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
Hyundai Veloster Bonus Pack Trailer
Forza Motorsport 4: Jalopnik Car Pack arrives in January
The next downloadable car pack for Forza Motorsport 4 will arrive in January, and the cars included in the ‘January Jalopnik Car Pack’ have been revealed with a typically wide range of eras and manufacturers. As with previous packs, it will cost 560 Microsoft Points, but will be free if you’ve already invested in the Season Pass.
It’s an interesting line-up, although it’s lacking a little in vintage European cars, and adds again to the U.S muscle selection.It’s good to see another Fiat joining the game as a brand which has been a bit weak so far, and we’re looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the Huayra.
January Jalopnik Car Pack:
- 1970 Alfa Romeo Montreal
- 2011 Audi RS5
- 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS
- 1986 Dodge Shelby Omni GLHS
- 2000 Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo
- 1973 Ford Pinto
- 2011 Honda #33 Level 5 Motorsports Lola
- 2012 Honda Civic Si Coupe
- 2011 Lamborghini #08 West Yokohama Gallardo LP560-4
- 2012 Pagani Huayra
So we get the V8-powered classic Alfa, which was a 2+2 Coupe produced from 1970-1977. We get the seventh-generation Chevy Impala with a 5.7 litre small block V8 in a four-door sedan body. The controversial safety record of the 2-door 2 litre Ford Pinto means the game is as close as we’d probably like to get to racing it in real life, despite later research suggesting it wasn’t actually as lethal as was made out at the time. And the ’86 Dodge Shelby GLHS is an interesting and extremely limited-edition 2.2 litre four door hatchback which performed well, particularly racing on shorter tracks. But out of all of them, the most interesting is likely to be the two-door Fiat Coupe, which is a 2 litre, front-wheel drive machine, with an engine based on the twin-cam of the Lancia Delta Integrale. It’s something a bit different, and is the most likely to have actually been experienced by European drivers in real life.
Obviously the £850,000 Pagani Huayra is likely to grab most people straight away – a 700hp 6 litre V12 from Mercedes combined with Pagani styling is definitely going to make an impact, but most interesting is that it’s appearing, given that the rights for it to appear in video games was licensed to EA for the Need for Speed games. Given the loss of Porsche from Forza due to EA not sharing the licensed cars, it’s nice to see that it doesn’t necessarily apply to every manufacturer they secured.
Previous Forza Car Packs were the Speed Pack and IGN Car Pack. We’ve listed every single car in the game in the complete list of official Forza Motorsport 4 cars.
Trucks on their way to GT5
As Forza 4 was released on the Xbox, PS3 users rejoiced in the ‘Spec 2.0’ update given to Gran Turismo 5. Alongside this release, developers Polyphony Digital released the first paid-for pack of downloadable content for Gran Turismo 5.
The downloadable content, or ‘DLC’ for short, featured the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium along with a few new cars, a kart track and some more helmets and paint items. Not that you had enough already. You can get the whole lot for ten pounds, twelve dollars, and by the current exchange rate, eight hundred million Euros.
Gran Turismo 5 DLC will include truck racing for the first time
Whilst the addition of Spa to the game is welcome, one might argue it is the only part of the DLC worth paying for – given there are already a thousand cars to choose from – but players have clearly voted with their wallets, the DLC reaching more than a million downloads in the first two weeks of being on sale.
In an interview with IGN, Gran Turismo’s creator Kazunori Yamauchi has confirmed GT6 is in the pipeline (although that’s little surprise given the success of the series) and that DLC for GT5 would continue to be released every couple of months:
“…we’re ready to release more expansions and content to add to the game. I think that will include cars and trucks that we’ll be releasing maybe once every two months or so from here on out.”
So PS3 players can look forward to racing trucks for the first time in the series (hopefully they’ll be as fun as the ones from Toca Race Driver 3) but will have to fork out for the privilege. Fingers crossed Polyphony Digital offer players some decent new tracks and value for money, rather than a thousand new truck horn sound effects. Honk honk.
Safari Rally DLC now available for WRC 2
You can now download the WRC 2 “Safari Rally” DLC pack for 400 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360 Marketplace or 4.99 Euros on Playstation Network.
The downloadable content pack includes one exclusive special stage which is set in Tanzania and Kenya, and is longer than any current stage on the WRC calendar. And if you want to tackle it in a classic Safari car, the options include legends such as the 1991 Lancia Delta Integrale HF, the Ford Escort RS 1600, the Peugeot 504, the Subaru Impreza, the 1992 Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD, and the 1996 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3. Perfect for emulating a rally raid although you can also compete in any of the existing WRC2 selection of cars from classics to the modern era.
The DLC has been timed to appear just before the start of the real Safari Rally, considered by many to be the toughest since it was first held in 1953. This year it runs from November 19-28.
WRC 2 Safari Rally DLC Screens:
Forza Motorsport 4 ‘Speed Pack’ details and November 1st release
The second car pack for Forza Motorsport 4, the Forza Motorsport 4 ‘Speed Pack’ will be available for download from November 1st via the Xbox Live marketplace for 560 MS Points (Unless you’ve already signed up for the Season Pass), and features 10 new cars. There’s a little something for everyone as the vehicles chosen span from 1957 to 2013, and a range of classes. That’s right – you’ll be able to drive a car in Forza which is due out in more than 12 months!
