• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Forza Horizon 1 is Better than 2.

SatoAilDarko said:
For those who prefer one what are your thoughts on the 360 version of 2 if you played it?

It has its own unique events.
Click to expand...

I only played that Fast and Furious bite size portion. I can only comment on the graphics, it's more basic looking than FH1, a cut back Xbox One version.
 
I did not play 1 but in 2 I got the impression you were doing the same events in each of the locations every time you got there which gave me this constant deja vu of "Wait a second, this race AGAIN?".
 
SatoAilDarko said:
For those who prefer one what are your thoughts on the 360 version of 2 if you played it?

It has its own unique events.
Click to expand...

I liked it, although Forza Horizon 1 was more visually better composed and less bland, I did like how colorful the palette of Forza Horizon 2 even on the 360 was.

Gameplay wise they were pretty much identical, 2 didn't have the off road races like on the Xbox One so it more or less felt the same as 1 on the 360, but with that said both are great games.

What I liked about 2 better tho was that you could do any event with any car.
 
Zojirushi said:
I did not play 1 but in 2 I got the impression you were doing the same events in each of the locations every time you got there which gave me this constant deja vu of "Wait a second, this race AGAIN?".
Click to expand...

Yeah because the structure of the campaign was terrible compared to 1.
 
SatoAilDarko said:
For those who prefer one what are your thoughts on the 360 version of 2 if you played it?

It has its own unique events.
Click to expand...

Playing a ton of FH2 on the One, and of course a ton of FH1 on the 360 prior to that, I tried the 360 version of FH2. It's got the look of a game meant for the One and cut down to a sterile and basic version on the 360, it even looks inferior to FH1 which was built for the hardware it's running on, rather than being a downport.
 
T.O.P said:
Can't really, decide they are of my favourite games of all time honestly

I totally agree on the wristband and the sense of progression wich was better on the first game

Anyway, just started the first one again in BC, looks amazing, runs great, the wait for the third game is gonna be freakin glorious now
Click to expand...

I'm downloading this tonight. I only had PGR last gen, didn't like it and didnt bother with any other racers. Love FH2 though.
 
Story / event progression is the only area where I feel FH1 is clearly superior.

Which is something I worry about with FH3 as it seems even more invested in the make your own choices thing.
Things can get pretty grindy without good progression, even if the gameplay is great.
 
user_nat said:
Story / event progression is the only area where I feel FH1 is clearly superior.

Which is something I worry about with FH3 as it seems even more invested in the make your own choices thing.
Things can get pretty grindy without good progression, even if the gameplay is great.
Click to expand...

100% this.

I´m not sold on the "you run the festival" aspect at all.

I really enjoyed the rise from nobody to legend in Forza 1.
 
Certinty said:
I know this is a fairly unpopular opinion but reading today it seems a decent amount of people share the same view. Not saying that 2 is a bad game because it's honestly one of the best current-gen exclusives out there but here's why for me 1 is the better game.

Firstly the way you progress in the first game is far superior, you have a set list of pre-chosen class races to for every colour wristband and you did them. With every wristband the number of Horizon races decreased and there was actually a main goal, to get the golden wristband and win the Horizon festival. Meanwhile in 2 it's like "go here, go there and choose whatever event you want", the freedom was a little too much and doing the same thing again and again had no progression whatsoever. Then suddenly when you won enough events you're given a final race out of nowhere. Although wristbands existed in 2 they served no purpose whatsoever.

The map is also far better although restricted. Driving around Colorado was a blast, the main area of the festival felt exactly like that and the other parts such as the Grand Canyon and the area with the dam were simply amazing to drive-by too, each part of the map felt unique. In 2 sure there were towns across France and Italy which felt unique but the rest of the map did not, it was simply just open grassland to fly through with the game not feeling like a festival whatsoever. Colorado was a much more varied and better setting in my eyes.

There was much more than just the main events such as street racing. Events at night where pedestrian cars would still be on the road, roads wouldn't be blocked and they were up to you to complete however. It gave a complete different side to the festival. 2 went backwards getting rid of these.

