My Forza Horizon review

Well, I've had about 2 hours of Forza Horizon, and I have to admit...I'm pleasantly surprised. Now, I'm damn near always willing to cut T10 some slack so I guess you can take this with a grain of salt. I'll try to break it down into categories.

Visual:
Wow...the graphics are smooth and the visual engine I think has been amped up from what Forza 4 is. Surfaces are all well done and there is a difference between tarmac and gravel...I'm thinking there is even a difference between gravel and grass as well but it most likely is less noticeable but thats for later. Going into photo mode renders an image close to F4, but crisper. Cars are all well rendered as they are all brought over from F4, except for a few new cars, like an old Mini. They dynamic changes from day to night are great, even sitting in a menu, the time will change.

Cars:
Car list seems almost...restrictive? I'm not sure if this is done to limit the number of Honda EG hatches rolling around or what, but there are a few cars that I would have liked included not in the game. Lets start with whats new in Horizon versus what is not in F4

1968 Abarth 595 esseesse
2010 Alfa Romeo 8C spider
2012 BMW Z4 sDrive28i
2012 Eagle Speedster
2012 Gumpert Apollo Enraged
2012 Infiniti IPL G coupe
2012 Lamborghini Aventador J
1984 Lancia Delta S4
1965 Mini Cooper S
1984 Puegot 205 Turbo 16 (cant remember if thats in F4 or not)
1987 RUF CTR Yellowbird (no Porsche...again)

Now, this is just what is available for purchase that is "new" or about new.

The purchasable vehicles are really limited, and I mean really limited compared to F4. Honda has 4 cars, Audi has 4 cars, Volkswagen 5, Dodge 3 (Viper has 2), Ford 10, Ferrari 16 (the most by far), Chevrolet has 7, Cadillac 1, BMW 7, and Mercedes 4. Like I said, really limited numbers...however I know that I had seen a Honda CRX in one of the opening races so I'm sure there will either be some DLC for that (...yay...), or it will be unlockable or winnable throughout the game.

One neat thing that I absolutly love so far has been the paint booth. Was given a couple of cars for "loyalty" and one was a 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8...only problem was the rims were still stock and it was red. I wanted to sort of re-create what I had for an AIX car in Horzion. So i buy what i think are the right rims, and head over to the paint booth, just a quick drive away. As i look at all the paint options (including matte paints), there is an option to load graphics...INCLUDING FORZA 4 GRAPHICS!!! Yes, that's right, you can take all of your hard work in F4 for all of your cars and put them on the cars in Horizon. Every single vinyl group I had in F4 was usable in Horizon.


Sound:
Well, the sound is nearly the same, tarmac sounds like tarmac, gravel like gravel, oh, and the soundtrack is pretty damn good. Ton's of decent to good bands are lending sounds to the game to make the experience more like just crusing down the road. The DJ's are human, they try cracking jokes, its all in all not terrible...really does seem to add to the realism of the experience.


Gameplay:
I have all of the setting set as I had in F4, difficulty is set on hard, which is still one step below the highest difficulty, and with a bascially stock car, I was consistantly finishing in 2nd place. Now these were all on non-tar events or mixed surfaces so maybe that could be my excuse, but even still, if you tune the cars to be competative, I'm thinking the AI will give a good run for the money. Also, unfortunatly damage is not simulation but the cosmetic is still as good at depicting damage due to the inability to have pits or something like that spread out over the game.



If I can think of anything more, I'll post up. Anyone else take the plunge and buy the full game?


Trust me, the demo did not hold a candle to the vastness of the game. It's not skyrim big by any strech of the imagination, but it will take time driving across the gamescape....oh and fast traveling to anywhere but the "Horizon Festival" will cost 10,000 credits...so it really puts and emphasis on driving to the events...also if you go into photo mode, you can wipe away all damage to take pretty pictures!

My copy is with UPS and will be here before the end of the day tomorrow today. I hope the cars unique to Horizon are scheduled to be included in Motorsport 4's successor.

My brother bought the game from a brick and mortar store and has been playing it. I've since heard details from him. Cars with concealed headlights have them reveal (pop up or otherwise) and function as designed in the game. He thinks he's noticed hue changes in cars with halogen headlight bulbs versus cars with older bulbs.

All in all the game sounds good. I am happy to see Playground Games and Turn 10 become a team. The more gear heads we have working toward (a) goal(s), the better.

Haven't seen anything with popuo headlamps, but I can confirm the different lights between standard and halogen/hid lights

That is awesome. Different headlight colors are details that make a game that much better. Did they dig deep enough to code assorted kelvins as different color tones? Probably not, but hey, close is good enough. Besides, even if they did who's to say televisions could accurately output the coding?


