Photo: Xbox
From a marketing point of view, it makes perfect sense to delay announcing bad news until close to launch. That's precisely what Chris Esaki did recently when he said that Forza Motorsport would lack certain fan-favorite features at launch, including split-screen mode. Forza is set to launch on October 10 on PC and Xbox Series X|S and costs $70, but you can also get it for "free" if you subscribe to Game Pass.
Chris Esaki, Motorsport's Creative Director said during an interview that three fan-favorite features will be missing at launch. One of them is the nostalgic split-screen mode.
In the spirit of honesty, when was the last time most players split a TV screen in half to play with someone else? I haven't done so since the glorious days of Kane & Lynch, Army of Two, and the first two Gears of War.
It was fun back then because we were kids and didn't care for technical things like resolution, framerate, Field of View, etc. We just played for the fun of it, and having a friend over to play with was about as good as life could get back then.
But games like Call of Duty and Halo 2 on services like Xbox Live turned the whole local co-op thing on its head, and everyone wanted online parties. Granted, some titles still had split-screen, but why limit your view by half when you could have the entire TV to yourself?
Also, when a game uses split-screen mode, it sacrifices resolution and framerate to compensate for the extra player because it has to render everything twice. In 2023, would you prefer to play in 1080p or less at 30 fps on half a screen? I know I wouldn't.
Especially now with Game Pass, where you can play Forza Motorsport (and 100+ more games) for 11 bucks a month instead of coughing up the full $70.
Another one to go is Spectator Mode, which is a bummer for hardcore players. If you want to join in a pro-level online session and jump from player to player and viewpoint to viewpoint, you can't, at least not at launch.
Chris Esaki said: "Having players come into a featured multiplayer event and taking player slots and then spectating is not really the racing that we had intended."
It sounds like you needed to take up a player slot in a lobby in Spectator Mode to watch an online race. The question is, can't they go around the system and make special spectator slots for those wanting to witness a race up close?
Another bummer comes from the lack of AI in multiplayer. We'll only get to race real-life players. This isn't a bad thing by any means, but what happens in 3-6 months when the hype dies off and you're having difficulty finding a race filled with players?
Folks, this was the main jist of lousy news regarding Forza Motorsport. As a fan, it doesn't affect me because I barely have time for Single Player, let alone competitive multiplayer.
At the end of the day, it's a simple matter of "to each their own."
In the spirit of honesty, when was the last time most players split a TV screen in half to play with someone else? I haven't done so since the glorious days of Kane & Lynch, Army of Two, and the first two Gears of War.
It was fun back then because we were kids and didn't care for technical things like resolution, framerate, Field of View, etc. We just played for the fun of it, and having a friend over to play with was about as good as life could get back then.
But games like Call of Duty and Halo 2 on services like Xbox Live turned the whole local co-op thing on its head, and everyone wanted online parties. Granted, some titles still had split-screen, but why limit your view by half when you could have the entire TV to yourself?
Also, when a game uses split-screen mode, it sacrifices resolution and framerate to compensate for the extra player because it has to render everything twice. In 2023, would you prefer to play in 1080p or less at 30 fps on half a screen? I know I wouldn't.
Especially now with Game Pass, where you can play Forza Motorsport (and 100+ more games) for 11 bucks a month instead of coughing up the full $70.
Another one to go is Spectator Mode, which is a bummer for hardcore players. If you want to join in a pro-level online session and jump from player to player and viewpoint to viewpoint, you can't, at least not at launch.
Chris Esaki said: "Having players come into a featured multiplayer event and taking player slots and then spectating is not really the racing that we had intended."
It sounds like you needed to take up a player slot in a lobby in Spectator Mode to watch an online race. The question is, can't they go around the system and make special spectator slots for those wanting to witness a race up close?
Another bummer comes from the lack of AI in multiplayer. We'll only get to race real-life players. This isn't a bad thing by any means, but what happens in 3-6 months when the hype dies off and you're having difficulty finding a race filled with players?
Folks, this was the main jist of lousy news regarding Forza Motorsport. As a fan, it doesn't affect me because I barely have time for Single Player, let alone competitive multiplayer.
At the end of the day, it's a simple matter of "to each their own."
(FYI) Unfortunately, #ForzaMotorsport has three legacy features that won't be ready for launch
— Idle Sloth???????? (@IdleSloth84_) August 11, 2023
- Spectator mode
- Racing with Ai in featured multiplayer
- Splitscreen pic.twitter.com/4YCPf9TWes
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