out on xone and pc on 9.27. cross platform leaderboards and drivatars (and play?). purchasing the ultimate edition grants you "early" access on 9.23
reviews are very positive so far. the consensus seems to be that it's a step up from 2 and good combination of 2 (presentation and systems refinements) and 1 (engaging open world)
i'm extremely excited for this game as the original forza horizon is one of my favorites from the previous generation and i only played a few minutes of 2's fast and furious standalone thing on the 360. in fact i'm so excited i think i'm going to be "that guy" and preorder the ultimate edition even though i'm seriously worried about the PC version being up to snuff
car list seems pretty comprehensive. i don't remember the car count of FH but i'm pretty sure it didn't launch with 350+ cars as FH3 will. 3 volvos at launch (1967 123GT, 2015 S60 Polestar, 1997 859 R) so maybe doc claw will jump in at some point
hopefully we'll get a few people playing this game. i really enjoyed competing with my xbox live friends on track and speed camera times. i'm pretty sure rjcc and lach will buy it and never play it
2. "you know me. I have it. and an HDR tv" In response to Reply # 0
hdr doesn't add much (it's super subtle in this and 2k17)
but the game is dope. much improved over fh2, if you like forza at all it's a must buy, I like it better than any forza game I've ever played, and it might be the best PGR ever too
3. "high praise considering that the original FH was the best PGR ever" In response to Reply # 2
>hdr doesn't add much (it's super subtle in this and 2k17) > >but the game is dope. much improved over fh2, if you like >forza at all it's a must buy, I like it better than any forza >game I've ever played, and it might be the best PGR ever too > > >www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at
cars feel unique and different from one another, much like they do in more traditional sims like forza and gran turismo. this is the opposite of more arcade-ish racers like burnout and need for speed
the actual racing tends to be less punishing than sims and it encourages taking risks. the game places an emphasis on style, driving aggressively, and cleanly by rewarding the player with points for things like long drifts, consecutive passes, clean laps, etc. it's basically the kudos system from the project gotham racing series (a case could be made that the horizon series itself is an extension of the project gotham racing series)
there is a tuning system like in traditional sims but it doesn't go very deep. you can't change gear ratios or adjust your camber angle. it's a money sink, in a way. you can still do neat stuff like engine swaps and adding superchargers in addition to more commonplace things like suspension replacement and weight reduction. it's theoretically possible to modify a lower class car like a supra to the point that it is able to race alongside high end paganis and mclarens
like forza and GT, there are a lot of cars (about 200). it takes place in a contiguous open world, like burnout or test drive unlimited. it has the gradational difficulty system from forza and when you turn all the assists off it feels more like a sim than an arcade racer
12. "exemplary user experience + technical issues " In response to Reply # 0 Mon Sep-26-16 01:03 PM by bearfield
i'm hard pressed to think of one thing from a presentation or gameplay standpoint that i don't like about this game. not crazy about the offroad racing so far but i'm working with a small sample size. perhaps it gets really good as you get better at it. and some of the roads feel very similar to the original FH. i found myself thinking on more than a few occasions, "isn't this exact stretch of road in FH?"
most of my criticisms and complaints are on the technical side. it's kind of disappointing that this game seems to not want to run at 60 fps on pc. i have a pretty beefy rig but at 60 fps performance is very poor, frequently stuttering and dropping frames. however locking the game to 30 results in a very smooth and better looking experience. my guess is that it's designed to be played at 30. i'm not particularly upset about not being able to play it at 60 since it's a racing game and therefore more about planning than reflexes. those extra input frames shouldn't matter if you're racing correctly. that said, this game does play better at 60 and i hope they patch in a fix for the stuttering
it was a pain to install on pc. had to download it halfway 4 times before it finally installed after i left it downloading overnight. i shouldn't have issues with downloading the the service i paid for. i've had a few random freezes and ctds. online syncing is slower than it should be. the menus are madden slow sometimes
also the car list is slightly disappointing. it seems littered with antique american cars that i don't care about at all. the lack of porsches/rufs is heartbreaking. hopefully the car packs will drop some more interesting vehicles in the game later
other than those things this game is really something else. it just feels and looks so damn good. all the systems have been improved. the idea of the player dictating how the game progresses is pretty interesting. setting up parameters for the races is fun and it gives the player a means to race the new car they won/bought in the next available race. i'm getting rewards left and right for racing well (all assists off + rewind off + above average difficulty = 85% increase in CR every event). the handling engine is still remarkable. cars feel like they should when all the assists are off. and they went and added that forza proper level of tuning which i forgot that i loved. i had a lot of fun for an hour or so just alternating between tuning up my newly purchased hsv gts and racing it in rivals mode to knock a few seconds off my lap time
when i play this game it's almost like i'm fondly reminiscing about what the original forza horizon looked and felt like, meaning that nostalgia has erased all the faults and greatly enhanced the good parts
13. "Forgot I downloaded the demo and played last night" In response to Reply # 0
Gotdamn, the graphics and world look fucking amazing. The little fans spinning on the buggy were dope.
I have FH2, and I had a lot of fun with it but got bored after a while. The new environment seems like it might be a lot more interesting, fake Italy was kind of boring and repetitive after a while. Might buy on Friday but should probably wait until its on sale at some point. I have a lot of other racing games to put time into before this.
THE PAGE SAYS $60, BUT ADD IT TO YOUR CART AND IT WILL BE $20. HURRY UP AND BUY BECAUSE I'M SURE IT'S AN ERROR THAT WILL BE TAKEN DOWN SOON. YES, I TYPED THIS SHIT IN ALL CAPS.
18. "i don't like it but i just want more street routes for time trials" In response to Reply # 17 Thu May-11-17 06:35 PM by bearfield
both of the expansions have been too gimmicky for my taste. maybe they'll patch in a course/route creator function at some point, or at least the ability to set waypoints on bucket list challenges
the optimizations they've made are great though. i can now play at a steady 60 fps @ 1440p with everything at ultra quality and ~50 fps at 4k, which is crazy considering i was barely able to hit 40 fps at either resolution prior to this patch
20. "it's good but not what i want from a racing game w/ realistic physics" In response to Reply # 19 Thu May-11-17 09:10 PM by bearfield
visually it's spectacular. they nailed the look of the plastic tracks. i can see why people like it but i'm only in it for the extra achievement points and XP signs
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