Forza Horizon 4's Festival Playlist is a Step Backwards

[palqo]

so... new season, new trash playground games. first matching, we are matched four 1 star players in my team vs. 5 players on the other team - 7 star, 5 star, 2 star, 1 star, 1 star - pointless to even try, I quit immediately...

Hmm, I've always wondered what those stars mean, but I'm still not much wiser. And I've been playing since the start, having one star.

...and The Trial done in first attempt despite me being the only one with an AWD tune and only one other good driver in the race.
Just get an AWD tune, get ahead of the CPU cars (should be in the first few curves as the CPU cars all use RWD) and then block the hell out of the CPU cars so your RWD teammates can catch up. Keep blocking all the way to the finish and stay behind your human teammates - real easy.

Exactly. Did the same thing. Tuned my Bentley so it handles like a dream and was always up in front after a couple of turns. Then slowed down drivatars until the score was on our side. Only had a problem with the highway race, one slipped through and I couldn't get him.
Overall a good strategy, but I've seen the dirvatars do it before as well, so I'm afraid, we are teaching them this tactics as well.

 

[FKAustria1911]

Hmm, I've always wondered what those stars mean, but I'm still not much wiser. And I've been playing since the start, having one star.

You get a star when your level resets, the first time it is at level 200, later on then it is at higher levels.
So basically 1 star level 50 means that you have leveled up 250 times.
As said before this is no real indication of talent, but somewhat an indicator of experience with the game. So in my opinion while the 7 star driver from the opposing team probably isn't exactly an alien you most likely also can't expect him to suck so badly so that you can overcome the huge disadvantage of being a player less in a Playground Games championship.

Exactly. Did the same thing. Tuned my Bentley so it handles like a dream and was always up in front after a couple of turns. Then slowed down drivatars until the score was on our side. Only had a problem with the highway race, one slipped through and I couldn't get him.
Overall a good strategy, but I've seen the dirvatars do it before as well, so I'm afraid, we are teaching them this tactics as well.

I don't think the drivatars are learning anything in this game

 

[stupidstormy36]

This season's Trial had me worried with the car theme as far as handling was concerned. Turns out my Alfa performed much better than expected. And I had some really competent help this time around as well. Yeah there was one guy who was stuck at the back of the field, but four of us were constantly finishing at the top. I won the second round while placing 2nd in the other two. The Bentley had better turning, but my Alfa had better acceleration and top speed.

With the Playground event, won it first try before the first round even finished. Started off as a 5v5, then one player on their team disconnected during the first half of the round, our team scored 13 points in flag rush (high score counts from all teammates), then it was the opposing team's turn. We fended off all attempts in the first two rushes, then they quit one by one. I don't even know what the remaining rounds were.

 

[DBela87]

Well, I think the base, or the structure of the game is bad. There is no big innovation, only the season change and the "let's force the online part" things.

The season change is yeah, wow, cool. But the online is very primitive. I don't understand why do they force it if they can't make a good one.

The reward system after the races is bad also. Little money, rubbish clothes, unnecessary horns and emotions. Wheelspins are giving the same cheap cars all the time. I don't know how many Ford Anglias and Skyline R33s did I remove from the garage.

Basically you don't really have to fight for anything, the game is not challenging. The only challenging is the drivatar system, because it's still raw. Sometimes I smoke them easily at higher difficulty, sometimes they beat the sh out of me on lower difficulty.

Car park is also an interesting part of the game. I think time has come to do a deep clean before Horizon 5, because many of them is unnecessary. Of course cars are a sensitive part, because we are different with many wishes, but I think they don't really listen to the community about that. And that's a big problem, because cars are quite important in a racing game. I don't understand why do they force these old vintage cars, instead of fill the game up with fresher, newer ones, or with some cult ones. Like AMG line, there is a big gap in the Mercedes brand. I really miss the old SL, C, E, S class from the 70s-80s-90s. I know I know, it's not that easy because of licence.

So, I think this Festival Playlist, the 2nd big DLC, upcomping DLC car packs (if there will be any) won't help too much, while the basics are bad.

Devs have to think twice before they create their ideas, because seems like many of them are just a big misfire.

Of course this is just an opinion, but that's what I think about the game at the moment.

 

[Ryan81]

Why exactly should the little snowflake who doesn't pay for XBLG and plays the game via the Game Pass have the same bonuses as someone who subscribes to Live Gold and also owns the Ultimate Edition?

In fact, if anyone is getting the shaft here, it's the people who invested the most money into this game, because online play is a mess, a good chunk of the DLC cars' roster has been unimpressive and the first expansion is all but abandoned these days.

