Goafer Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 And just like that, I now have a reason to buy a Series X. Not sure how I feel about the Mexico location. I think it'll be very good for the off-road sections, but less so for the urban racing. 2
Ronnie Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 The static shots of the landscape that quickly became gameplay were very effective. Stunning looking game, love the look of that creator mode too.
bob Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 And just like that, I now have a reason to buy a Series X. Not sure how I feel about the Mexico location. I think it'll be very good for the off-road sections, but less so for the urban racing.Why? They have cities in Mexico don't they?
Goafer Posted June 14, 2021 Author Posted June 14, 2021 6 minutes ago, bob said: 25 minutes ago, Goafer said: And just like that, I now have a reason to buy a Series X. Not sure how I feel about the Mexico location. I think it'll be very good for the off-road sections, but less so for the urban racing. Why? They have cities in Mexico don't they? True, but they didn't show any. It seemed more like rural areas. It's hard to imagine low slung supercars barreling round shanty towns and farmland. Hopefully there will be a decent city or two. I like the open areas, but a decent urban area would be nice for variety.
Julius Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 Yeah, this looks absolutely incredible. I laughed so hard when they talked about their 12K sky capturing, because it's so absurdly above and beyond! The wait for the dream of a Forza Horizon in Japan to be realised continues, though (Mexico does look great, I just want to see Mt Fuji in one of these games!). Forza is the biggest reason for me at the moment for wanting to pick up an Xbox right now and seemingly at any point in the near future. Before I got a PS4 I got an Xbox 360, mainly because it was more affordable for my parents at the time, but also because I loved cars and wanted to check out Forza. I was reading every car magazine I could get my hands on, subscribed to a few (I actually cancelled my monthly subscription and I ended up getting another year's worth of Top Gear sent for free following that!), and still have the Forza Motorsport 4 limited edition I got with the console (actually bought it well ahead of my birthday just to make sure I didn't miss out!), and loved the first Forza Horizon too. Even now, some 5+ years after I moved away from a 360 to a PS4 and longer than that since I played a brand new Forza, I still find it very difficult to truly enjoy my time in a lot of racing games because of how much I enjoyed what I remember about the particular feel of Forza. Just driving around in a Horizon game rather than lapsing and returning to FIFA sounds so appealing to me, and it's a big part of why I want Xbox to come out with a couple more things that I truly feel that I have to pick up one of their consoles for, so that I have a way to justify it: at the moment it's Forza, Halo, Rare Replay and some indie games, but I personally have a hard time justifying a pretty big purchase with only those. Playground working on Fable too makes me wonder if Xbox are going to position them similarly to how Nintendo positions MonolithSoft, a couple of their own IP but then potentually aiding in open world design for other studios. Heck, even looking at Halo Infinite, I question why Playground seemingly haven't been made to lend a hand and support with the open world, as that would seem a very appropriate use of their talents.
Cube Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 I hope they improve progression. The gameplay for Forza Horizon 4 was great, but you were pretty much given cars completely randomly. Same for money, it felt like a mobile game in that regards (especially with the roulette wheel aesthetic).There seemed to be no reason to try specific events. Hopefully the season thing will be going, or at least they'll let you choose while offline (or in a private lobby).
Ronnie Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 Yeah I'd like a clearer progression system. They did a decent job in 4 of slowly unlocking events as you go, but it was still pretty overwhelming and I could never figure out the various cars they showered you with.
Hero-of-Time Posted June 14, 2021 Posted June 14, 2021 24 minutes ago, Cube said: I hope they improve progression. The gameplay for Forza Horizon 4 was great, but you were pretty much given cars completely randomly. Same for money, it felt like a mobile game in that regards (especially with the roulette wheel aesthetic).There seemed to be no reason to try specific events. Hopefully the season thing will be going, or at least they'll let you choose while offline (or in a private lobby). It's possible it felt the way it did due to certain MS games being tailored for loot boxes and microtransactions. I know One versions of both Gears and the mainline Forza series got a lot of flak for their progression systems and microtransactions. Maybe what you experienced was what left over after they started removing them and rebalancing things for their games?
Goafer Posted June 14, 2021 Author Posted June 14, 2021 I didn't mind the progression, or lack of, in 4. Normally that would bother me, but I enjoyed the slower cars just as much as the fast ones, so I enjoyed going back to them. The seasonal stuff, which encouraged you to race with certain cars or classes, were brilliant, as it forced me to try all the cars on offer. For me, Forza 4 was a car collecting game, with racing thrown in. There were loads of mini storylines to give you something to acheive, but the main game was just racing, collecting cars and having fun. I think it helps that I love cars. Not just supercars, but all cars. Give me a 40bhp Ford Anglia and I'll have as much fun as I would with a Lamborghini.
