Forza Horizon 5: General Discussion

[Nacho Libre]

If other Xbox properties begin to pop-up on the Switch 2... portable FH would be something.

 

[Edax 76]

Is it other Nintendo games as well today? Oh well, happy Mar 10.

I kinda stopped buying their consoles when the Wii turned out to be the Gamecube in a different box with wiggly sticks attached. 2000s-era Mikey would've loved the Switch for his daily commute though. Maybe when Switch 2 OLED comes out I might get back on the bandwagon, although I figure I'd likely be plugging it into an OLED TV most days anyway so the onboard display quality is probably moot.
Regrettably I ended up ditching my PAL SNES for an NTSC model in order to play grey import JRPGs that were never released in Europe. I don't recall the US power switch being quite as clunk-clicky.

The Switch 2 is a day one buy for me, I'm saving already.

If any console ever gets released with an equivalent to the SNES power switch I'll buy it for pure nostalgia value.

 

[Apple Slipper]

Looks like Turn 10 & Playground did a big oopsy again. They leaked the Maserati MC20!

 

[UKMikey]

If any console ever gets released with an equivalent to the SNES power switch I'll buy it for pure nostalgia value.

If I ever get the urge I can take my SNES Mini out of the box and practise turning it off and on again.

---

Is it me or (given the playlist probs we've been having recently) is one of the events this week a little too on-the-nose naming-wise?

 

[Justuxful]

Looks like Turn 10 & Playground did a big oopsy again. They leaked the Maserati MC20!

View attachment 1435091

Can they just get their stuff together and finally release it, at this point as a free apology gift for being the only major racing game franchise not to have it… Like how hard can it be?

 

[Digolgrin]

Looks like Turn 10 & Playground did a big oopsy again. They leaked the Maserati MC20!

View attachment 1435091

Oooookay, the plot is thickening slightly. I'm guessing this might come in a car pack, but if Horizon Realms isn't our final update that would be an incredible surprise.

EDIT: So I thought about this a little bit. Surely Horizon Realms would come with its own dedicated Playlist with FOMO cars to celebrate that milestone, right? The Realms cars themselves are permanent, but that means Xbox and PC players that already have everything, like me, could just pop in for a couple days, grab those cars, and get out. Maybe Realms having its own Playlist is the catch to hook 'em in for the month?

 

[skazz]

Oooookay, the plot is thickening slightly. I'm guessing this might come in a car pack, but if Horizon Realms isn't our final update that would be an incredible surprise.

More likely this is a stock image they made ages ago. I think there was another one in an earlier playlist.

I'm still pretty sure that they had to give us the Battista (which was already in FM23) in a paid DLC car pack instead of the MC20 due to emergency licensing problems, which were never fixed during the lifetime of FH5.

 

[Digolgrin]

More likely this is a stock image they made ages ago. I think there was another one in an earlier playlist.

I'm still pretty sure that they had to give us the Battista (which was already in FM23) in a paid DLC car pack instead of the MC20 due to emergency licensing problems, which were never fixed during the lifetime of FH5.

Someone did manage to save the video and post it on the Horizon subreddit, FYI.

 

[meganinja]

2 two cents about the DLC news that came out and i only had noticied beacuse someone had posted on FM part of the forum lol

1- i feel this is pretty much huge indicative that maybe we are having FH6 in Japan after all
2- Nissan Figaro is a such horizon type of car, even as DLC, i am so glad that it is already for FH5 and hopefuly comes at launch for FH6 independly if is on Japan or somewhere else

 

[UKMikey]

1- i feel this is pretty much huge indicative that maybe we are having FH6 in Japan after all

Hoki Hoshi agrees, although he's worried that if true it may be hard to do it justice given the size of the Tokyo metropolitan area compared to that of past Horizon games.

 

[sirjim73]

Hoki Hoshi agrees, although he's worried that if true it may be hard to do it justice given the size of the Tokyo metropolitan area compared to that of past Horizon games.

As per my hypothesis on the other thread, I don't think it will be set in or around Tokyo, but will be around Mount Fuji, Osaka or somewhere central Japan instead.

 

[GBalao888]

As per my hypothesis on the other thread, I don't think it will be set in or around Tokyo, but will be around Mount Fuji, Osaka or somewhere central Japan instead.

If anything, the Universal Studios Car Pack might give a hint to the potential location of FH6 being around the Kansai region (Osaka/Kyoto), considering Universal Studios Japan is in Osaka.

 

[Digolgrin]

If anything, the Universal Studios Car Pack might give a hint to the potential location of FH6 being around the Kansai region (Osaka/Kyoto), considering Universal Studios Japan is in Osaka.

To be fair, that's a theme park, not an actual branch of Universal. But I think it is also worth mentioning, too, that they don't even have to go to mainland Japan or Hokkaido at all; I fully expect that the Sierra Nueva equivalent will be somewhere near Okinawa or even in one of the smaller islands near Japan proper. Really just depends on what priorities they choose for their map design.