Also minor points but the guy who talks to you in 2 is far more annoying than the woman in 1 and the soundtrack for me was also more fitting and superior to 2's. Saying that 2 obviously excels over the first in many ways such as the inclusion of weather, improved physics, bucket list challenges (which are awesome) and so on, but that's to be expected.

Overall however 1 for me was simply a much more fun experience. Nothing beats racing a Mustang plane down the Grand Canyon in a 70's Ford Mustang, something that was far more memorable than anything in Forza Horizon 2.

Given the game is free with Games with Gold and compatible with the Xbox One, I hope a lot of people give the game a try. It really is one of the best racing games ever made and has dated amazingly well to add to that.
Click to expand...

I share these views completely.

But I can see why people think Horizon 2 is better. To me I see it like this. Horizon 1 is the better single player experience while Horizon 2 is the better online experience.
 
Colonel Nasty said:
I liked 2 more. The off-road stuff, better soundtrack, improved online, real barn finds, and I liked the showcases better as well. The one with the train and the cargoplane stand out to me.

Rally was better than Storm Island though
Click to expand...

Oh man the soundtrack for 1 is so so much better

I haven't given 2 enough time though....need to get some time in before the sequel
 
FH1 was good, but FH2 was better in ALMOST every way. The off-road races were god tier, especially if you play from 1st person perspective.

FH1 did have a better progression system. And I wouldn't mind if FH2 had some events where routes were wallled into tracks- like PGR
 
FH2 became really repetitive, I hope 3 has more variety in the career. It's still a more accomplished game than the first though.
 
I fully agree with the OP.

Firstly, I liked the scenario of the first game much better.

But most importantly, I like how the roads in FH1 were restricted. This feels much more apt for a driving game. FH2 feels more like your typical open-world mess and for that it requires much more suspension of disbelief when sports cars drive through the flora and fauna. I think it was a bad design decision to open up the world completely after FH1. The completely open-world doesn't benefit the racing part of the game. In fact, I think it makes that part worse.
 
I prefer Forza Horizon 2 so far.

I've just started playing the first and its really amazing as well. I like the more walled in structure of the roads, makes races a bit more unforgiving but its very close.

I agree about the set races for wristbands though, gives a better structure.

My biggest complaint is that I can't replay the final race around the whole place for the championship.


I am worried about Horizon 3, I hope the game map being bigger doesn't hamper the experience.
 
Bedlam said:
I fully agree with the OP.

Firstly, I liked the scenario of the first game much better.

But most importantly, I like how the roads in FH1 were restricted. This feels much more apt for a driving game. FH2 feels more like your typical open-world mess and for that it requires much more suspension of disbelief when sports cars drive through the flora and fauna. I think it was a bad design decision to open up the world completely after FH1. The completely open-world doesn't benefit the racing part of the game. In fact, I think it makes that part worse.
Click to expand...

It's good to see there are others who feel like I do about this aspect. FH1 also had dirt track racing so it's not as if you were restricted to tarmac. But taking any car to go zipping through the bushes was not a good idea to me. Then making it a staple of most of the races was so ughh.

What they should have done was allow you to go off road only in certain vehicles and allow a subset of the races to consist of that type of racing/vehicle type.
 
SatoAilDarko said:
For those who prefer one what are your thoughts on the 360 version of 2 if you played it?

It has its own unique events.
Click to expand...

It's a legitimately great game, just like the two proper Horizon games. But it probably loses more from being a simpler version of Xbox One's 2 than it gains from being slightly closer to 1. You have tighter race courses because there's less off-road stuff (which I'm ambivalent about in X1 2, it often feels too open), but you also lose weather and AI drivers everywhere. You have superior input response but worse driving physics, and so on. It's kind of a mixed bag, and unfortunately it's still saddled with 2's less involving structure, like no rival racers. And maybe this is mostly psychological, but it just feels like Microsoft didn't go all out on its production like they did for the original versions.

I do love that it has a perk which makes it easier to find signs, that was a great idea. And while normal 2 has an unusual multiplayer structure that can be a lot of fun in small doses, 360's 2 going back to conventional playlist hoppers is probably a better design. You also get faster loading times, which is appreciated.

If I had to pick only one version I'd probably stick with the Xbox One release, but I could definitely see some people preferring the 360 version.
 
