Forza Horizon 5: General Discussion

[TealYellowOwl]

So yesterday, FH5 decided to hate me and decided to get stuck at the data sync window at 0% for 5 straight hours. I hit the cancel button and close the game, then rebooted it, hoping the problem faded away but to no avail.

Today i've reinstalled the game, but problem still persists.

I really hope i don't lose all my progress. It's gonna kill a lot of my motivation to play that game if this turns out to be true.

 

[McLaren]

Well, if you want to run through a set of Super7s for the Achievement, the cards are pathetic right now. Absolute no challenge whatsoever and barely anything interesting.

I figured that was normal the couple times I've run through it.

 

[Sertsa]

While waiting for the AI and a few other things to get sorted, I've been doing Rivals. I decided to post a clean lap for every car class in The Goliath. I briefly thought about using the Isetta for Class D but decided my patience isn't that great and used the Miata.

After doing that I decided to try clean laps in every class for the Gauntlet (dirt), with non-obvious car choices, like RWD vehicles. Got 94% done--again with the '94 Miata--and tapped the wall. Argh.

Also, the dog on the track towards the end of the Gauntlet freaks me out. Hit the brakes to avoid it first time, before remembering Horizon animals avoid cars.

 

[Famine]

Horizon Arcade seems curiously active right now. Just managed to tick it off for the season with a fairly easy set all centred roughly on the Oceano Azul Speed Trap and a group of about seven players.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

The Horizon Arcade events are damn near impossible for me. I've only passed the second round once out of like 10 tries. The third round lasted for like 30 seconds and it took all 30 seconds for me to even reach the start line where it promptly failed us. Every single time I try doing Arcade, there's only like 3 other people doing it so it's impossible to get even near the needed points

 

[EngieDiesel]

Well, if you want to run through a set of Super7s for the Achievement, the cards are pathetic right now. Absolute no challenge whatsoever and barely anything interesting.

Oh, and here's a fun thing to note: if you burn too many cards on the same slot trying to find anything interesting, you'll get locked out of it for about 12 hours with a "The Super7 server is not available" message. But considering you can still access single challenges from the world map and creative hub, and this happened to me four times in a row as I wanted to test it, I have a suspicion that it might be something intentional rather than just a server glitch.

 

[AOS-]

Tried a few times at the Dino team race all of my teams were trash and either didn’t finish the race or just left.

🤬 When you realize all those max spec'd highway drivers have big numbers but actually can't take a corner.

To share my own Eliminator experiences,the first time I didn't see anyone at all and the 2nd time I got challenged and beat by a car i didn't even see..

Dude, I was having this issue where I can't see other players when even racing with them. I figured that carried over to Eliminator too. Thought I was just THAT good at hiding.

 

[Populuxe]

Interesting. Eliminator is the one thing that’s not busted for me.

 

[EngieDiesel]

Well, I just got the required trifecta to finish this week's trial:

1. Nobody brought an X class car, so the AI couldn't just fly away at the start unopposed.
2. The three backmarkers all ragequit before the first race ended, robbing the AI team of more than enough points to give us remainers the first round.
3. The cars the AI had weren't very good at the slow corners in the front half of the second track, so even my unmodified (but suspension tuned) Senna was able to blow by four of them in that section to give us an easy win.

And I even got a Trueno in the post-match wheelspin, so that means I only need about 20-ish points next week to get all the cars out of this month's series. In the meantime, this Ferrari looks like it would make a very nice RWD rally car...

 

[notsofast]

What... the... hell?

I've just booted up FH5 and realised it was making a weird noise. Turned all other sounds in the room off, and the game is literally saying "Loading" out loud. Then up pops a Server Unavailable/Fallback Series notification which is also then reads out loud... and then every subsequent screen.

Checked the settings and nothing has changed, but it seems "System Default" for "Screen Reader" now means it reads everything out loud.

I had this happen to me earlier with the ‘Loading’ being shouted at me whilst loading the game. When it finally finished loading it loaded a back up Festival playlist as servers couldn’t be found. So I exited and went back to the game a couple of hours later. Loaded fine then. No voices and correct playlist. No idea why but hasn’t happened again.

Tell you what-the first time the word loading sprang from my sound bar it was a bit of a surprise to put it mildly lol

 

[maxi25]

I also had the game tell me it was loading but a reboot of the game solved that issue. Sure was weird.

Also, does anyone have any ideas on how to finish Horizon Arcade? every time I try to join it's just me by myself even in a full lobby.

