Forza Horizon 5: General Discussion

[The_Greaser]

Starting off this series with yet more awful, cringeworthy voices is a severe crime in itself. It's like they're purposely trying to throttle the player engagement metric with painful tirades about someone we don't care. Making matters worse is that it's unskippable.

Wouldn't a "SKIP CUTSCENE" option work for crying out loud?

 

[Digolgrin]

Starting off this series with yet more awful, cringeworthy voices is a severe crime in itself. It's like they're purposely trying to throttle the player engagement metric with painful tirades about someone we don't care.

Don't forget, these Stories are targeted towards the same demographic as most kids' shows, and are probably written by the same folks who wrote dialogue for the base game. Only the Donut Media stories (and maybe the base game's own Alejandra-focused Story about Papa Fernando, fight me) really feel like they punch above their weight, and those just have 'we wrote our own material' energy all over 'em. Really the only thing that's bad about those is the way the protagonist is written, and even that you can comfortably say is because of PG's objectives to avoid narrative conflict at all costs (or if there is narrative conflict have the squabbling parties sort their own differences out).

Now anything involving the base game Stories, which this Story wants to invoke because Alejandra doesn't really have a modern cars-focused story? Yeah that's completely fair game.

 

[Beebo]

Quite annoyed. I did the treasure challenge only to find the chest was invisible when I found it, so had to do a restart just to get it to appear.

 

[Digolgrin]

Quite annoyed. I did the treasure challenge only to find the chest was invisible when I found it, so had to do a restart just to get it to appear.

That didn't happen for me; worst that happened to me was a couple infinite load glitches working on the Horizon Story. Must've been the patch including a hiccup or two in the code.

 

[WanganDream]

In a way I envy those who can complain about Horizon Story.
Since FH4, the quality of the Japanese localization has declined significantly, and especially the localization of the scenarios in FH5's Horizon Story (and Rally Adventure expansion) is no longer even comprehensible of meaning.

I understand the difficulty of providing quality translations for multiple languages in a live service game, but it is a shame that good games are being ruined by translations that are on par with the games from private developers for less than $10 available on Steam.

 

[Edax 76]

That didn't happen for me; worst that happened to me was a couple infinite load glitches working on the Horizon Story. Must've been the patch including a hiccup or two in the code.

Yeah I got the infinite loading screen when I got back home last night as well. One full shut down and reload cured it.

 

[Morbid65]

Playing the horizon story. Am I tripping or have they changed the femme voice?

I only did the first one it forces on you, but it sounded different to me. I try to avoid the story stuff though usually so I'm probably not as familiar with it as some people, but during the dialogue for the Supra thing I had to check the subtitles at one point to see that it was my character talking because I didn't recognize the voice.

 

[UKMikey]

They still kept the crappy male voice though

 

[Populuxe]

I noticed the voice change, too. Perhaps Emma Naomi, the original VA, wasn’t available.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Did anyone get gifted two Taycans?

 

[TGR55]

Interesting find regarding the Icons Of Speed Story.

First of all the name of the icon for the story are referred in the file as Historys_a_drag. Guess what's it can be shortened to? HAD

Second, among the dialogue for the story there is lines referring to "Drag Zone PR Stunts". Here is the snippet of the dialogues :
M i s s e d t h e l i g h t s ! T r y a g a i n ! I f y o u m o v e , y o u r e s e t i t . Y o u ' v e g o t t a s t a y s t a g e d ! L o o k s l i k e y o u v e f o u n d o n e o f t h e D r a g Z o n e P R s t u n t s . P a r k i n t h e m a r k e d a r e a t o a c t i v a t e t h e d r a g l i g h t s . < G o o d > . G o a s s o o n a s t h e l i g h t s t u r n g r e e n ! G e t t o t h e f i n i s h a s q u i c k a s y o u c a n ! ! A N N A ' s h o o k e d i n t o t h e F e s t i v a l g r i d s o y o u ' l l s e e a n y t i m e s o t h e r p e o p l e s e t . G e t t o t h e f i n i s h a s q u i c k l y a s y o u c a n ! ! L o o k s l i k e y o u v e f o u n d o n e o f t h e D r a g Z o n e P R s t u n t s . P a r k i n t h e m a r k e d a r e a t o a c t i v a t e t h e d r a g l i g h t s . S t a r t a c c e l e r a t i n g w h e n t h e l i g h t s g o g r e e n a n d g e t t o t h e f i n i s h l i n e a s q u i c k a s y o u c a n .

