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LTTP: Forza Horizon 3

Grisby

Member
I think I can safety say it's the only racing series for me.

Some people get turned off by the pop/festival deal of it but I think that feeds into the overall positive vibes that the whole game gives off. I can turn on a number of assists to make the game feel like I'm playing something closer to the mainline motorsport series but still have that slight arcade tune to it.

The only way they can go up from here is to have the next game set in Japan.

Also:
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My only complaint is I often don't know what Im supposed to be doing. I don't get the exhibition races, when they turn into real races? I often drive around with nothing to do.

I wish I had more direction. Ive probably been in 6 races over 20 hours. Im lost in terms of what the hell am I supposed to be doing.
 

bede-x

Member
It's really really good. I also got into it and the series recently, having missed them completely, because I thought they would be too much like the main series and I normally only like arcade racers. Was blown away by how good it is and have now completed Horizon 1 (thanks BC service) and Horizon 3, with the second game waiting patiently on my harddrive.

If possible MS should consider buying Playground. Such a talented studio and they seem to have good relationship with them.
 
Wasn't there one or two areas that were notoriously bad? Like surfers paradise or somethign?

Are those still bad? And how much time do you spend there?

I went to Surfer's Paradise the other day and I do definitely get the 1-2fps drops more often there, sometimes the occasional hiccup to 55 as well. It's not perfect there for sure but it's much better for me now that I've upgraded. I imagine it's still not great for machines that were similar to mine before I upgraded but I'm not 100%. It's a shame really. This is at 4K btw, might be better for lower resolutions.
 
I finally played this on my friends Xbox One, and while it's certainly a good driving game, I didn't really get the hype.. 95% etc?

It kinda felt like I was playing a recent Need for Speed game, or maybe Grand Theft Auto if you stripped much of the points of interest and interaction out of the world and just had the little driving missions dotted about with more of a Tony Hawk vibe. And the graphics, the effects and weather never took my breath away like Driveclub did at times. It looked more vanilla and 'gamey'.

Maybe I need longer with it, or the expansion. Might pick it up for my aging PC if it's cheap sometime. It's certainly polished and has nice presentation.

GTA with stuff stripped out and "just the little driving missions"??? This post is laughable. GTA's driving isn't even in the same universe as the Forza series lately. Maybe if you play it in pure arcade style, but the simulation aspects and the feedback from the terrain and moisture changes is so far beyond GTA it isn't even a legitimate comparison.

Yeah, you definitely need more time with it.
 

roytheone

Member
I want to try this game, but because of the pc port issues+ having to deal with the windows 10 store I am waiting until I can get it for around 30.
 

Jumeira

Banned
Greatest racer made, there's a sense of thrill and excitement I've rarely experienced in gaming, the lighting in this game is something else, seeing the dust kick up hit the sun rays and illuminate the course in a orange hue was a small sight to behold.
 

jamsy

Member
I dunno, I really didn't like Horizon 3 nearly as much as Horizon 2.

There's just like no structure to progression. It's like, here's an event - oh, you don't like it, make your own. Or here's a blank event - design your own! I didn't pay money to design my own fucking game. I really wish they stuck to the previous game's progression design.

Also, the south of France/Italy location was a lot more interesting than Australia. But I'm biased, since I actually used to live there.
 
I dunno, I really didn't like Horizon 3 nearly as much as Horizon 2.

There's just like no structure to progression. It's like, here's an event - oh, you don't like it, make your own. Or here's a blank event - design your own! I didn't pay money to design my own fucking game. I really wish they stuck to the previous game's progression design.

Also, the south of France/Italy location was a lot more interesting than Australia. But I'm biased, since I actually used to live there.

Dude I drove around for 30 minutes, and had nothing to do. I hate this structure.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Greatest racer made, there's a sense of thrill and excitement I've rarely experienced in gaming, the lighting in this game is something else, seeing the dust kick up hit the sun rays and illuminate the course in a orange hue was a small sight to behold.

No doubt about it. I was running a race last night in the rain (which is another amazing effect) and the sun broke out for a bit and all of the sudden around a turn I spotted this gorgeous rainbow that was about the most realistic I have ever seen in a game. They just nailed it.
 

Freeman76

Member
Best racer ever imo, even the soundtrack is sublime. Dunno how they made it look so good either, technical magicians.
 
