Quick Look: Forza Horizon

This looks great. I'm tempted to grab it and 3 month Gold.

Maybe around Halo 4 release and get both.

I wish rewind wasn't even an option. It feels so dirty and it's so tempting.

They did add instant restart to Burnout in one of the many updated.

THE WORLD OF COLORADO

Wasn't the auto-upgrade thing in Forza games available since the first or second one? The tuning thing that Brad keeps going on about is the whole 'dive into the tire options and adjust camber angles' and shit. That is the stuff that GT brought to console racers originally, and what Forza has always had.

Man, how long have games been using the "trading paint" quote, feels like forever?

@cavemantom said:

More like Forza Brotorsport, right guys?

i thought the whole 'bro' thing had died and was no longer deeply hilarous like it used to be.

You should be sent to Guantanamo for doing that to a Ferrari F40 Jeff.

It looks alright, but all this QL does for me is make me want to play Dirt 2 again. Damn, Dirt 2 is an amazing game.

MAN. I can only get this or Most Wanted and I thought my choice was made but DAAAAAMMMNN. Ah.

I do not like racing games trying to be real simulations, so this really appeals to me. A mix between Hot pursuits open world and the dirt series. But with so many games out right now, dishonored, Xcom, borderlands 2, darksiders 2 and so on this will have to wait. I do think this looks really good, but the next NFS and Grid 2 looks great to. I don't like the microtransactions or the expensive dlc plan in this game.

At 12:15, game says, "Duke is relatively new to the racing scene. His risky off-track attitude has inevitably spilled onto the track, so never try to second-guess what he'll do next." How do you second-guess future actions? Isn't that what my first guess is for? Fuck, have I been guessing actions wrong this whole time???

@Gantrathor: Yeah, in Italian the letter z is pronounced as a sharp "ts" in that position. Think pizza.

The OSD and interface looks very Dirt-y.

Looks way better than I expected. Still, little bit more excited for the Need for Speed.

Both this and Most Wanted look great, but I don't have a 360 and it looks like the PC version of Most Wanted is going to be Origin only. How disappointing.

@CaLe said:

The OSD and interface looks very Dirt-y.

If only there was a caravan.

Interested in this game based on the talent behind it alone (ex-Codemasters, ex-Bizarre Creations). Also expected much worse for the soundtrack, but it's got some good electronica.

Man this game totally shocked me. I really had extremely low expectations of this game and like Brad said, I hadn't really heard much about this game until now. I really want to try this out now!

Aside from the music, this game seems pretty cool. That music is awful though, but at least you can listen to whatever you want on 360.

Why don't more racing games have liquid drum and bass?

I've never been a car person, never cared for GT, but for some reason I liked the last couple of Forza games quite a lot. Not sure how I feel about the dubstepification of this franchise.

Also I'm pretty sure that the auto tuning stuff have been in this series since Forza Motorsport 3.

Why is the contrast completely messed up in the Forza games, and in 360 games in general? Say what you want about GT5, at least it had good image level balancing, giving a good realistic tone of everything, rather than so many 360 titles being Hollywooded the heck up distastefully..

@thomasonfa said:

Where are the camera views? This is why we need Vinny on the couch at all times.

Too true. Are there any in-car camera views?

Oh man. I was only going to get NFS: Most Wanted but after watching this QL. Might pick this up. Too bad its only only 360. Would love to play this on PC.

@diz said:

@thomasonfa said:

Where are the camera views? This is why we need Vinny on the couch at all times.

Too true. Are there any in-car camera views?

There are two outside cams, a dashboard cam, hood-cam and a bumper-cam. The usual selection.

QUAKE WARS WAS A DECENT GAME, AND I WON'T HAVE ITS GOOD NAME SLANDERED!!!!

Oh man im going to borrow my friends 360 and buy this game this is what i wanted nfs to be...

That the Demo was amazing good, and for someone who does not like racing sims those rival modes were so addicting

 The beef bowl of driving games.

