Topic: The Forza Horizon and Motorsport Thread

@Reyren Forza Horizon games are still playable as they are playable both offline and online. The term end of life status means that they won't be sold digitally anymore. If you purchase them before that time you can still play them even if you own them digitally and of course you can still play them off of a disc. The one thing that sucks with the end of life status is that you won't be able to get the DLC anymore as DLC is for the most part never released physically.

I still am able to play Forza Horizon and Forza Horizon 2 if I want to at any time despite those games end of life status was years ago. Forza Horizon I got with Games with Gold years ago so that's digtal and as I said before Forza Horizon 2 I got a disc copy a few weeks ago.

@Reyren I actually managed to find a digital code for FH3 online here in the UK (CDKeys) a few months ago. The game is still on the Xbox store, but shows as 'Not Available to Purchase', redeeming the code for it still worked though. There will likely be some heavy discounts on FH4 before it gets de-listed too if you can wait. I'd also recommend getting the DLC as it adds a huge amount of content in a game that's already packed.

@Reyren There's loads of content in the base game; the four main series - Road Racing, Dirt, Off-road and Street Scene - Each have around 20 races and there are some Drag Race events too. There's also user created content for most (all?) of those races - I haven't really dipped too much into the user created stuff yet so can't really offer much of an opinion on it except to say that the few I have done have varied massively in quality. Bear in mind that all the races are re-playable at any time with different vehicles and can feel totally different depending on what you are driving so you never really "complete" it as such.

As well as the main race series there are also 4 or 5 'Business' events that are unlocked as you level up - stuff like being a Cab Driver (think Crazy Taxi Forza Edition) that each have around 10 stages and provide an income to buy upgrades/new vehicles as well. Also a handful of 1-off 'Showcase' events, regular seasonal events and loads of collectables and challenges scattered around the map - speed zones, drift zones etc. It's also great fun not no bother with any of that race stuff, jump in a car of your choosing and just explore the map - on or off-road. There's also all the online events too

My play stats say I've got just under 100 hours logged so far (probably about 10hrs of that is DLC) and I think I've done all the main Series Races, but haven't completed all the Business Stages yet or spent a huge amount of time with the online stuff either.

The Ultimate DLC pack is regularly 50% off in sales too, so easy to pick up later if you feel you need it. The LEGO Speed Champions DLC definitely feels more like an expansion to the main game rather than something they took out just to sell you later. I haven't even touched the Fortune Island expansion yet, which I guess means there is more than enough to keep me busy with the main game

@Reyren Forza Horizon is a great game to jump in and out of. I usually use it as a pallete cleanser after playing other games. The open world portion of it is just great to drive around in if for no reason at all just to drive around in. I have gone for hours just driving around not doing much and just taking in the sites. What's nice about FH is you earn XP just by driving around. You get the freedom to pick and choose which events you do and when you want to do them.

It really is a relaxing game. If this is your first time playing FH I suggest checking out the options menu. You can customize how Sim or casual you want to make the game.

So I just finished the career mode of Forza Motorsport 4 (which took about 25 hours) after having originally started it up back in 2017 and it was a great experience. This is definitely the best Forza Motorsport game I've played so far. Both 3 and 4 are just great. I've been playing this game nonstop the past few days because I wanted to get it over with since I have so many other 360 games to play. This was the last Forza Motorsport game on the 360 though, so the next one I'll be playing is Forza Motorsport 5 on Xbox One. Which puts me in a better situation since I mostly play Game Pass titles on Xbox One anyway, so I can always boot up and play it every now and then instead of how I've been playing Forza 4 the past few days.

But yeah, the Motorsport series is just great if you want to play something while listening to a podcast in the background. Forza 4 has renewed my interest in the Rooster Teeth podcast after having listened to it the past week and I'm genuinely in a mood to keep playing more Motorsport games just so that I can keep listening to that podcast.

Almost three weeks later and I just finished the career mode of Forza Motorsport 5 (which took about 36 hours). Or rather, I should say that I "decided" to finish the career mode. The reason why I say that is because even though there's a career mode, it doesn't actually end at some point. There is a finite amount of championships but there's no credits roll after finishing all of them (which I found out after some research on Google). The reason why I decided to end it there is because I did all the championships except two and I didn't want to do them because I was forced to buy very expensive cars in order to even have access to them. And the game doesn't give you a whole lot of credits throughout the career mode, even if I did do the majority of the championships. Which by the way consists of 10 races each and there are a total of 30+ championships, which means that there are over 300 races to do. This sounds fine on paper until you realise that there are only about a dozen tracks in the game! This is my main issue with this game's career mode, i.e. it has too many races and too few tracks. Now the game overall is really good, but if you're like me who just wants to play through the career mode then you're going to find the game incredibly tedious. You basically go through the same tracks over and over again so many freaking times, it's not fun. Granted, I'm playing this game while listening to a podcast in the background, which is the only way for me to enjoy these games as I zone out while playing them. But even still, when you play the same races across dozens of hours, then you will wear yourself out eventually. And that's what I did. I just couldn't see myself grind for another dozen hours just to be able to buy the cars necessary to go through the last two championships I needed before I was done with the game. Not to mention that there isn't even an achievement for completing all the championships! I managed to get the majority of the career mode related ones and then I felt done with the game. I'd rather start up Forza Motorsport 6 instead and hope that that game's career mode will be better.