 

[bluemoon_19]

I managed to get the trail done after about 5 attempts. I started with a Daytona at A800 so I could beat my mark but this wasn't enough with the rest of my team being brain dead. I moved on to an S2 senna and was the only person to score points in one try, by this point I realised I could handle the X class version so pulled that out and finally got a good team and won the first 2 races.

 

[Populuxe]

Huh. Twice now the game has crashed on me while deleting rivals from the pause menu.

 

[Nielsen]

Judging by all the complaints about this game, the world would have been better off if they had kept supporting FH4 up until the release of Forza Motorsport. Maybe with a paid third expansion to generate a bit of income, but here we are with a crippled car roster, unprecedented bugs and seasons you can barely tell apart from each other because Mexico. Cash grab because FM8 didn’t happen, and capitalizing on the fact that Forza has recently made it onto a plethora of different platforms. They saw easy money at the expense of the community they like to portray an image of catering to.

 

[UKMikey]

Judging by all the complaints about this game, the world would have been better off if they had kept supporting FH4 up until the release of Forza Motorsport. Maybe with a paid third expansion to generate a bit of income, but here we are with a crippled car roster, unprecedented bugs and seasons you can barely tell apart from each other because Mexico. Cash grab because FM8 didn’t happen, and capitalizing on the fact that Forza has recently made it onto a plethora of different platforms. They saw easy money at the expense of the community they like to portray an image of catering to.

Except you shouldn't necessarily judge just by the complaints. Sometimes you have to judge by the exceptional gameplay and gorgeous graphics as well.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Judging by all the complaints about this game, the world would have been better off if they had kept supporting FH4 up until the release of Forza Motorsport. Maybe with a paid third expansion to generate a bit of income, but here we are with a crippled car roster, unprecedented bugs and seasons you can barely tell apart from each other because Mexico. Cash grab because FM8 didn’t happen, and capitalizing on the fact that Forza has recently made it onto a plethora of different platforms. They saw easy money at the expense of the community they like to portray an image of catering to.

Yeah no. There are a few problems yeah, seemingly mostly around online play. The game is generally a long way ahead of FH4 in terms of how it plays and I would hardly say the car list is crippled. Also, the seasons are different enough, it's not as dramatic as FH4 but to say yo can barely tell them apart is just incorrect.

FM8 is happening btw, it just hasn't happened yet. Big difference.

 

[Nielsen]

Yeah no. There are a few problems yeah, seemingly mostly around online play. The game is generally a long way ahead of FH4 in terms of how it plays and I would hardly say the car list is crippled. Also, the seasons are different enough, it's not as dramatic as FH4 but to say yo can barely tell them apart is just incorrect.

Few problems? It’s all people seem to talk about after the launch dust has started to settle. Improved gameplay is nice, but it doesn’t excuse the unusual amount of problems for a PG game.

How is the car list not crippled? Nearly all the admirable cars that set Forza apart from other racing games were ditched, and manufacturer licenses have been lost like never before.

FM8 is happening btw, it just hasn't happened yet. Big difference.

FM8 didn’t happen. Otherwise we would have had it by now, and that’s why they decided to make FH5. Forza Motorsport is not FM8, because it will be a reboot.

 

[WLF46]

Finally Horizon Arcade messed me around in a good way. Having done the usual thing of having nobody else participate (or them disappearing as soon as the event starts) yesterday I was inexplicably dropped into a busy Arcade session that was already at round 2 with about 7 minutes left. As soon as I fast travelled across the map to the skill zone we immediately reached round 3, which was wrapped up within a minute. Made a nice change to get the full sixty points without even trying!

Meanwhile, I'm not sure what the catering is like at the festival but my character is clearly having some issues with the Mexican food:

 

[UKMikey]

Few problems? It’s all people seem to talk about after the launch dust has started to settle. Improved gameplay is nice, but it doesn’t excuse the unusual amount of problems for a PG game

I think it's all you've decided to read. People are still playing the game and haven't thrown it into the dustbin, just because its development schedule was impacted by Covid and it didn't have the relatively bug free launch of other titles in the series.

Your suggested alternative - that people instead wait a half decade for a follow up instalment instead of enjoying a mostly playable game in 2021 - is about as useful as your suggestion that a 534-strong car list is crippled because the licensing for certain marques wasn't available in time for launch.

We know you don't want to play the game, but what do you get out of showing up like the spectre at the feast, determined to hyperbolise the teething problems with a new launch into some kind of nonexistent disaster?

