Announced way back at the time of Forza 3 in 2009, Microsoft, quite rightly, made quite a big fuss about having secured a partnership with the BBC, or more specifically, their incredibly popular motoring program, Top Gear. The license is being used in many different ways in their upcoming racing game, Forza Motorsport 4, with everything from the Top Gear Test Track, to even Jeremy Clarkson being included in the game - but there's another interesting twist too.
Forza Motorsport 4 features a mode called AutoVista, a strange sounding idea where you can select a car from the game, and have Jeremy Clarkson tell you about it, while the game shows you a ridiculously realistic looking model of the car in question. It's all very fancy, and could actually be a fun addition, if Clarko provides his regular acerbic wit - but there's more to AutoVista than meets the eye. Along with telling you about any of the cars from the game, the mode will also let you look at a rather special car - the all-terrain, armoured jeep-come tank, the Warthog from Halo, which has been lovingly recreated for inclusion in the game. As with other cars in the AutoVista mode, Clarkson's been drafted in to provide an informative voice over about this... entirely fictional vehicle. Needless to say, it's had interesting results, as you can see below:
Coming with full, and optional Kinect integration, letting you do everything from steer your car holding an invisible steering wheel, to looking around your car by simply moving your head, and with a wide range of assists available, letting you take Forza from a hyper-realistic simulation of the nuances of driving, to a game with all the realism of bumper cars, Forza 4's shaping up to be an interesting game - for players of all persuasions. Look for more on this soon.