I'm sorry to say but, to Microsoft, we are not the same. And wishing to bridge the gap because "you don't like online" is a bit unreasonable when the whole game is based on online interaction, which is not limited to gameplay and also includes the ability to download and upload content as well as interact with friends who may or may not be playing the game.

In other words, people need to stop painting Microsoft like a monster for enticing players to subscribe to XBLG. This is capitalism, companies do capitalist things. Need I remind anyone that Gran Turismo Sport revolves even more about its online mode than either Forza game?

FH4 plays best offline. You already have the best experience. And you want to increase the gap! I mean, really?

I have nothing against those players who would rather play the game for hours and hours to win a single car rather than having the convenience to pay for it via DLC.
It's giving people a choice. Not everyone has the luxury of playing games for hours and hours each day. I don't think it's unreasonable to give customers the choice.

They can still keep their sacrosanct capitalist principles intact because they will have income from two separate sources: from XBLG members and/or non-XBLG DLC paying members.

How does this not make business sense? Coming from a 'snowflake', of course.

 

[The Chosen One]

so... new season, new trash playground games. first matching, we are matched four 1 star players in my team vs. 5 players on the other team - 7 star, 5 star, 2 star, 1 star, 1 star - pointless to even try, I quit immediately...

Star levels 5 and above aren't an indication of experience anymore, it just shows how much people abused the Goliath glitches. Or they may actually be an alien.

 

[FKAustria1911]

Star levels 5 and above aren't an indication of experience anymore, it just shows how much people abused the Goliath glitches. Or they may actually be an alien.

True it is not a 100% good indicator and there are a number of reasons why someone has a higher star rating. But still there is certainly a positive correlation. Yesterday in the one PG game my team won (it was the 4th attempt...) my team had one 3 star player, while the other team had none, and this player for sure was the best in the event and the deciding factor.

And I must once again rant how annoying and stupid this Playground Games seasonal championship is:

1st attempt: we were 6 vs. 6, I was on blue team and we weren't even doing that bad in the first King event, only slightly behind. Towards the end when it looked like we were losing the event I looked up to the player list and by the time four (!) players from our team had already quit and we were 2 vs. 6. Then I also quit...

2nd attempt: 5 vs 5 players, but we were pretty much being crushed, I quit when one other player from our team had also quit and when it was 4 vs. 5 and it was obvious we had no chance.

3rd attempt: well tbh I was annoyed at that time and a Forzathon live event came up so I decided I don't even join the match and go to Forzathon live instead...

4th attempt: we started out 6 (red) vs. 5 (blue) with me AGAIN being on the blue team (I have the feeling the Blue Team is pretty much always at a disadvantage in PG matching) but we did good and a player from the red team soon quit so it was 5 vs. 5. Despite us winning one from our team also quit before the end of the first king event, so we were again one player less, but still managed to win it. For the second event 4 vs. 5 somehow we also managed to win. At the third event two of the other team and yet another one from our team quit so it was 3 vs. 3 in Flag Rush. We did extremely well in the first part as the offensive team, leading to two members of the other team quitting. So we were 3 vs. 1 then and winning the Flag Rush for the deciding 3:0 was obviously very easy.
At that time the remaining player from the red team apparently decided to troll us and NOT quit the game, so we had to do two more pointless events...... at the 4th event then one of my teammates apparently was kicked by the game due to inactivity, so we were left 2 vs. 1 and that is the way we wasted about 10 more minutes finishing the 4th and 5th event, of course at 2 vs. 1 also winning both of them.

So for the love of god, Playground Games can you PLEASE either remove the PG games completely from the seasonal championship, or make it optional to play (get 100% if you either play The Trial OR Playground Games) or at least make this less painful:

• Make it best of three instead of best of five.
• For the love of god make it stop when it is decided and not force us to waste time on pointless events when the other team has no chance anymore.

 

[SoapBoxRacer]

Playground games have to be gone from the seasonal championship. If not games themselves, but at least winning requirement. It is broken and there's just way too much abuse going on. If it has to exist, give the prize to those who complete the full round of games like in FH3. Just give out an extra super wheelspin for the winning team and everyone can move on with their lives. Currently it's a drag, a chore and it's sucks enjoyment out of the game.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

Bumping this back up...

I've had a bit of a rethink about the Playlist this month. I originally was not happy with it it all — @Joey D's original article summed it up, really — but I've found it much more palatable lately. The challenges that last the whole month are worth the time investment the first week, since they provide an automatic 31% on each subsequent week. Qualifying for adventures is a bit of a time suck, but six shouldn't take more than two or three hours by my count.

The daily challenges all have 72 hours of active time too, so I've found myself logging in every second day, knocking out a handful of challenges, and collecting.

