True to its promise from early this year, Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 has been hard at work improving the game with each subsequent update, delivering some much-needed wins in this respect. The new Update 9 continues this trend with endurance events, but with a huge asterisk in tow.
As I myself have bemoaned time and again here at Destructoid, Forza developers are huge fans of transient, temporary content. The introduction of proper, full-blooded endurance races that take a fair bit of time to wrap up and force the player to consider their tire compound, fuel economy, and other such items has got to be a permanent addition though, right? Well, no, because Forza Motorsport absolutely insists that all of its post-launch content has got to be time-limited. That’s right: endurance racing is just a timed event in Forza Motorsport, and it will be available for the duration of Update 9, from June 12 until July 24.
Enjoy endurance racing in Forza Motorsport’s Update 9, for about a month
Endurance racing is not everyone’s cup of tea, that much should be a given, but the fact that these events are being relegated to a mere footnote on one of the pages of Forza Motorsport‘s post-launch support is disappointing indeed. Had Forza Motorsport simply kept around even just one half of its monthly events instead of permanently removing them from the game with each new update, it would by now have one of the biggest, most varied career modes of all modern simcade racing titles. But, here we are, with Update 9’s admittedly impressive roster of endurance races coming out with a sunsetting timer attached by default.
The fact that endurance events are being done dirty in such a manner, then, does put a hefty dampener on Update 9’s flagship feature: the Sebring International Raceway track. This comes after Update 8 did not have a new race track attached to it, making the release of a legendary new raceway that much more important for the game’s long-term health and variety.
Update 9 also introduces some minor tweaks to the Laguna Seca and Nürburgring Nordschleife tracks, improving their real-world accuracy, as well as the option to disable temporal anti-aliasing on PC. The VRAM use estimator, too, has been updated to be useful, as Turn 10 is actively looking into the shift timing problem that has persisted up until now on PC.
There is one last thing that could either prove to be a big nothingburger or yet another point of contention for the community: Forza Motorsport‘s Update 9 is the first piece of post-launch content to come with a purchasable DLC attached to it. Notably, the game’s Car Pass DLC is now done and dusted, but Turn 10 seemingly aims to continue releasing bonus vehicles as the game goes on. The new Porsche 963 Combo DLC, for example, includes the titular racing car and a Porsche racing suit for the low, low price of $4,99. Granted, you can claim this DLC at absolutely no charge until June 19.
Note that Forza Horizon 5 has already nurtured a steady cadence of DLC-locked cars on top of its timed content structure, which can get expensive if you’re out to collect all or most of them. Whereas Horizon usually nets you at least a handful of cars for $4,99, though, Motorsport‘s first outing of this type is far, far weaker in comparison. Interesting times ahead, for sure.
