Giant Bomb Forza Race Night
Starts every Thursday Night at 9:30 PM ET (6:30 PT)
Runs until people get tired (usually 12 AM - 1 AM ET)
Since November 2009, a subset of the Giant Bomb community has gathered on the Xbox 360 to enjoy silly races and events with like-minded members in Forza Motorsport 3 or 4. That's 212 straight weeks of high-speed craziness.
Now it's time to switch consoles and take on Forza Motorsport 5, with its pretty cars and Xbox One functionality. We're not sure what to expect, but we'll keep on doing what we always do: drive cars and do silly things with them in the name of fun.
Do you like racing cars? Do you like doing silly stuff with cars? Do you want to do any or all of that with the Giant Bomb community? If so, you should join us.
Hosted by Trace (Peace Egg on Xbox Live). Streamed occasionally on twitch.tv/pseg.
How To Join
This section is subject to change dramatically based on any improvements made to the Xbox One.
By Gamertag
Since Forza 5 doesn't have car clubs, you'll need to join the old-fashioned way: Off of my gamertag.
- Follow/friend my gamertag, Peace Egg. You should be able to do this without needing my permission on the Xbox One. Also, you should probably send this on the Xbox One, not the 360. I imagine that helps with making sure the following stuff works properly.
- When I start up the private lobby for Race Night just before 9:30 PM, I'll go through my list of followers and invite anyone playing Forza 5 into a party. This would be a good time to be playing Forza.
- In the unlikely event the party's full and more people want to join in on Forza, I'll dump out the current party and go back to the followers list for more.
- Yes, this is silly and I'm not sure how multiplayer functionality became so utterly messed up. Insert "Brian Ekberg hates Giant Bomb and Race Night" conspiracy theories here.
Should this method fail, we'll find another way to get everybody who wants to play into a lobby somehow. Maybe jump into some unloved public lobbies. I don't know.
What To Expect
While we mostly race during Race Night -- big surprise, I know -- we do have a few other game modes we've conjured up over the years that are fun.
Some of these games might be paraded out on any given night:
CAR SOCCER: If this is an official mode in Forza 5, we'll use that version. Otherwise, we'll bring back our old version of the game, which involves placing a tiny car in the middle of a straightaway and challenging two teams to boot it into their opponent's shed/goal zone/whatever.- CLUNKER PUSHING: Requires teams of two. One person is a clunker, an already-slow car with 75% of their horsepower and some of their grip taken away. The other person is a pusher, a faster vehicle with no such handicaps. First clunker to make it to the finish wins. It's like Cat & Mouse except more awesome. Typically done on a section of Fujimi Kaido's Old Hill Climb, but...that's kind of gone. Man. We'll just have to use a lap of Bathurst.
- VIRUS TAG: One person starts as 'it'. When another person is tagged, he or she also becomes it. Repeat until everyone has been tagged and far too many references to lizardmen have been uttered. Not used all that often anymore since heats were removed from everything except drag racing.
- FLAGPOLE RACING: One person is a flagpole. Everyone else is racing. Every time you encounter the flagpole, regardless of where it is on the track, you have to drive a circle around it before continuing on. The flagpole may move between laps.
- ANYTHING ELSE: Expect the unexpected. I am always willing to try new things out, provided there's a good way for determining a winner in-game.
The Rules
Pretty simple, much like Giant Bomb's rules: Don't be a dick. So far, we haven't had any issues with this, but allow me to elaborate with suggestions that will greatly help everyone's experience:
Don't intentionally crash others during races.
Accidents happen -- quite frequently, in fact -- but please don't intentionally slam into other players. A little bumping here and there is discouraged, but sometimes it happens despite our best efforts to avoid it. Save that for the Drivatar AI.
Sometimes we'll throw this rule out the window, and it never applies during modes like clunker pushing and flagpole racing. Generally, if you haven't been told that a race is full-contact, you should try to avoid any contact.
If you do end up blatantly taking someone out by accident and get past them as a result, it's considered good manners to give them the position back. This doesn't always mean stopping on track, which we've learned can be pretty dangerous, but if you see them in your rear-view mirror driving at speed again, slowing down and letting them pass is a nice gesture.
Be mindful of the voice chat.
With up to 16 people, there's going to be a lot of potential voice chat going on, and for the first time, it's very unlikely we'll be using party chat at all. Do keep in mind that sometimes I'll ask for race suggestions or someone will try to explain game modes to newbies in the lobby. Chattering over this sort of stuff only delays the fun times. Don't delay the fun times!
In addition, if someone's headset is acting up, most especially with echoes or high-pitched squeals, we'll ask you to try and fix it ASAP, since that almost completely prevents us from communicating with one another. It's highly frustrating. Usually, unplugging or muting the headset until you can deal with it is a good temporary fix if you're in the midst of racing when this crops up.
Oh, and don't snap in TV if it's going to blare through your headset. That's just annoying.
Other Things You Should Know
If you want to join, JOIN.
Don't mull over whether we have enough room or anything. That's a thing of the past. With 16 spots, Race Night is almost never full. Therefore, if you want to play with us, newcomer or otherwise, you should join. Our fields are full of people with widely varying skills, and as long as you're willing to understand that racing's not always about finishing first, but finishing well, you should have a great time with us.
We don't mind if you're late.
Seriously. As long as we have open spots (and we will have open spots), we're looking for people until the end of Race Night. If you can only make it to Race Night an hour in, then that's more than fine.
Yes, we're starting a little earlier now.
9:30 PM EST is an hour earlier. Due to work and aging attendees (myself included), we'd like to get more racing in before we reach an ungodly hour of the night.
You don't need any cars or DLC, but having a car for each class and the DLC tracks would be nice.
The car suggestion is for your own enjoyment, as not earning money from rental cars is rarely fun. The DLC track thing just lets us run more varied races, but it's not required. Car DLC is never required, but it'd be nice if you could download the free car from each pack (should it exist), since that should allow you to see all the cars from that pack. Not being able to see when somebody uses a Ford Raptor detracts from the experience, trust me.
Have fun! That's what we're here for.
You're not going to become the next big name professional race car driver through Race Night, so just relax and try to have fun.
Log in to comment