I gotta say, the game looks fantastic. I love how they're setting it in a music festival and how the game seems to feel like almost a medium for social racing. But this I think will tend to remind people of the great Burnout Paradise and how it was also set in an open world. The game looks phenomenal. Actually, from what has been shown of the game so far, I am getting huge vibes from different racing games: DiRT, Project Gotham, Forza, and Burnout.

1. It has the offroading of the DiRT franchise (devs from the DiRT series are helping create Horizon) - not saying they will include full on offroading Imprezas and whatnot, but there are over 65 different types of terrain so one can assume they will take advantage of this.

2. The Kudos system from Gotham seems to be emulated in Horizon, adding to your style and ranking at the festival and what could most likely lead to a sort of upgrade or levelling system. In demos, developers take all the chances they get to drift and are awarded points for it based on how well they've executed it. Can't remember if things like this were part of Paradise or not.

3. The physics and tech of Forza are taken and placed into this game, and

4. The open and arcade-y world of Burnout Paradise. This includes smashable objects and scoring. When they open up the map it makes me giddy.

I am loving everything they've showed off so far, and I especially like the addition of style points. It's been a long time since I've played a Project Gotham game so it's very welcome. I think this game is shaping up to be extremely interesting. I would love it if they included a "collectable" based aspect to the game as well, much like how Paradise's stunt jumps and yellow blockades had counters based on how many unique ones you've hit throughout the city. Even if they don't include that I'd be happy though.

What are your thoughts GB? Hoping it will fill that Paradise itch?

If you want another Burnout Paradise, then NFS Most Wanted is the game you want.

It reminded me a little of Tokyo Highway Challenge on the Dreamcast, which was fucking awesome.
 
I'm not usually a racing game fan, but this and NFS: Most Wanted are exactly the the type of racing/driving games I do enjoy.  Really weird that these ended up being two of the most interesting games in the conferences for me.  Not sure if I'll get both of them though, so we'll see how they each pan out.

If you want another Burnout Paradise, then NFS Most Wanted is the game you want.

When I first heard they were making an open world racing game with the Forza tech I got super excited because I've been wanting an open world game with real physics for a long time. However the more I see about it the more I feel like it's kinda bland. Everything on paper seems exciting but when I see it it doesn't seem very exciting.

@Shrekeh said:

Seems way more like a polished version of Test Drive Unlimited. I'm curious how open the world is, cus TDU spoiled me with its go anywhere philosophy.

Man, some of those 1+ hour races in the two Unlimited games were fucking amazing, especially in the second one where it changed from night till day, rain and all, it was truly an epic grand tour, sadly Unlimited 2 was glitchy and broken, because man, it would have been pretty great otherwise.

That just looks like not as insane Burnout...

A game about sim-level driving in an open world sounds awesome though.

Also, why does everything have to be "social" dammit?

I'm not sure how sim that game is considering how easily those powerslides they keep showing are being executed. I think it's more arcade than sim but I'm not complaining.

@mikey87144: The cars have been pre-tuned to work in this environment.

@ShaggyChu: Ok. Still though I would almost prefer the game to go more down the arcade route but then again why play that when I can just play the new NFS game?

@ShaggyChu said:

If you want another Burnout Paradise, then NFS Most Wanted is the game you want.

Wow. Now I don't know which one I should get. Love Paradise, yet love Forza.

@Shrekeh said:

Seems way more like a polished version of Test Drive Unlimited. I'm curious how open the world is, cus TDU spoiled me with its go anywhere philosophy.

This. So far it seems like Forza Horizon is going to be what Test Drive Unlimited 2 should have been.

@xyzygy said:

@ShaggyChu said:

If you want another Burnout Paradise, then NFS Most Wanted is the game you want.

Wow. Now I don't know which one I should get. Love Paradise, yet love Forza.

Both. Games aren't that expensive.

@Rolyatkcinmai said:

Both. Games aren't that expensive.

Says Mr Moneybags.

I'm not sure I want an open world racing game that isn't arcade to 100%, I feel have a feeling I will like Most Wanted better. I really hope this game doesn't turns out bad and puts the Forza name in a bad light, because the main games are awesome.

@Shrekeh said:

Seems way more like a polished version of Test Drive Unlimited. I'm curious how open the world is, cus TDU spoiled me with its go anywhere philosophy.

I never got into TDU because of the poor driving feel. This has a lot of potential though.

Well, all racing games for me live and die by their driving physics. The reason I don't play games like Burnout is that you never feel like you're in an actual vehicle attached to the road, so much as sliding over it like a rocket on roller skates. If they can make this more forgiving without sacrificing too much of the sexy simulation, an open-world Colorado sounds fantastic. I'd also like to know what kind of artists they have signed on since they keep bringing up the whole festival thing.

I don't want them to feel the same.

Everything I've read from the previews this week say it won't be, it has Forza physics with real cars in an open world, which to me sounds pretty good.

NFS should provide the Burnout fix and I've already got both on preorder.

I don't expect it want it to be all that similar at all, honestly. I really liked Paradise, but that was a racing game for racing game fans. Horizon is being made for driving fans. I won't be picking it up till January I'm im waiting I i move out and have a setup that is driving wheel friendly. I'm just going to enjoy friggin driving around.

Most Wanted is more or less the follow-up to Burnout Paradise.

@Falconer said:

If you want another Burnout Paradise, then NFS Most Wanted is the game you want.

Yeah, most likely.