Forza Horizon

[EvilBoris]

*phew*

I only really like parking cars, so I'd only need the handbrake.

Just hope that you start at the top of a hill, because you need 3 tokens to turn on the ignition.

[JohnMcL7]

...................Did you buy the controller layout DLC, because all 5 default map configurations have MAP as the back button.

I'm pretty sure it tells you this in the tutorial, perhaps if you'd of paid more attention to the tutorial instead of putting so much effort into remaining constantly livid you'd know this.

If you use a manual gearbox, back replaces the X button for selecting events which means you don't get a button to open the map as far as I can see which means you need to go into the start menu to see the map.

John

[englishbob]

...................Did you buy the controller layout DLC, because all 5 default map configurations have MAP as the back button.

I'm pretty sure it tells you this in the tutorial, perhaps if you'd of paid more attention to the tutorial instead of putting so much effort into remaining constantly livid you'd know this.

I gave, what I would consider, a fairly balanced view of the game. You on the other hand are just trolling.

[JohnMcL7]

I think I've played enough single player action to comment. My first 2 hours or so with this where not good.


At first it reminded me of Assasins Creed 2 in its introductions. Everyone you meet in the game is a complete arsehole. Everyone is so patronising and un-friendly it makes you want to punch the screen. Alice (is it?) is the first culprit, I can't work out if she wants to **** me or just take the piss. How dare she answer the phone whilst I am talking to her!! The bloke who works in the garage is a massive condesending prick too, "swing by me for upgrades" which instantly got me thinking, **** it, I'll stuggle on without them thanks!

Every other dudebro / girlbro I've met is also a twat. I can imagine once I come face to face with "Darius", I'll be dreaming of a QTE event to beat the **** out of him. You could argue that I am missing the point of the game, but it makes up such a massive part of your first few hours it's hard to dismiss. Maybe I am just not "awesome" enough to understand the core Fast-and-Furious type angle on this, but isn't this stuff a bit long in the tooth now?

I fully agree with you and really hate this aspect of the game, I guess it maybe does appeal to people who like Fast and the Furious (something I can't understand myself) but it makes the game just feel extremely stupid, particularly the 'rivals'. How anyone thought having a idiotic stereotypical character with an unskippable cutscene at the start of every race was a good idea is beyond me. 'Don't worry about finishing on the podium just yet, just focus on finishing'..really, after coming first every time so far? I just wish they hadn't bothered with any of that nonsense (the lady constantly jabbering in your ear can go jump off a cliff as well) or given it the feel of a genuine motorsport event.

John

[nakamura]

To be honest, I think you are picking because the whole Fast and Furious thing is more understated than almost any game like it. You get the odd message from the girl and the silly 5 second scene at the start of some races. There are much worse examples. I think the issue is the whole american styling.

[nonny]

I'll agree it is cheesy but like Nakamura I dont find it impedes my enjoyment one bit as its so minimal. The whole rivals racing once you reach a new wristband level actually reminds me of Blur... It's almost like they've hauled that whole element over lock stock into this.

I didnt like it in Blur all that much but then I didnt get on with the handling model in Blur either. Here in Forza Horizon I can instantly dismiss it as irrelevant when the actual game mechanics are so spot on that it's a joy to play regardless of whatever small cut-scenes or voice-overs you get pre-race. It's not like they last any significant length.

I've now gotten all the upgrade signs in this, and done all of the PR stunt challenges in each of the Outposts so basically I'm now racing for free and my money only needs to go towards car purchases. I'm still only about halfway through the races in single player but given that I've taken to driving everywhere and only fast travelling back to the festival I've gotten my popularity down to the top 20, just because I've been treating every short drive to a new destination as a mini-game where I try to chain together as many skill points as possible.

I think my highest so far was around 70-80k of skill points using the Ferrari F40-C. Great fun doing that.

Also spent some time in free-roam with a few friends last night doing some of the challenges. They're not that deep or involving but they do sort of structure your time in free-roam to doing specific routes and so it actually helped some of my mates find upgrade signs and new roads, outposts and so on that they havent uncovered in single player. I was hosting as well so with everything accessible on the map I made a decent tour guide.

I think all of the events are decent in this. The only ones that are a bit boring are the photo-shoot PR stunts where you cant damage the car. With no time limit it's just a matter of patience and it's never been anything more than easy. Thankfully I dont think any of the showcase, PR stunts or other periphery events outstay their welcome because they're so short and there are only very few of each. They're more of a side distraction to actually racing and really they're pretty optional unless you want the achievements.

If they could improve anything for this in patches or updates my list would be this:

1. Give split times for speed traps based on car class, not just top speed.

2. Make the default online playlists deeper, more variety of tracks, event lengths and so on.

3. Add more challenges each month to the free-roam.

4. Add an option to not have day/night cycles to free-roam.

5. Tweak the collisions online to penalise wall grinding shunting types more.

6. Add option to save replays / photos in free-roam and online.

And really my biggest wish... when setting private matches add an option to plot your own races on the map and save/share them with lobby members. I'd love to be able to create a massive loop taking in the two main highways in this and go with R1 class cars for a mega event.

[JohnMcL7]

To be honest, I think you are picking because the whole Fast and Furious thing is more understated than almost any game like it. You get the odd message from the girl and the silly 5 second scene at the start of some races. There are much worse examples. I think the issue is the whole american styling.

