Forza Horizon

[IceMan_PJN]

Forza Motorsport has all but officially replaced Gran Turismo as the definitive console racer and the console racing franchise against which all other console racing games are judged. This meant that there was plenty of room to worry about Forza Horizon, which was an obvious departure from the series. My biggest fear would be that it would dumb down the car physics, making it more arcadey. Allegedly that isn't the case, and so if we keep FM4 car physics plus gain all the stuff we're getting from Horizon, they can take my money now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvOPw720-r0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAMvrrDP6Mc

The funny thing for me in that video is that the guy mentions "great drivers... like myself" but he's saying this while weaving all over the place, crashing into guard rails, and smashing through fences and signs.

[BajaTom]

I do enjoy Forza .. I like the mechanical upgrading side most tbh. But this looks good

[beau1]

It looks ok but racing games seriously need a bit of innovation. This really doesn't look any different compared with Burnout: Paradise, Test Drive Unlimited 1 & 2 and the more open world focussed Need For Speeds.

It looks good compared with other upcoming racing titles like Dirt:Showdown though. I'm just talking in general terms.

Motorstorm looked really good 5-6 years ago and was a pretty good game and then suddenly all these other crazy off-roader games came from nowhere and spoilt that style of racing.

[Mystery]

Keen for you to describe that innovation in racing games. We've done rally, ovals, circuits, Dakar, drifting. Is there anything left to innovate? FH looks interesting and a bit of a Forza meets PGR. Not sure I'll spring full price for it!

[nickyf1]

Hopefully what it will do is separate the ''car lovers to gamers, gamers to car lovers'' crap out of the Forza Motorsport games.

[beau1]

Originally Posted by Mystery

Keen for you to describe that innovation in racing games. We've done rally, ovals, circuits, Dakar, drifting. Is there anything left to innovate? FH looks interesting and a bit of a Forza meets PGR. Not sure I'll spring full price for it!

I'm not sure in which way they can innovate and that is the problem I guess.

There just seems to be a big Lull in racing game at the moment. The newer F1 games look impressive but I find that most games look the same these days whereas on PS2 there seemed to be a great variety.
Even Need For Speed, a series which has re-invented itself a good few times is now struggling to come up with new ideas and is practically re-making some of their better PS2 games like 'Hot Pursuit' and 'Most Wanted'

[Knowlesy]

That is the case with most games tbh.Serious lack of innovation, but developers can't afford risks and innovations now in case it all goes wrong.

[beau1]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

That is the case with most games tbh.Serious lack of innovation, but developers can't afford risks and innovations now in case it all goes wrong.

Yeah, particularly with FPS' and a couple of other genres that are popular.

Developers are a bit too worried now about what is popular and that is only going to carry on whilst the games industry is growing like it is.

[NaBUru38]

It's publishers who are convservative. Small developers can take risks, but major companies like EA, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft don' enjoy risks.

[tux]

Forza 5 was announced for 2013 at the same time as this, any more news on it?

Im hoping they allow night racing at Le Mans and longer races.

[broadrun96]

And ban ALL non-racing activities, what is the Top Gear bowling nonsense? And no enduros and the crazy fast leveling up made the game boring, had completed FM2 and FM3 but have done barely 25% of FM4.

[awrb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

And ban ALL non-racing activities, what is the Top Gear bowling nonsense? And no enduros and the crazy fast leveling up made the game boring, had completed FM2 and FM3 but have done barely 25% of FM4.

That's the problem with FM4, it was so fast to get into the top cars there wasn't much point in carrying on. You had an LMP1 pretty soon, so there was nothing to build up to. I can remember GT4, racing the slow cars for ages, then finally getting a Mazda RX7 race car and getting excited, and then after a while getting a DTM car, and finally being able to afford an Audi R8. It meant you kept playing as new races were unlocked and you progressed through the game. With Forza you get some good cars within the first few races and then are presented with a massive grid of races to slug through.

[Mystery]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

And ban ALL non-racing activities, what is the Top Gear bowling nonsense? And no enduros and the crazy fast leveling up made the game boring, had completed FM2 and FM3 but have done barely 25% of FM4.

What's "non-racing" though?

Bowling yeah
soccer probably
the cone racing thing - eeeeerm maybe
Drifting??? Ummm.....

You can start to chip away at this stuff and some will be a bit more happy but a lot won't be.

I saw no sense in removing enduros but it would have been interesting to see if the LM endurance lobbies had been successful with a bit of a marketing push. I only found them by accident and they were very quiet of course.

[broadrun96]

And I had nothing but bad luck with finding clubs hidden in races. Course I should have known when I was running away from all of them something was up. Half the time I'd come around a blind bend and find 2 cars blocking the track so their club buddy could win and earn the credits. Gave me a sour taste for even trying again.

[I Rosputnik]

Horizon looks interesting, and hopefully Playground will make the most of Forza 4's car list when it comes to choosing such as the two Cossies.