 

[Beebo]

Hoki Hoshi agrees, although he's worried that if true it may be hard to do it justice given the size of the Tokyo metropolitan area compared to that of past Horizon games.

I am a big fan of how he's put some of these ideas to a bigger audience. For quite a while now I've been wondering what fh5's expansions were testing but it makes sense rally adventure's road and map design would make their way into the FH6 base map given the track record of DLCs being tests of things/ideas. What I hadn't realized though, was a few of the possible hints he mentioned. It's fun to speculate!

Though I can't imagine the vitriol from, lets just say more "vocal" players if they finally did Japan and didn't add some of the stereotypical things like tokyo and others. The expectation may very well be why they don't wanna do that location at all, who knows.

 

[Digolgrin]

I am a big fan of how he's put some of these ideas to a bigger audience. For quite a while now I've been wondering what fh5's expansions were testing but it makes sense rally adventure's road and map design would make their way into the FH6 base map given the track record of DLCs being tests of things/ideas. What I hadn't realized though, was a few of the possible hints he mentioned. It's fun to speculate!

Though I can't imagine the vitriol from, lets just say more "vocal" players if they finally did Japan and didn't add some of the stereotypical things like tokyo and others. The expectation may very well be why they don't wanna do that location at all, who knows.

I think that's Hoshi's argument to an extent, Japan's car culture is so incredibly diverse between screaming down the C1 loop, drifting through the mountain passes, passing your car through bosozuku styling, its car industry's motorsport and rally successes and all the quirky cars they've put out that there would have to be sacrifices not very many people would be happy with making. Sure you can have a Horizon Story talking about the Pike Factory, or about tuning up something as silly as a Daihatsu Midget, or about the heritage and history of Mitsubishi and Subaru's rivalry, but none of that will matter if even one thing gets omitted. (okay except bosozuku styling, what casual Western JDM fan is going to care about that)

To that end, PG has a huge uphill battle to fight. They could just do South Korea instead and have perfectly valid excuses to have EV content, with all the fixings of an East Asia setting--heck, Britain was the first setting since Colorado and debatably France/Italy in 2 to not have anything to do with the World Rally Championship. But I have a feeling they'll find some way to capture even a microcosm of what makes Japan's car culture special.

 

[YoungRhombus]

I feel similarly too, and Hoshi brings up some good points in this video. On one hand, PGG has the opportunity to do something amazing by setting the game in Japan. They've had (hopefully) the longest development cycle in the franchise so far and they theoretically have the improved ForzaTech engine to use, which supposedly makes it easier to change and add content. There also hasn't been a game on the scale of Forza that has done an open-world Japan map. It's ambitious, but would be insane if they could pull it off.

But that is a big if. People are going to complain no matter what, as Hoshi was getting at. But the expectations would be particularly high. I honestly struggle to trust PGG a bit to get that right especially since they don't even seem to remember what cars are available to people (see MC20, Hudson Hornet, Porsche Boxster).

If FH6 does the same old and launches with 550 cars down from 900, the same size map as the past few games with little variety, and missing features that were in the previous title, then I guarantee you it will be a crapshow.

That is, everything is going to have to exceed the scope of FH5 for peoples' expectations to be just met.

 

[skazz]

My main worry is that we have no idea if the new engine developed with FM23 changes the rules around map size (positively or negatively), and also no idea if PG can get it working properly in the first game which uses it.

We could even see a worst case where some things regress in order to use the new game engine...

 

[Populuxe]

Hoki Hoshi agrees, although he's worried that if true it may be hard to do it justice given the size of the Tokyo metropolitan area compared to that of past Horizon games.

”But absolutely no one foresaw FH5 in Mexico.”

Me, from June 14, 2018:

I decided to buck the trend and vote for Mexico. Amazing culture and diversity of terrain. It would be Horizon heaven.

 

[UKMikey]

”But absolutely no one foresaw FH5 in Mexico.”

Me, from June 14, 2018:

Your prediction game was a lot hotter than mine.

Russia. We can drift in Red Square with Vladimir Putin narrating.

 

[sirjim73]

Your prediction game was a lot hotter than mine.

Well you were close. You just got the game wrong. If you'd said that in the Grid forum in 2018...

 

[Digolgrin]

My main worry is that we have no idea if the new engine developed with FM23 changes the rules around map size (positively or negatively), and also no idea if PG can get it working properly in the first game which uses it.

We could even see a worst case where some things regress in order to use the new game engine...

You also have to keep in mind that Microsoft will basically have to ensure that FH6 is even playable on lower-end hardware like the original Xbox One. If ForzaTech was having issues on all platforms at launch, perhaps even because of this, and they still don't shed the Xbox One for FH6, then I'd worry about serious regression.

