It's hard to imagine a more clever cross-promotional effort between "Halo 4," a hugely-anticipated shooter coming out next year, and "Forza Motorsport 4," an ultra-realistic racer coming out this year. The games are, after all, completely different. And yet, Microsoft found a way, as we saw last week with the footage of the "Halo 4" Warthog making it into "Forza 4." Further expanding on the concept, Turn 10 enlisted the help of Jeremy Clarkson, one of the hosts of "Top Gear," to give users a better sense of what the Warthog is packing.
Clarkson is very quick to admit that just about every feature of the "Halo 4" Warthog is imaginary and that he has no idea what a "hydrogen-injected ICE IC plant coupled with an automatic, infinitely-variable transmission" is.
It is, however, sort of entertaining to see vehicle which has only existed in a video game get the "Top Gear" treatment, complete with glory shots and snarky Clarkson comments.
After his description, I'm considerably more bothered by the fact that the Warthog isn't actually drivable in "Forza 4." Seems that that would've been the next best thing to releasing actual footage of "Halo 4" in action, but hey, what do I know?
It also occurs to me that there are plenty more video game vehicles that deserve this same sort of respect. The Goo Goo Buggy from "Mario Kart: Double Dash" or the machine gun-laden racer from "Spy Hunter" would be perfect fits and would likely do some pretty decent times in the hands of The Stig. But, alas, the Top Gear licence is strictly with Microsoft for the time being.