Forza Horizon 5

[scottcr]

This is a very fun arcade racer. Spent a while last night just doing daft arcade stuff.

 

the music is shite but

[Stanley]

I have the classical music station on permanently, and in the settings I change it to emphasis on driving/engine noises. 

[HarryBizzle]

The music really isn’t much cop. I’ve never had Horizon Pulse on in 3 and 4 but the song selection has fallen off a cliff in this one. Don’t have the same high energy vibe to it at all. 

[Rayn]

I've been having some server issues since saturday. On my first night (friday) everything worked fine, I could tap left on the d-pad to enter matchmaking queues and convoys but ever since saturday the game is nagging me about being disconnected from the server and the entire online thing seems broken. 

A quick google search reveals I'm not alone, but what I haven't found out is wether I still can join a friend's game by invite (or I can invite others directly from my friends list)?
I'm planning a session of co-op gaming tonight and it would be great if we could play FH5. 

[Isaac]

All the people saying the music is crap clearly hate drum and bass.

 

As someone who doesn't mind drum and bass, the music is perfectly good provided you just keep it on Hospital radio.

[footle]

17 minutes ago, Rayn said:

I've been having some server issues since saturday. On my first night (friday) everything worked fine, I could tap left on the d-pad to enter matchmaking queues and convoys but ever since saturday the game is nagging me about being disconnected from the server and the entire online thing seems broken. 

A quick google search reveals I'm not alone, but what I haven't found out is wether I still can join a friend's game by invite (or I can invite others directly from my friends list)?
I'm planning a session of co-op gaming tonight and it would be great if we could play FH5. 

they’re attempting another fix today or tomorrow.

[Lovelyman]

This must have been discussed, but what sort of settings should I be looking at to make it play like I like games? Honestly I think Ridge Racer and Sega really had the most fun and learnable handling haha. 

 

It looks very good doesn't it. 

[MattyP]

I've been messing about with the online stuff last night... Arcade and Eliminator... good fun... although not really sure what I was supposed to be doing in the Eliminator apart from trying to keep in it!  Guess you just have to complete random things to not get kicked out.

[MattyP]

9 hours ago, Moz said:

There’s also a harder truth here. Broadly, Gen-Z aren’t that into cars. They can’t afford them, they can’t afford insurance, they don’t like the environmental cost and they don’t connect with the sense of freedom and mystery that cars once afforded people. Cars aren’t a part of their lives to the same degree as previous generations and they’re often considered with disdain. Forza Horizon is a midlife crisis writ large, not a youthful reinterpretation of your Dad’s car game. 

Think these are all very good points - cars are not as relevant anymore to a lot of people. Remember when I was growing up all the Dads used to be car mad. Fixing them up etc tweaking things. Now they are largely seen as mode of transport which the greener the better. Also they are much more reliable and so people don't discuss them as much.

 

Suppose this is echoed to some degree in the gaming world by the lack of arcade racing games perhaps. Not sure. It also does explain why they needed to make FH as diverse as possible to get as many gamers playing as possible.

[footle]

9 hours ago, Moz said:

There’s also a harder truth here. Broadly, Gen-Z aren’t that into cars. They can’t afford them, they can’t afford insurance, they don’t like the environmental cost and they don’t connect with the sense of freedom and mystery that cars once afforded people. Cars aren’t a part of their lives to the same degree as previous generations and they’re often considered with disdain. Forza Horizon is a midlife crisis writ large, not a youthful reinterpretation of your Dad’s car game. 

this will be heavily dependent on where you live. Certainly where I now live, you don’t need a car for that sense of freedom. Where I grew up, nothing has changed - it’s car or stuck at home.

 

the main thing that I think has changed is the prevalence of cheap flights, which means that horizons (sorry) have expanded and freedom has changed. As and when that rolls back, who knows what will happen?

[CheekyLee]

14 minutes ago, MattyP said:

I've been messing about with the online stuff last night... Arcade and Eliminator... good fun... although not really sure what I was supposed to be doing in the Eliminator apart from trying to keep in it!  Guess you just have to complete random things to not get kicked out.

Eliminator needs better description than it gives, really.

 

Everyone is dropped in the Beetle, which is a level 1 car. Better cars are dropped around the arena every so often, you need to get to the purple smoke first to claim them. So, you might find a level 3 Ford Focus, or a level 6 Porsche. You should do that as soon as possible.

 

Because, you eliminate players by racing mano-a-mano. If you see another player, you can challenge them, and the game then picks a spot for you to race to. Which is not fun if you're still in your Beetle while SuperCock420 is in a BMW. The winner gets to upgrade their car, the loser is out. This goes on until there are 12 players left.

 

At 12 remaining, the game picks a spot for all to get to. The order you get there determines your finishing place. You might think just hiding until this point is a valid tactic, but your Beetle is only winning that race if you happen to be right on the finishing line to start with. (It might even give everyone their own finish point, equal distances from themselves.)

 

It's a bit of a weird hybrid mode, but it's worth a shot. You get loads of EXP and skill points just driving around, and might enjoy your time in a claimed car. I learned of at least 1 I want to drive again. I kinda hoped the end but would be a destruction derby, and maybe in future it might be, but considering all damage in this game is cosmetic only it probably requires additional programming 

[scoobysi]

One of the Seasonal speed traps needs a S2 998 Audi, I thought S2 998 would be the maximum rating but is it the actual rating required as I have an Audi but it says it’s the wrong car for Seasonal or something like that?

[Girth Certificate]

nah it's the maximum. I did it in a suped up RS4 and it shows completed on the map but not in the season screen. Same with the one that needs a track toy. Hopefully it'll twig at some point 😕 

[scoobysi]

Does it need to be S2 at least, it doesn’t seem to like the little Audi I have, which isn’t fast enough anyway?

