You may have heard at this point about something called "Blind Drive Assist" in the new Forza Motorsport that's coming out in October 2023 on Xbox Game Pass, and it's been getting even more attention recently courtesy of a new video.
That video was put together by blind gamer Steve Saylor, who documented the process of winning a race in Forza Motorsport using the new feature. In the video (seen above), Saylor shows how he got to grips with these blind driving assists as well as the other accessibility features in the game, tuning them until he felt comfortable with his setup.
In his conclusion, Saylor admits that Blind Drive Assist is "not perfect and has a major steep learning curve", but says that once you've tweaked all the various accessibility features to your needs, it helps give you the tools to succeed.
"This gives the player the power to adjust what fits their needs. It's further proof that accessibility isn't making the game easier for disabled players, it's giving us the same challenge as everyone else and the right tools to play and actually get better."
Blind Drive Assist was actually revealed a few months ago by the Forza Motorsport team, and there's a whole bunch of content about it over on the official Xbox website. We'll also throw an Xbox video down with more details down below.
Comments 5
So glad this is atleast a consistent thing for most xbox studios. Can't wait to play fm with my blind buddy 🫡
This will be massive for a future esports series.
Nice to see all gamers being catered for.
@Cherip-the-Ripper yeah, MGS is way ahead of the curve when it comes to accessibility, especially for those with visual impairments. I have to skip so many games due to issues with text/UI or contrast (Baldur's Gate 3 springs to mind as a recent example) but I generally feel confident going into a MGS game that I'll be able to adjust what I need to be able to play comfortably.
Pretty cool honestly.
While the game doesn't offer much I'm excited for then a grid position payout feature.
Supporting people with settings for them to be able to play is still great. But for an online required game it does still give off a bad vibe. Once it goes down (delisting or online required barrier shows it's time) and is worthless.
'So I'm looking for a Forza game I can play offline and need accessibility features' type questions will come up, sure the next entry may be out hopefully by then but still, if they beat 8/reboot and want more yeah that's going to be hard.
It's what I've discovered playing Pikmin 4, oh these controls work/core mechanics changes work for newcomers, plays older entries, how do they adapt, they can but still.
I'm finding it's differences confusing as someone that's played 1 & 3 100%. 4 feels confusing to play at times where some core mechanics rules I still don't understand 29 hours in. I still don't understand a core mechanic. Past games easy, the guide/what actually happens I still can't pick up on the detail because it's so badly communicated. It's quality of life basically ruined the fun for me. The rest of the content great, but the tweaks suck and ruin the game's fun factor for me.
Sure it's no accessibility situation but I mean any casuals/newcomers want to play more sometimes, or just the latest game and end it there, it depends.
So when people dive in going oh I played Persona 5 time to go backwards to 1-4 they look to whatever platforms they can (aka Vita for a time before PC and the current gen versions now), if the controls or systems are awkward (not likely the case with those games but still) then well good luck there.
Even if only die hards actually get old platforms (or wait till they go to current ones).
Yeah the struggle to recommend then on that front in a few years.
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