Forza Horizon 3

Me and racing games go way back. I remember turning 7 in February of the year 2000. My siblings and I had just gotten our very first video game console, a PlayStation, the Christmas before. A few close relatives were at our house celebrating, and there were gifts arranged in front of the fireplace. I had already learned to identify the PlayStation jewel cases by their silhouettes (Christmas has some Overwatch elements to it), so I immediately noticed that my grandfather, who had never so much as wiggled a mouse, had purchased me something game-shaped.

But he doesn’t know anything about games, I thought, concerned. Oh no…maybe it’s a CD.

A CD was, for me, at that age, the worst present imaginable. Music was boring and pointless. I was baffled by variety shows that included special musical guests–maybe this is just a byproduct of who I hung out with, but I don’t know one single kid who was excited when Boyz II Men showed up to close out an episode of All That.

“Gee whiz, Boyz II Men!” said no one. “I sure am glad they use the last four minutes of airtime for music–this show is so well-rounded!”

Upon closer inspection, however, it was clearly thicker than a standard CD case. What was this thing? Two CDs? Lord help us all.

When it came time to open presents, I went straight for that mysterious present. What I found wasn’t much better than a CD: a dull, black cover featuring nothing but the title and the lumpy shape of a car underneath a gray, metallic cover. Wow! Awesome.

My dad was interested, though. He noticed that the back of the case said there was multiplayer, so we plugged in both controllers, turned on the PlayStation, and I started playing Gran Turismo for the very first time.

“Pick an Aston Martin, you’ll get all the ladies,” advised my grandfather, who is an asshole. Still, I did what he said and picked a black Aston Martin DB7 Coupe. My dad chose a red Mitsubishi Eclipse and we selected the very first course, the High Speed Ring.

It was my first experience driving anything, game or otherwise. I didn’t really understand practical rules of the road, but that didn’t seem to matter–from the beginning, I was in the lead.

“You’re driving like a maniac,” complained my dad. “You’re plowing into the corners but somehow it just…slingshots you ahead!”

I never won when I played games against my dad, but my kid brain had an advantage simply because it had never been taught the rules of the road. I didn’t brake when I went into corners. I didn’t hesitate even slightly to muscle another car into a shoulder. Driving to me was a mad dash from start to finish with no regard for the rules of the road, and I loved it.

It should come as no surprise, then, that I absolutely adore the Forza Horizon series, and that I found the latest entry in the series to be the strongest yet.

To me, the strength of a Horizon game comes from its environment, both its geographical location and the overall mood it evokes. The original game, set in Colorado, excelled at conveying the feeling of an upbeat, hip, somewhat clandestine auto and music festival. The sequel, set in France, felt a bit lifeless in comparison. Horizon 3 is set in Australia, with a wide variety of environments spanning from coastal cities to the deep outback. This variety keeps the whole game feeling fresh and interesting, as you’ll be going from tight urban asphalt races to barreling chases through dense forest. At its best, this game reaches those same tonal highs as the original. Each festival area seems bustling with people and loud music, while the world outside the festival hubs is densely populated with traffic and other racers.

The core gameplay remains unchanged from the previous games, although they did get rid of the tedious system of convoying from festival hub to festival hub in order to access more races (yay!). You compete in exhibition races to gain experience, credits, and unlock more races. There are traditional races on closed courses as well as street races, which take place on roads that have traffic. You can challenge any racer you see in the world by driving behind them for a short time and pressing the challenge button, and winning these races unlocks additional street races. Showcases are impressive, show-stopper events that have you participating in spectacular feats such as racing a 1940’s Jeep dangling from a helicopter.

In addition to the events, there are plenty of collectibles scattered around the world, from bonus boards that give you experience and fast travel discounts to rare cars stashed away in barns, waiting to be uncovered and restored. I spent about 40 hours with Horizon 3 and got through the main races and about 60% of collectibles.

Horizon 3 also features drop-in co-op play, which is fun and easy to use. Simply invite someone on your friends list to your game, and then you can both drive around the open world while the host selects events. This worked just fine in my experience with it.

Despite all the good, however, there are still a few bumps in the road. The game looks gorgeous on my PC (with an FX-8350 and an MSI R9 390), and usually runs at 60fps or close to it in 1440p on a 21:9 ultrawide monitor (for which there is native support, by the way). However, there were occasions when I was forced to play sections of the game on the Xbox One because the PC version kept crashing. I’m grateful that this option exists, but it still doesn’t really excuse the fact that one version of the game is significantly less stable than the other. To be fair: a patch was released a few weeks after launch and I have yet to experience crashes in the five or so hours I’ve played since then.

While there are some technical hiccups that keep it from perfection, Forza Horizon 3 is one of the best games on the Xbox One, and in the running for my favorite racing game of all time. My friend Cody describes Horizon as the Skate of racing games, and it’s an apt description: it’s a fun, open game that you can truly chill out to. I recommend it to anyone who even somewhat enjoys driving cars in video games.