I do not understand it. This was my most hyped game for the year. I put in hundreds of hours in Horizon 2 but somehow, this did not grab me at all. Maybe the setting, the cluttered map...all of that just did not suit my tastes. I dont think i played this for over 30 hours. Italy and classic music was just my jam. Australia...wasn't.

Maybe I need to go back and try again.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Dude I drove around for 30 minutes, and had nothing to do. I hate this structure.

Nothing to do? Go to the myriad of events, gain fans to expand the festival in different locations, championships, rivals, barn finds, stunts, bucket list activities, challenges, vista points, or just exploration. The game is packed and has more options and variety than ever.
 
My only complaint is I often don't know what Im supposed to be doing. I don't get the exhibition races, when they turn into real races? I often drive around with nothing to do.

I wish I had more direction. Ive probably been in 6 races over 20 hours. Im lost in terms of what the hell am I supposed to be doing.

I'm in the same boat. I feel like it does a really poor job of explaining to you the flow of events. I end up just going to whatever's on the map and doing it. Still fun, just not as straight forward as FH2.

Game looks so good though.
 
I'm in the same boat. I feel like it does a really poor job of explaining to you the flow of events. I end up just going to whatever's on the map and doing it. Still fun, just not as straight forward as FH2.

Game looks so good though.

That's kind of the point though. It's a game that's just as much about cruising around aimlessly as it is doing focused 'missions'.
 
If they gave it Burnout style controls and speed then it would be near perfect for me. Even without that it's still really dang good, and I've enjoyed every minute I've played it.
 

BTM

Member
It's so fucking good. I usually end up playing every Monday night with a bunch of friends. Always a great time.
 
Horizon 3 on Scorpio



It's the best looking racer to date during gameplay. All of the above are real-time/gameplay. (not photomode)

On PC probably, yes. Not on consoles.

But it is a damn pretty game and runs like a dream considering it runs on an XBone.
 
That's kind of the point though. It's a game that's just as much about cruising around aimlessly as it is doing focused 'missions'.

I guess - I certainly have as much fun driving around aimlessly as I do doing events. But the progression should still be more clearly defined IMO. Maybe I just didn't pay enough attention during a tutorial video or something. (It's also been since January the last time I played it)
 
I was using DSR on a 2500/970 to do 4k and I got a strong 30 with most settings still pretty high. 60 should be possible on those rigs. This game plays well when it's abusing your hardware as it nullifies the stutter problems.

I believe you when you say it ran super well on your machine, but this basically looks like crazy talk to me. I couldn't get the game to run reliably at 30fps on a 3570k/970 at 1920x1200, never mind 4k. I ended up playing most of the game on Xbox One because Playground shit the bed so thoroughly as far as I'm concerned, and I'm not usually someone who cares that much about 30fps versus 60fps either.

Besides the PC issues, I mostly enjoyed Horizon 3. The biggest criticism I have about it, a few months after finishing it, is that it's more of the same, and with fewer barriers to overcome in terms of gameplay. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I do miss the sense of progression you got from Horizon 2 and especially 1; here, you just kind of get access to everything immediately. I would also agree with the criticisms about the user-created events; they didn't add much to the game and in some ways were an annoyance (wait, you want me to take this jump from the OPPOSITE side? who designed this challenge?) And I really wish Playground would take out cross-country races in the next game, though I know they won't. They're no substitute for proper rally or rallycross courses and half the time they feel like a six-year-old discovered how to smash toy cars together, and you're in one of the toy cars.

But in the end, it's still powersliding ludicrous cars in the desert to M83, and it's hard to beat that.
 

Cyanity

Banned
I've pumped so many hours into this game and the Blizzard Mountain exoansion. So much fun. Other games have stolen my time lately, but next expansion I'm in all over again. (There's gonna be another one, right?)
 
I went to Surfer's Paradise the other day and I do definitely get the 1-2fps drops more often there, sometimes the occasional hiccup to 55 as well. It's not perfect there for sure but it's much better for me now that I've upgraded. I imagine it's still not great for machines that were similar to mine before I upgraded but I'm not 100%. It's a shame really. This is at 4K btw, might be better for lower resolutions.

