Night Racing and Weather Too Tough to Add to Forza 5, says Developer

Here’s something you might not know about Forza Motorsport 5: it never rains and it’s always daytime. Turn 10, the developer of one of the Xbox One’s best launch titles, prides itself on quality of product. No doubt, it’s a good game, but what about those special environmental moments?

Turn 10 Creative Director Dan Greenawalt spoke with IGN about these missing features at length. According to him, the studio builds everything from the ground up. Their cheapest track took nine months to design. Rain and nighttime? That would have asked too much.

“When we do things, we do it all the way. That means physics, that means changing conditions, that means everything. So that is not the sort of thing that is easily undertaken in a patch…

…To build a new track that would work at night and in wet would mean a bespoke track. Everything we build is bespoke…

…If we wanted to make one of those tracks work with the added particles or projected shadows, and of course adding the physics to do something like night and wet, it means re-engaging those tracks. I’m not trying to give an excuse, I’m trying to give context as to why this is an order of magnitude higher than something like Drag and Tag, and other things we’re looking at from the community.”

Night racing and weather undoubtedly does create a lot of problematic elements to develop for a game maker like Turn 10. I am, in no way, suggesting that it’s easy to make it rain on tracks and adjust the car physics as necessary.

I am, however, sad that these things are missing. Why am I sad? Folks, I just got finished driving on the moon in a lunar rover in Gran Turismo 6. Don’t believe me? CVG recorded one of these missions in motion. See it below.

I imagine Polyphony had a hard time making that possible in-game. But, you know what? They did it. It also rains in GT6. Crazy, right?

I’m sure Turn 10 was on a tough deadline to make Forza Motorsport 5 a reality for the Xbox One’s launch lineup. These features were likely skipped based on time constraints.

Despite that fact, I’m still shocked that we can’t drive at night. That just seems so crazy to me.

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