Forza Horizon is 10 Years Old Today

[TokoTurismo]

Putting the playlist cars in the autoshow after a series ends has never been a genius idea to me. It's just be another excuse for players that are too lazy to complete simple objects to not play the game, and yet, THEY are the ones who want to be the most vocal about it. And those of us who DO enjoy completing those objects (the playlist/series as a whole) have to suffer the end result of it, and get ridiculed for supporting the idea that PLAYING THE GAME is the way of unlocking new content set by the devs.

I'm not saying everyone shouldn't get every new car that gets added to the game, which is kinda ironic saying that, because these same people want every new car PG adds to be thrown into the autoshow because why not, but don't act like the festival playlist with simple objects is a chore. Minus some of the objects can still be buggy, but you can still complete some of them to unlock new stuff. Besides, life itself can be a chore by doing jobs, paying bills and taxes etc, and we as humans complain about those ALL the time. Weird comparsion, I know, but it seems very fitting IMO.

The issue, however, is those who may miss out on the new content because they either have vacations or other things that are important in real life. THAT, I would agree to put these cars in the autoshow. But for those who scream they don't want everything, but at the same time want everything because they don't want to play the game to unlock new stuff, than nah.

 

[KnightOfRen]

Putting the playlist cars in the autoshow after a series ends has never been a genius idea to me. It's just be another excuse for players that are too lazy to complete simple objects to not play the game, and yet, THEY are the ones who want to be the most vocal about it. And those of us who DO enjoy completing those objects (the playlist/series as a whole) have to suffer the end result of it, and get ridiculed for supporting the idea that PLAYING THE GAME is the way of unlocking new content set by the devs.

I'm not saying everyone shouldn't get every new car that gets added to the game, which is kinda ironic saying that, because these same people want every new car PG adds to be thrown into the autoshow because why not, but don't act like the festival playlist with simple objects is a chore. Minus some of the objects can still be buggy, but you can still complete some of them to unlock new stuff. Besides, life itself can be a chore by doing jobs, paying bills and taxes etc, and we as humans complain about those ALL the time. Weird comparsion, I know, but it seems very fitting IMO.

The issue, however, is those who may miss out on the new content because they either have vacations or other things that are important in real life. THAT, I would agree to put these cars in the autoshow. But for those who scream they don't want everything, but at the same time want everything because they don't want to play the game to unlock new stuff, than nah.

I like the concept of the playlist and I'm fine with playing the game to get cars. But I also think the devs need to switch it up a bit. The same challenges every week gets really stale after a while.

 

[TokoTurismo]

I like the concept of the playlist and I'm fine with playing the game to get cars. But I also think the devs need to switch it up a bit. The same challenges every week gets really stale after a while.

Oh indeed, and I don't disagree with that either. Changing the playlist up can always be good for us that play, especially if it means making it feel fresh in the end.

 

[strela]

I like the concept of the playlist and I'm fine with playing the game to get cars. But I also think the devs need to switch it up a bit. The same challenges every week gets really stale after a while.

I'm all for changes but I'm aware that there are just too many opinions and we already have so many options.
I would love more focus on online. More Trials, PGG and Eliminator. I can only imagine how many out there would disagree.
Forzathon in FH3 was even more boring. And it's a car game. You can do what you can.
My point is I can still do my things and you can really choose from a wide range of events. 20 points is not hard even for those that hate it.
Not sure if you played the Crew2. There you have weekly Summit that are themed. You even have planes and boats. Yet somehow I was still doing the same things over and over if I wanted the car. They spiced it up by allowing only the top 3000 to receive the 1st prize. It's not working either, but it's necessary to give players something to do. Because players don't know what to do once the campaign is over.

In my opinion the Playlist is designed to appeal to most of us. Which is exactly why things won't change. We fans are the only reason games are boring. Maybe if devs had freedom when creating things. But no, you need to listen to fans instead. So, here we are.

 

[Imari]

I think Horizon is pretty much at the point with FH5 that they've more or less perfected the "theme park" model. The games very quickly open up to let you do more or less whatever you want, and whatever you're interested in there will be a significant amount of content that you can do in a semi-structured way in order to reach some goal. There are incentives for trying different things, but you don't really ever have to do much that you don't want to outside of the short and basic main campaign.