Those dialogues have very similar theme to what's found on HAD story dialogues i found earlier this year.

There is even script in the file to trigger the audio.

Unfortunately the actual sound recording is not present currently in the file.

Even the Icons of Speed and HAD have some similarities in terms of cars. Napier Railton, Supra, Dodge Dart Hemi, Nevera are mentioned on HAD and appeared on Icons of Speed.

My best guess would be HAD was a draft version of Icons of Speed. Now lets just wait for the supposed "Drag Zone PR Stunts"

 

[SU_Tempest]

Since it's Summer Party, I've been doing both of the Monthly Rivals to the only correct song. I'll take my two world top 2% times and ride off in the sunset, thank you very much.

Also, I've finally figured out the sauce to driving a powerful EV correctly during the latest Horizon Story. When they put me in the Nevera, I realized it's much safer to drive if you keep the gas pedal at about 85%. 100% turns even the lightest curves into a battle for grip. Given it's otherwise pretty easy to get 3 stars (unlike the Napier-Railton and the Dodge Dart - holy hell, these were tight) I thought I'd prioritize more control over maximum torque, and it paid off.

 

[RazorSharkz]

I forgot how great the 73 Falcon is to drive. A big muscle car designed to make turns. It makes sense though when you consider that American muscle cars were built for Daytona and Australian muscle was built for Bathurst.

 

[skazz]

I forgot how great the 73 Falcon is to drive. A big muscle car designed to make turns. It makes sense though when you consider that American muscle cars were built for Daytona and Australian muscle was built for Bathurst.

Does that mean American muscle cars only steer left?

 

[Populuxe]

Did anyone get gifted two Taycans?

We all did. @ManteoMax told us one has special paint, but it doesn’t show in the thumbnail. Just add something in the upgrade menu, and it will save with the correct thumbnail.

 

[UKMikey]

My Horizon is taking a dog's age to sync on startup these days - close on five minutes, I think.

 

[Edax 76]

My Horizon is taking a dog's age to sync on startup these days - close on five minutes, I think.

Mine can be slow at times bud but never that bad. It averages at a rough guess 60 to 90 seconds with the occasional couldn't connect to server please retry.

My biggest issue is menus locking up on me for a few minutes or locking and then crashing the game.

 

[skazz]

My Horizon is taking a dog's age to sync on startup these days - close on five minutes, I think.

On Xbox?

I found one advice to switch to Google DNS servers on the console, which may help a bit. What works for me is to wait a few minutes after booting the Xbox then sync works normally. If you can't wait, reboot the console and it should behave normally after the reboot.

 

[Populuxe]

My Horizon is taking a dog's age to sync on startup these days - close on five minutes, I think.

I’ve been having similar problems. A few times it wouldn’t synch at all, even after 20 minutes. But as @skazz said, after a reboot of the XBox (Series S in my case) it would immediately synchronize right up.

 

[Digolgrin]

Interesting find regarding the Icons Of Speed Story.

View attachment 1274240
First of all the name of the icon for the story are referred in the file as Historys_a_drag. Guess what's it can be shortened to? HAD

View attachment 1274241

Second, among the dialogue for the story there is lines referring to "Drag Zone PR Stunts". Here is the snippet of the dialogues :
M i s s e d t h e l i g h t s ! T r y a g a i n ! I f y o u m o v e , y o u r e s e t i t . Y o u ' v e g o t t a s t a y s t a g e d ! L o o k s l i k e y o u v e f o u n d o n e o f t h e D r a g Z o n e P R s t u n t s . P a r k i n t h e m a r k e d a r e a t o a c t i v a t e t h e d r a g l i g h t s . < G o o d > . G o a s s o o n a s t h e l i g h t s t u r n g r e e n ! G e t t o t h e f i n i s h a s q u i c k a s y o u c a n ! ! A N N A ' s h o o k e d i n t o t h e F e s t i v a l g r i d s o y o u ' l l s e e a n y t i m e s o t h e r p e o p l e s e t . G e t t o t h e f i n i s h a s q u i c k l y a s y o u c a n ! ! L o o k s l i k e y o u v e f o u n d o n e o f t h e D r a g Z o n e P R s t u n t s . P a r k i n t h e m a r k e d a r e a t o a c t i v a t e t h e d r a g l i g h t s . S t a r t a c c e l e r a t i n g w h e n t h e l i g h t s g o g r e e n a n d g e t t o t h e f i n i s h l i n e a s q u i c k a s y o u c a n .