Cool. I'll take a couple fps drops from 60 at 4K all day.
 

Sydle

Member
I love it, just wish I could run it at locked 60fps. I have a 1070, but will upgrade my CPU from an i7 3770 later this year just for this game...or maybe get a Scorpio if it can achieve 60fps.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Holy shit, Blizzard Mountain is phenomenal. If you love racers even a little, you need to play it. It's absolute crazy fun.
 

The Argus

Member
Not only my favorite racing game this gen, FH3 was my favorite game last year. It was my biggest time sink this gen till Zelda rolled along.
 

Hip Hop

Member
It's an amazing racer, could have been one of the best if not for the totally unfocused career mode.

For that reason, I prefered Forza Horizon 2.
 

Rizific

Member
it was my first horizon game, and on PC. skipped fh2 strictly because of it being 30fps. it was just ok. i like the customization and the game is very pretty. unlike most others, the game always ran relatively well for me at 1440p high settings wiith 4x msaa 60-90fps. my issue with it is, i like road and circuit racing. racing a 458 italia through a forest, splashing into a river stream, going full speed over sand, and hitting jumps made of dirt felt pretty stupid to me. but Rizific, why dont you just use an off road vehicle? not a fan of off road racing. as a long time forza fan, i just think the horizon series isnt for me.
 

Warablo

Member
The only racing series I truly enjoyed since Midnight Club and NFS Underground.

Everyone talking about Japan as a location, I now really hope Horizon 4 is in Japan.

Also really like the whole feastival setting, makes the game feel more alive and fun.
 

a.wd

Member
Best racing game on Xbox.

Best racing game of this Gen.

Probably best racing game of all time.

(yes I am including, GT, PGR, NFS, etc)

I still play it 2-3 times a week in single player...
 
I know, I loved TDU. I wouldn't mind if they featured another island than O'ahu in FH4. :)

The first TDU was amazing! Really great cruising simulator, I just loved driving around and touring the island. Islands are in a way perfect for open world racers as they have a natural limit to where you can drive.

I remember fooling a friend with TDU2; I showed him, driving around O'ahu, then zoomed out the map to the whole globe, turned it and said "you can drive anywhere in the world lets take a random island like Ibiza and go there". Lol
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
I loved the game, but it moves more like Minecraft than Gran Turismo. You have to make your own fun, give yourself your own goals, and try to make the best of it. Besides the very bare minimum required to get the credits to roll, there's really not much of anything to progress towards considering you can buy nearly everything right away and money is easy to get (especially with the economy being broken the first month with HE cards selling for absurd amounts). Perks really don't do much of anything other than give you some easy money at the start if you fill up that tree. Winning races is sorta trivial and doesn't really reward you.

The strength of the game is that it feels to me like the aftermath of regular Forza or Gran Turismo. You beat the game, you've clearly proven you're the best driver in the world, you have a gazillion dollars and cars, and this is the epilogue. You are just traveling the world doing whatever the hell you want driving whatever you want because you can. Nobody stops you because your a god amongst men.

The weakness of the game is the difficulty in balancing challenge per race. Some races are actually challenging, most races are pathetically easy even if you crank up the difficulty. Even then, a lot of difficulty comes artificially by just not knowing where to go when you're driving offroad in fields and forests. Add in blueprinting, and I honestly felt more like I was playing "RaceMaker 3.0" at times rather than a pre-made game.

Overall, I had a good time with it, but it's really flawed, and that doesn't even touch on the horrendous technical problems or bad game design decisions like constant mini transition demos that can't be skipped or the nagging NPC event organizers stealing your screen from you to show you shit you don't care about.



I was using DSR on a 2500/970 to do 4k and I got a strong 30 with most settings still pretty high. 60 should be possible on those rigs. This game plays well when it's abusing your hardware as it nullifies the stutter problems.

WOW.... I can honestly say I think you just "un-sold" me on this game. I was seriously going to give it a try upon upgrading to Windows 10, but after reading this? Ugh!!

You've just described everything I hate about racing games. Reading about how bad the steering wheel and force feedback is was one thing, but now reading about how there's no real, meaningful progression in the campaign, and they just hand all the cars to you on a silver platter from the beginning? No...fucking....thanks. I'll stick to GRID 2 while waiting for Forza 7 :/
 
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