ForzaHorizon 2 first impressions
- Thread starter katpeeler
- 105 comments
- 6,328 views
Some more impressions:
I dunno how FH2-One turned out, but the physics in FH2-360 are GRIPPY. Significantly more so than FH1. To drift effectively requires approximately double the horsepower you'd need in real life, like in Forza Motorsport 3. I'm actually considering running stock tires for all of my setups, pending some testing to see how competitive I could be.
At the same time, however, cars finally have more appropriate weight/inertia to them, so maintaining control of something wild like the Ruf CTR is not a trivial thing. Once you're sideways you can't change your heading as easily as you can in FM4/FH1. If this game had the same tire model as FM4, I think it would turn out to be the more realistic of the two.
The difference in grip on dirt/gravel/grass/etc. is more pronounced this time, and you seem to lose more speed than you did in FH1. So the gimmicky "go anywhere" map hasn't made it pointless to follow the road. You also seem to lose more speed from hitting walls or larger obstacles like street lights.
Speaking of the kind-of-ridiculous open map spaces, I've already found a couple ideal spots for offroad vehicles to strut their stuff. At the gravel hairpins northwest of Nice, you can slip around a barrier to crawl onto the cliff that overlooks the road. It's an unintentional spot, because if you venture far enough you'll end up falling into the void. Then, south of San Giovanni, there are some ruins to the west of a T intersection. There are some steep slopes here, and the northern edge of the space gets pretty rough.
I dunno how FH2-One turned out, but the physics in FH2-360 are GRIPPY. Significantly more so than FH1. To drift effectively requires approximately double the horsepower you'd need in real life, like in Forza Motorsport 3. I'm actually considering running stock tires for all of my setups, pending some testing to see how competitive I could be.
At the same time, however, cars finally have more appropriate weight/inertia to them, so maintaining control of something wild like the Ruf CTR is not a trivial thing. Once you're sideways you can't change your heading as easily as you can in FM4/FH1. If this game had the same tire model as FM4, I think it would turn out to be the more realistic of the two.
The difference in grip on dirt/gravel/grass/etc. is more pronounced this time, and you seem to lose more speed than you did in FH1. So the gimmicky "go anywhere" map hasn't made it pointless to follow the road. You also seem to lose more speed from hitting walls or larger obstacles like street lights.
Speaking of the kind-of-ridiculous open map spaces, I've already found a couple ideal spots for offroad vehicles to strut their stuff. At the gravel hairpins northwest of Nice, you can slip around a barrier to crawl onto the cliff that overlooks the road. It's an unintentional spot, because if you venture far enough you'll end up falling into the void. Then, south of San Giovanni, there are some ruins to the west of a T intersection. There are some steep slopes here, and the northern edge of the space gets pretty rough.
- 1,629
- Texas
- RC45
- RC45
The standing mile at the airport is pretty fun. Current top speed is 206mph in my modded C6ZR1.
The higher grip levels and not quite simulation steering do lend a bit of an arcade aura, but as mentioned above, keep the tires stock you can up the challenge a bit.
The higher grip levels and not quite simulation steering do lend a bit of an arcade aura, but as mentioned above, keep the tires stock you can up the challenge a bit.
CAMAROBOY69
Premium
- 18,567
- Michigan
- CAMAROBOY69
Ut oh xboxlive is in the red again. Not good. http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-live-status
So expect some issues online. Party chat will most likely be iffy again.
So expect some issues online. Party chat will most likely be iffy again.
- 14,423
- Los Angeles, CA
- Lma_robot
- lImaRobotl
It's only showing the 360 as the affected console, though.
- 1,174
- 80710A06
- katpeeler
@Wolfe have you tried to take some assists off to get a better "drift" feel??....I found that ideal...BUT when its just a rally race I put my Traction Control back on...And honestly come to think about it I dont know if the assists off realy make you any fast as it did in FM5....maybe Ill put some of them back on
- 2,936
- STL
- disinfected
- disinfected
Been playing it on 360 for the last two nights. Having quite a bit of fun with it, even if some parts of it are completely ridiculous. (Driving 90 MPH along the side of a steep embankment in a Wrangler?) Regardless, can't put it down.