This is all great, but it's come at the expense of having a solid narrative. That's where the first game differs a lot - the narrative was pretty bog standard car movie stereotypes, but it was something and compared to most car game it was decent. I think the next area of progression for Forza Horizon is to start offering a narrative as well. One that isn't just random car dudes swinging their dicks at each other for no reason.

They should still keep all the theme park stuff because it's great, it's casual friendly and it's what enables people to keep playing for years and years. And you can still have it all unlock very early in the game if you want. But a solid 40+ hour campaign that simply existed to tell a good story, offer progression and strategy and be fun (instead of to gate off other parts of the game) would be something that the game currently doesn't offer. And pretty much nobody else does either.

Horizon at this point is basically an MMOcaRPG, design-wise it's strikingly similar to how games like WoW and FFXIV are structured. Except for the expansive mainline story. To be fair, it's hard to make a story revolve around driving as a core mechanic. But it's not impossible, and I rate Playground's chances of pulling it off well better than any other racing dev out there.

 

[UKMikey]

Horizon at this point is basically an MMOcaRPG, design-wise it's strikingly similar to how games like WoW and FFXIV are structured. Except for the expansive mainline story. To be fair, it's hard to make a story revolve around driving as a core mechanic. But it's not impossible, and I rate Playground's chances of pulling it off well better than any other racing dev out there.

I guess it's all about having the will and putting in the effort. GRID Legends's narrative is as corny and cheesy as they come but it's really fun and engaging and is still being expanded today. If Turn 10 and Playground were interested in and had were granted the resources to developing a mega Horizon Story then I think they could do worse than to look to Codemasters as an inspiration in this regard.

 

[Imari]

I guess it's all about having the will and putting in the effort. GRID Legends's narrative is as corny and cheesy as they come but it's really fun and engaging and is still being expanded today. If Turn 10 and Playground were interested in and had were granted the resources to developing a mega Horizon Story then I think they could do worse than to look to Codemasters as an inspiration in this regard.

Grid Legends seems to be about as good as anyone has done, from the little I've seen. It's certainly very well produced. I'm not sure it's actually "good" though, from what I've seen. Just the least bad as a racing story.

But the game is apparently still buggy af so I'm not sure I'll even be throwing out $20 to experience myself any time soon.

 

[UKMikey]

Grid Legends seems to be about as good as anyone has done, from the little I've seen. It's certainly very well produced. I'm not sure it's actually "good" though, from what I've seen. Just the least bad as a racing story.

Baby steps. I wasn't putting it forward for the Oscar.

But the game is apparently still buggy af so I'm not sure I'll even be throwing out $20 to experience myself any time soon.

Maybe this is platform specific? The only bug I've experienced on Series X is not being able to link my gamertag to an EA account and that sounds more like EA than Codies.

 

[-Fred-]

Racing stories are all the same: New guy comes into a scene starting from nothing, gets mocked/bullied by the establishment/bad guy, turns out new guy ain't bad, starts gaining attraction from fans and other racers, establishment either becomes friend or foe, confrontation, end game duel where the bad guy resigns once you beat him; you win the game. Add a girl or a friend ultimately betraying you somewhere in there, double down with cringy acting and whatever trends are current and you've got yourself a game.

Some are ok (Grid, that old TOCA PS2 game for instance) and some are terrible (F1 games recently, NFS 15) but ultimately, all the same boring concept/idea.

 

[INEEDNAWZZZ]

R: Racing Evolution had a somewhat decent story. Kind of hits the same beats and tropes as described but has an overarching theme regarding the dilemma of team orders and dirty money being passed around, something which even more grounded games (like F1) don't really delve into too much, unsurprisingly. The mid-2000s Namco voice acting does drag it down quite a bit though.

 

[KnightOfRen]

Racing stories are all the same: New guy comes into a scene starting from nothing, gets mocked/bullied by the establishment/bad guy, turns out new guy ain't bad, starts gaining attraction from fans and other racers, establishment either becomes friend or foe, confrontation, end game duel where the bad guy resigns once you beat him; you win the game. Add a girl or a friend ultimately betraying you somewhere in there, double down with cringy acting and whatever trends are current and you've got yourself a game.

Some are ok (Grid, that old TOCA PS2 game for instance) and some are terrible (F1 games recently, NFS 15) but ultimately, all the same boring concept/idea.

Meanwhile FH5 "Story": hAhA sUperStAr vOcHo pApA fERnAnDo mExIcO insert random Spanish word after every sentence