What is your favorite game in the Forza Horizon series?

[Newbomb Turk]

Pretty much the same as real life. There's some rain.... it gets cold for a few months during winter (relatively) and it gets melt your face off hot in the summer. That's it. Snow shows up, but only on the top of the highest of mountains.

 

[R55NA]

Pretty much the same as real life. There's some rain.... it gets cold for a few months during winter (relatively) and it gets melt your face off hot in the summer. That's it. Snow shows up, but only on the top of the highest of mountains.

But that doesn't translate into a game. I noticed the lake dried up a bit, thats the only difference I can notice. Compared to FH4, its worse.

 

[Newbomb Turk]

Well, people wanted realism, and they got it. The weather in game is exactly like it is in Mexico (barring extremes). Why would anyone want a completely snow covered Mexico when it doesn't happen IRL?

 

[KnightOfRen]

Can you tell me the difference in the seasons, in this game? I would like to know what to look for each week

Uhhh we have snow on the volcano for one week we have more rain for one week and uhh thats it

 

[skazz]

Can you tell me the difference in the seasons, in this game? I would like to know what to look for each week

The rivers change their flow (there's a whole ruin under water in some seasons), the shrubs and flowers change across the full map, you get different amounts of snow on the volcano. And you get sand storms, rain and rain storms depending on the season.

Yeah, compared to UK Autumn or Winter it's very limited. Look at it this way: We have a great climate over here compared to those poor Mexicans

 

[ShawnPhillips]

Can you tell me the difference in the seasons, in this game? I would like to know what to look for each week

The lake in the middle of the map drying up, Some snow on top of the Volcano in Winter, and slightly different shades of green on the vegetation.

But yeah, I agree there isn't enough of a visual difference in the seasons in FH5 to know what season it is just by looking around.

 

[UKMikey]

I might be mistaken but don't the roads look darker in wet season?

I wanted to prepare for week 1 in the FH5 anniversary series so I went back to Colorado to familiarise myself with the first game in the series. It's a lot more fun than I remember it being when I first played. Back in 2012 all I remember was wishing the game had a higher rame rate, more resolution and less motion blur and now it has courtesy of Series X backward compatibility. Now I can appreciate the beautiful scenery, evocative lighting and rich cast of supporting characters.

The difficulty is harder than I remember it being though. I think I must have been a better player ten years ago. Rally is fun too.

After playing FH1 for a bit more it's starting to become apparent why it's a fan favourite. The presentation is a little reminiscent of the Test Drive Unlimited series with over the top heroes and villain drivers* but the effort the team put into it makes it seem a little more like a labour of love and less like the latest product off a factory line. Little things like individually numbering all the Dak's Discount signs when you hover the map cursor over them. Rob Da Bank's music selection also helps make it stand out.

*It's funny how the underground street "thug" is the friendliest of the bunch.

 

[KnightOfRen]

I might be mistaken but don't the roads look darker in wet season?
After playing FH1 for a bit more it's starting to become apparent why it's a fan favourite. The presentation is a little reminiscent of the Test Drive Unlimited series with over the top heroes and villain drivers* but the effort the team put into it makes it seem a little more like a labour of love and less like the latest product off a factory line. Little things like individually numbering all the Dak's Discount signs when you hover the map cursor over them. Rob Da Bank's music selection also helps make it stand out.

*It's funny how the underground street "thug" is the friendliest of the bunch.

I've played every FH game except 1 (I was too late to the franchise), would you recommend it?

 

[UKMikey]

I've played every FH game except 1 (I was too late to the franchise), would you recommend it?

Everyone's tastes are different and it hits different to the sequels. If you can do without some of the quality of life improvements those later games brought to the series such as unlimited fast travel and can get used to the more primitive handling model it may be worth giving it a spin if you can find a secondhand disk.