Man, this game looks really cool. Non-open world driving games are a turnoff for me because I like to just drive and listen to music until I get bored. You just couldn't do that in games like Dirt or previous Forzas.
 
edit: And to everybody commenting on the fact that this game has dubstep in it: IT'S FUCKING 2012! EVERY PIECE OF MEDIA HAS DUBSTEP IN IT RIGHT NOW.

Looks like a solid racing game & fun, took what I liked from Test Drive Unlimited with the open world to explore along with race events but with plenty of Bizarre & Forza people (and many others) making this for that pedigree plus some crazy stuff from Top Gear UK (plane vs supercar racing). For that first race on the QL, Jeff should have bought one of the Lancia rally car. Enjoy the fact that they are putting a ton of DLC cars & other things in this but think that I'll just buy what I want instead of the huge season pass. Only bad thing I can think of with this coming out now is that between Dishonored, Xcom & Guild Wars2; I'd have little time to dive into this but will definitely pick it up.

At least with the paint jobs from the marketplace like Quake Wars, you can always go in & remove stuff to just make it more fitting to go look like it was inspired by Quake 1-3.

This looks like DiRT in an open-world. Like Brad, this wasn't on my radar at all but I might have to get this now.

The idea seem sound. But the execution is kinda messy. This constant switching is making me dizzy.

Man, this game looks fantastic.

The main problem I had with Forza 3 (didn't play 4 because it was too same-y) was the monotous circuit tracks that dominated the races. I'm just not as much of an enthusiast to appreciate those despite the bland visuals. I want spectacular scenic drives etc and this game obviously delivers exactly that.

@cosmic said:

Hate to make this look like a YouTube comment page but, what's the name of the song at around 15 minute mark?

Yuck, self-titled album. It's pretty good and on spotify.

We're still putting Rock 'n' Roll Queen into racing games into 2012? Shit, why not throw in Helicopter while you're at it

God damnit. I was all set to write this game off based on those awful menus from the demo. Stupid quality products

Damn. Was going to skip this and just wait (nextgen?) Forza 5 but this video and Jeffs review made it a day 1 purchase for sure. Good to see that the new team were able to keep the Forza overall quality while also making it open-world and more accessible to wider audience !

Looks good, but Most Wanted is coming out a week after. I'll get that instead.

This is a pleasant surprise, I guess. Motorsport needed a break, and this is an interesting use of that tech. I'm still not quite sold, though. I don't know what it is.

@SomeJerk said:

Say what you want about GT5

It has the worst UI in videogames, the handling model is pathetically limited which makes FWD and RWD the only differentiating factor between large swathes of cars, track selection isn't great and they mostly look terrible, the sense of speed is lacking compared to any other modern driving game, and the career mode is a chore to play.

There's plenty wrong with Forza as well but they do at least remember to jam a bunch of fun into their Hot Wheels simulation.

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I'm not sure that I'm interested in Horizon, at least not right now. I still have more than half of Forza 4 to complete for starters, even if that wasn't the case I'm not convinced that this game is simmy/showroomy enough to appeal to the part of me that enjoys Forza nor is it rolling-a-car-sideways-around-a-hairpin-bend-ish enough to stand-in for DiRT.

The last few years have been really great for driving/racing games with a handful of really substantial releases so it seems a bit odd that we get a string of seemingly lighter games like Showdown, The Run, and Horizon at the end of the cycle. They're probably good games (The Run is not a good game) but their predecessors were exceptional so it's hard not to look at the new entries as "lesser" versions.

If Microsoft would only do a good port of this to PC...

game looks alright if your into open world racers, I personally hate open world racing games.

Open world racing games are wrong, always.

Oh shit, Mord Fustang in the soundtrack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wkC8vWbFm8

Never ending doughnut spinning and Dubstep? I see why you gave this game 5 stars.

Things like buying "treasure maps" for actual currency are divisive for me.

On one hand, it feels like scrambling for cash at the cost of the integrity of the game.

On the other, it's pretty much exactly like when you could pay a buck-fifty a minute to talk to the id Software hotline for tips, tricks, and cheat codes.

It's partially skidgy and partially awesome.

Vrooom!

Looks awesome!