 

[steeeve104]

Seeing some of the comments on here, I almost feel guilty that I was able to complete the Trial first time this week. Admittedly we lost race one with a couple of people who couldn't manage their X-class cars. They quit after the first race though, and the four of us who remained, including three of us in S2, were able to win the other two races, partly because the AI couldn't control the X-class cars.

I also had a game of Eliminator yesterday where I could actually see everyone else. Managed to knock out three people and finish third overall.

 

[sesselpupser]

So yesterday, FH5 decided to hate me and decided to get stuck at the data sync window at 0% for 5 straight hours. I hit the cancel button and close the game, then rebooted it, hoping the problem faded away but to no avail.

Today i've reinstalled the game, but problem still persists.

I really hope i don't lose all my progress. It's gonna kill a lot of my motivation to play that game if this turns out to be true.

Whatever you do, don't decide to ignore it and play anyway because it will save over your cloud file and you definitely will lose your progress. Contact their support! I had this issue in FH3 and stupidly assumed I could play anyway then choose to pull my cloud save down later but it doesn't work that way, it just overwrites it without asking.

 

[Nielsen]

I think it's all you've decided to read. People are still playing the game and haven't thrown it into the dustbin, just because its development schedule was impacted by Covid and it didn't have the relatively bug free launch of other titles in the series.

It’s not only written feedback though. YouTube clips showcasing FH5 bugs and issues are trending as well. It’s definitely not as bad as the GTA Trilogy remaster, but you just didn’t see that sort of reception to previous Horizon’s.

We can probably blame how corona is affecting the industry, but flawed software will be flawed software even when excuses exist.

Your suggested alternative - that people instead wait a half decade for a follow up instalment instead of enjoying a mostly playable game in 2021 - is about as useful as your suggestion that a 534-strong car list is crippled.

That’s a peculiar counterargument considering how my “alternative” is similar to exactly what Turn 10 is doing with Forza Motorsport.

 

[UKMikey]

It’s not only written feedback though. YouTube clips showcasing FH5 bugs and issues are trending as well. It’s definitely not as bad as the GTA Trilogy remaster, but you just didn’t see that sort of reception to previous Horizon’s.

We can probably blame how corona is affecting the industry, but flawed software will be flawed software even when excuses exist.



That’s a peculiar counterargument considering how my “alternative” is similar to exactly what Turn 10 is doing with Forza Motorsport.

I kinda doubt that the take of someone who has no experience of playing the game and is based purely on a selective impression of other people's complaints is likely to be more accurate than the majority of people on this thread who actually turned up to try it out. Or that most of those people wish it had never been released.

It's not a perfect launch but it's no Cyberpunk 2077. People are laughing at launch bugs which largely don't affect core gameplay for most people, but we aren't queueing up demanding refunds. Even those of us who don't use GamePass. Those videos are trending because they're being watched by a lot more people, simply because a lot more people played the game this time around.

I suspect a lot of the more serious issues have more to do with network infrastructure which is harder to fix and that the remainder of problems within the game are a lot more noticeable than in other high profile launches because PG's track record has been pretty good in the past.

 

[Famine]

It’s definitely not as bad as the GTA Trilogy remaster, but you just didn’t see that sort of reception to previous Horizon’s.

It's not as bad as most things, really.

There are a few PC players experiencing more serious issues (I think @GilesGuthrie has mentioned it won't even run a couple of times), but largely the issues that are there are close to inconsequential unless you're aiming to do the specific thing the issue covers.

For example, there's lots of problems with Accolades not triggering (or not being possible for some of them). For the most part that affects nothing except that you don't get the Accolade. It's very frustrating - I shut it down yesterday because I was trying to go through a section to clear the Accolades and it became clear that about 20% of them wouldn't work - but it doesn't affect the driving, the online multiplayer, the game "story" progression, the vehicle tuning or livery editor, or anything else fundamental to getting out there and enjoying the cars and the environment.

While the dumbness of the switched subtitles is dumb, it affects... nothing. I mean, it'd be pretty ****-gripping if you relied on subtitles, especially in a series which has majored in accessibility and inclusivity, but it doesn't prevent the game from being in as playable a condition as FH4 was.

The online issues are... a bit weird, but ultimately seem to be just a case of persisting. Every time I try Arcade or Eliminator, it's pretty hopeless to start with - I've had invisible cars in both - but by the third or fourth time through the game seems to get the idea I want to do some online multiplayer stuff and then I have people to multiplay with (oddly Horizon Tour has no issues I've found except the other players are often dolts; that's online multiplayer for you).