 

[KnightOfRen]

Everyone's tastes are different and it hits different to the sequels. If you can do without some of the quality of life improvements those later games brought to the series such as unlimited fast travel and can get used to the more primitive handling model it may be worth giving it a spin if you can find a secondhand disk.

From what I've heard, the story and characters are way better than the cringefest that is FH5's "story". Sounds fun.

 

[skazz]

From what I've heard, the story and characters are way better than the cringefest that is FH5's "story". Sounds fun.

If that's your thing, then FH1's career was more fleshed out and more of a story, so I can see the appeal.
Trouble is, by today's standards the driving model really wasn't great. And more importantly the whole "drive anywhere on the map" thing didn't exist. In the base game you were basically limited to roads due to the barriers everywhere.

They introduced a rally expansion which did change things up, but that was basically a different version of the map limited to expansion-only events. https://forza.fandom.com/wiki/Forza_Horizon/Rally_Expansion_Pack

For me, at least, the driving experience and the ability to drive anywhere on the map are such huge things that they totally eclipse the story/career stuff. But everyone is different in their preferences


Edit: Given how annoying it would be to find FH1 these days, you can also just watch YouTube playthroughs of the career mode. A quick google found a bunch of people who have published playlists on YouTube for this - you can always have a look there and see if you want to spend the effort finding an FH1 disc and getting it to work. The Rally expansion is basically impossible though, no codes for it will work anymore.

 

[KnightOfRen]

Edit: Given how annoying it would be to find FH1 these days, you can also just watch YouTube playthroughs of the career mode. A quick google found a bunch of people who have published playlists on YouTube for this - you can always have a look there and see if you want to spend the effort finding an FH1 disc and getting it to work. The Rally expansion is basically impossible though, no codes for it will work anymore.

I found it on Amazon, $79.99 though, and no DLC...

I'd love to play it but that seems really steep. Unfortunately, it will probably only get more expensive.

 

[UKMikey]

The Rally expansion is basically impossible though, no codes for it will work anymore.

I'm fortunate enough to have bought the expansion first time around so it loaded up first time once I transferred all my Xbox One games to my Series X (including FH1 and Burnout Revenge from my 360). The game occasionally asks me to insert my game disk which I threw out long ago but exiting to the menu and resuming makes the game forget about it for the time being.

I don't think it'll ever be offered for sale again due to the licensing issues. If all you want is a story, watch a walkthrough. The cringefest has wayyyy better gameplay.

 

[skazz]

Like UKMikey I have the FH1 original disc for Xbox 360 lying around somewhere, and I did purchase the rally expansion back when it came out. I admit I'm slightly curious how FH1 looks in the 4k remastered version they did for the Xbox One X... But not enough to try and dig through my attic to find the FH1 box

I also just had a look on the Xbox store: Why exactly is FH1 up there, but not FH2? Anyone know?

 

[UKMikey]

I admit I'm slightly curious how FH1 looks in the 4k remastered version they did for the Xbox One X... But not enough to try and dig through my attic to find the FH1 box

Should've kept it on your hard disk bro... then you'd know

 

[UKMikey]

I also just had a look on the Xbox store: Why exactly is FH1 up there, but not FH2? Anyone know?

Maybe it's because FH2 doesn't have a remastered version?

 

[Chikane_GTR]

The only one i played which was horizon 2 back in 2014 when i bought that bundle that came with the game.

 

[FerrariF1GT]

I found it on Amazon, $79.99 though, and no DLC...

I'd love to play it but that seems really steep. Unfortunately, it will probably only get more expensive.

Go on eBay, there are plenty of listings for the game at around $20. Heck, you might get an even better deal searching your local Goodwills, Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace. I'm going to tell you this: you're not going to have any luck finding the DLC.

I've only played Horizon 1 and 4 (I guess the 360 version of Horizon 2 as well, but we don't talk about Bruno that version), but I can't really decide between one over the other. I wrote up on Horizon 1 in August and Horizon 4 addressed most of what I disliked about Horizon 1 (the car list and lack of free play) while scaling back on what I liked (progression not tied to a live service and the emphasis on driving on the roads). Bottom line is there are pros and cons to the grounded style of Horizon 1 and the sandbox style of the recent games.

