Forza Horizon - Xbox 360

Forza Gets That New Car Smell Again

2012-10-12T15:26:00Z

Although Forza Horizon is an offshoot of the sim racer, it captures a lot of what makes the base series notable. Car nuts, decal artists, and those looking for an intense racing experience will all feel at home in Horizon’s frontiers. Despite this game’s homage to the original Forza, it also strikes out on its own. The open world format allows Horizon to carve out its own niche in the larger Forza franchise, but it’s a title with its own boundaries.

In some ways, Forza Horizon gives racers the best of both worlds. A serious love of cars is married with a more accessible approach to the racing itself and progressing in the game. While hardcore drivers will still find the upper-echelon cars a challenge with all the assists off, those less skilled can still dial back the car handling at the expense of winning fewer credits at race’s end. Regardless of how you like to drive, however, Horizon makes finding a race easy.

Horizon Events tiers unlock by earning different colored wristbands, and while the game’s light story and characters are cheesy, they also open up other kinds of races. Showcase events are races against other machines like planes, Street Race Hubs are easy places to grind for cash, and you can race against Rival ghost cars from online profiles.

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I was most impressed by the competition and progression inherent in the fact that skill points are constantly earned for all kinds of racing feats. Driving on two wheels, different kinds of drifts, close calls with other cars, getting air, and more upped my ranking in those categories, raised my popularity, and earned me more credits. It also fueled my desire to progress in the game and gave me a great sense of satisfaction.

The ease at which you earn skill points is matched by some convenient structural features. Horizon Outposts are locations you can fast travel to if you’ve completed that Outpost’s three objectives. If you don’t have the requisite car or need to upgrade it so it’s competitive, you can buy what you need without having to travel back to the garage. Credits are plentiful, and you become attached to your rides since even pedestrian cars can be upgraded to higher classes.

Despite Horizon’s overall accessibility, the game isn’t as accommodating as it could be. The open world game has some notable caveats. The Colorado landscape is gorgeous, but you can’t get too much of it (no) thanks to the many roadside guardrails that hem you in. This shrinks the map and limits how it’s utilized in the game. One of the effects of this is that Showcase races are pointless. Where’s the fun in racing against a plane if you can’t actually chart your own path to each checkpoint?

Being able to challenge other Horizon racers when you come across them in the world (only in point-to-point races) is fun, but beating them isn’t tied to your progress in the Festival. Moreover, the game’s single- and multiplayer portions are separate, so you can’t meet up with and race your friends like in Test Drive: Unlimited 2. That said, the addition of Forza’s online Playground games (including my favorite, Cat and Mouse) and the co-op challenges available in online Free Roam (like trying to get all eight players to cross a speed-trap camera at a requisite high speed) are really fun.

Forza Horizon is a well-crafted game that offers a fun racing experience that accommodates different approaches. It’s not a complete experience, but it’s a take on the Forza franchise that does the series proud.

Exploring More Of Forza Horizon

2012-10-10T14:53:00Z

Forza Horizon developer Playground Games has released a new behind-the-scenes video for the game, and you can hear the excitement in the the team's voices.

The video covers everything from the developers' passion for cars to some of the exciting things you'll be doing once you get behind the wheel of the game.

Forza Horizon comes out for the Xbox 360 on October 23. The demo is out now.

For a snapshot of my first hour with the title, check out these stats.

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My First Hour With Forza Horizon

2012-09-28T21:41:00Z

Forza Horizon is a huge game with lots of stuff to do, and in just under an hour of play, I felt like I had already lived a lifetime.

Microsoft and developer Playground Games gave me unfettered access to the early part of Forza Horizon, and I used it to my advantage, soaking up as much of the game as I could.

As you can see in the stats and accomplishments I earned below (gathered through my own notes and the in-game stat tracker), it didn't take me long to make myself at home with the game's open-world structure.

How will you spend your first hour in the game?

OVERALL

Game Progress: 5.4%

Time Driven: 59:16

Distance Driven: 38.7 mi.

Popularity Chart Position: 238

Credits Earned: 119,140cr.

