Forza 5: The only next

When the word Drivatar was first uttered to describe the so-called revolutionary technology powering Forza 5 on Xbox One, people laughed it off as the latest in a long line of vacant buzzwords that fail to be nothing more than empty promises. But developer Turn 10's creative director Dan Greenawalt stuck firm in his beliefs, affirming that once players got the game in their hands, they would all be converts to this new form of connected play.

As the old saying goes: he who laughs last, laughs best.

Drivatar has completely changed the way single-player races feel. As I mention in my review [link], driving with reckless abandon until you reach the front of the pack simply won’t cut it any longer: you’re in for a fight this time. The increased aggression and skill of AI means that from start to finish, you’re racing, not driving. Opponents capitalise on your errors, either with excellent overtakes or simple bumps to move you out of position.

Much of the talk in the build up to the launch of these shiny new consoles has been about how much eye candy we might be treated to. But once they’re in the wild, hopefully people enjoy what lies beyond the visuals. Having played a good amount of Forza 5, I’m very excited by this new cloud technology on Xbox One. As somebody who doesn’t often spend much time in multiplayer, having a real example of its seamless integration into a traditional mode is enticing, and Drivatar will only get better the more people and the more hours that are put into it.

In single-player, it bolsters the challenge significantly: it's no longer only about turning off my assists to ramp up difficulty. The spread of medals (again, as mentioned in the review) not only from first-to-third but at places all the way to the top ten, means you also now feel rewarded for the majority of places on the track. I earned a sixth placed finish because I had to battle for a lap and a half against two drivers and finally beat them on the second-to-last turn.

Incidents on the track are not purely determined by your actions alone. AI can veer off the road after carrying too much speed into a corner, or ram into the back of a driver who taps the brakes far too early. You are just as likely to be witness to as the centre of a spectacular crash. And you better be ready to avoid cars that lose control and enter dramatic spins in the middle of the track, or you'll be jockeying that rewind button.

Yes it can be frustrating at times, but when has a multiplayer race not been a nightmare? The vast majority of racers use my car as their brake pedal, ramming me into the tyres to give themselves a chance at making a corner, while I’m left stuck without the ability to rewind. According to Greenawalt, Drivatar learns only the ‘good’ behaviours of a player[http://www.sportra.com/details-forza-5s-drivatar-revealed/]. Cheating and overt aggression are not taken into account, meaning I have begun to prefer racing against the amalgamations of people than actually engaging in competition with the real person in a multiplayer match. I at least know the race has a chance of not devolving into billionaire bumper cars.

Is this all handled purely with Drivatar alone? Probably not. It’s more than likely that there have been major improvements to the basic driver AI to stop them simply sticking to the racing line. In previous Forza titles, all cars tended to meander across the track much like DMA Design’s ever-cute but naive Lemmings. However, the fact is that the new behaviours of all drivers that carry the gamertags of fellow players above their roofs means you begin to believe in the system.

A beautiful moment is when a friend’s Drivatar appears spontaneously on the track. The added sense of one-upmanship when you know the car in front is a buddy increases ten-fold, especially with the ability to shout “Xbox, record that” to capture the overtake (or indeed, the crash).

Because Forza was yet to hit store shelves at the time of writing, I wasn’t sure whether the game prioritised placing friend’s Drivatars into your races, but it would be a shame if it didn't.

Greenawalt has said the game’s technology will continue to learn the more we play it. Let’s just keep our finger’s crossed that the system doesn’t become self-aware and go all Skynet on us all, because I don’t know anybody named John Connor.