FH2 for me. Other than festival concept FH1 is just a regular racing game. I enjoyed it don't get me wrong but there was nothing memorable for me about it. I still remember my first reaction playing the FH2 demo 2 years ago and where the race began normal on the street then a sharp left turn had us flying through the field and over hills with Chvrches 'mother we share' blasting in the backround. Most fun I had ever had in a racing game. Can't wait to see what they've done for FH3.
 
I thought I'd update this thread incase somebody else here is having a similar issue. I deleted the game yesterday and re-downloaded it and it's working perfectly now.

My original post.
JP said:
I really enjoyed both but the first one was the better one for me.

I had a brief go on the original on my Xbox One earlier but it seems to run at an abysmal frame rate so I had no control over the cars at all, the frame rate must have been at 10fps and I'd completely blank spaces with no textures at all very couple of minutes. A real shame as I was so pleased to be getting the downloadable version for free. :(
Click to expand...
Tried a proper restart of the console, moving it between internal and external hard drives but it didn't seem to do anything to help.

I deleted the game and re-downloaded it again last night and it all seems to be working exactly as it should now. Never had this with any other game so it's a bit weird but I'm happy it;s working now. :)
 
Both are absolutely incredible. It's like fighting over who got first place in two different time periods.

They both win. Haha
 
D'ultimate said:
It's good to see there are others who feel like I do about this aspect. FH1 also had dirt track racing so it's not as if you were restricted to tarmac. But taking any car to go zipping through the bushes was not a good idea to me. Then making it a staple of most of the races was so ughh.

What they should have done was allow you to go off road only in certain vehicles and allow a subset of the races to consist of that type of racing/vehicle type.
Click to expand...

Nah disagree with this wholeheartedly. If you're looking for that type of game, there's plenty of others on the market that has that type of gameplay..... namely the Forza Motorsport series :p
 
Fox Mulder said:
Theyre both great, but I do like the desert setting more along with the superior soundtrack from the first.
Click to expand...

Honestly I'm inclined to agree, although I think Horizon Pulse got a lot of catchy tracks in Forza Horizon 2 (Jealous, Come Alive, Phoenix and Can't Beat The Old School), Horizon Bass was so freaking better in Forza Horizon 1 it's not even funny, and Pulse had Passion Pit.

But yeah, besides that they're both great games. On that note I'm curious to see what Horizon 3 will have to offer in terms of music.
 
I will agree that Forza Horizon was more magical at the time but Forza Horizon 2 is just so much better gameplay wise. Went back and played a few hours yesterday and half the time I just kept wishing that I could drive off the road constantly and then went back to playing some FH2.

The vibe and presentation is indeed better in FH1 though and I do remember absolutely loving the game when it came out. They both have great tracks and cruising around in both is simply a joy. They're both great games.
 
Pretty much everything about FH1 is better than FH2 barring the graphics imo (and maybe car handling)..

Music was better (especially Horizon Pulse).
Tracks were better (with proper side-barriers, creating PGR-like courses, rather than flimsy waypoints that the AI is free to ignore).
No goddamn cross-country bullshit, lol.
A real sense of progression.
Music was matched to races, rather than simply playing a random track from your current station
Alice > Ben, by some immeasurable magnitude.
Rival characters that gave the game and races more personality.
The festival theme was actually executed on properly, with the wristbands being tied to progression, rather than being completely meaningless.
Radio DJ's would actually comment on the current state of the tournament, and would have your rivals on the show as guests.
The final race versus Darius around pretty much the entire area was epic, and FH2 has nothing like it.
Rally Expansion >>> Storm Island.
1000 Club >>> Bucket List.
Individuals (and unique) races, rather than being forced to start a road trip with a bunch of races grouped together (that are duplicated across car classes).

Amazingly, FH2 is still better than every other racer this gen... which goes to show how ridiculously good FH1 was.
 
The races were a lot better at least. Where you were supposed to drive while racing was a lot more defined in the first one which made it a lot less frustrating. The world being more open in FH2 was awesome for free roam but it sucked trying to hit the checkpoints in cross country races without a racing line on.
 
