Forza Horizon 5

[djbhammer]

 

[moosegrinder]

I love how their mic attachment tech is basically "gaffer tape the living fuck out of it or zip tie it".

 

All I want from this game is a bit more direction. Don't give me free reign to use any car because I won't, I'll just use the same 3 cars for everything. I'd like them to go "You have to use X class or y car". I might be alone in that.

[TehStu]

Yeah, I did as much of FH4 as they'd let me in a WRX, but it would be nice to be shoved out of my comfort zone where appropriate.

[SeanR]

1 hour ago, moosegrinder said:

I love how their mic attachment tech is basically "gaffer tape the living fuck out of it or zip tie it".

 

All I want from this game is a bit more direction. Don't give me free reign to use any car because I won't, I'll just use the same 3 cars for everything. I'd like them to go "You have to use X class or y car". I might be alone in that.

“this car is too powerful for this race! Please confirm you want to remove the mods: R899-E199”

 

or whatever it is

[JPL]

2 hours ago, moosegrinder said:

 

All I want from this game is a bit more direction. Don't give me free reign to use any car because I won't, I'll just use the same 3 cars for everything. I'd like them to go "You have to use X class or y car". I might be alone in that.

Definitely. As good as this looks, if it’s as aimless as 4, I’ll be really disappointed. I hope they’ve listened to the criticisms of that game and changed things up. Hopefully they’ll do a dev diary on the structure before launch.

[moosegrinder]

I'd be interested to see the lifetime metrics of players in regard to what cars they use. I'd guess most people find a core of a few cars and just use them. I always found it weird you can take an F40 to a cross country event.

[RubberJohnny]

15 minutes ago, JPL said:

Definitely. As good as this looks, if it’s as aimless as 4, I’ll be really disappointed. I hope they’ve listened to the criticisms of that game and changed things up. Hopefully they’ll do a dev diary on the structure before launch.

 

They described the campaign as "an adventure" (over footage of them driving a 4x4 up a river through the jungle to some ancient ruins), so I think those wanting it set around a big ladder competition are going to be disappointed, it's going to be much more of a Top Gear Special kind of thing - a big tour around the country tied in with races, challenges and the big spectacular setpieces.

[Dudley]

2 hours ago, moosegrinder said:

All I want from this game is a bit more direction. Don't give me free reign to use any car because I won't, I'll just use the same 3 cars for everything. I'd like them to go "You have to use X class or y car". I might be alone in that.

 

Yeah, and apologies for it being a repeat but it's this combined with "All DLC cars are free in game, oh and here's 15 gift cars for playing it on week 1" mechanic that does a lot of damage to this as a pure "Game".

 

I get the point but it really does make money pointless near immediately.  You have a car for everything straight away, the temptation is to use the one you're driving around for everything it lets you and you can't use money to buy say, clothes to make up for it.

[K]

I found that Forza Horizon 4 discouraged you from using the same car all the time just by throwing new ones at you all the time. I found it pretty hard to resist trying out a new car if it was being dangled in front of me, and the structure of the game meant that you could viably use that car in almost any event (so you didn't just disregard it if it was less powerful than your current vehicle). I think the game even gives you a prompt saying "drive this car?" when you got a new one.

 

I've said this before, but the structure of FH4 was a stroke of genius. It gave you more of whatever you chose to do, so street races led to more street races, jumps led to more jumps, etc etc. It gave you more events based on just competing, rather than winning, and the structure didn't seem to really care about you doing everything, or fulfilling certain criteria.

 

The whole thing seemed to be focused on encouraging you to drive whatever car you found most interesting on whatever event you liked the sound of. I can barely express how liberating I found that after years of having to tick off a certain number of boxes before you can do the next thing. The game lets you ignore the stuff you don't like, and focus exclusively on the stuff you do. It seems insane that games generally don't let you do that, like going to a buffet and being told you can't have another sausage until you eat two fried eggs. 

[Dudley]

I like the idea of any car in any event but maybe it should be after the first time.

 

Like keep the blueprint system and have it unlock by beating the event "The way god intended".  Or even let you do it the first time but you don't "complete the event" or get the horizon points.

 

I don't know. I feel sometimes a game needs focus in its story mode, even if it's an open game.

[RubberJohnny]

You can't use any car in every event in FH4 - events were limited to specific classes like Offroad, Retro Cars, Supercars, etc or manufacturers like Lamborghini vs Ferrar. There was an 'Anything Goes' mode, but I didn't see too many of those as races, they seemed to be there for online customs.