It's due back on Tuesday to the video store, should hold me over before Driveclub.
It's due back on Tuesday to the video store, should hold me over before Driveclub.
- 13,729
- Adelaide
- Neomone
I'm finding this too. To drift some of the lower cars I'm having to be really astonishingly violent with them, or dip wheels onto the dirt.
I'm meaning to have a look into the tuning soon to see if I can't pull some grip off the cars, because it really affects the responsiveness of the driving. Especially with lower powered cars, I just end up plowing through almost every corner at full throttle. It's shocking what you can get away with.
- 63
- BIFFINGTON
I've just bought an Xbox One to play this game! It's taking an absolute age to install fully though...One question I have is can you tune the transmissions for upgraded cars now ? On Forza Horizon with some of the cars (mostly muscle) you got rev limited in 6th where it would easily do much more but it was locked - pretty frustrating
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- 694
- Illinois
- DefOso
- Def Oso
Welcome! If the instal is taking long, stop/cancel and try again.
Yes, full tuning is available with each car.
Yes, full tuning is available with each car.
- 17,719
- Florida
- GranTurismo0517
- RandomCarGuy17
So far, Forza Horizon 2 for the xbox 360 is a very fun racing game. I've been engaged the whole entire time of playing it, I love the car selection despite that it's missing a few cars from Horizon 1 & the Xbox One version that I liked. I love being able to have a lot more wide open space to explore with my cars. The races also feel a bit more difficult in some cases. The physics to me feel a bit better than on the first Horizon and the graphics are still pleasing to my eyes and I love the environments that I get to explore.
My only issues are small ones; I for instance don't like that playing the 360 version doesn't count torwards Turn 10's Forza Rewards system. Also, a lot of the 500 events are just doing to same races over and over again in different car classes, which makes it a bit repetitive and boring. The game also seems to freeze every so often, it froze 3 times today for me when I was simply trying to look through my cars. The last one is that the credits payouts aren't as high as I expected them to be, there's I think only a max of 12k that I can win in a normal race while in Horizon 1; you could win prize money at 5x that value at least. Sumo and Turn 10 also didn't put in the street race events that were in Horizon and I quite liked those.
Overall, it's still a great game to play and I do recommend it for racing game players that are unable to move on to the next gen consoles yet.
My only issues are small ones; I for instance don't like that playing the 360 version doesn't count torwards Turn 10's Forza Rewards system. Also, a lot of the 500 events are just doing to same races over and over again in different car classes, which makes it a bit repetitive and boring. The game also seems to freeze every so often, it froze 3 times today for me when I was simply trying to look through my cars. The last one is that the credits payouts aren't as high as I expected them to be, there's I think only a max of 12k that I can win in a normal race while in Horizon 1; you could win prize money at 5x that value at least. Sumo and Turn 10 also didn't put in the street race events that were in Horizon and I quite liked those.
Overall, it's still a great game to play and I do recommend it for racing game players that are unable to move on to the next gen consoles yet.
- 10,735
- Plymouth, UK
- motorforum
I spent a few hours on it last night, so I feel ready to sum up my first impressions. I knew the game was good from the demo and getting my hands on the final copy has already pushed that up to excellent.
I started out doing the first three races in the Z4 and beating the display team to win the Challenge Stradale, which then sent me to Nice. From there I redeemed all my free cars and also bought an E36. Everything is to a very high standard. The way mud splats up the side of the car; the shops with actual depth to the interiors; even the sound seems better again than 5.
My main loves though are the map and weather. The map diversity is just awesome. I didn't know it was there, but I found the dried up lake bed that runs from the reservoir and the fun to be had there is totally different to the tight control needed for the hills above Castelleto. Driving in the rain is simply brilliant, too. From the way your car fights for grip over standing water, to how big waves of it pour off the back of the car. It's all so well made.
I started out doing the first three races in the Z4 and beating the display team to win the Challenge Stradale, which then sent me to Nice. From there I redeemed all my free cars and also bought an E36. Everything is to a very high standard. The way mud splats up the side of the car; the shops with actual depth to the interiors; even the sound seems better again than 5.
