I'm trying to enjoy this game. My brain can tell it's a well put together game. I like cars (even though I know next to nothing about them. I like racing games. The trappings are there for me to love this game. I guess my problem stems from the fact that you can basically let the game play itself if you want it to, and there seems to be no incentive to do otherwise. It automatically prompts me any time I should upgrade my car, I just hit A and it does it. I don't think I've ever went into the garage part of this game and looked at parts. It's just never been necessary The game does everything for me. I've never lost a race, so I've never went into the tuning aspect of the game, because again, there has been no need to. The default settings of this game pretty much drives for you (although I did figure out how to turn all that off, and am having more fun now, but still.)

I'm just wondering why I would ever bother doing this stuff myself? Is there a reason to go into the garage myself, and buy stuff myself, when I could just hit A when it prompts me? Is there ever a need to go into the tuning section of the game, when I'm already never losing races (even with it set on Hard difficulty). Is there even a reason to set it to a harder difficulty in the first place? I mean, I know I get more experience, but even without those leveling bonuses, you still level up really fast.

I'm just kinda wondering what I'm missing here. What I'm doing wrong. Any tips for making this game more enjoyable? Should I go online maybe, and race against other people? I haven't tried that yet...

I was in the same place as you, but if you turn off a few of the assists it becomes a completely different game. The best analogy I can think of is going from a roller coaster to bull riding, by just turning off steering, braking and stability assists (over time is recommended) you go from a safe fast game, to juggling a million different button presses just to keep the thing on road.

But if you really not digging it there's no point forcing yourself, just one of those things.

Well you'll want to upgrade the car yourself to kinda pick the best possible configuration for the kind of race you're doing, and to squeeze the most power possible out of your PI class. Tuning is for a similar reason.

As for not having the discipline to let it not do everything well... all I can say is that you need to want to get into that stuff in the first place. If you don't care, then why bother? But Forza's kinda a car enthusiast-type game and they assume you care enough to get into the game's nitty-gritty. But they're nice enough to give you a lot of assists and automated features to slowly ease you in, or help people who like cars but aren't passionate about driving them or tuning them. It's got a little something for everyone, just take from it what you need basically.

Also the harder difficulty you set, and the more assists you remove you'll earn more credits, as well as XP. Credits are always a good incentive in that game, as you can buy whatever cars, upgrades and stuff in the auction house that you want.

What I ended up doing was buying a wheel and turning almost all the assists off, I just keep shifting on auto until I can get pedals with a clutch and a proper stick shifter instead of flappy-paddles. Makes the game a lot more challenging and makes the driving simulation a lot of fun, so for me the thrill comes from actually driving the cars and feeling out how one car differs from the other.

The game's auto-upgrade system heavily favors power over handling and tends to go for engine and tire width upgrades over anything else, which isn't always ideal for certain cars (rarely, if you ask me). I think there's a lot of satisfaction to be had with choosing upgrades manually and determining what's best for the car and your driving style.

Also, not to nitpick the comments thus far, but difficulty settings only affect the money earned in a race, not XP. Whatever the base winnings are for a race, that's what you get for XP.

Anyways, if you have all of the driving assists off and can beat the hard AI with ease, then maybe you should bump them up to professional difficulty. Otherwise, if you still have any assists remaining, especially ABS/TCS/STM or braking line, I'd continue peeling those off and try to succeed with less.

I'd suggest online, but the public lobbies can be full of people who lean too heavily on the "rubbin's racin'" ideology, so at least be aware and ready to deal with a bit of craziness there if you decide that's something you want to try.

Cool, thanks for the advice guys. I'll start trying to slowly turn everything off, and also try to dig into upgrading/tuning things on my own, and see what kind of enjoyment I can get out of that.

Go into Rivals and see how far you get with the auto-upgraded cars.

(Hint: Not very far!)

Part of the fun for me is making cars unique to myself. You will get a lot more out of upgrading and tuning a car yourself and then learning how to master it on the track. I prefer driving a car like that, with my own paintjob, than a tune from the storefront or auto upgrade.

This game has never been about beating the computer for me, because as you're noticing that is pretty darn easy. It's always been about beating my friends times on the leaderboards. The CPU races are just a means to get credits for me. Join a club, and start doing rivals events, thats where the real difficulty and competetive racing is done, also where upgrades/tuning makes the most difference. I'll be the first to admit though I drive with TCS on, and automatic shifting, no shame.

i literally have cars that i have bought every upgrade just to mix and match various parts to try to build the best car possible. and some cars capable of racing in 3 different classes. thats where i get the biggest enjoyment. upgarde,tune,switch parts,tune some more...lol. cars worth $200K and still rarely win an online race.