Chris Harding
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DualShockersLatest Reviews
After a dozen or so hours of unlearning my Horizon habits and forming myself into a semi-respectable sim racer, I can say that Forza Motorsport is perhaps the best of the best, at least right now. It's got it all: hundreds of cars to buy, tune, and race across a decent single-player campaign that's worth investing in. There's also an extensive multiplayer suite if you want to take your wheelman skills to the world. I gave it a go and came out with my tail between my legs, so it's not for me, but I can see the appeal, and fans of the franchise will definitely enjoy what's on offer, especially the rolling live events. And finally, if you just want to kick back and throw some cars around, or maybe try your hand at the infamous Nurburgring and try to post a best lap to the leaderboards, you've got the custom events to play around with. All said, you're getting a lot of bang for your buck with Forza Motorsport, and as it stands, I just don't know how Turn 10 can up the ante on the next one.
While the length may be an issue, there is a flip side to it. Just as I was starting to tire of the guns and sword combo fest, it was over. It wasn't long enough for me to get tired of its main selling points: the top-tier graphics and the chaotic combat. The visuals are stunning, granted, but the game takes place more or less across very similar environments, except for the gunfight on the wing of an airplane hurtling toward a black hole - Neil DeGrasse Tyson would pull that scene apart in a second. If the game ran for a further six hours but locked in with the linear locations I'd tire of it before the end. The combat, while being fun and encouraging experimentation, doesn't have the depth to carry the game for much longer - I'm sure that by hour four I'd completely drop the melee side and just stick to running and gunning, and then it's no different to most other shooters out there. So take my gripes with a grain of the good stuff and remember the old adage, less is more. But I still would have liked a little more. There's always room...
I'm conflicted when it comes to PowerWash Simulator. On one hand, it's an absolute bore and a chore with one-dimensional gameplay - can I even call it gameplay? - but on the other, it's still strangely fun and moreish, and seeing the grime trickle away and the percentage done counter ticking slowly upwards was enough to keep me wasting water for hours on end. It's an oddity, for sure, but one that I can't seem to peel myself away from, and the more I play it, the more I wonder if the world wouldn't be a cleaner place if we could all get the job done with a gamepad. C'mon, billionaires. Make it happen.
I say this because each exotic track is introduced with a bit of lore by way of the smooth voice-over. This is unusual for a racing game but I found it weirdly wonderful, and it had me wondering what else is going on beyond the colorful death-trap tracks I'm not really enjoying. Is there an RPG down in New Tokyo? A first-person shooter on Mars? A stealth-horror in the depths of the Mariana Trench? I don't know, but I think it says enough that instead of enjoying the racing, I'm fantasizing about being just about anywhere but on the game's tracks.