Forza Motorsport 4 – February American Le Mans Pack DLC details
The Forza Motorsport 4 monthly car pack releases continue with the ‘February American Le Mans Series Pack’ arriving on Tuesday, February 7th via Xbox Live, and it’ll be the usual 560 MS Points or included free for those signed up to the FM4 Season Pass. And despite the name, there are definitely some cars included which could be of interest for non-ALMS fans.
FM4 February American Le Man Series Pack Car List:
- 1991 Mazda #55 Team Mazdaspeed 787B
- 2011 #2 Audi Sport North America R18 TDI
- 2011 Bentley Platinum Motorsports Continental GT
- 2010 Dodge Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Challenger SRT8
- 1986 #2 Audi Sport quattro S1
- 2011 Panoz #050 Panoz Racing Abruzzi
- 1992 Alfa Romeo 155 Q4
- 1995 Ford Mustang Cobra R
- 2011 Holden HSV GTS
- 2011 Volkswagen Polo GTI
Our most anticipated car has to be the Audi Quattro, based on our love of classic rallying and rallycross. It looks suitable mean and aggressive, and has meant I’m now waiting until the pack is available before trying to make a replica of the awesome black Audi raced by Dimi Mavropoulos in British Rallycross when I was a child (It’s not quite the same as his, but might be a better match than upgrading the standard quattro). The reason being races like this one at Lydden Hill, which formed a huge part of my childhood days out with my parents.
The 1991 Le Man winning Mazdaspeed 787B is going to be an awesome experience simply due to the sound of the 690hp Wankel rotary which could hit 215mph plus on the Mulsanne Straight and led to the introduction of chicanes to slow cars. Besides the Audi and Mazda, the other notables are the “Rampage” Jackson Challenger SRT8 which ties into a new King of the Track challenge featuring the UFC fighter, the customer widebody Continental GT which was built by Platinum Motorsports and won the ‘Car of the Show’ at the mini car show organised by Turn 10 at the 2011 E3, and the dark horse of the 1992 Alfra Romeo 155 Q4 which features AWD as standard, plus a 2.0 litre turbocharged motor with 187 horsepower. Depending on the car class, that could give a fair bit of potential in B and A class racing.
The question marks are whether we need yet another Mustang – even if this one is a particularly special example of which only 250 real cars were ever built, and whether the new Holden is a bit more usable than the current in-game examples.
Here’s the official trailer for the Forza Motorsport 4 February American Le Mans Pack.
So what do you think about the latest car pack and all the additional cars released so far? What’s been the best car pack so far?
Forza Motorsport 4 Launch Bonus Pack now available for everyone
If you’re a completist when it comes to your Forza garage and you missed out on any of the special launch pre-order cars and Ship Bonus car pack, there’s some good and bad news for you. The good news is that the Launch Bonus Pack is now available to download, featuring the ten previously exclusive cars. The bad news for many of us is that the pack isn’t included in the Forza Motorsport 4 Season Pass subscription, so will cost you an additional 560 Microsoft Points.
For reference the Pre-Order cars included are:
- 2011 MINI John Cooper Works Clubman
- 2011 Alfa Romeo Giulietti QUadrifoglio Verde
- 2011 Honda CR-z EX
- 2011 Subaru WRX STI
- 2011 BMW 1 Series M Coupe
And the Ship Bonus Cars are:
- 1965 Ford Mustang GT Coupe
- 1997 Lexus SC300
- 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport
- 2011 RUF RGT-8
- 2011 Koenigsegg Agera
TDU2 bug response – patch and premium DLC pack for free
The release of Test Drive Unlimited 2 has not gone without problems, as a number of bugs have been discovered, particularly around online connectivity and save game corruptions. An open letter to the TDU2 community from publishers Atari and developers Eden has confirmed that a patch is now live for the PC version, and is in approval for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 editions.
It also states that the first DLC pack, which was initially to be released as premium paid content, will now be made available for free on all platforms – the ‘Exploration Pack’ contains new wrecks to discover, which will unlock the Lancia Stratos version Rallye and 1969 Dodge Charger.