While in the Army, our platoon would be punished for not acting as a team. The drill sergeants would punish us with push-ups until they felt we were getting the message. What message? They'd yell, "Down!" And we'd have to yell in response, "Attention to detail!" They'd yell "Up!" And we'd have to yell in response, "Teamwork is key!" Both are very true.

All these new programming codes [headlights, day/night, varied traction on assorted surfaces] will be cool to have moving to Horizon 2, Motorsport 5, and others. With the neXtBox getting "more power" (R R R) and these features, I'm seeing good things. I see ALMS cars with different headlight colors. I see cars going off and when they rejoin the racing surface, they drag gravel/sand/dirt back with them. I see a race starting at 5pm and ending at 8pm (simulated time) where the setting sun and darkness are factors.

Give it a minute, Tux will be in here with his "well, in iRacing..." spiel again... Haha!

Yea Im gonna hopefully get it from gamefly since a few of ya'll will have it too. I watched some reviews on the youtubes from IGN and Gamespot and the like. I have to say that from what I saw in the reviews that it seems the demo was freakin gutted! Game looks good. Real good. Its no FM4 but I think it will be neat for a week or two. Everyone was super impressed with the day/night transitions and one said they looked better than GT5s. Also I think its cool that we can group up on Live and F off in a pack! That way I dont have to be in a one man wolfpack anymore!

Yeah, defiantly give it at least a gamefly try. One of the nice things that I like is that it isn't just "tuned" cars that get the halogen lamps...a common one that has it are the Volvo wagon's that roll around.

The transition between day and night is really smooth...all the cars turn their lights on at different times and whatever all else.

There is not tuning, but then again that's not the point. For a quick "pick up and cruise" game its really perfect. The handling is a little livelier but not enough to make it seem arcadeish.


I will agree that the demo was gutted...it was horrid. Bad enough to the point that I was willing to cancel my preorder. Had it not been for my general laziness in canceling, I wouldn't have the game now. Really, the textures are great and the scenery is awesome. The feeling of getting into the desert region and just opening it up with the Boss 429 at sunset is just phenomenal...I can't recommend it enough for just a simple fun game.

Avanti,

One of the NFS's my friend had on the original xbox had the ability to pick the hue of the headlights... seeing as they were able to do that way back then with no issues I can't imagine that being a problem at all today.

Oh and here is another review of Horizon... FYI their review of F4 is how I found this site...

Starting at 4:10 comes a screen shot with the following information, "Microsoft has confirmed that Forza 5 will be released next year … two-year franchise …" Very cool. So allegedly we will be seeing the next XBox in September and then FM5 next October? Or perhaps a launch title? Either way, Forza Motorsport 5 in ≈ 11 months.

Wasn't Forza 1 and 3 launch titles for both Xbox and Xbox 360? Or am I mistaken?

Either way, I'm sure it will became launch title...it has become such a crown in the Xbox crown I dontcsee how it couldn't. Like a Halo game at launch.

I don't recall which Forza game(s) were also XBox launch games. The only Forza on XBox was the first; Motorsport 2 came out on the 360.
And Motorsport 5 will be on the 720 / 3 / neXtBox. w00T!

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Game play:
I find myself using the LB a lot in photo mode which brings up this warning message-

RESET DAMAGE
This action cannot be undone. Are you sure
you want to reset damage on your car?

Uhhh, yeah. Pretty sure I can wreck-em-with-the-best-of-em. I can damage the car again if I want it.

Forza 1 came out in May 2005 so it was off by 4 years for the Xbox launch which was Nov 2001.

Xbox 360 in Nov 2005

Forza 2 in May 2007

Forza 3 in Oct 2009

Oh yeah...it was PGR that was the racing game. I loved PGR4.

You know, once you abandon all hope of any realism, and are drunk, Horizon seems to keep one's interest for a couple hours.

Damn skippy Rem! I just said F it and so far Im having a good time plus you can play music from you XBOX hardrive which makes it so much better! No more Bomchika Bomchika Bomchika Bomchika

I actually like bomchika bomchika bomchika wob wobwobwob wob wobwob music, but haven't found stuff on there that I like much. But then again, it's hard to listen to the radio music when this chick keeps calling me every 5 seconds about joining her event, or becoming the 240th most popular vandal, or whatever else there is. I did get a kick out of how on my way to a race, the radio person interviewed someone who was trash talking me and then I go out and stomp all over them right on the first lap. Some lady schmuck lol

My XBox actually decided to let me play Horizon and not get stuck at the beginning splash screen. Haza!