Spoiler: Off-topic anecdote

As someone who’s in the hunt for numerous GameCube games, $80 is an amazing deal.

 

[RazorSharkz]

Yeah they nerfed the wheelspins. It was more generous in the beginning. I also bought all the clothing items and grinded those Willys a little bit too much.

Love that for you though, SLAY

To answer the question, 3 followed closely by 4. 3 got me obsessed with the series, where 1 and 2 were games I just played quite a bit. 4 also had me obsessed and the multiple Goliaths kept me returning. I'm waiting for some more oddball cars to show up in 5 before I make a final decision but it could take the top spot for me.

 

[INEEDNAWZZZ]

I'll echo much of what @FT-1 said; the sense of progression and difficulty curve in the original was perfect, and the characters and cutscenes, while corny, gave the game some personality which has been lacking more and more in subsequent entries. I'd love for them to go back to that style but I know they probably never will. At the very least, I personally find it extremely replayable, so its cool to go back and start a fresh save every so often and look at it as being the oddball in the franchise at this point.

 

[UKMikey]

It certainly has some evocative lighting.

 

[skazz]

On the subject of lighting, playing FH3 in HDR is for me the most impressive Forza lighting, because it has a completely different appearance from the lighting you get in FH4/FH5.

Based on my experience travelling around the globe, it really is true that the quality of the ambient light changes depending on where you are in terms of latitude, and FH3 shows that difference well. So for me it has probably the best visuals in terms of lighting - but you can only really demonstrate this on a proper HDR screen.

Oh, that's another good point: FH1/FH2 don't have HDR. In comparison, FH5 without HDR (I tried this once on a non-HDR PC screen) looks really flat and dull. HDR elevates the visuals hugely.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I actually found answering this tougher than I thought. I've chosen FH4 because it is probably just about my favorite one as a sum of all it's parts. I loved the map, the season changes were genius and brilliant, fortune island was an excellent expansion, the Horizon stories were some of the best sequences in the series (and weren't topped in FH5 sadly). It was just excellent.

However, FH3 and FH2 deserve special mentions, they're joint 2nd for me and both could easily have been number 1. FH3 really stepped the series up a gear in terms of environment dynamics, customisation and so on, the map was brilliantly thought out, it was a joy to play and blizzard mountain is one of the best expansions.
FH2, excellent gameplay loop, was beautiful for the time, I really enjoyed the map and in the early stages of the game it just felt ever expanding with each location unlocking through the road trip system. It was also well structured in terms of completion and encouraged the use of different car classes in a way the recent ones haven't done.

 

[UKMikey]

On the subject of lighting, playing FH3 in HDR is for me the most impressive Forza lighting, because it has a completely different appearance from the lighting you get in FH4/FH5.

Based on my experience travelling around the globe, it really is true that the quality of the ambient light changes depending on where you are in terms of latitude, and FH3 shows that difference well. So for me it has probably the best visuals in terms of lighting - but you can only really demonstrate this on a proper HDR screen.

Oh, that's another good point: FH1/FH2 don't have HDR. In comparison, FH5 without HDR (I tried this once on a non-HDR PC screen) looks really flat and dull. HDR elevates the visuals hugely.

I'm hoping to pick up a new telly in the Black Friday sales so I'll try this out if I do.

 

[skazz]

I'm hoping to pick up a new telly in the Black Friday sales so I'll try this out if I do.

Yeah, a modern 4k TV with HDR is really needed to do justice to FH3-FH5, assuming you have a Series X or equivalent PC. Particularly FH5 was clearly built from the ground up with HDR in mind - you can really get some stunning visuals, especially when the sun is low or there are puddles on the road reflecting light.