Pt. 1: Tutorial

The game starts at the beginning - which in this case means a relatively short and easily mastered tutorial that is not optional, and whose intent is to bring both the veteran racers and the newbie racers quickly up to speed using the well established combination of the unofficial starting race, and a three-race heat set whose collective goal is to get you back into racing mode. Or get you there from scratch depending on where you are arriving from.

What that means is simple - new racers will get the down-low, while returning vets will get a taste and then be presented with the option to alter the settings to suit their advanced tastes.

Actually there is a bit more to this than you might think - particularly for the returning veteran racers. A major part of that is going on behind the scenes, as while you are racing, the game is evaluating a whole pile of relative information from your gamertag and the profile that Turn 10 maintains on their servers for every racer who has ever played a Forza game.

While you are racing through the tutorial, Turn 10 is racing through you - or more to the point your racing record, your Achievements, and your standing on the Forza Hub. The reason for this is simple enough - when you exit the tutorial the game needs to know what bonus and loyalty rewards you have coming to you.

Did you play the previous games? Any? All? How far into each did you get? What is your Tier Level for the Forza Hub? Which games did you have VIP status in? All of that counts mates, because all of those issues and facts will contribute to both the collection of “reward” cars and the bonus money in in-game credits you will be awarded.

Are we all on the same page here? Good!

When you complete the first race - and before you start receiving rewards, you will unlock your first Achievement: Welcome to Forza Motorsport (5g) Complete the first race.

Rewardsville

Granted, this will not mean much to the new players who are arriving in Forza land for the first time, but for those of you who are returning - like we are - the magic is in the details. So we thought we would share OUR details with you so you can see what that process actually translated to...

After we completed the tutorial, the game delivered the following rewards:

• Forza Motorsport 6 Pre-Order Reward: 2016 Mazda Team Forza MX-5

• Forza Motorsport 6 Demo Reward: 2017 Ford GT

• Forza Tier Level 2 Reward: 2014 BMW M235i

• Forza Tier Level 3 Reward: 2012 Nissan GT-R Black Edition

• Forza Tier Level 4 Reward: 2015 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe

• Forza Tier Level 5 Reward: 2014 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S

• Forza Tier Level 6 Reward: 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4

• Forza Tier Level 7 Reward: 2014 Ferrari #62 Risi Competizione 458 Italia GTLM

• Forza Tier Level 8 Reward: 2014 Audi #2 Audi Team Joest R18 e-tron quattro.

• Forza Motorsport 4 Reward: 2009 Ford Focus RS

• Forza Horizon 2 Reward: 2013 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Shelby

• Forza Motorsport 5 Reward: 2013 Ford Shelby GT500

• Forza Horizon 2 VIP Reward: 2011 Koenigsegg Agera

• Forza Motorsport 5 VIP Reward: 2013 Ferrari LaFerrari

• Car Collector Bonus: 1,400,000 Credits

In addition to the above rewards, because the edition of the game we received had the Ten Year Anniversary Car Pack and VIP Status already applied, we also received the following:

Sharing a Replay - it's almost like they were there too!

Ten Year Anniversary Cars

• 2003 Nissan Team Forza Fairlady Z

• 2005 Honda Team Forza NSX-R

• 2008 Aston Martin Team Forza DBS

• 2009 Ferrari Team Forza 458 Italia

• 2012 BMW Team Forza M5

• 2013 Audi Team Forza R8 Coupé V10 plus 5.2 FSI quattro

• 2013 Audi Team Forza RS 7 Sportback

• 2013 McLaren Team Forza P1

• 2013 SRT Team Forza Viper GTS

• 2014 Lamborghini Team Forza Huracán LP 610-4

VIP Cars

• 1997 McLaren F1 GT

• 2012 Aston Martin V12 Zagato

• 2013 Ferrari 458 Speciale

• 2013 Lamborghini Veneno

• 2016 Ford Shelby GT350R

VIP Benefits

• Double race credit payout

• Exclusive online events

• Community gifts

And for our copy of Forza Horizon 2 for Xbox One we ALSO received the following:

Forza Horizon 2 Duracell Car Pack

• 1972 Mazda Cosmo Sport 110 Series II

• 1990 Lotus Carlton

• 1991 Honda CR-X SiR

• 1995 BMW M5

• 2001 Audi RS4 Avant

• 2015 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

Forza Horizon 2 Pre-Order Car Pack

• 2008 Ferrari California

• 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera

• 2013 Audi RS 4 Avant

• 2013 BMW M6 Coupe

Forza Horizon 2 Alpinestars Car Pack

• 1953 Cehvrolet Corvette

• 1970 MC Rebel 'The Machine'

• 1991 Jeep Grand Wagoneer

• 1992 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport

• 2015 Audi TTS Coupe

• 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

That is like Christmas in September! Though bear in mind that a handful of the cars and the money had to be “claimed” from the message system - and not automatically added to your Gamertag/Game.