I know Squid has noticed, has anyone else noticed the P.I. system has been reevaluated for Horizon? This is a good thing and is one item I hope sees the transition between Horizon and the next Motorsport.

Edits coming as I compare cars with upgrades across Motorsport 4 and Horizon. Edits below Rem's post.

I saw there was a PI system, but didn't take the time to consider any of it. It was early in the morning and I just wanted to get rewarded for vandalism since it's probably considered a hate crime to drive over Obama signs in real life.

The "what happened" column is identical (or damn close enough) between Forza 4 and Horizon.

The first thing I noticed was, I'll call it the electronic slide*: Horizon's alphanumeric sequences have been altered. Letters no longer correlate with numbers as they did with Motorsport 4. I like it! The more time Turn 10 (and now Playground Games) have to make alterations to this Performance Index system, the more they seem to get closer to |0| (absolute zero).

The Miata:
Note the Miata's base P.I. rating, alphabetically it increased a class while numerically dropping ten points. Also, numerically the Motorsport 4 version with street weight reduction (230) = the Horizon version with sport weight reduction (230) though alphabetically they're ≠ in that comparison. We can attribute these points to the electronic slide mentioned above. Horizon's system now slots my upgrade of 205/50-15 tires with replacement wheels (225) directly between street weight (220) and sport weight (230) reductions. It also rates a race cam (302) higher than race weight reduction (247). Could we deduce that more power is more beneficial for the Miata?

The Corvette:
Stock, the Corvette is heavier and more powerful than the Miata, so unlike the Miata, the Corvette's P.I. ratings value the race weight reduction (697) more than a race cam (676). Since 600+ horsepower is greater than 120+ horsepower, the Corvette's weight loss is more important. In Horizon, the Corvette's race exhaust upgrade is = to my upgrade of increased tire width with replacement wheels.

I see some equalities across the board, as in where Corvette has a 637 in Forza 4 it's a 663 in Horizon. What else do you notice? What can we deduce from the P.I. changes of 2011 (FM4) to 2012 (FH)? Also, we'll gladly take more of your comparisons.

*T10 & P.G. are figiting with the P.I. ratings similar to how a slide rule works, albeit electronically.

What if, as soon as Turn 10 perfects the P.I. system, they sell a physical slide rule with the P.I. calculations on it? Tire size, tire compound, weight, horsepower, torque, etc. all on individually sliding bars that would give a P.I. rating when everything aligned as you wanted.

After that race I just ran in iRacing, I need something where driving horribly rewards me. Conveniently, I just got in the mail a coupon for a free game or video rental...

Avanti, those are very interesting findings...I'll have to try that with some cars in F4 and FH for a comparison for PI system 4.1

Also from this site: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/948030-forza-motorsport-3/60704653?page=17

pez2k_ wrote:… I've managed to more or less 'fix' the game with Forza 4's physics. Turns out that the only real differences in the data are that the lateral grip of the tyres is bumped up a fair bit, which is what boosts turn-in and makes the cars quite oversteery, low-speed traction is increased a lot to make cars launch harder, higher-speed traction is decreased to add more wheelspin when powersliding, and braking traction is increased.

It makes quite an interesting difference in a lot of little ways, it's quite hard to do brakestands with the Horizon tyres because of the boosted grip, but at the same time it's a lot more slippery in second and third. Everything seems massively understeery as soon as you switch over, but it's just forcing you to drop back down to normal Forza speeds from the manic Horizon pace. I have no idea why they didn't just add a 'pro tyres' upgrade or something with one of the FM4 compounds for the purists to use. …

So there's a major difference between Motorsport 4 and Horizon.

They did mention they changed some things inside the engine for Horizon to make it more "fun and exciting" which is pretty cool. I do think what they learn from Horizon will migrate over to F5.

Horizon is going rally racing: http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/12/14/forza-horizon-rally-expansion-dated-and-detailed-with-trailer

5 new cars (6 if you hold the season pass), new "bolt-on" parts are coming in the expansion pack that you may apply to existing Horizon cars, a vocal navigator, and more.

It's worth repeating, I am pleased Horizon is dabbling in new realms so Motorsport may benefit. Then again, this isn't really new coding as some of the crew at Playground Games worked on their own automotive games.

Dang it.... Powers been out for most of yesterday but I was hoping to post what you posted Avanti.... Oh well still looks pretty shnazzy to me. I know it aint FM4 Rally but good enough to make me GameFly Horizon. Hope to get it by the end of the week.