I still have an issue with exclusive cars being time-limited specials, especially when you have to rely on the skill of other players (the Trial). It means a good chunk of the lineup will be inaccessible once the servers inevitably fold. But the Playlist doesn't feel like the annoyingly long grind it originally did.

 

[Silver Arrows]

I still have an issue with exclusive cars being time-limited specials, especially when you have to rely on the skill of other players (the Trial). It means a good chunk of the lineup will be inaccessible once the servers inevitably fold. But the Playlist doesn't feel like the annoyingly long grind it originally did.

I mean, it's incredibly likely that Playground will do the same thing T10 did with exclusive cars in Forza 7, unlocking them and putting them into the Autoshow, so I doubt they'll just leave people who didn't get a car during the time limited period in the lurch when the servers shut down.

 

[CaptainTNT]

I still dislike the Festival playlist. At the most I just do a few races to unlock a new cars in championships. But to get the cars where you need to do 50 to 80% of the season I give it a wide berth as I dont feel like having to spend ages to unlock those cars. Unless the old game mode comes back (which I highly doubt) Just the auction house for me. At the most I have currently 6% whole completion of the seasons since I'm not interested.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

I mean, it's incredibly likely that Playground will do the same thing T10 did with exclusive cars in Forza 7, unlocking them and putting them into the Autoshow, so I doubt they'll just leave people who didn't get a car during the time limited period in the lurch when the servers shut down.

Maybe. I don't believe that happened with FH3, but I could be wrong...

I still dislike the Festival playlist. At the most I just do a few races to unlock a new cars in championships. But to get the cars where you need to do 50 to 80% of the season I give it a wide berth as I dont feel like having to spend ages to unlock those cars. Unless the old game mode comes back (which I highly doubt) Just the auction house for me. At the most I have currently 6% whole completion of the seasons since I'm not interested.

Fun fact: if you do Rivals (which takes a single clean lap), that's 7% for every season right there. There's usually three PR stunts each week too, which can typically be dispatched in no time. Each is another 7%, so those four things put you over halfway to the 50% car.

I mention this because I thought very much the same thing, but realized the 50% cars tended to be ones I wanted. Take the above, add in the weekly four-step Forzathon challenge and a championship or two and I believe you've got it, for about an hour's play. 👍

My issue is when the seasonal championships are just not my style of car, like the S1 Ferraris. I had a blast with the Mustang vs Camaro series though: I kept the stock tire compound on a '65 Mustang, but widened them, completely lightened/caged it, and converted it to AWD. It was a blast tossing around the dirt at substantially less than 100mph, which is something I didn't think I'd say.

 

[CaptainTNT]

Maybe. I don't believe that happened with FH3, but I could be wrong...



Fun fact: if you do Rivals (which takes a single clean lap), that's 7% for every season right there. There's usually three PR stunts each week too, which can typically be dispatched in no time. Each is another 7%, so those four things put you over halfway to the 50% car.

I mention this because I thought very much the same thing, but realized the 50% cars tended to be ones I wanted. Take the above, add in the weekly four-step Forzathon challenge and a championship or two and I believe you've got it, for about an hour's play. 👍

My issue is when the seasonal championships are just not my style of car, like the S1 Ferraris. I had a blast with the Mustang vs Camaro series though: I kept the stock tire compound on a '65 Mustang, but widened them, completely lightened/caged it, and converted it to AWD. It was a blast tossing around the dirt at substantially less than 100mph, which is something I didn't think I'd say.

Oh okay. I never do Rivals they not interest me. I also not really do the PR stunts much at all. Most of the time I just mainly in free roam, then buying & tuning cars.

 

[SoapBoxRacer]

Funny how this thread got bumped up when I was thinking about playlist issues...

Anyway, last night someone was looking for people to compete in seasonal co-op championship (not The Trial). I had already completed the championship, but didn't mind getting another Fairlady. Three races and three wins later I realized that I can win the main prize only once.

I hope that those two other guys enjoy driving the Fairlady that I won for them...

 

[RogsR34UK]

I give up when I get the 50% car usually. I find the higher power races frustrating due to the AI cars ability to drive off into the distance not counting their ability to collide with my car! My previous least favourite event was a Drift Challenge in the Winter. That took a while to achieve.

There must be a better way for us to get these rare cars as they seem reluctant to put them in the Forzathon Shop.

 

[cbarbosa]

I still have an issue with exclusive cars being time-limited specials, especially when you have to rely on the skill of other players (the Trial). It means a good chunk of the lineup will be inaccessible once the servers inevitably fold.

Agree. A perfect example will be the future event of the Apollo. What is the point of trying hard to get 1st place if the rest of the team fails/gets rammed by AI? Or even worse, how about the players who don't have internet connection/Live Gold? And can´t spend all day in the AH trying to snipe an "illegal" car (now you can´t because the IE got banned...)