Happenstance Posted November 8, 2021 Posted November 8, 2021 Just pre-loading the game on PC at the moment. All the positive reviews have actually got me quite excited to try it tomorrow.
Ganepark32 Posted November 8, 2021 Posted November 8, 2021 Been playing it since Thursday thanks to the Premium Add-on Bundle giving early access to the Gamepass version and its so damned good. Sure, its very similar to the previous games but its very much a refinement of what has come before. The cars do feel weightier this time around, thats the biggest difference I've felt in terms of the handling model being more varied. Their depiction of Mexico is so well done. It reminds me a lot of playing Forza Horizon 3 in that the world feels much more varied and more open, there's a lot of freedom to pretty much drive where you want. Its bright and colourful and just looks fantastic even on my Series S. Its also just filled with so much stuff to do. The map slowly fills up as you set up Festival expansions and right now I'm only short maybe 2 and my map is full of icons for things to do, and thats before you include Super7 stuff, the Eliminator and Horizon Arcade. I do feel progression is a lot better this time compared to FH4. You're getting wheel spins more frequently and I've had more money and cars from them than any of the clothing/horn items (though I did get the Battletoads theme as horn. Want that Ori and Halo one though). There's accolades as well that have unlocks attached to them as well, mainly cosmetics or text for in game chat on the d-pad. And levels come thick and fast given the plethora of things to do, as do subsequent Horizon chapters as they dole out XP and progress towards those through pretty much everything. You do have access to pretty much the entire autoshow out the gate and I don't know of it was just a Premium thing for early access but you get a car voucher to buy any car you want. I promptly bought the Rimac electric car because you could only get it through seasonal on FH4 if I remember correctly and I've wanted to drive it in game for years and it's a beautiful car that goes like the clappers. So very impressed with it so far. If they can iron out the online issues then it would be great but even then, its just a phenomenal game to play solo with everything there is to see and do. May end up being my favourite of the series, though the DLC will have to beat Blizzard Mountain and the Hot Wheels ones for 3, but its one of my favourite games of the year easily because its just so much fun to play and so well made.
Happenstance Posted November 9, 2021 Posted November 9, 2021 Just had a quick go and the game seems to run perfectly on my PC. Ultra settings on my ultrawide monitor looks awesome.
bob Posted November 9, 2021 Posted November 9, 2021 I didn't mind the progression, or lack of, in 4. Normally that would bother me, but I enjoyed the slower cars just as much as the fast ones, so I enjoyed going back to them. The seasonal stuff, which encouraged you to race with certain cars or classes, were brilliant, as it forced me to try all the cars on offer. For me, Forza 4 was a car collecting game, with racing thrown in. There were loads of mini storylines to give you something to acheive, but the main game was just racing, collecting cars and having fun. I think it helps that I love cars. Not just supercars, but all cars. Give me a 40bhp Ford Anglia and I'll have as much fun as I would with a Lamborghini.Have you ever driven a Lamborghini?
Goafer Posted November 9, 2021 Author Posted November 9, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, bob said: On 14/06/2021 at 1:19 PM, Goafer said: I didn't mind the progression, or lack of, in 4. Normally that would bother me, but I enjoyed the slower cars just as much as the fast ones, so I enjoyed going back to them. The seasonal stuff, which encouraged you to race with certain cars or classes, were brilliant, as it forced me to try all the cars on offer. For me, Forza 4 was a car collecting game, with racing thrown in. There were loads of mini storylines to give you something to acheive, but the main game was just racing, collecting cars and having fun. I think it helps that I love cars. Not just supercars, but all cars. Give me a 40bhp Ford Anglia and I'll have as much fun as I would with a Lamborghini. Have you ever driven a Lamborghini? To be fair, no, but I've also not driven a Ford Anglia. I meant more in the context of the game, but I think I mirror that opinion when it comes to real cars. I've owned/driven shiny cars, fast cars, big cars, small cars, old cars and new cars, and the ones that were the most fun were always the ones I didn't care about. It's much easier to enjoy a car when you're not constantly worrying about every stone chip and car park dent. Edited November 9, 2021 by Goafer 1
Cube Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 Played it for a few hours. Graphically, it looks amazing, but it has the same issues that 4 has. Drivatars are still creepy, and they still punish you in offline mode by making them crash into you and get in your way (it's bizarre how you have to go online if you want to drive peacefully). Getting cars is still down by roulette wheel, making it feel like you don't earn a single car, it's more like you're being given access to someone else's cars. Unlocking the Horizon outposts is slightly more progression than the previous one, although the prologue itself is really short compared to 4, which had lots of cool events and the fancy season changing as you went though it (it was easily the best part of 4). I'll probably carry on unlocking the outposts and playing the stories (I hope they've returned), as the core gameplay is great, it's just a shame that it still feels like a mobile phone game in terms of progression.