Achievements Won: 9 of 50

CARS

Cars in Garage: 3 (1 default (1995 Volkswagen Corrado VR6), 1 won (1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429), and 1 bought (2011 Subaru WRX STI))

Auto Upgrades Bought: 1

Top Speed: 170.5 mph

EVENTS & SKILLS

Number of Races: 8 (7 Victories)

Event Horizon Wrist Bands Earned: 2 (Currently own the Green wrist band)

Event Gold Cups Won: 4

Sponsor Challenge Levels Upgraded: 7 in 15 different categories

Showcase Events: 1

Rival Scores Beat: 2

Highest Skill Chain Score: 6,035 (with a Jaguar XKR-S)

Here is a list of some of the Skill moves I've earned Popularity points for:

Burnout
Near-Miss
Drift
Trading Paint
Speed
Two-Wheels
Wreckage
J-Turn
Daredevil
Slingshot
Air
Pass
Drifting
Sideswipe
Landscaping
One-Eighty

DISCOVERIES

Festival Drivers Spontaneously Challenged: 3

Barn Find Rumors Uncovered: 2

Roads Driven: 24 out of 216

Upgrade Discount Signs Smashed: 11 out of 100

Speed Traps Triggered: 5 of 22

Horizon Outposts Discovered: 2 of 10

Photos Taken: 2

See How Traffic Makes A Difference In Forza Horizon

2012-09-07T15:31:00Z

Forza Horizon is putting a different spin on the franchise, shifting away from the game's track-based action to an open world. The game doesn't take place after an apocalyptic event, so you're going to have to share the road with loads of other racers. A new developer diary shows off the game's action (and traffic).

Take a look at the clip below to learn more about how these other drivers fundamentally change the way you play the game. Finally, you can leave M. Rossi in the dust once and for all.

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Forza Horizon is set for an October 23 release on the Xbox 360.

New Forza Horizon Screens

2012-08-30T14:39:00Z

Forza Horizon's open-world racing festival is getting set to kick off, and some new screens of the game have just been released.

The game centers around the Horizon Festival, which is both a physical hub in the title where you can do things like get events and upgrade your car.

Challenges and races for Popularity points litter the Colorado landscape, which also provides myriad terrain types, from dusty backroads to city locations.

Forza Horizon releases on the Xbox 360 on October 23.

Forza Horizon Follows A New Road

2012-06-05T08:48:00Z

Microsoft and developer Playground Games took the wraps off of Forza Horizon, a exciting offshoot of the Forza series that explores new territory for the racing franchise.

The Forza series is known for its sim-based racing, but as the name implies, Forza Horizon takes the franchise in new directions.

Taking its inspiration from the fictional Horizon Festival, the game embraces more than just licensed tracks and cars like the regular Forza series. It embraces racing in an open world, freeform state.

The game takes place in Colorado, where design director Ralph Fulton says the development team found the perfect mix of fun roads to race and beautiful scenery. The Horizon Festival itself is a mix of different influences, from car culture to a giant summer music festival. In the game itself, it's basically an exaggerated hub where you can buy cars (via an auto show-type presentation skin), upgrade your rides, get races, customize your car, and more. Of course, it's also a competition.

But when you hit the roads themselves, you can do whatever you want. Similar to the Test Drive Unlimited series, you can simply drive around looking for whatever races come your way or you can explore. You can take on offline challenges from whatever Festival racers are roaming about (there are also civilian AI cars about, too), or you can race them later when you feel like it. The choice is yours.

Whether you're in a race or not, you'll gain Horizon Points for more than 30 skills and combo moves. Horizon Points are what you must earn to work your way up the offline and online ladder. You get these for things like drifts, close calls, wreaking things in the environment, burnouts, racing through speed zones, and much more. You'll also get them for simply exploring. In the section we saw in a demo, players got Horizon Points for simply finding one of 206 roads (over 65 surface types). I'm not sure if this represents all the roads in the game or just those in a certain section of the world.

I got to try a short race in Forza Horizon, and it felt like the normal Forza, complete with all the physics you'd expect. Fulton says that team wants to make the game pick-up-and-play accessible without sacrificing the fidelity that the brand has become known for. The car physics are the same as Forza, but instead the default assists and car setups have been tweaked (you can also change them to your liking).

Forza Horizon uses the Kinect peripheral via its voice command functionality. Players will be able to use the Kinect like a GPS transporter system. All you have to do is call out a map destination or objective, and the game will lay down a green guide line on the road leading you to your stated destination.

Multiplayer not only encompasses the constant comparison of Horizon Points between you and your friends, but the mode utilizes all the single-player race modes, as well as many of the popular Playground Games from Forza 4. Fulton also mentioned a Rivals system that produces one-on-one showdowns both online and off.

Forza has mastered sim-based racing, and now it's setting its sights on the open road.

Forza Horizon comes out on the Xbox 360 on October 23rd.