Forza Motorsport 4 ‘Speed Pack’ car list:
- 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4
- 2012 Aston Martin Virage
- 2011 #2 Audi Sport Team Joest R15++ TDI
- 2011 Audi RS3 Sportback
- 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air
- 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8
- 2011 Ferrari #62 Risi Competizione F458 Italia
- 2012 Ford Focus ST
- 1992 GMC Typhoon
- 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R
Obviously we’re looking forward to taking the ’57 Chevy out for a spin, and there was a need to also include more modern machinery given that the first car pack was all about American Muscle. The selection isn’t too bad, but we’re hoping that there’s more of a focus on historic European cars in the future to counter the slight feeling of bias towards the V8s. Having said that, we’ll definitely be trying out the Aventador and the Virage – the Aston Martin attempts to combine speed and luxury, so it’ll be good to be able to visit the interior and judge for ourselves in case we ever win the lottery.
And incidentally for European readers, the GMC Typhoon is a V6 SUV which was capable of 0-60mph in 5.3 seconds and a quarter-mile in 14.1 seconds – under 5,000 were ever built, and include all-wheel drive, self-leveling rear suspension, and a 4-speed automatic. Which should be interesting!
Gran Turismo 5 major update and makeover
Forza 4 is coming out shortly, and by complete coincidence, Gran Turismo 5 is now getting a makeover.
In what Polyphony Digital are calling a screamingly unsexy “Functionality Update”, there are some major changes afoot. So is it going to be snog, marry or avoid? The early signs are it may be a candidate for marriage, and the date is already set for 11th October.
GT5 is now a year old, and whilst it’s still a fantastic title there have always been some major gripes with it. For example, the inability to save the game during endurance races – in order to complete the Le Mans 24-hour race, you would have to leave your PS3 on for at least 24 hours, and factoring in things like screen, toilet, sleep and food breaks. You would be lucky to do it in much less than a week. But good news – the 2.0 update will let you save your game DURING the races. Hurrah!
The other big changes are that all ‘standard’ cars will now feature an in-car view (previously only ‘premium’ cars did), some tweaks to the driving physics, and weather settings will now be much more customisable – with players able to “incrementally adjust weather settings for race start and race end”.
I believe GT5’s main weakness to be the clunky menu interface and loading times between screens, and this too is being addressed, with “shortening of load times and improved menu response” and “improved and enhanced user interface” in the pipeline. There will also be 11 new NASCAR’s added to the game (surely these are just liveries?), some new online features and the thing everyone has been screaming out for – updates to the ‘Travel Photo Mode’. At last.
One might argue that these things should have been in the game from the start, but there’s no denying this is an improvement, and fair play to Polyphony Digital for not making everyone pay extra for it… oh, hang on a minute… what?
Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi says: “I can also advise you of more great news – very shortly we will be sharing with you details of a forthcoming package of exciting DLC [downloadable content] for GT5 that will include new vehicles and tracks plus a host of other additional new content. “
Oh right, butter us up with the free update news and then reveal it’s just to make room for all the new stuff we’ll have to pay for. Great news indeed.
Needless to say when we have any more details on this we’ll bring them to you, but maybe don’t book the church just yet.
F1 2011 secrets revealed on Twitter
Detailed information about inclusions, tweaks and updates for the forthcoming F1 2011 have been few and far between, but Steve Hood, Chief Game Designer for F1 2010/11, has revealed many snippets of information via his Twitter account (@T4RG4) not mentioned in official press releases.
Hood is preparing for the first public screening of the game at Gamescom 2011 in Cologne, and has revealed that co-op championships will only be available online rather than via split-screen, the career mode will be five seasons rather than seven.
Perhaps most interestingly, it seems using driving aids whilst racing online will now carry weight penalties – meaning more skilful drivers will no longer be disadvantaged compared to those using ABS and traction control.
Hood also reveals his team would like to include additional downloadable content and that he would like to include helmet designs of classic drivers in the game.
Here is a select sample of Steve Hood’s most revealing tweets:
“Co-Op is a single season” … “Co-op Championship is Online only, not in Split-screen (although you can run a 1-19 races if you wish)”
“And the Stats have shown few people went all the way through 7 seasons so I’ll put up with it as long as it’s 5 decent seasons in Career.”
“Truth in DLC rumours? Hmm… well. We’ve talked about it and talked about it. We do want to do it. It’d be so cool!”
“TC and ABS carry weight penalties (for experienced drivers and the penalty goes up with rank).” … “Assists = extra weight issue. it’s not to penalise players using assists but demotivate/equal good players using assists to be even faster.”
“…we’ve gone way past the point of being able to add Ricciardo to HRT”
“No flag helmets this year. Because I get so many requests to add more nations! So it’s original designs in’11 
” … “I’d love to include classic driver helmets but it’s a license minefield. Will still try!”
You can follow Steve’s tweets on @T4RG4, and also the official feed for the game @formula1game. You can also follow us – @ORDNews.
Looking to pre-order F1 2011 before it’s released on September 23rd, 2011? Then check out:
