One thing that has me concerned about Horizons 3 is the trend the series seems to be starting by making the flow of credits TOO fast and preventing a feeling of "building" a collection of unique cars that I as a driver decided to invest in over other options and upgrading them over time with hard earned credits.
I fell in love with Forza Motorsports 2 back when I was a youngster in high school. My dad was a bit of a "petrol head," and it was something that mashed our interests together to let us bond a bit, and actually led to me caring much about vehicles beyond usefulness.
I really enjoyed the pacing that the game had to it. I spent a chunk of time racing in a particular car, buying a few of the mid range upgrades to try and improve it's handling and capabilities. I quickly realized how little I knew about how the components of a car could impact handling and drivability. I started out just trying to crank up the 'fast' meter. Bigger engines? Yup! Stock tires? Whatever it's just a bit of rubber under the car!
This presented me with a couple of genuinely enjoyable challenges: a car that was difficult to drive without skill and a need to gain understanding so I could fix my mistakes with my next investment in parts.
A car that was difficult to control was great for pushing me to learn about the physics and mechanics of racing a car. I'm no expert and I'm not great at Forza but I really enjoyed the learning process. I found the tuning options and read every detailed explanation of how it worked. This gave me valuable context and insight on why vehicles do what the do and handle how they do. It helped me learn to control acceleration during cornering, how important tires are (they are your interface with the road, of course they are important!), and a bunch of other lessons I've either forgotten over the years or simply internalized as instinct. After doing research I started to do track tests, experimenting with what I could make the car do. I looked at what I did and what happened and investigated until I found what I believed to be the underlying physics of it. I became a much better driver between the extra practice and the context I had gained. Essentially what happened was I had a car that was too hard for me to drive at my level of experience and it forced me to rapidly improve my skills and knowledge. While this first basic lesson (upgrade tiresearly on to take advantage of additional torque, horsepower, and prowess) was the most memorable, I learned plenty of other lessons along the way. It was a lot of fun and helped develop my cognitive abilities outside of the game.
The need to fix the problems I was experiencing was another fun lesson the game funneled me into. I needed to figure out what to upgrade and why. I needed to learn what the various components contributed to the overall ride and performance of the car. I even learned that sometimes the "best" upgrade was a myth and could be detrimental if it didn't fit well with my driving style and skill. I started to experiment and investigate some of the less exciting upgrades. Anti roll bars was one that I remember spending a lot of time investigating. I had little understanding about understear and oversteer or other mechanics involved with such components and experimenting with the tuning on them helped me find the style of ride I liked best and was most successful with. I read all of the detailed information in the upgrades menu as well as the tuning menu. There was a wealth of intel in those descriptions. I ran laps with varying tuning setups to see what the extremes did, what smaller differences did. Eventually I fine tuned it to fit my general driving style, until I was happy with the results. I did this with most of the upgrades, buying a couple at a time until I was all kitted out.
Over time I ended up with an Audi AA and Mini Cooper all souped up. The Mini Cooper excelled at maneuvering and cornering, unsurprisingly, and was a favorite of mine for tight courses. The Audi I built more for speed and stability, great for curvy but moderate courses. I also fell in with one of the classic muscle cars and turned it into a barely controlled monster. That one ended up being a favorite of mine for quite a while, due to the engagement level required to keep it going where I wanted.
As time went on I also slowly weened off most of the assists other than the racing line, which stayed at "braking only."
It gave me a nice boost of credits and allowed me to invest more rapidly in cars and parts without trivializing big investments. I liked this pace a lot. It suited me. I like to take my time and be given the opportunity to master something before moving on. I enjoyed the journey from stock car to racing legend. It was a mixture of pride at my work, satisfaction from the challenges I faced, and curiosity about the subject.
More recent games seem to be going well away from this kind of pacing, throwing credits at the player faster than they care to spend them. I think Jeff has commented on his lack of motivation to decrease assists or increase difficulty due to how fast credits are earned in both this game and the last Motorsports title. On top of that in the quick look he fully upgraded his Interceptor from stock to max (or close anyhow) for a handleful of credits.
The game also seems to have semi regular games of chance that might gove you some new exotic car. The last thing I want is to get a bunch of free Ferari's and Lambos dropped in my lap. I would much rather earn it over time so it feels like an investment rather than a purchase made on a whim.
Anyone else prefer the slow burn Forza used to take? Or am I the obly crazy person on this boat?
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