Forza Horizon

[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.

[Knowlesy]

Well there does need to be a balance with open world games and I agree with your take on driving around between events.

Burnout Paradise was like that when it was released initially and I hated it. You would lose a race on the line after twelve miles of racing and then have to drive back twelve miles to start the race again. It was horrible and caused uproar. They patched it so you could jump to events direct and it was much better. The NFS games are the same (same developer, so they couldn't make the same mistake again!).

I am less confident of Horizon however. I think it will probably be far duller than the new NFS.

But not everyone who plays these games is a rammer as you say. In fact, I think I have had the best races on those type of games more consistently than standard racers. It is much, much harder to ram people on an open road for a start as there are so many escape routes whereas a circuit racer is all about the line and, if you stick to that line, you are basically a big target for idiots with no brakes. I don't think they will necessarily migrate to this type of game either as they are a fair bit harder.

[The Original Instag8or]

As the announcer would always say at the end of the night's racing;

"Remember ladies and gentlemen, racing is for the track. The roads are just for getting there."

Sums up my feelings on the whole "open world" racing games rather nicely.

[skells22]

has anyone got the full game today as it has been release today or is it in your xmas list?

[jonboy1066]

Good lord NO! LOL

[nickyf1]

Originally Posted by jonboy1066

Good lord NO! LOL

Fair enough if it's not your cup of tea, but there's no need to turn your nose up at it at every opportunity!

It looks like quite a bit of fun actually. Might pick it up to play over the Christmas holidays