One which does affect playability is when the game must STOP EVERYTHING, regardless of what you were doing, because you got enough Accolades to unlock another "story" mission (if that's by design I've no idea who decided that; probably the governor of Madagascar). That goes away extremely quickly courtesy of the very short "story". There's also a handful of glitchy areas I've found that just stop your skill chain no matter what (on the motorway, handily) and I've had a couple of Accolades (involving doing x then y) reset in the middle for no clear reason, but again, we're not talking Cyberpunk levels of unplayability.


Though the tunnels under Guanajuato do start to cry in the rain; it is the worst visual effect in the game by a considerable margin. I wonder if Grove Street Games did that bit.

Pretty much all the issues are the polish, and I did say to @Jordan when I started on the preview code that it really did seem to lack that last layer of polish. Maybe galloping batflu and WFH impacted on that. But comparisons to Cyberpunk and The Grand The Theft The Auto The Trilogy The Definitive The Edition The are unwarranted; these are games with fundamental, widespread issues launched in a laughable state, not a handful (okay, several handsful) of pissy glitches.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Few problems? It’s all people seem to talk about after the launch dust has started to settle. Improved gameplay is nice, but it doesn’t excuse the unusual amount of problems for a PG game.

How is the car list not crippled? Nearly all the admirable cars that set Forza apart from other racing games were ditched, and manufacturer licenses have been lost like never before.



FM8 didn’t happen. Otherwise we would have had it by now, and that’s why they decided to make FH5. Forza Motorsport is not FM8, because it will be a reboot.

FM8 hasn’t happened yet. You’re assuming that there was a set release schedule that they haven’t stuck to or something. We know the next installed of Forza Motorsport is coming, probably next year, so you can’t sit there and claim it didn’t happen or isn’t happening when it quite clearly is. And also has zero impact on Forza Horizon anyway other than FH6 will use the same engine.

 

[UKMikey]

Pretty much all the issues are the polish, and I did say to @Jordan when I started on the preview code that it really did seem to lack that last layer of polish. Maybe galloping batflu and WFH impacted on that. But comparisons to Cyberpunk and The Grand The Theft The Auto The Trilogy The Definitive The Edition The are unwarranted; these are games with fundamental, widespread issues launched in a laughable state, not a handful (okay, several handsful) of pissy glitches.

I wonder whether it's harder to organise a rigorous beta testing schedule due to the pandemic. However, I'd imagine most testers work remotely anyway. Perhaps the process of outsourcing work to ancillary studios is affected as you suggest above with the leaky tunnels.

 

[Famine]

I wonder whether it's harder to organise a rigorous beta testing schedule due to the pandemic. However, I'd imagine most testers work remotely anyway. Perhaps the process of outsourcing work to ancillary studios is affected as you suggest above with the leaky tunnels.

I know Sumo Digital did some stuff for FH5, in both Sheffield and India studios. Don't know what though.


In other news, I HAVE TRAFFIC AGAIN! Not much of it, but after yesterday's first glimpse of it in four days (appearing right in front of me just shy of a Danger Sign), I've now seen a whole six more in one Street Race where they had previously been absent... No others anywhere else yet, but it's a start!

 

[Nielsen]

We know you don't want to play the game, but what do you get out of showing up like the spectre at the feast, determined to hyperbolise the teething problems with a new launch into some kind of nonexistent disaster?

I get to share my opinion that we’d be better off still playing FH4 with its inferior gameplay, which is still great by 2021 standards. FH5 a disaster? Don’t put words into my mounth.

I kinda doubt that the take of someone who has no experience of playing the game and is based purely on a selective impression of other people's complaints is likely to be more accurate than the majority of people on this thread who actually turned up to try it out. Or that most of those people wish it had never been released.

Ok, you’re entitled to that doubt. I’m also entitled to doubting the game solely by its content lineup and documented flaws.

It's not as bad as most things, really.

There are a few PC players experiencing more serious issues (I think @GilesGuthrie has mentioned it won't even run a couple of times), but largely the issues that are there are close to inconsequential unless you're aiming to do the specific thing the issue covers.

For example, there's lots of problems with Accolades not triggering (or not being possible for some of them). For the most part that affects nothing except that you don't get the Accolade. It's very frustrating - I shut it down yesterday because I was trying to go through a section to clear the Accolades and it became clear that about 20% of them wouldn't work - but it doesn't affect the driving, the online multiplayer, the game "story" progression, the vehicle tuning or livery editor, or anything else fundamental to getting out there and enjoying the cars and the environment.

