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Forza Motorsport 8 was always supposed to be better than 7 with 6 years of better tech and more dev hours going into making a better game.
While this doesn’t mean Forza 7 was not a good drift, it was. But we’re supposed to do this Forza Motorsport 8 review without bias.
There’ll always be a bias.
Between puritan sim-racing and arcade racing fun, you have controllers vs. the whole sim-racing accessory pack.
Where does the newest Forza fit into all this? In this blog, you’ll find a compilation of multiple perspectives.
Forza Motorsport 8 Review: What’s New and Good
Let’s take the cat out of the bag. Is Forza Motorsport 8 worth it? Yes, it is. Now let me add a few ifs and buts.
Forza Motorsport 8 is great if you’re a Forza series gamer and if you’ve been waiting for half a decade for a sim-racing game that you can essentially muster to master.
It’s better in terms of graphics quality and output. This is the first Forza for the new-gen consoles. With raytracing on, you’ll probably get the best graphics out there, unless you’d prefer the processed hues and reflections on the likes of Cyberpunk or maybe the upcoming GTA 6.
Also, some of us are rating this Forza 2023 highly as the first CaRPG of the genre. You get to upgrade your cars other than tuning them which is more fun than the flimsy upgrades you get as rewards. But car upgrades? Really? It’s like upgrading character skills in an RPG. And you can’t use credits for these ‘Car Points’ or Car XP or CXP. How do you get CXP? Race better. Smells like GT7? Smells good. Fans are mostly happy about this big change, rewarding proficiency over grind. But there’s a caveat. Once you get to the later stages, the grind hits hard. Unless you put in a few laps in practice races to get both CXPs and a better racing line for the actual race to be confident enough to start from the back. But you’re not a sim-racing pro are you? Forza will ask you this.
Another update to lure in the puritans and keep the less-puritan majority clocking the hours is the Sequence Score, where the game will rank your racing line with a score. Keep it above 9.0 and you get money to buy new cars. Not CXP. So the grind’s intentional!
But perhaps the best bit of Forza Motorsport (It’s not Forza Motorsport 8 mind you) is the humongous list of cars. Across 20 tracks available at launch, more to be added soon enough, and race weekends in multiplayer mode, looks good so far.
Multiplayer mode’s better than career mode, where the latter is more or less to let players get a good garage of upgraded cars and sufficient lap times to work it against the pros. Only Multiplayer mode has qualifying and race timings down to the thousandth of the second.
Graphics quality is close to the best you’ll get on an Xbox X/S across any title. Enjoy raytracing and 4k at 60fps on your Xbox consistently enough for you to say this is the best Forza yet.
Lastly but most importantly for a proper Forza Motorsport 8 review, this is the best Forza for the racing feel. The car will respond in every way possible and almost (Almost) mimics sim-racing except for the nuances that make Forza more accessible and ‘easy’ (read forgiving).
Forza Motorsport 8 Review: Lost Somewhere Between Fun and Serious Racing
Since Forza Motorsport 7 is all but dead in the water, it’s only this new Forza Motorsport now, and of course Forza Horizons for racing gamers.
But the thing with Forza Motorsport 2023 is that it’s neither a proper sim-racing title nor is it a fun arcade racing game.
It’s forgiving enough across the 20 tracks. It’s expansive enough with 500 cars to add to your garage.
But when you go to the meat of the game, the racing, it’s rough for generic NFS and Forza Horizons players. Getting the best out of Forza Motorsport 8 will need practice, discipline, and a hard grind, even if it’s in a stock car. The right line is always rewarded and the learning curve is getting the right line beyond which comes the part of pushing the limits. Tire grip is better managed, a continued decadence instead of going dead after a certain period. But that’s it. Is Forza Motorsport a sim-racing game? No and you’re better off even with Gran Turismo 7 or Assetto Corsa or even iRacing.
So what is Forza Motorsport 8?
At its best, Turn 10 (and Microsoft) have developed a wannabe sim racer that’s simple enough to bring its Forza Horizon crowd into a more disciplined racing game available on Game Pass.
Putting it smack in the middle of the whole gamut of racing games is surely intentional.
Forza Motorsport 2023 can have X playing straight up with an Xbox controller and Y playing it on a fully beefed-up racing setup competing on the same track and getting their satisfaction from the game.
That’s perhaps the best way to sum up this Forza Motorsport 8 review. It has a bit for everyone, a jack of all trades, but it’s neither a sim nor an arcade racer. But it’s most definitely worth it.
Forza Motorsport 8 Editions
| Edition | Price | Contents |
| Standard | $69.99 | Base game |
| Deluxe | $89.99 | Base game, Car Pass |
| Premium | $99.99 | Base game, Car Pass, Race Day Car Pack, VIP Membership, Welcome Pack |
| Premium Add-Ons Bundle | $39.99 | Car Pass, Race Day Car Pack, VIP Membership, Welcome Pack |
If you have Game Pass you can pass on the Standard Edition.
Here’s where to buy the other Editions –
Every edition includes key add-ons that are also available as standalone packs.
Car Pass
Get a new-to-Forza car available in your car every week for 30 weeks straight.
Race Day Car Pack
Get 8 new-to-Forza cars in your garage. These are race-tuned cars, ready for racing straight up.
VIP Membership
There’s a lot to VIP membership. For starters, you get twice as many credits in-game. Thereon, you get 5 exclusive VIP member Forza cars to get a huge advantage in Career or Multiplayer mode. Also, enjoy VIP-exclusive events and cosmetics.
Welcome Pack
Is this the best Forza Motorsport 8 pack? You get 5 Showroom cars and 500,000 credits to buy what you want and access to Modern Tour.
Is Forza Motorsport 8 on Xbox One?
Forza Motorsport 8 is not Xbox One and there will be no backward compatibility for Xbox One either. It comes down to basic hardware capabilities and compatibility with the new Forza Motorsport being the first of the series developed for the latest-gen consoles.
Can you play Forza Motorsport 8 on Xbox One?
Yes and No. You cannot play Forza Motorsport 8 on Xbox One but you can stream the game via Xbox Cloud Gaming on your Xbox One. You will need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and reliable network connectivity to stream the game via your Xbox One instead of playing it.
Bottomline – Forza Motorsport is an almost perfect addition to the franchise. Wishful thinking apart, Career Mode should have all in-game and gameplay features available in Multiplayer mode. Other than that, Gran Turismo 7 does seem to have better or at least more attractive graphics in comparison. But the verdict for this Forza Motorsport 8 review would be a bit different than most other reviews unwaveringly happy with the game. The new Forza Motorsport could have so easily been better. Here’s the car list though. Hit the Apex.
