Happy 10th anniversary!

Dear open-world driving game fans!

Today, this is the 10th anniversary of the Forza Horizon series, which is described as a Forza Motorsport spin-off, focusing on arcade-style open-world driving, making the game feel more like the Test Drive Unlimited series rather than the Gran Turismo & Forza Motorsport series.

Here are my thoughts:

When I first got my hands on this game for my Xbox 360, I felt so excited and happy, for having excellent gameplay for arcade-style open-world driving games standards, an incredible roster of cars and an awesome list of race events plus the story is pretty good in my opinion. Also, it's my personal favorite arcade racer from 2012, meanwhile, rFactor 2 is my true favorite racing game from 2012.

Here is the article from GTPlanet.

Forza Horizon is 10 Years Old Today – GTPlanet

I absolutely loved this game when it came out. During a time when too many games (especially on Xbox) were grim and dark it was full of color and cheer and good music. I loved the racing and the open world aspect and all the activities and the cars. Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012 came out that year too, and I actually think that's a really good game, but Forza Horizon was just better IMO.

The biggest problem with Forza Horizon today is that all the sequels are so much better that the first game feels like a bit of a prototype. The fact that it's not true open world and the lack of some features from the later games just makes it feel kind of old. Plus while Colorado was beautiful the subsequent locations have all been breathtaking. It's a very good game that ends up diminished by the truly great games that followed.

For anyone playing the newest Horizon, the 10th anniversary events add some cool new things, like the cover cars and a new station with some of the old songs on it. The new station is a bit limited and mostly seems to play techno, from what I've heard, but it's a neat addition regardless.

In any case, always going to have a love for this series. I'm more of a Forza proper fan than I am a Horizon fan, but both are pretty great and have made it possible for me, a legally blind person, to drive (with a great deal of assists turned on). So that's really something special.

@bigsocrates: Me too, I prefer Forza Horizon more than Need For Speed Most Wanted 2012, because of the style, car handling, soundtrack, and every aspect that suits my preference, the same goes for that I prefer Test Drive Unlimited 1 on Xbox 360 more than Need For Speed Carbon (Including Own The City for PSP & DS).

Oh, also it makes me really miss the late Avicii, who passed away in 2018, while his song Levels was featured in this game but remixed by Skrillex.

@sparky_buzzsaw: I love the 10th-anniversary events in Forza Horizon 5 so far! I guess Forza Horizon 6 may release in 2024 while Forza Motorsport Reboot is coming out by mid-2023.

Forza Horizon is one of my top games of all time and the original may be my favorite still. I loved the music and vibe the most. If it had some of the quality of life improvements of the newer entries it just might be the perfect game. I agree it had such a good feeling at a bright fun time in an era when grim dark ruled the consoles. What a fantastic game!

Forza Horizon and Horizon Zero Dawn are the two big games I have played set in Colorado (at least for the start of Zero Dawn). I would have given both a chance but I feel like people talk about “yeah cool mountains, skiing, hiking, farming whatever” and don’t set anything here so I get so happy when a game/movie is set here. Both were great games in their own ways but their goodness plus the setting won my heart.

I mean, The Shining happens here too, I guess 😂