Those dialogues have very similar theme to what's found on HAD story dialogues i found earlier this year.

There is even script in the file to trigger the audio.
View attachment 1274242

Unfortunately the actual sound recording is not present currently in the file.

Even the Icons of Speed and HAD have some similarities in terms of cars. Napier Railton, Supra, Dodge Dart Hemi, Nevera are mentioned on HAD and appeared on Icons of Speed.

My best guess would be HAD was a draft version of Icons of Speed. Now lets just wait for the supposed "Drag Zone PR Stunts"

Fascinating stuff!

My best guess is that 'Having a Drag' was one of their punny production codenames, in this case used for this Story. Obviously it couldn't make it past Microsoft's censor board (if one exists for Forza) because 'having/taking a drag' is a slang term for smoking, so they probably kept it internal while they waited for assets to fall into place, like the Nevera and the Venom.

As for the Drag Zone PR Stunts... Could it be that they turned into the Drag Races (and occasional 'straight-line' Speed Traps like the ones at the festival and on the highway) we got in the final game? They don't seem to fall into any other category, even though they're unlocked by, well, unlocking Street Scene, which got dolled up for the Series.

 

[PJTierney]

My Horizon is taking a dog's age to sync on startup these days - close on five minutes, I think.

Bigger garages with lots of custom tunes/liveries tends to make the save file bigger, which extends syncs.

 

[UKMikey]

Bigger garages with lots of custom tunes/liveries tends to make the save file bigger, which extends syncs.

I try to limit it to one tune per car if that. The game doesn't let me save much more anyway.

I wish it was an incremental sync rather than loading the whole thing from scratch as it seems to be doing. Don't want to switch my console off during the operation in case it borks the whole thing.

 

[Edax 76]

Don't want to switch my console off during the operation in case it borks the whole thing.

That's my major fear too

 

[Populuxe]

Don't want to switch my console off during the operation in case it borks the whole thing.

That's my major fear too

When I had synchs that went on forever, I had the game quit the synch, then quit the game and restarted the console. Then I restarted the game and it synched immediately. It's almost as if the game synched the first time, but somehow didn't get the message that the synch was complete.

 

[Edax 76]

When I had synchs that went on forever, I had the game quit the synch, then quit the game and restarted the console. Then I restarted the game and it synched immediately. It's almost as if the game synched the first time, but somehow didn't get the message that the synch was complete.

Cheers bud, it's good to know it doesn't corrupt your save then if it goes totally wrong.

 

[skazz]

I always stop the sync and quit the game if it refuses to sync normally. Then usually reboot the console and try again (which has always worked so far). I've never tried just powering off the console, and would definitely prefer not to risk it... My Forza saves are rather important to me

 

[INEEDNAWZZZ]

If it’s any consolation, even if the sync fails it’ll give you the most recent backup it has as a safety net. That could be annoying for some games, but since Horizon 5 autosaves constantly it actually takes the stress out of it IMO, since you’ll lose barely any progress.

 

[CarbonDaimon]

My Horizon is taking a dog's age to sync on startup these days - close on five minutes, I think.

it started to take a long time to start after the 19 series update. that didn't happen, I entered the forza support page and reported this problem....I even sent a video demonstrating what is happening. ( PC version )

 

[PJTierney]

If you lot want to see a long sync, try going into the livery editor and importing paints from the older games. The first time you do it (especially if you don’t have said game installed), it takes ages 😄

 

[TGR55]

Anybody noticed the Falcon XB speedometer written in km/h but it read as if it was mph?