somehow flipped one over on Maple Valley on my first race with it.

[skystride]

I only got to play about 30 mins last night but it already feels so much better than Forza 3.  I can't nail down exactly what it is, the cars just feel right.  I'm really prone to spin out but I think I will stick with hard settings, brake line only, manual (I really wish I had a clutch pedal), rewind on.  I tend to get bored when there is no challenge in racing games and I'm just whizzing by track after track so sticking to hard might alleviate that problem I hope.  The game even has a good intro video.  First time in a while that I actually watched the whole cinematic in a racing game.

I uploaded 2 pics online but it says I don't have any galleries.  Anyone else able to get that working?

[Clanwolfer]

I must, must, MUST get back into driving manual - I tried the Top Gear challenge a few times, and just could not get off the line fast enough to beat Hark's ghost.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your comment, but usually it's the the second and subsequent flying laps where you score your best times. I found it so critical to get off the last turn smoothly so as to get the power down in order to get the best lap. And to beat Hark it had to be a clean lap which is much harder and especially on the Top Gear track.

Unless I'm missing something crucial, the Top Gear lap cuts off after one turn around, just like the actual Top Gear hot laps - I thought the only options I had were to accept the score, or restart.

[Reemul]

Doing my head in this, still no go until Friday here, add to that i've pulled a muscle in back meaning I will need all assists on 

[jztemple2]

Some challenges require a standing start.

Sheesh, I haven't practiced good standing starts with the manual tranny that much. Another day, another Challenge!

[jztemple2]

I've added a club GTF vinyl to my Storefront (for free  ) for those who wish to add it to their vehicles. It's very basic, since that's the kind of artist I am .

[skystride]

Is painting pretty much the same as before?  It would be nice if you could do some work in photoshop and upload it for use in Forza.

[jztemple2]

Is painting pretty much the same as before?  It would be nice if you could do some work in photoshop and upload it for use in Forza.

It's as far as I can tell exactly like before. No upload from the web that I can tell.

Oh, and I've also upgraded the DeLorean in the club garage to a S660 and updated the design to reflect the club name. Because, you know, race car.