Technically the 10th iteration of the series, Forza Motorsport 7 is a thing of beauty to behold for racing fans, pushing the Xbox One to its graphical limits (and even offering up 4K on the rapidly-approaching Xbox One X).
If you played the previous games you should already know what to expect, with just a few changes in the formula appearing this time around. For the newbies just jumping into the series, however, there is a challenging learning curve here to figure out how to even win a race.
Forza 7 Driving Tips
If you are just starting out — or your racing game experience can essentially be boiled down to “I like playing Mario Kart” — then the Assists screen will be your best friend.
High performance vehicles driving at top speeds on tight tracks are difficult to handle, and that’s why you want to learn with the Assists on first. Most notably, the Suggested Line, Traction Control, Shifting, Rewind, and Damage options are where you want to focus.
You don’t want to be worrying about shifting while figuring out a track, and allowing vehicle damage to do anything but show cosmetic changes will quickly see you losing races.
Turning the Assists on doesn’t lower your earnings, which is crucial for the new player. You can still end up with just as much money with all Assists set to super easy as you can on the hardest difficulty.
Changing Assist Settings
The Suggested Line is a powerful tool showing you the best way to move through a track, shifting to blue when its time to accelerate and red when its time to brake for a curve. For the most part, this nifty tool can help you get into the lead fairly quickly, and it teaches you how to think about a circuit to win later on when the Assist is turned off.
There’s a key exception to note here though: the Suggested Line is not the be-all, end-all of the road, and it isn’t always perfect. There are times where it’s better to avoid the Line entirely, especially if all the other cars on the track are crowding into that single lane.
Passing to take the lead requires paying attention to the driving pattern of the car ahead of you. Don’t just hit the gas and go for it, as you are going to end up losing speed as you bump into a car or a nearby obstacle. Instead, wait until you can clearly tell the car is about to start drifting left or right to match the Suggested Line, then pull in front.
Don’t forget — the other drivers will hit you. The AI racers aren’t super attentive, or maybe they are just jerks, but either way they won’t give up their lead and pull over to avoid hitting you if you are trying to pass as they are drifting closer to the edge.
If you get into a situation where you’ve consistently lost speed or you can’t quit match up to the Suggested Line, be sure to take advantage of Rewind if you have it turned on. Its simple to just go back 5 or 10 seconds in the race and perform that section better.
Aiming for the Suggested Line
The Forza 7 campaign makes a point of saying it over and over, but it bears repeating again: after you have the basics down, and whether you are using Assists or not, adaptability is the name of the game here.
Weather conditions will change how you need to drive. A race filled with semi trucks instead of sports cars will change how you need to drive. Getting clipped by another car because you weren’t paying attention will change how you need to drive.
Practice is your best method of mastering these changes, so jump in and try out different vehicles on different tracks with different weather. There are 700+ vehicles to choose from, so its not like you are ever going to be short on options or new driving styles.
Forza 7 New Mechanics
For those returning to the series, there are some changes you need to be aware of before jumping in. Most notably are the ways in which you can earn more money or get new options for your vehicle collection.
As was mentioned above, turning on the easy Assists doesn’t lower your earnings… but increasing the Drivatar difficulty will increase what you earn. Changing the Drivatar skill level to Above Average or higher bumps up your race rewards — so if you want more cash, give it a try. Keep in mind though that the difficulty gets crazy, quickly. At the higher levels on the more difficult circuits it can be a challenge to ever win if you haven’t mastered your particular vehicle and the current track.
Next up are Mods, which you can earn through the randomized prize crates. Yeah, we know, nobody’s stoked about this change all AAA games seem to have nowadays, but its here so you’ve got to learn to deal with the change.
Opening a prize crate and hoping for the best…
While you might get a minor cosmetic and mechanical change to your vehicle in a loot crate, you can also get a Mod that increases your earnings significantly, and that’s what you want to shoot for. So open these up as often possible.
Finally, make sure to lay down the cash to buy new cars frequently, because this time around your Car Collection rating actually has an impact not just on achievements, but on the quality of other vehicles you can buy and what rewards you receive on increasing your ranking.
Gotta keep upgrading those cards with Mods!
Ready to race? Get to it then, because that’s the basics of everything you need to know to play! Have any other Forza 7 driving tips and tricks we should try out? Let us know in the comments section.
Published: Oct 4, 2017 03:58 pm