That's the reason I gave up doing the Trials event... Prize cars related to that event it is the worst mistake of PG/T10...

 

[Outspacer]

Qualifying for adventures is a bit of a time suck, but six shouldn't take more than two or three hours by my count.

Why six?

Doing the first qualify of 10 entries is a grind, especially as you're up against the other unwashed! It's 4 to 5 hours for those, but with four weeks to do it that's only a bit over an hour a week. Of course that only needs to be done once, and then the single qualify needed in subsequent months is a very efficient way to get 18% progress on all four weeks in one half hour go (tops - it's only about 15 to 20 minutes without freeroam rush). I do the FFA and don't really care about what rank I get.

 

[ShakesMcQueen]

I'm mostly fine with it. The 50% cars tend to be new additions, and the 80% cars seem to be unicorns already in the game. Getting 50% in any particular season takes a couple of hours a week at most, and allows you to avoid the events you really hate.

I didn't bother with the Trial or Playground Games this week, and still got to 50% easily by doing the PR Stunts, the weekly championships, and the weekly Forzathon challenge thing (forget the proper name of it). Took me 1h45.

I took a long break from the game to play The Division 2, and missed out on several new cars, but it's not like I'm going to complain about it. They are limited time rewards for continuous engagement with the game, and that's fine by me. If I really wanted them, I'd have invested the couple of hours to get them.

Playground Games continues to be a bummer, more because of the terrible way they are formatted. Once someone has crossed the threshold for certain victory, that should be it. And it should be best of 3, not 5, for the seasonal competition.

 

[RogsR34UK]

Up to 43% so far. Just got the JCW Buggy. The Porsche 914/6 event is unfortunately S1 class, so that could prove interesting. At least there is a B700 race still to do.

 

[FKAustria1911]

I still have no problems with the Trial, I almost always get it first try.
The Playground Games however are a different story, they need to go to hell. I don't know if I will continue playing if this doesn't go, it is just excruciatingly frustrating. This week I was lucky to win it first time, but last week I had to waste about 2 hours for the PG, having to play it I think 6 or 7 times until I was matched to a team that was capable of winning. This took more time than ALL the other weekly challenges together!

I mean if there are some people who want to play this, then fine, make separate weekly challenges or whatever, but I don't want to have to play this to 100% the weekly challenges.

Or make it Trial OR PG and let the player chose whether he wants to do a race or this kind of stupid "first person shooter racing".

 

[Sertsa]

Up to 43% so far. Just got the JCW Buggy. The Porsche 914/6 event is unfortunately S1 class, so that could prove interesting. At least there is a B700 race still to do.

I did the Porsche 914/6 event last night. It was okay, but there were a couple Drivatars in S1 SUVs which were really crashy and annoying. I suppose any fast 4WD/AWD SUV is going to be crashy and annoying, but I may be projecting my real life annoyance with some luxury SUV drivers I've encountered onto the game.

I'm still fairly new to the game and have been mixed on the seasonals so far. I've done the championships and some other things, but some of the PR stunts seem to expect me to have/use an X class car (or whatever is over S2). I've also avoided the co-op and team events.

But I've been able to find plenty of other cool things to do.

 

[RogsR34UK]

Used the BMW M5 FE to get the Porsche. Two easy wins and an easy second on the Elmsdon Sprint. Over 700HP, full weight reduction and aero (at maximum downforce) with AWD. Overtook half the field before the first corner!

 

[Northstar]

I fired up FH4 for the first time since the playlists were implemented and so far I don't mind it in it's current form. I was able to hit 50% for this week in a few hours without doing any online events. Granted, I can certainly see my opinion on it changing with next week's lineup.

 

[FKAustria1911]

To the people who think The Trial is horrible: better not even try it this week. I liked it so far and hardly had any problems, but this week it really is excruciatingly horrible... even with good team mates it is pretty much impossible to win... Street Races at night in rain with Hypercars...

UPDATE: ok, did it in 3rd attempt when after the first race the three worst drivers dropped out and after the second race another one dropped out and I was left only with one other, excellent driver (better than me), so we were able to win race 2 and 3 on points.
In the 3 attempts in 9 races a human driver was able to win only once (and that was myself in the 2nd race of the 3rd attempt and that also only because I started from the front row in that race and was able to keep the CPU cars behind me until the finish line...).

Good luck, you will need it!

I recommend the Senna with a tune that is a bit more focused on speed than usual as there are lots of very fast sections and the CPU cars have a rather high speed. There are some very tricky corners tho, especially in the rain, so I wouldn‘t recommend a car that is only focused on speed either.