14 DAY TRIAL // What we know
Forza Motorsport 4 is a race driving video game that is being developed by Turn 10 and will be published by Microsoft, exclusively on the Xbox 360 home console, during the third quarter of this year, probably a little before the big fall launch schedule.
The only actual gameplay from Forza Motorsport 4 that was shown until now features a player-controlled 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia as it tries to pass as many other vehicles as possible in the space of a set time limit.
It's not clear how many of the events seen in previous Forza games will return for the new one and how the developers at Turn 10 are trying to improve the driving model.
Microsoft has also said that Kinect will be integrated into the new racing game, showing how players can explore a car and get information on its parts in an interactive manner using the motion tracking peripheral.
Forza Motorsport 4 is also linked to the American version of the popular Top gear series and content is set to be shared between the two, with some of the challenges attempted on the television program probably repeated in game using virtual cars.
Why it matters
The racing genre has received some pretty solid entries in the last few years, including Forza Motorsport 3 and its great rival Grand Turismo 5, but also GRID, Burnout and the last title in the Need for Speed series.
There's precious little innovation left in this space and the next logical step would be to take the newly introduced motion tracking peripherals, included for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, and use them to allow the gamer to control his vehicle by using actual driving motions and not the gamepad, with its inherent limitations.
Microsoft has not clarified if Kinect will just be used for car exploration and moving around the game world or if players can ditch the controller and the game with just motion tracking.