Somewhat strangely, one of the games we knew the most about going into E3 was also one of the games that got the least stage time at Microsoft's pre-E3 conference in Los Angeles. Forza Motorsport 4 - the petrolhead's dream game that also comes with enough options and modes to make it playable by even the most novice of novices (rejoice for auto-break) was shown only in trailer form - but even that provided us with a few smidgeons of new information.
Ooh. Shiny.
Set to the tune of some "banging beats" that the kiddies will surely love, the Forza 4 whizzed past, beginning with showing you a variety of tiny pieces of a selection of "super cars", which we still maintain are ironically named, seeing as the main thing you can't do in them is get your shopping from the supermarket. It all looked very shiny, yes, but the graphics aren't the important bit - it's how it plays that matters.
Then, things started to get interesting. Words flashed on screen, revealing parts of the game we didn't previously know about. Kinect support. Kinect Headtracking. Kinect Voice. How the latter's going to work, we aren't sure, but we can at least imagine the former, regardless of how impractical it may seem. Looking left or right, or effectively away from your TV in order to control your viewpoint doesn't seem like the most logical of ideas - although it seems to work OK for Xbox Live's own Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb.
Later in the trailer, it was confirmed the will see expansive community functions (although again, there were precious few details shared about what exactly we'd be seeing), along with a reminder that the Top Gear test track will be featured in the game, as part of Forza's deal with Microsoft. The trailer wrapped up with the confirmation of the inclusion of cars from over 80+ manufacturers, along with "monthly expansions". Will this go beyond the now standard pattern of releasing a few cars and tracks every now and then? Could we see a subscription service? To be honest, the trailer raised more questions than it answered, but with any luck, we'll be getting answers soon. Forza 4 is still on track for a release by the end of this year. We'll bring you more as soon as we get it.
