Forza Horizon

[Cyberninja]

The game is centered around a fictional music/automotive event, the eponymous Horizon Festival, and all the sweet jumps and crazy drifts you do around the world work toward building your reputation as a radical driver with the festival's attendees. While it's possible to earn points while driving aimlessly around the countryside, the majority of the points you'll earn will likely come from participating in one of the many driving events scattered throughout the world.

Ralph Fulton of Playground Games was very insistent that Forza Horizon is not, in fact, an arcade racing game. It may take place in an open-world version of Colorado, may be free from traditional Forza career modes and may feature a youth-focused licensed soundtrack (read: dubstep), but the actual driving is built on Forza's physics engine.

The problem with arcade-style racing games, according to Fulton, is that the appeal of racing different vehicles is lost due to the fact that all cars have to handle roughly the same in order to preserve an "arcade" feel. By using Forza's existing physics engine, Playground Games hopes to circumnavigate this problem and preserve the series' pedigree for for automotive accuracy.

That being said, the only car featured in the demonstration I saw was the 2013 SRT Viper, and as it was a hands-off demonstration, I was unable to compare its handling with my experience driving similar cars in previous Forza games. What I can say, is that the Viper did more than its fair share of drifting around Colorado's mountain roads, and that it racked up wicked popularity points doing so. See, in Forza Horizon, you're not just driving around for the hell of it. You're driving to get famous.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/10/fa...forza-horizon/

[McDangerous]

While I'm almost peeing myself at the idea of a new Forza game (ENORMOUS Forza fanboi) I'm very skeptical about the new open-world thing. While I do think that having an open-world situation with properly realistic physics and handling for the first time could be a genre-defining moment, I'm just as worried that this will turn Forza into another arcade racer. The great thing about Forza is that you can turn the assists on and play it like an arcade racer, but get rewarded with faster times and more control when playing without them, so they could literally leave the handling model untouched from Forza 4 and just change the tracks into a city.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this. I really, really, really hope they leave the handling untouched. This is going to be AWESOME!!

[T_Kill3r]

This is what I've been waiting for my entire life.

[.exe]

I haven't really been keeping tabs on the progress of this game, but I'm hoping for the best. In my opinion, there is not a finer racing game than Forza anywhere, but will this really be a Forza game, or a glorified Burnout game?
The huge open world mixed with Forza's car physics could be amazing, but I have seen snippets of gameplay that remind me a little too strongly of an arcade racer, which is not what I'm after at all.

It's funny, but the blurb that Cyberninja posted, that bit about not driving for the sake of it, is precisely what I do want out of the game. I mean sure, there must be objectives and things to achieve, but how many games really capture the essence of driving? You know, just you and your machine, drifting along a scenic mountain pass with the wind in your hair and your favourite tunes blaring out?
I want to race and I want action, but I also want to get an experience that goes beyond that, like really getting an appreciation of what it must be like to own a R2m sports car.

If Horizon does turn out to be something special, then I think the Test Drive series is basically sunk.

[T_Kill3r]

So I played the demo now. Firstly, the visuals are stunning. The racing itself is fun but the sim feel is gone. The response that you get from the cars in Forza 4/3/2 is gone. So its a bit disappointing for me. Another thing is, I thought driving on dirt would be a lot more loose, but with the evo that they provide in the demo I couldn't really notice a difference in handling at all when going from tarmac to dirt.

I'll probably still buy the game.

[.exe]

So I played the demo now. Firstly, the visuals are stunning. The racing itself is fun but the sim feel is gone. The response that you get from the cars in Forza 4/3/2 is gone. So its a bit disappointing for me. Another thing is, I thought driving on dirt would be a lot more loose, but with the evo that they provide in the demo I couldn't really notice a difference in handling at all when going from tarmac to dirt.

I'll probably still buy the game.

Uh-oh. I'll reserve judgement until I've tried it myself, but I feared the simulation feel may be compromised for this game. If it truly has, I'll give this a miss.

[T_Kill3r]

I honestly was hoping that they just copy paste forza 4 physics into an open world, but none such luck. TDU: Horizon would have been a more suitable title.

[Wesley]

I played Horizon at the Xbox stand at rAge. Its literally the best arcade racer I've ever played bar the original NFS Most Wanted. Even the new Most Wanted is great, so I guess we're heading back into the glory days of NFSU2.

[-Bouncer-]

I can remember reading in an article that the total amount of DLC planned for Forza Horizon will cost almost as much as the game itself. That already put me of from the game. Don't get me wrong, I love Forza. I downloaded the demo last night but have yet to play it. Think I will rather wait for some complete edition that includes the DLC. I'm not a fan of Season Pass.

