Forza Horizon 3 – Review

 

You’re in charge of the Horizon Festival. Customize everything, hire and fire your friends, and explore Australia in over 350 of the world’s greatest cars. Make your Horizon the ultimate celebration of cars, music, and freedom of the open road. How you get there is up to you.

Here is what the developers had to say…

• The Land Down Under

Explore the Horizon Festival’s largest, most beautiful, and diverse open world ever. Choose from an incredible selection of more than 350 of the world’s greatest cars, all in unrivalled ForzaVista detail.

• You’re in Charge

With the new Horizon Blueprint, create and instantly share your own custom race events, championships, and Bucket List challenges.

• Start an Online Co-op Adventure

All-new 4-player online co-op allows you and your friends to enjoy the variety, competition, and rewards of a Horizon campaign together for the first time.

• Discover Open World Racing Thrills

Danger Sign Jumps, Convoys, Drift Zones, and many other thrilling new driving experiences await you.

• Customize Everything

Select your driver character, customize your car, your license plate, even your own car horn sound. Drive to the music you love with eight diverse radio stations, or stream your own music collection.

• Hire and Fire Your Friends

Hire friends to star in your festival and win yourself more fans. If they’re not winning you fans, fire them!

Driving physics

Forza has always been on the cutting edge of driving games on the Xbox and the Forza horizon subcategory has up until now had a considerably more arcadey feel to it.  In this the most recent instalment of playground games Forza Horizon the driving model has a more connected simulation feel to it.  This shouldn’t be taken as a negative but more as an evolution of gameplay.    

Forza horizon 3 has also brought with it some of the innovations seen in Forza 6 like the standing water effects and the soft ground.  For the uninitiated wet soft ground and standing water physics are almost perfectly modelled in FH3, as your car hits a large puddle you can “feel” the car aquaplane at high speed and or “dig in” at lower speeds and or in deeper water, these little dynamic changes in the physics of the car keep you switched on and with practice make the controller feel like an extension of you.  

I Drive from the cockpit so did not consider any issues when driving from other positions until my college (Merlin 3180) here at TVG pointed it out, after exploring other views I saw what is at its least annoying, and possibly an oversight on the developer’s part. While playing in the chase cameras, during rain or transitioning through deep water the camera gets absolutely covered in water and spray making it very difficult to see.  In a car, this is addressed with windscreen wipers but outside views don’t benefit from this.  While the effect is very nice and feels authentic in the car, it’s annoying when playing in a chase cam and at times can make it impossible for you to see the road ahead.  

What’s impressive is the surface transitions going from a tarmacked road to a gravel track or even a muddy field all affect the handling and the ride feel, so much so I found myself gasping as I fought to maintain control of my car as I drifted off a tarmac road onto a gravel/dirt surface as the heavens opened.

I also find that as well as the outback type of loose sand surfaces there is also a beach sand surface, one would think that the developers would have just modelled “sand” but oh no they feel totally different.  This level of detail is rarely seen and is truly impressive to interact with these little touches are what set this apart from any other sandbox racer.

Painting and Vinyl Groups

For all you painters out there and anyone who wants to start painting then this is very similar to Forza 6 and fh2, but unfortunately, 2 things have changed.   Firstly the camera in the paint shop is different and at a strange angle by default, maybe it’s because I am used to using the camera in the previous 3 incarnations of Forza but cannot understand the rationale in changing something that was fine, not perfect but fine for something that is just frustrating. Secondly the ability to mirror decals and vinyl groups from 1 side of the car to the other is omitted, yes it was annoying when it mirrored sponsored logo’s but saved lots of time when you were working on a complex design containing many vinyl layers.

On a positive note the designs and vinyl groups from previous incarnations of Forza can easily be imported and work exceptionally well they seem to fit perfectly with little or no slide on the vehicle.  I LOVE YOU PLAYGROUND GAMES

Tuning

You have the ability in FH3 to Import tunes from Forza 6 & 5 and Fh2, I have tried doing so and noticed several things firstly, an A-Class tune in FH2 is an S-Class in FH3 and an A class 800 in Forza 6 is, who knows what in FH3.  The tunes themselves also do not translate at all well they handle terribly.  My advice is just to start the tunes again !

Single Player Experience

The developers have changed the experience this time rather than being a competitor in the Forza horizon event, you’re the boss that means you discover the events, races and PR stunts.  

Also, the Bucket list challenges have been integrated into the horizon event list so they seamlessly integrated rather than get missed as a side mission as were true in previous incarnations

Race Blueprints are also a new addition, these are exactly as they sound they allow you to build a custom race route which you can then share with friends and club members.

I could write 100’s of words explaining which events and areas are nice and fun but feel whatever I say will not sufficiently explain or somehow spoil the experience for you the reader.  Rest assured the map is massive and covers open outback, beaches, urban driving, open country roads, forests, an airfield the list goes on….. just get out there and explore

Multiplayer Experience

The multiplayer experience is truly multi-layered

Car clubs are back yay but no car sharing Boo!!! there is a social hub where you and your friends can compare times and have a ladder to compare XP gained and other stat comparisons.

Car meets – if you fancy rocking up and showing off your wheels with random players from around the world in preset areas of the map in preset races.

“As with FH2 the soundtrack available in the game is excellent and will fit almost anyone’s taste, but it gets better than that, FH3 allows you to play music of your own choice via the in-game radio and the integration of the groove music app GOOD WORK!!! Turn 10/Playground Games, just make sure you make yourself a playlist first.”

Multiplayer free roam – A sandbox where you and your friends or random players can blast around the whole map and do as much or as little as you wish and take part in racing or playground games

Most excitingly MULTIPLAYER CO-OP –  yep that’s right up to 4 of you can jump in and out of each other’s career and Co-op the entire career mode.  

It all works really well and over the last week I have seen no major problems again hats off playground game.

From the way, the light bounces off the wet road to the light scattering through the dust of the outback this is a real visceral experience. Whether in a car or watching a replay this game really does blow your socks off graphically it’s almost photo-realistic and no expense has been spared.  

The environments themselves are vast and well populated they look and almost feel real and this adds to the almost total immersion.

Being British it’s a pleasant experience driving on the left-hand side of the road what I would consider the correct side.

Another interesting and useful addition is the drone mode this is a small quadcopter that can be piloted and is incredibly useful for finding those pesky barn finds.

Overall this is a triumph graphically, it gives a real sense of speed and I haven’t seen any real drop in frame rate even when cutting through traffic in a built up area.  

Too many developers fail to optimise games these days but this isn’t one of those it’s polished and should be held up as an example to all  

As usual, I tested this on both my Tritton 5.1 Pro + and my Home Cinema 5.1 Setup.  

As with FH2 the soundtrack available in the game is excellent and will fit almost anyone’s taste, but it gets better than that, FH3 allows you to play music of your own choice via the in-game radio and the integration of the groove music app GOOD WORK!!! Turn 10/Playground Games, just make sure you make yourself a playlist first.

The cars and environments all have their own sounds, the tires squeal and that effect alone can be helpful in achieving the best limit of grip.  

As the environment changes so do the sounds outside the car, I like the little touches like the song on the radio is, in fact, the band playing in the horizon event when you arrive.

All the engines sound different the whine of a supercharger or the hiss of a turbo are all faithfully recreated.

This Really is a whole lot of game for the money which ever version choose to buy if you’re unsure if driving games are for you then get the vanilla version but drop a little more cash and extra XP and a car pass await. With a little savvy shopping, a copy can be picked up from as little as £39.99 or in-store for £ 42.00.