[Dudley]

2 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

You can't use any car in every event in FH4 - events were limited to specific classes like Offroad, Retro Cars, Supercars, etc or manufacturers like Lamborghini vs Ferrar. There was an 'Anything Goes' mode, but I didn't see too many of those as races, they seemed to be there for online customs.

 

You've been fooled by the UI, you can use any car for every event (minus seasonal/showcase) and have it count just by using the blueprint system.

[K]

I thought you could have any car through the blueprints thing? But even without that, I think the game is pretty forgiving about which car you use. The difficulty scaling is a remarkable achievement, so it doesn't tacitly encourage you to use the fastest car - the challenge is roughly the same whatever you're using, with the occasional outlier. So yeah, there are broad categories for races, but you can use whatever car you find most appealing within that.

[cowfields]

28 minutes ago, K said:

I've said this before, but the structure of FH4 was a stroke of genius. It gave you more of whatever you chose to do, so street races led to more street races, jumps led to more jumps, etc etc. It gave you more events based on just competing, rather than winning, and the structure didn't seem to really care about you doing everything, or fulfilling certain criteria.

 

My only issue with this was it felt like if you did one street race, 4 new ones would pop up. If you did 1 rally, 5 new would pop up...and it just quickly killed any feeling that I actually wanted to do any of those races. As in, they might as well have just been on the map.

 

I imagine that might have settled down to a point and I might be misremembering. In the end I would just drive around aimlessly enjoying the scenery - which was actually good enough on its own to make the game worthwhile. 

 

Besides, I think the thing about Forza 4 is any way you want to play is available to you, only your own willpower might stop you. If you want to use different cars, do so, if you want to use one, do so. If you want to ignore the map icons crippling your choice, just drive without the map until you find something you want to do...actually...

 

...I wonder if i'd appreciate a "map disable" feature so I only discovered a race if I drove past it. No menus, living in the driving seat. 

[RubberJohnny]

25 minutes ago, Dudley said:

You've been fooled by the UI, you can use any car for every event (minus seasonal/showcase) and have it count just by using the blueprint system.

 

But isn't the blueprint system setting up your own custom race though? Like, of course you can use cars you want in every race if you're ignoring what the game is giving you and overwriting it with your own event where you use that car, but er... just don't do that. The game doesn't need to forbid anything when it's something you're choosing to do, and could just as easily choose to stop doing.

[moosegrinder]

I was doubting my brain so I've just logged in and picked a Dirt Racing event. I'm in my stupid Capri and can race in that, or I can go to Change Car next to it and choose literally any car in the game I own. What I want the game to do is go "Here's a Dirt Racing event. Here are some appropriate Dirt Racing cars to use". If I can just use any car I own it defeats the point of having different types of event.

 

I thought I might be getting it wrong and you could only do that after you've finished it but I chose one I'd not completed and I can still choose the Reventon, for example. Seems a bit daft. I'm all for suspension of disbelief at throwing a very expensive car around dirt in the snow but I'd prefer being told I can only use a C class Cosworth or some shit.

 

[moosegrinder]

This is where I find out I've turned on some random easy mode option 2 years ago and I've been playing it wrong...

[K]

11 minutes ago, cowfields said:

 

My only issue with this was it felt like if you did one street race, 4 new ones would pop up. If you did 1 rally, 5 new would pop up...and it just quickly killed any feeling that I actually wanted to do any of those races. As in, they might as well have just been on the map.

 

 

This is true, but what I liked about it was there was no incentive to complete all those races. There wasn't some bar that was being filled up by doing them, or some big table that gradually changed colour as you completed each bit. If you did enough of them, you unlocked some big ultimate race, but that was hidden from the player. You got some new races, and it didn't push you towards doing them. So many games have gamified their own structures that it feels really fresh to have a game that relies on how much fun it is to keep you coming back.

[K]

18 minutes ago, moosegrinder said:

I was doubting my brain so I've just logged in and picked a Dirt Racing event. I'm in my stupid Capri and can race in that, or I can go to Change Car next to it and choose literally any car in the game I own. What I want the game to do is go "Here's a Dirt Racing event. Here are some appropriate Dirt Racing cars to use". If I can just use any car I own it defeats the point of having different types of event.