Yeah, racing games are beginning to grind a little. I'm currently sitting out of Forza right now due to how bored I was playing number 3. The last good time I had playing a racing game was PGR 4, but what I really want to see come back is Rollcage.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Ahhh that was a cool little game, wasn't it?

I remember playing the demo an awful lot on the original PS.

Selby

[Knowlesy]

As regards the fast levelling up on Forza, I am really pleased with it. I have slugged through the first four Gran Turismo games and really have no desire to go through that kind of marathon again just to get to drive the same cars I owned on the previous game. At my advanced age (26) I just want to pick up and play.

The giant grid of races is annoying though I concede and, due to being an achievement completionist, I am currently grinding through it. It is so, so tedious. No need really.

[Mystery]

I use the FM4 grid as an occasional interesting diversion. As a tuner and oval race fan my interest lies in leaderboard hot lappery with the occasional online race and some footy. Variety is there if you want it and it's executed well. Circuit racing can get a tad samey for sure.

[I Rosputnik]

Originally Posted by ECW Dan Selby

Ahhh that was a cool little game, wasn't it?

I remember playing the demo an awful lot on the original PS.

Selby

Back then my life was wake, school, home, rollcage, sleep, repeat. I have the second game to blame for my musical tastes.

Ahh, nothing beats playing football with a giant rock while going at 200mph+.

[Knowlesy]

So the demo of this is out.

It's OK. The handling is reasonable, but the trouble is it has a certain lack of feel through the controller for myself. Perhaps the full game will fix this.

My worry is that the team may have succeeded in transporting the sterility of the Forza/GT type game in its entirety into an open world game.

The new Need For Speed will be much, much better I feel. Nonetheless, I shall get this as it does have elements of promise. Just not as excited as I once was about it.

Pretty good month or so for arcade racers actually, with Sonic And Sega All Stars 2 and F1 Race Stars coming hot on the heels of NFS.

[jonboy1066]

I just watched the 2 VVV vids on you tube of the guy playing through the first hour of the game and can honestly say.

This game looks damn near perfect!

As I suspected, this is a game where the griefers, rammers, kids and self proclaimed "Car Guys" who are generally too young to drive and too stupid to understand racing can hang out.

Which may leave potential for the Forza Motorsport franchise to actually concentrate on the namesake of the game....MOTORSPORT.

All the Forza games have been fun, and even all the GT games had their moments through the boredom of the grind, but I think I've grown out of the whole badge collecting grinding idea of gameplay.

I love motorsport and want to play motorsport games, so hopefully with F-Horizons now concentrating on the "Car Culture" side of Drifting, Dragging, Ramming and Dirty Driving I hope that this paves the way for Forza Motorsport 5 to concentrate on important stuff like Aero Repair in the pits, quali, real racing rules etc etc etc

For me...unless FM5 produces a massive leap in the Motorsport side of the title I'm out of badge collecting games, F1 is enough to provide my racing thrills without wasting my time and C.A.R.S looks to be a potential tin top filler game.

Horizons looks great for a certain demographic in the gaming community but it's not for me, however it has given T10 the opportunity to up their game and seperate the Tesco Car Park on a Saturday night crowd from the Racers...I hope they take it.

Or perhaps I'm just getting grumpy in my old age.

[Knowlesy]

No, just deeply boring.

[jonboy1066]

Me... Or the game?

[Knowlesy]

You.

Seriously, grab yourself an open world arcade racer. If you can't play, say, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit by Criterion online without cracking a huge grin you are dead inside. Dead I tell thee!

[jonboy1066]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

You.

Seriously, grab yourself an open world arcade racer. If you can't play, say, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit by Criterion online without cracking a huge grin you are dead inside. Dead I tell thee!

Hahaha The wife says I've been dead inside for years!

I'm not completely boring though, my son's got DiRT2 and DiRT Showdown, and we do have fun with them. DiRT2 seems to provide all the sort of things I'd be interested in on Forza Horizons without the endless driving around getting nowhere achieving nothing of much importance and DiRT2 provides actual damage in a risk vs reward way without having to follow a satnav to get to the fun.

For a living I drive around endlessly, getting nowhere and achieving not much in particular while getting constantly diverted for no apparent reason, then occaisionally get sidetracked 5 or 6 times a day by periods of high speed driving, noise, mad overtakes that I wouldn't do in my own car and moments of intense excitement when I get there... all in a real free world environment.
So to do that in a game where there's no element of risk, or of even the possibily of damaging your car if you get it wrong is to me.....Boring.

I'll stick with DiRT2 for the fun arcade racing thrills without having to "Drive" for miles between events, and F1 2012 for actual racing thrills while hoping that Horizons is the game that attracts all the online rammers, wall riders and griefers to go and bounce off each other consequence free and T10 can now concentrate on the Motorsport part of their main title.