Julius Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 Those are some pretty insane numbers, but from the reviews and what people have said here, it seems deserved! This game (and, well, franchise) is by far the biggest reason I'll be picking up a Series X at some point...I'm just not sure when.
Happenstance Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 PC servers seemed to be having a few issues last night. I got kicked from sessions a couple of times and had to play offline and for once it wasn't the crappy wireless card in my machine.
Ronnie Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 24 minutes ago, Julius said: Those are some pretty insane numbers, but from the reviews and what people have said here, it seems deserved! This game (and, well, franchise) is by far the biggest reason I'll be picking up a Series X at some point...I'm just not sure when. Like you say, sounds like it's fully deserved, the game seems incredible. I suspect it'll be in the running for GOTY.
Sheikah Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 58 minutes ago, Julius said: Those are some pretty insane numbers, but from the reviews and what people have said here, it seems deserved! This game (and, well, franchise) is by far the biggest reason I'll be picking up a Series X at some point...I'm just not sure when. Now by all accounts this sounds like a good game, but as always it's hard to make much of statistics that include copies that are more or less given away for free on Game Pass.
Julius Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 25 minutes ago, Sheikah said: Now by all accounts this sounds like a good game, but as always it's hard to make much of statistics that include copies that are more or less given away for free on Game Pass. I know what you mean, but that mindset is exactly why subscription services like Game Pass do so well I think it's a great amount of players, but I think the really interesting thing will be seeing what that figure is a few months from now, especially compared (probably internally, since Xbox aren't one to share numbers) to earlier games. Does players giving the game a go on Game Pass mean a crazy peak at launch offset by players being more open to dropping the game seeing as it was include in Game Pass? If anything, as it's not a number of copies sold, I think this number really highlights the growth of Game Pass over the last few years. It is worth noting, though, that there were more than 1 million players who got access to the game a few days early (some in this thread), either through paying for the Premium Edition of the game (RRP £84.99) or the Premium Add-ons Bundle if you had Game Pass (RRP £39.99). Which I'd say is probably even more nuts than the figures Phil Spencer gave, because I could easily see the earlier access model being utilised more for Xbox Game Studios games moving forwards given its success here.
Ronnie Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 23 minutes ago, Julius said: I know what you mean, but that mindset is exactly why subscription services like Game Pass do so well Very pro-consumer. It's a great thing that so many people get to play the game, regardless of if they bought it or are subscribed to GP. 92 on Metacritic!
martinist Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 Been playing this for a day or so and it's really fun so far. Ended up buying the premium pass and to be honnest its really worth it. Might actually go out and buy a phisical copy so i can still paly it if it gets removed from the service later down the line.
Cube Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 5 hours ago, Julius said: I could easily see the earlier access model being utilised more for Xbox Game Studios games moving forwards given its success here. Definitely the kind of anti-consumer thing that I expect Microsoft to do more of in the future, especially for multiplayer games so they can rely on peer pressure to push sales.
Sheikah Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 5 hours ago, Julius said: I know what you mean, but that mindset is exactly why subscription services like Game Pass do so well I think it being priced at a pound probably works wonders, too.
Julius Posted November 10, 2021 Posted November 10, 2021 6 minutes ago, Sheikah said: I think it being priced at a pound probably works wonders, too. Oh, I get you now, didn't know you were on about that promotion. Honestly, that's a fair point in those cases, though I doubt most outside of the gaming industry's web of news made use of it? But that could just be a totally misplaced hunch of mine. I know I'd totally be on it too if I had an Xbox right now, though I'd probably also be one of those ponying up for the Premium Bundle too. I honestly don't think I want to try to get my head around how much Xbox have had to haemorrhage to offer promotions like that. I think it will be really interesting to see when the price goes up (I'd assume when Starfield releases next year), and how they're going to keep the model sustainable. But I've probably derailed the thread enough, so to get back on topic: to those of you playing, which car/s are you mainly driving around? Is there a particular car that you're really looking forward to taking for a spin?
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