[Toi]

Well the beauty of DLC is that no one forces you to buy it. What people seem to get wrong is in thinking that the game is incomplete without it. The game was/is made complete, DLC is adding on to the experience.

I prefer not to base a decision on a demo as the end product can differ somewhat in the same way a trailer does not always reflect the movie its taken from.

But, hot damn I'm already loving this game. Its like the love child from all my favorite racing games. Its got the vibe of Prostreet, look of Hot Pursuit and the physics from Forza 4. And when I say its got the looks from Hot Pursuit I mean the scenic mountain roots as this is by far one of the best looking racing games I have ever seen.

Yeah the handling is a "little" bit off as you don't feel much of a difference going from tar to gravel but I honestly feel that its for the better. Let's all face it, sims are not always a lot of fun. And boy oh boy is this game a ton of fun. Nothing beats chasing down a bunch of supercars on beautiful mountain routes, trying to tame a beast of a Viper all while listening to a pumping dub step soundtrack.

My opinion, purists should switch all the assists off (it really is the only way to play) and stop bitching or go and play GTR2 on the PC.

I did a awesome in car view triple barrel roll after hitting a barrier full speed so the physics are still there.

[Wesley]

But, hot damn I'm already loving this game. Its like the love child from all my favorite racing games. Its got the vibe of Prostreet, look of Hot Pursuit and the physics from Forza 4. And when I say its got the looks from Hot Pursuit I mean the scenic mountain roots as this is by far one of the best looking racing games I have ever seen.

The man speaketh the truth. This is one of the few games that makes me really consider getting a Xbox to sit next to my PC.

[Sandstorm]

There are 2 things i dislike most in this world: Xbox and racing games. That said, i love Horizon when i played it at Rage. Excellent graphics, music, handling and fun. Looks like it'll be spectacular

[.exe]

My opinion, purists should switch all the assists off (it really is the only way to play) and stop bitching or go and play GTR2 on the PC.

Whoa dude, that's not a very nice thing to say. I'm glad you're enjoying the game but I hope you can understand why some people are sticky on the physics thing. It's Forza after all, a game with reasonably strong ties to simulation. For Forza purists, this is quite a big departure with it's quite obvious compromises to the arcade stuff. (Which goes beyond car physics.)

Being unable to download the demo, I want to be really sure the game is for me.

[Toi]

The truth cannot always be sugar coated.

This ties in with the thread about where gaming is heading in terms of difficulty.

Purists are the smallest demographic out there, evidence of this can clearly be seen when looking at how "purist" focused titles sell and publishers obviously know this.

Like I said before, sims are boring. And as much as I love me some Forza I feel that the series borders on becoming "a boring sim". Imo this is a much needed breather for the series. If most gamers just stop being stubborn and give the game a go I'm sure they'll love it. It still feels like Forza.

If your the guy that's going to feel disappointed because your Civic feels like it understeers 1% more with the same chamber settings as in Forza 4 and don't feel like playing Horizon anymore then yeah.......go play GTR2. :p

[.exe]

A friend brought his copy around last night and I managed to give it a go for about two hours or so. I think this is the game Test Drive Unlimited 2 should have been, and there are aspects such as the presentation, visual fidelity and open-endedness that are very appealing. I like the different radio channels, although after a while they started to get a bit irksome. The game has very much a Codemasters feel about it; not surprisiing really. I find the game world rather uninteresting; it all looks pretty much the same, and I certainly did prefer the look and feel of the Hawaiian islands from the TDU games.

The car handling seems okay...it's certainly not on the same level as Forza's regular series, and it's a bit jarring to see a Ferrari handle like a rally car on a dirt road (why would anyone take a sports car on a dirt road anyway?) but there is probably just enough 'realism' to prevent it from being a full-blown arcade racer.
I took off all driving aids, switched the transmission to manual, and drove mostly the powerful muscle cars, so raw speed aside, I think I got a decent feel for the overall handling. I was quite surprised that there was next to no tire squeal coming from the tyres, which is something the regular Forza also suffers from.

After spending about 2 hours with the title, I was no more decided on whether to buy it or not.
What I played was fun, but I have to wonder how long it will take before it all starts to get a little repetitive. I earned money through mainly impromptu street races, and soon enough I had enough money for some pretty high-end hardware...it didn't seem like I really had to work much to get to the good cars.

I think that for me personally, I'll wait until I can get this at a reduced price.