[Eighthours]

1 hour ago, CheekyLee said:

Eliminator needs better description than it gives, really.

 

Everyone is dropped in the Beetle, which is a level 1 car. Better cars are dropped around the arena every so often, you need to get to the purple smoke first to claim them. So, you might find a level 3 Ford Focus, or a level 6 Porsche. You should do that as soon as possible.

 

Because, you eliminate players by racing mano-a-mano. If you see another player, you can challenge them, and the game then picks a spot for you to race to. Which is not fun if you're still in your Beetle while SuperCock420 is in a BMW. The winner gets to upgrade their car, the loser is out. This goes on until there are 12 players left.

 

At 12 remaining, the game picks a spot for all to get to. The order you get there determines your finishing place. You might think just hiding until this point is a valid tactic, but your Beetle is only winning that race if you happen to be right on the finishing line to start with. (It might even give everyone their own finish point, equal distances from themselves.)

 

It's a bit of a weird hybrid mode, but it's worth a shot. You get loads of EXP and skill points just driving around, and might enjoy your time in a claimed car. I learned of at least 1 I want to drive again. I kinda hoped the end but would be a destruction derby, and maybe in future it might be, but considering all damage in this game is cosmetic only it probably requires additional programming 

I said this a few pages ago so will mention it again - I really think the head to heads in Eliminator would be much, much better if you had to use roads rather than just being able to barrel to the goal cross-country. There's no skill required at the mo, as the faster car always wins in a straight line.

[Dapple]

1 minute ago, Eighthours said:

There's no skill required at the mo, as the faster car always wins in a straight line.

That's going to be the case more often than not, but a slower car can win - for example if the faster one keeps hitting trees or whatever.  In FH4 there was an achievement for beating someone in a head-to-head that had a car much better than yours (i.e. a certain number of levels higher).

[Count Buffalos]

It’s not helped by the fact that it’s not always clear what obstacles are fine to essentially drive through and which will stop you dead in your tracks.

[LaveDisco]

Does it have a Chvrches track? Forza and Chrvches go hand in hand for me, bu I haven't heard one yet... 

[esar]

2 hours ago, Isaac said:

All the people saying the music is crap clearly hate drum and bass.

 

As someone who doesn't mind drum and bass, the music is perfectly good provided you just keep it on Hospital radio.

 

Bit bland though isn't it? Needs a proper pirate radio station playing tear out ragga jungle.

[Harsin]

For all the marketing bollocks about 'Drivatars' this game has racer AI that makes Mario Kart drivers look like HAL 9000. From what I can tell they start off each race like Lewis Hamilton on amphetamines then at a predetermined point around halfway through the track they suddenly suffer a virtual blow to the head and all start driving like the Wacky Racers so the player can have a chance to win.

[scoobysi]

26 minutes ago, Count Buffalos said:

It’s not helped by the fact that it’s not always clear what obstacles are fine to essentially drive through and which will stop you dead in your tracks.

I much prefer when the game has you on a road or dirt track, as soon as I go off-road the illusion of this wonderful looking world is broken a bit.

[deerokus]

31 minutes ago, LaveDisco said:

Does it have a Chvrches track? Forza and Chrvches go hand in hand for me, bu I haven't heard one yet... 

Nope. Shocking omission.

[Majora]

Hospital radio station makes me feel ancient, I swear it's the same song on a never-ending loop whenever I turn it on.

 

I agree the overall soundtrack is a bit disappointing, I quite liked the soundtrack to 3 and 4 but nothing much has connected with me here except the few songs I already knew.

[Kevvy Metal]

I’m playing in the 30 fps mode. 
 

…shhh, don’t tell anybody! Especially now in the correct thread!

[Girth Certificate]

it's the new 'I'm using motion controls!'

[mikeyl]

The lack of detail in 60fps felt like I was driving through a desert. But it could have been because I was driving through a desert.

 

Also yeah, everyone in the game stop calling me some sort of legendary superstar every five minutes, I have ABS and rewinds turned on and every classic car I purport to be an expert on is because my posh Tory dad had one in his country house garage.

 

 

[Bobbi Champagne Jr]

3 hours ago, Lovelyman said:

This must have been discussed, but what sort of settings should I be looking at to make it play like I like games? Honestly I think Ridge Racer and Sega really had the most fun and learnable handling haha. 

 

It looks very good doesn't it. 

Just experiment driving different cars as they can feel so different to one another.

[footle]

1 hour ago, scoobysi said:

Does it need to be S2 at least, it doesn’t seem to like the little Audi I have, which isn’t fast enough anyway?

 

Yes - it needs to be an Audi that's in the S2 category. You may need to make a major upgrade to get it there.

 

Similarly, with the track toy, it has to be both a track toy car AND in the right class.

 

Of course, the season shifts today, so by the time you get to play it'll probably have changed.

[Girth Certificate]

I was going to try and limit myself by only using cars I win over the course of the thing, tuned where needed, but requiring specific manufacturers for seasonal stuff has put paid to that. At least for the moment.

 

Also anime waifu cars, yaaas

 

Nooo

[Eighthours]

3 hours ago, scoobysi said:

One of the Seasonal speed traps needs a S2 998 Audi, I thought S2 998 would be the maximum rating but is it the actual rating required as I have an Audi but it says it’s the wrong car for Seasonal or something like that?

 

This confused me loads to begin with. There are no S2 Audis in the Autoshow, so you have to upgrade one to that level before you can pop the seasonal objective on that speed trap.