Forza Motorsport became a huge milestone: 20 long years of being on the lock-stop full-throttle side of racing, jaw-dropping automotive masterpieces, and tracks that somehow have lived rent-free inside the minds of gamers. Truly, Forza has been such a delight to walk through in decades of burning rubber, revving engines, and glorious community hype. That grief-heavy, sentimental thank-you to the fans from the official Forza account really got us nostalgic.
Let’s move away for a little while. Forza Motorsport was birthed with a screech in 2005 as a title for the Xbox. It was no ordinary racing game; it was THE racing game. Setting unfairly high standards with its almost real physics, stellar car list, and tracks that made you feel like you were really there, it thrust those standards even higher. It must keep the standards raised because with every succeeding sequel, it kept raising them only a little more: in graphics, in handling, and in the sheer number of cars one could catch like digital Pokémon.
But why has Forza been for twenty years, not merely because of slick marketing and brand trailers. No. It survived because of the fans. The community obsessing over lap times, madly modding cars, and debating over tyre pressure as if it were a matter of life or death. As the Forza team put it: “Your passion, loyalty, and support have pushed us to new heights.” Let us break out of the PR fluff: without players out there grinding races, sharing liveries, yelling at their screens during photo finishes, the Forza series would not be the big giant it is today.
Well, “powerhouses” is definitely a title to bestow on the cars. That’s what it is. Oh, what cars! From Glorious Amps, those rare classics like the ’69 Camaro to unfathomable hypercars worth more than your house, the Forza garage is practically automotive heaven; and if the tracks are not just mere pixels, they’re totally mad. Nürburgring Nordschleife, Le Mans, Maple Valley-en-These, and Fueled by Pure Madness. New tracks are put in more or less regularly by Forza and then constantly polished for the classics so that there is an endless stream of incentives to come back.
It could not have been more timely: just last year, the latest iteration of Forza Motorsport hit retail and soared as a visual achievement. Ray tracing! Dynamic weather! And such precise handling that you can feel the difference between summer tires and slicks. The past seems to have purposely been swept away from the mind of these developers, and with each update, they grow, feeding into the feedback, giving everybody with gear head interests something to obsess about.
Then comes the big question: What’s next? Twenty years is a long time, and Forza shows zero signs of slowing down. New expansions, collaborations, and maybe even VR support are incredibly loud in rumors; the future shines brighter than a freshly waxed Ferrari. It would have to be the massacre if the community is not burning rubber for the next 20 years at least.
Happy anniversary, Forza! Thanks for the memories, adrenaline, and the countless hours of pretending to be professional racers. Here’s tostopgoreone next lap, hopefully wilder than the last. If we can get excused now, we’ve got some Porsche-and-Nürburgring date time. Engine revs.