While the dumbness of the switched subtitles is dumb, it affects... nothing. I mean, it'd be pretty ****-gripping if you relied on subtitles, especially in a series which has majored in accessibility and inclusivity, but it doesn't prevent the game from being in as playable a condition as FH4 was.

The online issues are... a bit weird, but ultimately seem to be just a case of persisting. Every time I try Arcade or Eliminator, it's pretty hopeless to start with - I've had invisible cars in both - but by the third or fourth time through the game seems to get the idea I want to do some online multiplayer stuff and then I have people to multiplay with (oddly Horizon Tour has no issues I've found except the other players are often dolts; that's online multiplayer for you).

One which does affect playability is when the game must STOP EVERYTHING, regardless of what you were doing, because you got enough Accolades to unlock another "story" mission (if that's by design I've no idea who decided that; probably the governor of Madagascar). That goes away extremely quickly courtesy of the very short "story". There's also a handful of glitchy areas I've found that just stop your skill chain no matter what (on the motorway, handily) and I've had a couple of Accolades (involving doing x then y) reset in the middle for no clear reason, but again, we're not talking Cyberpunk levels of unplayability.


Though the tunnels under Guanajuato do start to cry in the rain; it is the worst visual effect in the game by a considerable margin. I wonder if Grove Street Games did that bit.

Pretty much all the issues are the polish, and I did say to @Jordan when I started on the preview code that it really did seem to lack that last layer of polish. Maybe galloping batflu and WFH impacted on that. But comparisons to Cyberpunk and The Grand The Theft The Auto The Trilogy The Definitive The Edition The are unwarranted; these are games with fundamental, widespread issues launched in a laughable state, not a handful (okay, several handsful) of pissy glitches.

Lack of polish and bugs isolated to specific actions are valid concerns nonetheless. However, my biggest intolerance is how the FH5 car list turned out. Between FM5, FM6 and FM7 they managed to preserve the far majority of cars. With FH5 you not only have several manufacturers gone, but many highly likeable models were also lost across the manufacturers which managed to stay. FH4 also launched with this shortcoming, and three years of support only resolved it partially, hence another year of support before Forza Motorsport would in my opinion have been preferrable. At least FH4 launched in a better state in terms of stability.

FM8 hasn’t happened yet. You’re assuming that there was a set release schedule that they haven’t stuck to or something. We know the next installed of Forza Motorsport is coming, probably next year, so you can’t sit there and claim it didn’t happen or isn’t happening when it quite clearly is. And also has zero impact on Forza Horizon anyway other than FH6 will use the same engine.

I didn’t claim Forza Motorsport isn’t coming. Read my initial post again then.

 

[Famine]

Lack of polish and bugs isolated to specific actions are valid concerns nonetheless.

Definitely - I mean, I keep bringing them up in this thread. However it's not helpful to point at largely minor gameplay issues and draw any kind of comparison to titles that launch which major game-breaking problems.

Yes, it's "not as bad as the GTA Trilogy remaster", but there's something of a gulf between FH5's missing final buffing and GTATTTDE's catastro-**** - just as hiccups are not as bad as a lower-limb amputation. I'd say that FH5's launch issues are marginally better than RiMS Racing's and marginally worse than DIRT 5's, and nowhere near as bad as ACC 8th Gen.

At least FH4 launched in a better state in terms of stability.

I can't speak for that, but I do recall some chatter about a few issues here and there. FH5 has been largely stable but for a couple of crash-to-desktop (or whatever the equivalent Xbox term is) in that pre-launch early access period.

However, my biggest intolerance is how the FH5 car list turned out.

That's very much personal preference though.

I mean, I only played FH4 really over the last year as a backup for the GTP's news provision, and as yet I haven't missed anything in particular from FH5 that was in FH4. Maybe I didn't explore the extremes of the car list in FH4 much, but I have mainly been tooling about in the new-to-series Valhalla.

We've recently seen older FH/FM games removed from digital stores as a direct result of licensing, so how much of that is truly within PG's control we can't say (FH4 remains, but there's always a possibility that a given licence didn't extend to a new title). We're also likely to see FH5's car list start to grow pretty soon too.

 

[RazorSharkz]

Neilsen arrived to complain about a game they've repeatedly said they won't play again then argue about it until everyone gets tired. What else is new.