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Social features in games are becoming increasingly important to publishers and developers, so it’s no real surprise to see a suite of new social options available in Forza 4 – known in the game as Rivals mode.
Turn 10 Studios’ content director Mark Wendl, speaking to journalists at a behind closed doors E3 event, describes Forza 4’s Rivals mode as “basically asynchronous play, so you can go up against your friends or anybody online, even when they’re not online, and race against them. The more accomplished they are – the higher their skill level, their Achievements basically – the higher the bounty you get for beating them.”
Rivals’ bounty system effectively gives you further incentive for beating your friends’ times, handing out in-game currency alongside bragging rights on the global leaderboards.
But does Turn 10 Studios take any inspiration from Autolog, the social tracking feature currently embedded into the Need for Speed racing series? “It certainly builds on a lot of those things,” says Wendl, “but I think with some of the additions like the bounty, and some of the other features around car clubs and how they interact, I think it’s kind of taking it to a whole new level.”
Car clubs are another new social feature added in Forza 4, allowing groups of users to band together and form a team of players with access to a communal shared garage. Wendl explains that the mode is designed for the ways “people interact with Forza, whether that’s painters, tuners, drivers, people that customise, to get together and form a club and compete against other clubs online.”
How does that competition work, exactly? Will you be able to race club against club using Rivals mode, for instance? “You know, I’m not sure about that. I don’t see why not,” says Wendl.
Wendl thinks it’s important to add in social features like Rivals and Autolog so that players can always find competition of a similar skill level as theirs. “One of the challenges of playing online is, even with a game like ours when even a year after launch we have a lot of people online playing our game all the time, even then it’s difficult to find somebody who’s online at the same time you are of a similar ability. Chances are they’re going to be way better than you or way worse than you. So finding somebody who’s a similar skill level can be challenging.”
Forza 4 will be released on Xbox 360 this October. VideoGamer.com has also detailed Forza 4’s Autovista mode.
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