I felt that horizon 1 had a better atmosphere some how, I also think limiting which fields you can drive on made the street racing part better then taking supercars off road without much of a punishment, I know the game is on the arcade side of simulation but still.
 
Ok first of all, the fh1 looks amazing, like wizardry playing it on bc I'm gobsmacked. Also I think they are slightly different but amazing games, popped out onto a sunset listening to over and over.

2 great games, happy as f with both
 
Certinty said:
There was much more than just the main events such as street racing. Events at night where pedestrian cars would still be on the road, roads wouldn't be blocked and they were up to you to complete however. It gave a complete different side to the festival. 2 went backwards getting rid of these.
Click to expand...

Street races are in 2 and pedestrian cars are in these races, too. Roads aren't blocked. The only difference is that they aren't exclusive to night time.

Zojirushi said:
I did not play 1 but in 2 I got the impression you were doing the same events in each of the locations every time you got there which gave me this constant deja vu of "Wait a second, this race AGAIN?".
Click to expand...

Surprise. I'm playing through 1 right now and every location has tracks that are used for two races. Some are even used by three races and you get that "Wait a second, this track AGAIN?" about halfway through the game. Look here: http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/TheKeyPit/video/21191718
 
Everytime I try and add Forza Horizon to my list it redirects me to this messed up store page

RHSsLeI.png


So I can't add it via games with gold
 
I agree. Even the graphics seem better to me. Of course not resolution and texture quality etc. but the overall atmosphere is more lively in my opinion. + the music was more of my taste.
 
TheKeyPit said:
Street races are in 2 and pedestrian cars are in these races, too. Roads aren't blocked. The only difference is that they aren't exclusive to night time.



Surprise. I'm playing through 1 right now and every location has tracks that are used for two races. Some are even used by three races and you get that "Wait a second, this track AGAIN?" about halfway through the game. Look here: http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/TheKeyPit/video/21191718
Click to expand...

I guess the difference is that you get that feeling halfway through the game, and for two or three events, rather than the each of the potentially 28 times you return to any of FH2's 6 locations. It certainly also doesn't help that you also get a group of 4 deja vu tracks together.

I never felt like I was simply working through an event list on FH1 when playing, but I got that feeling from FH2 before finishing the first championship... because that's exactly what you're doing, and the game doesn't even try to hide it.
 
Diablohead said:
I felt that horizon 1 had a better atmosphere some how, I also think limiting which fields you can drive on made the street racing part better then taking supercars off road without much of a punishment, I know the game is on the arcade side of simulation but still.
Click to expand...

I wonder what the poly count and geometry is like off-road, it'd take a fair few triangles to model a ploughed field.
 
The grindfest is real in FH2. It doesn't take long for this to be realized. Just a series of checkboxes on a list with the annoying as fuck narrator proclaiming "great race mate" over and over.

While it may be there in the original it was masked very well within the story, atmosphere, characters and events. The combination of these things make the grind much more enjoyable.

Edit: I still love the second game btw. It's just that the first is so awesome to me while the send is merely great.
 
First one was good but I much prefer the second.
I prefer the openness and the races are much more exhilarating.
Lack of progression wasn't a problem to me when I just love racing in it so much.
Driving back to the Horizon hub after every few championships was a pain though.

Being able to race any race gave it longevity the first one didn't have.
Just looking at my stats I've had 675 races in 2 vs 181 in 1
Played it 4 more than 4 times longer as well.
 
I miss the Club Garage from Horizon 1, where you could share cars with your whole club. Was great to build cars that were absurd and watch people in the club try to drive them.
 
Both great games, 2 done the whole racing and off road thing so well, that it was a breath of fresh air for the genre . Best racer this gen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

IGN: Forza Horizon 6’s Customization Improvements and Crazier-Than-Ever Forza Edition Cars
34
348
Sethbacca replied
Forza Horizon 6 - Prologue Gameplay
2 3
103
959
Windle Poons replied
Forza Horizon 6 PC Specs
16
301
CliffBronger replied
Forza Horizon 6 full map reveal
2
60
488
nikos replied
Forza Horizon 6 - Landscapes Footage
Trailer 
9
285
Light_Crusader25 replied
Top Bottom