Director defends Forza 5's slender structure
While the past few Forza Motorsport entries have offered players new packs of additional cars long after each game's debut, Forza 5 takes things to a whole new level. Our largely positive review described the game as enjoyable but anemic, but Forza creative director Dan Greenawalt stands by the team's design choices.
In a Shacknews interview, Greenawalt was asked why so much content appears to be missing from Forza 5 while developer Turn 10 Studios continues to promote upcoming DLC additions that should flesh out the racing simulation. "Forza Motorsport 5 is actually the largest racing game ever delivered at the launch of a console, by a long shot," Greenawalt states. "In fact, it would be huge even by second holiday standards. As mentioned above, it is bigger than Forza 2, which was delivered a year and half after the launch of the Xbox 360. It also has more car diversity than any previous Forza Motorsport; by including open wheel race cars and track toys like the KTM X-Bow and the Ariel Atom on top of the diversity that took us years to build up across multiple iterations on the Xbox 360.
"Moreover, we've defined an uncompromised quality bar for new generation racing games in both car and track detail and immersion - all while, delivering unprecedented size," Greenawalt says.
"Regarding DLC, we have found that 10 cars a month is the fastest we could create "just in time" content. Just like in Forza Motorsport 4, we are planning to add as many as 10 cars a month to Forza Motorsport 5. It takes more than six months to build every car. Delivering cars in monthly packs allows us to keep the game new and fresh for those that are interested."
When asked why Forza 5 is missing the iconic Nürburgring track, Greenawalt explains that the new graphics engine in Forza 5 necessitates that all tracks be rebuilt from scratch. While other famed racetracks like Spa were able to make an appearance in Forza 5, there just wasn't time to reproduce the lengthy, complex Nürburgring for the new engine, so instead of porting low-resolution content from Forza 4, the team opted to leave the track absent. "Expect more news on tracks in Forza Motorsport 5 in the near future," Greenawalt added.