The patch fixes the following issues:
- Logging into the game has been improved
- Once into the game the online network experience is now much more stable in all areas
- Save games no longer corrupt
- Existing corrupted save games will be repaired in many cases
- Friends lists are now populated
- Invites now work correctly
- Clubs have been brought back online
- Exploits to gain money have been fixed
- Casino access has been improved
- Players will no longer lose money because of the Casino bug
The news of better online connectivity and the save games fix will be a huge boost to those who have already bought the game, and means that it’s easier to recommend it as a more relaxing and chilled online driving game. You can pick up a copy at Amazon, Gamestop, Game, Play.com and other software retailers….
Cheating prompts GT5 Academy changes and GT5 game update
It’s said that cheats never prosper, but in this case they may have helped everyone benefit as widespread corner cutting in the second round of the GT Academy USA Round Two has led to postponement of Round 3 pending an update for Gran Turismo 5.
The second round featured time trials on Rome and Madrid, but the fact that corners could be skipped entirely, along with other examples of ‘wall-banging’ and abuse led to the times being discarded, and the competition restarting with Round 3, which was due to begin on February 14th, 2011.
However, the cheat may have stepped up the next Gran Turismo 5 update, as Kazunori Yamauchi has revealed it will come ‘mid-February’, and Round 3 has now been postponed until after the patch has been released.
Sony’s official response:
“Because of this we are effectively negating Round 2 of the competition, allowing EVERYONE who entered round 2 to automatically progress to Round 3. As notified before, we had changed the course for the event twice due to these issues, but we were unable to completely eliminate the problem.
“For this reason we are now working on an update that will help prevent this type of inappropriate driving. Because Round 3 must take place after the release of this update, the previously announced schedule of February 14, 2011 9:00AM is subject to change. The new schedule hereafter will be announced again at a later date.
“We send our sincere apologies to all participants of Round 2, for the repeated inconvenience and turmoil this may have caused. We are currently working hard to make the necessary adjustments to prepare a fair race environment for everyone, and ask for your patience until Round 3 of the competition is ready”
This follows two previous circuit changes due to corner cutting, as Round 2 originally featured the Indianpolis Motor Speedway Road Course, but due to cheating, this was switched to the Eifel, before the continued cheating led to the whole thing being scrapped!
Hopefully Round 3 will progress more smoothly!
World Class Car Pack out for Forza Motorsport 3
In case you’ve missed it, the World Class Car Park is now available for Forza Motorsport 3, for 400 Microsoft points.
The car list is:
- 2011 McLaren MP4 12C
- 2010 Acura TSX V6
- 2010 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG
- 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe
- 2010 FIAT Punto Evo SPORT
- 2010 Mercedes-Benz CL 65 AMG
- 2010 Kia Forta Koup SX
- 2010 Mazda 2
- 2011 Citroen DS3
- 2010 Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart
Weirdly enough, the faster cars aren’t the most interesting for me – although I wouldn’t say no to an AMG Mercedes if I had the chance to park it on my drive. It’s the hatches and other cars which I always find the most fun, and which I’d love to see more of – especially as more and more people would be able to race the car they actually own…
In fact, the only downsides to more and more car packs are the cost, and the space it takes up on your harddrive – Forza isn’t going to be a game for anyone still using a 20GB harddrive with their 360 anymore…
It seems like Forza is releasing a car pack every month at the moment. June saw the Summer Velocity Pack, also 400 points, and featuring the:
- 2010 Lotus Evora Type 124
- 2010 Ford Fusion Sport
- 2009 Chrysler Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8
- 2010 Subaru Legacy B4 2.5GT
- 2010 Bertone Mantide
- 2010 Mazda Mazdaspeed 3
- 2010 Morgan Aero SuperSports
- 2010 Peugeot RCZ
- 2010 Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG
- 2010 BMW Motorsport X6 M
Personally I’m still waiting for the 1995 Nissan 100 NX, a car which is regularly listed as one of the ugliest of all time (But there’s a modified example on my drive which I love!)
Don’t forget you’ll need a copy of Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360)