Understated is not the word I would use, intrusive describes it better unless you have found an option to turn most of that rubbish off? It isn't an odd message from the girl, it's on pretty much every action you do - set a route to an event, she comments on that, reach the event, she comments on that as well, open the event away she goes again, try to choose a car, get the restricted car warning, every time then you get the irritating unskippable part from your rival every single time then the lady comments again when you win and usually shortly after because you have unlocked something or because she's bored and won't shut up.

Then when you want to do the street race you have to deal with that other idiot at the start and end of every single one.

There are worse examples of everything but in this case it's particularly bad as the gameplay in between is very good (apart from the fairly broken AI and wonky gearbox), I find it all very offputting and wish they hadn't wasted so much time to make the game worse.

John

[englishbob]

nonny is spot on with the Blur observation actually. The racing itself resembles the bash and crash nature of it. Try it online!

I like the game, its very well structured. Its not (what I would call) a satisfying "racing" game though.

The best bits for me have been the showcases, has a shade of the Sega of old to them. Racing against helicopters, ****ing brilliant!

[rmoxon]

I was enjoying this until the first night race, it's not easy to see and when there's traffic on both sides of the road that seem to randomly slow down in front of you for no reason it becomes a frustrating experience. It gave me need for speed hot pursuit flashbacks, which considering how unfair that game was is not a good thing.

[nonny]

I've now completed this. All signs, races, showdowns, outposts etc... Only missing one barn find which apparently takes a while to pop for some anyway.

All I will say is this. What a bloody great game. The last events are what you would expect. R class rides, longer tracks, harder opponents. There are some p2p which nearly do a full loop of the map and there are some circuits that really show that despite driving on fictional tracks they are every bit as good as those in F4. I had some truly epic races.

It is over quite quickly. I've had it just over a week and played it every night. I don't feel at all cheated by that effort and can now invest some time in the MP. What I will say is I've found online people are too crash happy. In the main playlists they don't seem to care about really racing, more covering their position and stopping you passing. So you do get some idiots that moronically swerve into you on purpose. That spoils the broth a little.

Instead I've created my own lobby and hosted for friends and friends of friends to join. Got a nice game of five players yesterday and that was pure bliss. We stuck on no collisions and picked so of the tracks I'd raced near the end of SP. It's then this game highlights how good I actually can be.

Hopefully we will get some patch updates to remedy some of that and I dare say the rally DLC might add some new SP content as well?

All up having now seen everything I'm giving this a solid 9.3/10. Just loved it. I'm now onto NFS now that's arrived and I have to say coming from this to that the first impressions aren't so great... :/

[nakamura]

I have driven all of the roads and found 94 signs, love it! Only 25% of SP completed though and put over 10 hours in so far!

[nonny]

Some signs are hidden in some locations... particularly there are some down some unlisted back alleys in Beaumont in the NE of the map. Just drive around and you should spot them. There are also a couple in some fields that can only be accessed by going off-road in some places.

Stick with the SP though. You get 5,000,000cr for beating the finale which of course nets you the top car of your choice as I think even the most expensive is half that value.

The game is bloody fantastic to be fair but I think they can add alot to the multiplayer side of things to boost that a little and make it more interesting. I've already commented on a few things I'd like to see but what is there is great provided you understand dropping into default playlists will pit you against players who might not want to play as fair as you do.

To be honest I've had enough fun in normal playlists and I tend to hang back on the first few corners, brake earlier, let the morons take each other out... and then fly past. With a clear run in 1st or 2nd you can normally hold on and ignore the back markers. I've also taken to using less powerful cars with really good launch stats so you can gun it off the line and get ahead that way.

Finally, the best sounding car in the game has to be the Pagani Zonda R. Open that up on the highways and through tunnels and it just screams at you. Love it.

[englishbob]

What I will say is I've found online people are too crash happy. In the main playlists they don't seem to care about really racing, more covering their position and stopping you passing. So you do get some idiots that moronically swerve into you on purpose.

This is a by-product of the racing engine in this game. Its a great "driving" game, but the racing element is not very good at all. There is simply no consequence of racing badly, none at all. I've seem people mearly scrape off the walls and bounce off-of other cars on corners and win.

We stuck on no collisions and picked so of the tracks I'd raced near the end of SP. It's then this game highlights how good I actually can be.

which kind of proves my point, playing with no collisions is the only way to have fun in a race?

rally DLC

I think the Rally DLC will be ok, provided its time based events and not everyone is on the track at the same time. If they don't do away with the tightly packed walls on the tracks, it will be awful.

[nonny]

I dont fully agree with you to be honest... Its not a by-product of the engine in this game its just human nature, desire to win and some people not really caring about sportsmanship. That and some people simply dont know how to race properly, take the apex, exit at speed... blah, blah.

I've had plenty of races in this where some people were trying to take me out and I "out-raced" them. Just being more cautious, expecting them to aim for you more than the corner and you can usually get past them with some skill and avoid contact altogether. It's just sometimes there is just too much going on to predict worst possible outcome.

I dont think scraping off the walls isnt penalised either. I've gone off-road, clipped walls and lost speed in the process. You simply cant wall ride in this and win so I think you're over-stating the issue but I'll agree in some collisions you tend to come off worse in terms of speed lost so there is room for improvement.

So no... collisions off isnt the only way to have fun in a race here. It just helps to turn it off for a change and not have to have that factor involved.

[nakamura]

I don't agree at all. I was racing in my club and having a blast. I was the only one using manual and most of the assistance off and I was often pulling away at the start. Good driving is certainly rewarded.