Three-Race Heats

After you complete the rewards screens the game then shunts you into the three-race tutorial whose purpose is to both help veteran racers set up their game to their liking, and introduce new racers to the Forza world and help THEM to determine which assists that they will need.

IF YOU ARE NEW

If you really are a newbie racer, we strongly recommend that you stick with the default settings that the game recommends and not change any of the assists at this time.

Doing that will basically give you the following setup:

• Driving Line - a suggestion and brakes line to help you learn each track.

• Auto-Brakes - the game will slow down for you where you need to.

• Auto-Throttle - the game will stop you from using the gas where you really shouldn't.

• Show-Damage - while you may see damage to your car it is not actually damaged.

• Traction-Assist On - keeps your wheels on the bitumen mates!

With this setup your focus should be to learn how to drive each track. Once you do that, then you can start thinking about removing some of the assists. Eventually you are going to want to remove the auto-brakes and auto-throttle at a minimum once you learn how and more importantly when to brake and hit the go-button.

Actually the driving assist line will show you that if you pay attention to it - as it lets you know by color code if you are going too fast or you need to brake - or go faster!

Pre-Race Choices

Before you can dig into the three races that make up the tutorial you will need to pick the car you will use for those races. This is not a test - there is NO wrong answer here. Trust us, what this is about is picking the car you decide you like best.

Whether that is because you remember that car from your childhood, or you owned one long ago, or you WANTED to own one, the point is to pick the one you most like from the selection. Now that said, there IS one minor point we need to make...

FM6 has carried forward some of the elemental aspects of the Forza series, including the Manufacturer Affinity System. What that means is that you will want to be working on affinity levels for a select group of manufacturers - though to be fair unlike in FM5 there does not appear to be a need to rack up full (capped) affinity with x number of manufacturers - but there IS a need to cap your Affinity with ONE of the manufacturers.

That being the case you should probably pick the car from the manufacturer you think will most likely be the one you drive most often. Because capping Affinity? Yeah that will take some significant effort mates.

The reason you want to do it - no, the reason you HAVE to do it - is that capping the Manufacturer Affinity for one of them is the only way to obtain the most rare of the mods in the game, and as there is both an Achievement related to getting all the Mods and an obvious desire to HAVE all the Mods, well, nuff said!

Your choices are:

• 2009 Honda S2000 CR

• 2013 Toyota GT86

• 1997 Mazda RX-7

• 1998 Subaru Impreza 22B STi

• 2014 Volkswagen Golf R

You choose the one you like best - but we chose the Volkswagen from past experience and knowing that Volkswagen was one of the manufacturers that has a wide selection of cars we wanted to drive. Still, Honda and Toyota would be good choices too. Or Subaru...

Race 1: Lime Rock Full Circuit (1.50 Miles and 3-Laps) Daytime / Summer

You begin the race at mid-field, and you are facing a field that has cars very close to the stats for yours so this is not going to be a case of being overpowered.

Simply dig in, follow the line, and try not to hit anyone or make bad mistakes. When you do make bad mistakes remember you can always hit the Y-Button to rewind for a do-over.

Race 2: Yas Marina Full Circuit (3.45 Miles and 3-Laps) Night / Summer

Before you start the second race you are introduces to the new Mods Scheme - which is sort of a mixture of special mods and collecting of mods. You are provided with your first Starter Mod Pack for free at this point. Additional Mod Packs are purchased from the Mods menu under the Options Tab in the main menu system, and they are purchased with in-game credits which you win from racing.

Once you apply a mod and start the race you will find this a more challenging track with lots of very sharp turns. When you complete the race - as before you need to be in the first three positions to complete it and have it count - you will then have accumulated sufficient points to raise your Driver Level.

Raising your Driver Level will introduce you to the Spin Bonus System - which FM6 inherited from the split-off series Forza Horizon. Basically this will allow you to win cars, credits, or Mod Packs.

Race 3: Circuit of the Americas West Route (2.30 Miles and 2-Laps) Daytime / Summer

When you complete the final race you will have scored enough points to advance the Manufacturer Affinity Level, which will increase by a small amount the income you gain from racing the cars made by that manufacturer.

Introduction to Career Mode

Completing the three races in the tutorial phase culminates in an Introduction to the Career Mode race scheme that makes up that side of the game. That includes the following Divisions:

• Super Street (Vol. 1)

• Sport Icons (Vol. 2)

• Grand Touring (Vol. 3)

• Professional Racing (Vol. 4)

• Ultimate Motorsport (Vol. 5)

What you need to know at this point is that each of those five volumes will eventually introduce you to the wide selection of different car classes in the game as well as the various tracks and their configurations.

The important thing to note though, at least for now, is that the process of accessing those five volumes is linear. They are all locked as you can see on the screen. To unlock them you have to complete the required goals for each volume. Once you do, the next volume gets unlocked.

Naturally these unlock in a generational process - exposing you to car types and capabilities that make an ordered sense, from street cars to start, and then moving up in class and performance.