 

I thought I might be getting it wrong and you could only do that after you've finished it but I chose one I'd not completed and I can still choose the Reventon, for example. Seems a bit daft. I'm all for suspension of disbelief at throwing a very expensive car around dirt in the snow but I'd prefer being told I can only use a C class Cosworth or some shit.

 

 

This is probably my only beef with the structure (although it's probably more an issue with the game's handling model). I'm all for letting you do whatever you want, but it was a bit silly that deep snow, mud, rivers, lava, lego, etc, could be driven over almost as easily as a tarmac road. 

[Dudley]

4 hours ago, cowfields said:

...I wonder if i'd appreciate a "map disable" feature so I only discovered a race if I drove past it. No menus, living in the driving seat. 

 

And this is how TDU worked. I loved it. Some missions you'd discover by picking up a hitch hiker.

 

4 hours ago, RubberJohnny said:

 

But isn't the blueprint system setting up your own custom race though? Like, of course you can use cars you want in every race if you're ignoring what the game is giving you and overwriting it with your own event where you use that car, but er... just don't do that. The game doesn't need to forbid anything when it's something you're choosing to do, and could just as easily choose to stop doing.

 

It is, but when it still counts as completing the event it's only really a marginal extra step to choose a car.

[Waggo]

Are you guys aware that you can filter the map?  Turn all the filters off and the map is blank.  Turn all off except Road Races for example & it only shows you the Road Races.  Helps massively to declutter things.

[Boozy The Clown]

Also turn off the driving line and hud and just explore. 

[JPL]

One of the problems with 4 for me was that there didn’t really feel like much of a challenge. Sure you could discipline yourself to get first in every race, but finishing last saw you progress as well. I know there’s a wealth of riches with these games, but I always have fond memories of playing Sega Rally in the arcades and shaving milliseconds off my time as I slowly got better. I’m not sure how they could balance it with so many races at your disposal, but maybe a career setting that kept things locked away until you learnt the skills to compete, would make it feel more rewarding.

[Shimmyhill]

I’m going to be in the minority here but I don’t treat Horizon games as a traditional game, I don’t want structure or handholding to tell me what to do and how i must do it as I’m not interested in ‘finishing it’ just messing around - its my pick up and play when i feel like it and this is over years not weeks and I’ve still ignored loads of the races etc but occasionally I go through a load of them…. I’d not be that bothered of there weren’t any traditional races in it  

 

I get the map complaints about too many icons and choice paralysis but much like Zelda you turn it off and the game is better for it, discovery is the best map!

[RubberJohnny]

19 minutes ago, JPL said:

One of the problems with 4 for me was that there didn’t really feel like much of a challenge. Sure you could discipline yourself to get first in every race, but finishing last saw you progress as well. I know there’s a wealth of riches with these games, but I always have fond memories of playing Sega Rally in the arcades and shaving milliseconds off my time as I slowly got better. I’m not sure how they could balance it with so many races at your disposal, but maybe a career setting that kept things locked away until you learnt the skills to compete, would make it feel more rewarding.

 

If you want a game that's all about shaving milliseconds off a set number of tracks try the Dirt Rally series, I don't think the Forza Horizon series has ever aimed to be that, it's much more about having fun in cars.

[scoobysi]

19 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

 

If you want a game that's all about shaving milliseconds off a set number of tracks try the Dirt Rally series, I don't think the Forza Horizon series has ever aimed to be that, it's much more about having fun in cars.

Or Project Cars 3, NFS Hot Pursuit Remastered or WRC 9.

[K]

Yeah. I mean, it's set at a festival, not a boot camp.

[JPL]

Why can’t it be both?

 

I do love it, but just a bit more challenge would go a long way for me.

[MattyP]

21 hours ago, JPL said:

Definitely. As good as this looks, if it’s as aimless as 4, I’ll be really disappointed. I hope they’ve listened to the criticisms of that game and changed things up. Hopefully they’ll do a dev diary on the structure before launch.

TBH I'm done with the series now. Peaked at FH2 for me. FH4 because it was set in UK and added weather was a highlight - but never liked the actual "game" bit. Great environments and graphics etc but in the end just felt like a mindless grind in the same way many RPG games are. And then the clothing etc they added.. 

 

It will have its audience I'm just bored of it now. 

[footle]

1 hour ago, JPL said:

Why can’t it be both?

 

I do love it, but just a bit more challenge would go a long way for me.

Or FM7.

I suppose you could start the game with two options - do you want to do what you want or be locked into a GT lite structure, starting with some driving tests modelled on the start of Driver.