My main loves though are the map and weather. The map diversity is just awesome. I didn't know it was there, but I found the dried up lake bed that runs from the reservoir and the fun to be had there is totally different to the tight control needed for the hills above Castelleto. Driving in the rain is simply brilliant, too. From the way your car fights for grip over standing water, to how big waves of it pour off the back of the car. It's all so well made.
McLaren
Premium
- 44,449
- Texas
So, after about an hour, I'll focus on the points that concerned me the most from the demo.
The audio of the cars is still turned down. This was an "issue" I noticed from FH1 & FM5, which required me to up the volume physically. Not a big deal, though.
The amount of AI still seems low compared to Horizon racers, but as I traveled outside of the demo area to Nice, this became less & less. When I did the P1 Bucket List, I noticed a tremendous amount of AI driving around, so much that they continued to "fade in" (instead of randomly appearing) as the car went faster. I haven't hit the highway yet, but I assume this will be the same. I'm satisfied with it.
The AI randomly driving where ever is going be an annoyance, but rare hopefully. Within' my first 5 minutes of driving the Supra to the first event, a blue Supra randomly turned into me as I passed because he wanted to go into a random field.
And that's it. As I get further, I'm becoming more & more happy with it. My concerns about the map are gone as the demo area doesn't even begin to demonstrate just how beautiful Europe is in this game. The game definitely appeals to any enthusiast who ever dreamed of running a Pagani or a Ferrari or a Lamborghini through the European coast.
The audio of the cars is still turned down. This was an "issue" I noticed from FH1 & FM5, which required me to up the volume physically. Not a big deal, though.
The amount of AI still seems low compared to Horizon racers, but as I traveled outside of the demo area to Nice, this became less & less. When I did the P1 Bucket List, I noticed a tremendous amount of AI driving around, so much that they continued to "fade in" (instead of randomly appearing) as the car went faster. I haven't hit the highway yet, but I assume this will be the same. I'm satisfied with it.
The AI randomly driving where ever is going be an annoyance, but rare hopefully. Within' my first 5 minutes of driving the Supra to the first event, a blue Supra randomly turned into me as I passed because he wanted to go into a random field.
And that's it. As I get further, I'm becoming more & more happy with it. My concerns about the map are gone as the demo area doesn't even begin to demonstrate just how beautiful Europe is in this game. The game definitely appeals to any enthusiast who ever dreamed of running a Pagani or a Ferrari or a Lamborghini through the European coast.
CAMAROBOY69
Premium
- 18,567
- Michigan
- CAMAROBOY69
Yes but whenever live shows red like that, it effects everything including x1. And it was red all weekend and it was indeed effecting most games on both consoles. Including the xboxlive party system.
- 687
Have been playing the 360 version for a couple of days now.
I'm absolutely loving this. It's a fantastic game and should keep me going for a good while now.
HOWEVER
To me, the game doesn't quite feel finished. There are quite a few niggles that are annoying, but not bad enough to put me off. Things like:
The challenge races are a but of a pain to initiate and, when you do get one going, are a bit inconsistent. I've had some quite hard "easy" races and some quite easy "hard" races.
The countryside just feels a little empty. Like you've broken out of the game area, into unpopulated areas.
The roads seem very empty as well
The scoring for drifts, near misses et al are is quite inconsistent. You can do the same thing twice and only get points for one of them.
I've spotted a couple of places where the driving line has a weird kink in it, which the AI cars try to follow, so will suddenly slam on and jink to one side.
Despite these faults, i think it's brilliant.
I'm absolutely loving this. It's a fantastic game and should keep me going for a good while now.
HOWEVER
To me, the game doesn't quite feel finished. There are quite a few niggles that are annoying, but not bad enough to put me off. Things like:
The challenge races are a but of a pain to initiate and, when you do get one going, are a bit inconsistent. I've had some quite hard "easy" races and some quite easy "hard" races.
The countryside just feels a little empty. Like you've broken out of the game area, into unpopulated areas.
The roads seem very empty as well
The scoring for drifts, near misses et al are is quite inconsistent. You can do the same thing twice and only get points for one of them.
