(sigh)
Okay, I'm a car guy and I love the Forza series. All the Forza games have been somewhere between good and phenomenal. Horizon 2 in particular is a fucking fantastic game. For some background here, I own Forza 1, 2, 5, and ordered the Ultimate Edition of Horizon 2. $100 straight off the bat for Horizon 2 to include the VIP car pack, preorder car pack, and the car pass for forthcoming car packs. (This stuff is kinda shitty and I'm not helping things by buying it; I know.) Honestly, though, the game is one of my favorite racing games ever and has been well worth that to me and then some. So much so that I bought the Storm Island expansion (which I still haven't really played) almost purely out of "hey, this game was awesome, so I'll throw a few more bucks behind it to vote with my wallet" sentiment. All told, I'm in for $110 and change on Horizon 2 alone, probably about $80 on Forza 5, and at least $60 a piece on Forza 1 & 2, so we're talking $300+ invested in this series. I'm still 100% okay with all this.
As such, Forza 6 getting more of a reveal at E3 of course got me all excited for more Forza. So I fired up Horizon 2 for a bit, having not played it for a few months thanks to DS2: SotFS and Titanfall. Here's where shit went downhill fast. I did my typical thing of checking the Forza Hub to redeem my Forza Rewards and see what car packs were available for download. Previously, it's been mostly a situation of "oh, you have the Ultimate Edition with the Car Pass; here are your free cars to download". Not so much. We're now apparently on standalone car packs beyond the Ultimate/VIP/Car Pass. There's the Fast & Furious cars for $5. There's a Duracell Car Pack for $5. There's a Porsche Expansion for $10 (which actually doesn't seem that horrible because it adds another bucket list of events and getting the Porsche license is rare for racing games). I was understandably a bit miffed at the idea of being asked for more money beyond the "Ultimate Edition" plus another expansion I already paid for, and I take issue with car packs that aren't included with the car pass. If I had bought everything, including the Fast & Furious expansion before/after that brief period of time when it was free, I believe the grand total would be $140 for Horizon 2, which is pretty absurd and beyond what even I can defend.
Still, I was ready to overlook all of that, move on, and go ahead and preorder Forza 6. So I hopped back over to the Forza Hub, and clicked on the Forza 6 reveal stuff to look into it a bit more. Dear God. It is the most convoluted bullshit imaginable. There are (again) three versions of the game to order: Standard ($60), VIP ($80), and Ultimate ($100). There's a preorder bonus car. There's a ten year anniversary car pack. There are VIP cars. There are Car Pass cars for upcoming car packs, not to be confused with non-Car Pass car packs to come later on. And if you preorder Forza 6 now as an owner of Forza Horizon 2, you'll get the three most recent car packs released on Horizon 2, one of which I already have from the Car Pass, two of which I don't, and not including the latest DLC: the Porsche Expansion. Also, depending on your Forza Rewards level from previous Forza games, you'll get a car or cars. You can get some other cars depending on if you ordered the VIP/Ultimate edition of previous Forza games and order the VIP/Ultimate edition of Forza 6. Facepalming with tired head yet? I am.
Here's the quandary. This DLC bullshit is of course completely out of hand and I don't really want to support it on principle. And yet, I'm already this far in and know I'll buy Forza 6 anyway, so I might as well play into their hands and shell out another $100-plus for it. I'm gonna want some of those cars they'll stick behind a paywall, and odds are high that I'll get a benjamin's worth of enjoyment out of Forza 6, which will in all likelihood be a legitimately great game. New tracks? New cars? 1080p/60fps? Yeah, I'm in. Plus, the bonus cars from having bought previous VIP/Ultimate editions and from the Forza Rewards are at least a loyalty thank you of sorts (or a way for them to try to keep people on the hook, depending on how you look at it). I'm justifying it further by telling myself I'm supporting a quality game/series. Thus, here we are again. I'm going to drop some coin on a ridiculous Ultimate Edition of Forza 6, and I'll be simultaneously thrilled and disgusted for doing it.
So, yeah. I'm the problem. I'm the sucker. Turn 10 is playing me. The wallet keeps opening. I want those cars, though. I need those cars. And until the series lays an egg, I'm going to be able to defend in effect supporting the shitty practice of putting more and more of the game's content behind a DLC paywall if it means I get to play a great racing game. Provided Forza 6 doesn't take a massive dip in quality, I'll be happy and will consider it money well spent. Take my hundred bucks again, Turn 10. I gotta have my fix, man.
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