 

[Nacho Libre]

You also have to keep in mind that Microsoft will basically have to ensure that FH6 is even playable on lower-end hardware like the original Xbox One. If ForzaTech was having issues on all platforms at launch, perhaps even because of this, and they still don't shed the Xbox One for FH6, then I'd worry about serious regression.

There is no guarantee of that that, since they stopped developing for the Xbox One around 2023, and the lower-end hardware these days is the Series S. Of course, the newer games can be streamed to the older consoles.

 

[pez2k]

My main worry is that we have no idea if the new engine developed with FM23 changes the rules around map size (positively or negatively), and also no idea if PG can get it working properly in the first game which uses it.

We could even see a worst case where some things regress in order to use the new game engine...

I would strongly suspect that nobody over there was short-sighted enough to build new shared tech that couldn't support a Horizon game. It's pretty clear from the amount of shared content that the two teams work very well together, and Playground have likely had a lot of input from day one.

It's also worth pointing out that FH1 was built from an engine that only supported closed circuits and pre-baked time of day lighting, and Playground managed to make an open world game with fully dynamic lighting out of it (albeit at 30fps, because all of those pre-baked tricks were needed for Turn10 to hit 60). That was also done as an unproven team with a new franchise, with a lot less resources and manpower than they have now.

 

[RageRacer]

I'm late to the party but that Nissan pack is absolutely interesting as hell. Never expected to see the Pao, Be-1, Figaro and the S-Cargo.

However, I have a very dumb question. Is the Revuelto and the other 3 cars available to grab now or do I have to wait next month for them? It's good that they are permanent.

 

[Stang616]

Japan is going to be difficult. People are extremely hard to please with any game with Japanese culture, AC Shadows being the latest one to catch flak.
If FH6 is in Japan and gets one thing wrong that people don't like it will be a riot.

 

[Nacho Libre]

Japan is going to be difficult. People are extremely hard to please with any game with Japanese culture, AC Shadows being the latest one to catch flak.
If FH6 is in Japan and gets one thing wrong that people don't like it will be a riot.

If they do it in Japan, I imagine something like FF Tokyo Drift... the only FF movie I've watched actually. Anyways, I don't get the Japan idealization or adoration. I've visited the country twice and it's nice, but it's not all that, and is best traveled by plane, train, bus, bike or simply walking.

 

[nukleabomb]

If they do it in Japan, I imagine something like FF Tokyo Drift... the only FF movie I've watched actually. Anyways, I don't get the Japan idealization or adoration. I've visited the country twice and it's nice, but it's not all that, and is best traveled by plane, train, bus, bike or simply walking.

One look at these orads/landscape and it is easy to see the appeal tbh. But considering the breadth of vehicles in FH, i don't know how they would make the map suitable for all cars ( and skill levels too) without altering it to the point where it doesn't feel as good.

 

[Digolgrin]

If you ask me I think it's because people love Initial D and Wangan Midnight so much they're surprised there hasn't been a 'good' open-world driving game set in Japan, and so they've become a sort of vocal minority. I think most fans wouldn't exactly care where they go, heck they might even accept China with enough convincing, but there are a host of really good reasons why there aren't games like that out there--again, mostly thanks to the geography of the region and how that would impact level design.

I would definitely love to see how PG tackles that challenge though, they have a knack for taking some of the most extreme environments on Earth and condensing them into a managable enough map.

 

[Nacho Libre]

One look at these orads/landscape and it is easy to see the appeal tbh. But considering the breadth of vehicles in FH, i don't know how they would make the map suitable for all cars ( and skill levels too) without altering it to the point where it doesn't feel as good.

It looks very nice but see how a game like this or Tokyo Extreme Racer, or the highway in GT7 contains the player to roads. A Forza Horizon game (from 2 onwards anyway) makes possible for you to go offroad at any time, and trash any object that is not fixed (furniture, utilities, fencing, vegetation, etc.) Would you put a danger sign over a Torii gate? Would you mow down blooming Sakura trees?

Somehow that would not feel right IMO.

 

[Digolgrin]

It looks very nice but see how a game like this or Tokyo Extreme Racer, or the highway in GT7 contains the player to roads. A Forza Horizon game (from 2 onwards anyway) makes possible for you to go offroad at any time, and trash any object that is not fixed (furniture, utilities, fencing, vegetation, etc.) Would you put a danger sign over a Torii gate? Would you mow down blooming Sakura trees?

Somehow that would not feel right IMO.

In my mind's eye, I feel like that's mostly out of respect for Japanese geography and wanting to be as 'realistic' as possible. I feel like folks would be able to accept a Danger Sign over a shrine or a temple, if it's with the understanding that those things should be indestructible. Heck, just limit the sakura trees to inhabited areas and make them indestructible, just so you wouldn't be able to just plow 'em over with a Unimog.

I'll bet that Mexico was partially an experiment with just that idea, of going to a place with sacred and historically important monuments and negotiating with their government to let them have those sites in the game in exchange for the promise that they won't be treated in any disrespectful manner.