I've spotted a couple of places where the driving line has a weird kink in it, which the AI cars try to follow, so will suddenly slam on and jink to one side.
Despite these faults, i think it's brilliant.
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- 1,629
- Texas
- RC45
- RC45
Good to know as I have been fiddling with the T500 pedals on the TX wheel as I thought my throttle spring was playing up again. I even disconnected the load cell brake pedal module to be sure it was not the pedals causing the rpm hang.
I think its too densely populated. I love high speed cruising in the country side here in East Texas, because you can go for miles of twisty back roads and only ever see 2 or 3 other cars - sometimes you may not even see 1.
So I would like a way to change the traffic density for off-line free roam.
Ditto on the poster that said the events end up being the same races with different car classes, IMO it seems like a lazy way for the devs to pad out the length of the single player game without doing much. I think they went from one extreme to the other, where the original Horizon's single player was a bit on the short side, they ended up taking a page from the main Forza franchise and loaded it up with too many events (well, for some players but maybe not for others). That being said, to get to the Horizon Finale doesn't take that long, I would say even shorter then getting to Darius at the end of the original Horizon's career.
I'm also a bit on the fence about how your opponents in single player automatically adjust to your car's performance range because I feel it removes quite a bit of incentive to upgrade your car. In most racing games with tuning and upgrades, it is a necessity because it either gives you an edge over your opponents or you have no choice because your opponents are either constantly upgrading or they are in a specific class. Here, the only real reason to upgrade is because you want a sense of speed or want to adjust the way the car handles, basically for personal enjoyment rather then to compete with your opponents. Heck, one could argue spending your money on making your cars faster or to grip/handle better is a waste of money when you could save up for more expensive and desirable cars in this particular game (again, this only applies to single player). When you think about it, you can basically get through all of single player with bone stock cars, a bit odd for a racing game like Forza but I guess this is a bit of a subjective rant, I know some players enjoy the opponent scaling in FH2.
I should race my second Finale in a bone stock WWII Willys Jeep, considering it took me just under 20 minutes in a S1 class Ford Shelby GT500, I wonder if that endeavor would take over an hour. . .
I'm also a bit on the fence about how your opponents in single player automatically adjust to your car's performance range because I feel it removes quite a bit of incentive to upgrade your car. In most racing games with tuning and upgrades, it is a necessity because it either gives you an edge over your opponents or you have no choice because your opponents are either constantly upgrading or they are in a specific class. Here, the only real reason to upgrade is because you want a sense of speed or want to adjust the way the car handles, basically for personal enjoyment rather then to compete with your opponents. Heck, one could argue spending your money on making your cars faster or to grip/handle better is a waste of money when you could save up for more expensive and desirable cars in this particular game (again, this only applies to single player). When you think about it, you can basically get through all of single player with bone stock cars, a bit odd for a racing game like Forza but I guess this is a bit of a subjective rant, I know some players enjoy the opponent scaling in FH2.
I should race my second Finale in a bone stock WWII Willys Jeep, considering it took me just under 20 minutes in a S1 class Ford Shelby GT500, I wonder if that endeavor would take over an hour. . .
I agree that creativity is a bit lacking with the events, but I think it's great that they're no longer tied to designated PI classes and you can play however you want. I love that you can compete with a stock car; no other Forza game has offered as much incentive to simply enjoy a car as it is.
- 3
- Canterlot, Equestria
- deesh01
Loved the first horizon, and continue to love Horizon 2, but I just can't seem to get into the 360 version. Everything I was looking forward to is on the One, and the physics engine/open fields don't really cope well with the sequel. Can't wait to upgrade to the One and upgrade Horizon 2. 
Funny thing, after sth like 2 weeks of playing FH2 i checked how bad, oldish and "ancient gen" original Horizon is.
And You know what? At once i noticed how well tracks and roads are shaped comparing to nonsense off road chaos in FH2.
I would say it's the biggest weakness of Horizon, lack of good memorable paths.
And You know what? At once i noticed how well tracks and roads are shaped comparing to nonsense off road chaos in FH2.
I would say it's the biggest weakness of Horizon, lack of good memorable paths.