Despite all of this, I'm really starting to love the Forza Motorsport series. In the beginning when I started playing Forza Motorsport 2 on the 360, it was nice to play something relaxing while listening to a podcast. But this way of playing didn't hook me and it was the same with Forza Motorsport 3. But once I played through Forza Motorsport 4 and now 5, I've become hooked. They're just such enjoyable games to play. I don't know if I'll start up Forza Motorsport 6 anytime soon since I'm actually getting quite burned out but I'm definitely more keen to play these games than I was before at the very least.

@JohannVanDerSmut That's good to hear! Does Forza 6 have more tracks than 5 as well?

Yeah I think you can get easily burned out on these games, especially since they come out every other year. I wonder if Turn10 will do anything to switch things up in the next Forza Motorsport game. Like maybe adding some narrative to help motivate you or more rewards for completing races.

@mancman31 is that on Horizon 4?

If so, I'd say the races aren't really designed for you to take the lead and keep it from the beginning until the end. There are many races where I'll come first place but not until the very end of the race.

I think you can manually adjust the Drivatar difficulty but I'm struggling to remember how at the moment. Either way after a few losses, the game will ask you if you'd like to lower it automatically.

If you are talking about Motorsport 4 then unfortunately I have no idea.

@LtSarge have you/are you going to buy FM7 and all its DLC before it's delisting date?

@ralphdibny I actually already own a physical copy of FM7 so it's all good. In terms of DLC though, it's just cars. I've previously bought the complete editions of FM3 and FM4 because I wanted all the DLC and it turns out they were just more cars and the base games themselves already have hundreds of them so I don't feel like spending more money on that.

The Forza Horizon games though have actual DLC so I'll consider buying the FH4 DLC before that game gets delisted eventually. But they'll probably put the DLC up for a significant discount before it's removed so I'll probably just wait until then. I'm very interested in trying out the LEGO DLC, it looks really cool. How about you?

@LtSarge ah fair enough, I didn't realise it was only cars and no like tournaments or tracks or whatever (I don't really know how Motorsport works lol)

Nah I'm not going to bother. I keep getting pangs of FOMO but I have to keep reminding myself that I actually don't like the game from my brief impression of it. I was going to give it another go before it gets delisted just so I can confirm that I don't like it but so far, I haven't got around to it.

I'm trying to remember what Horizon 3 actually cost in total before it got delisted. I am 90% sure it cost around £38 for the ultimate edition and the season pass altogether and I skipped a couple of car packs that weren't included in the bundles

Not sure if horizon 4 will be much cheaper. It does seem like it's priced a bit differently in that the season pass is actually included in the ultimate (or something) edition, unlike Horizon 3. I just upgraded my copy to the ultimate edition in the last year or so. I think it cost like £23 in the sale (again, not sure). Bit annoying really because I already owned the main game and Lego which came with my Xbox so I was basically buying Lego again in the upgrade. At least I know I have everything on it (except a couple of the newer car packs

@ralphdibny To be fair, the Motorsport games can be very time-consuming and monotonous to play if you're not really a car enthusiast. I mean just take a look at Forza Motorsport 5, it was the first Forza title with ForzaVista where you could examine each and every car in the game. Also, in the career mode of FM5, you would hear commentary about the history of certain classes of cars and they were all narrated by Top Gear hosts such as Jeremy Clarkson. I personally don't care about any of that, but I think you get the idea of who these games are supposed to appeal to, haha.

Well at least you have all the DLC content secured for FH4! I only got the Blizzard Mountain DLC for FH3 because I couldn't be bothered getting the Hot Wheels expansion, even though it looked really cool. I was just burned out on Forza games in general at the time that I didn't think I'd ever play these games again. Although if I ever play the Horizon games again, I think I'll just move on to FH4 considering we're already getting another Horizon title. They're releasing these games so damn fast!

@LtSarge I am a bit of a car enthusiast, I'm just not much of a competitive sport enthusiast 😂. I do like gamey racing games like Kart games and Horizon but simulation, near simulation or attempted simulation racing games just bore me to tears.

I actually don't mind some of the more entertaining car shows. Stuff like both iterations of Top Gear and I forget the name of that other one now, it's got the Gas Monkey Garage in it. I think it was called Fast N Loud or something. I probably wouldn't sit down and watch them all day though

I've been playing Forza Motorsport 7 last night and today. I've just been going through it in the same way I do the racing games I get with PS Plus or GwG. Just doing one race on each track (in this case one circuit from each location). I'm about 2/3rds of the way through them.

I just wanted to get a feel for the game. Initially I was attracted to the allure of all of those different tracks represented in the game. Dubai looks amazing and brand's hatch has realistic weather 😂(it's quite local to me, I drive past it whenever I go to my mates house).

While I almost caught the FOMO bug, realistically I don't think I'll ever get around to playing the campaign or anything so it can't be worth me buying it. It is probably the best "realistic" racing game I've played and I've played a few recently like WRC 5, WRC 8 and Asetto Corsa. This feels a lot better and less strict than those games. The graphics are amazing but they still do look like a game. It feels like the graphics are more detailed than Horizon but the world just feels more dead if you know what I mean. Horizon feels more alive. I don't think I can explain it well.

Well, I think that's about it. I got 8 or so more tracks to race on this morning before I delete it and it's no longer available to buy digitally. I think I'm happy with that. I can't think of any reason I might want to buy it once I've had a go on all the tracks. I thought I'd screenshot the crowd too just to see what it looked like:

@ralphdibny Nice to see that you at least gave it a go! I understand where you're coming from, once you've played through all the tracks then you've pretty much experienced all there is to this game. Although the campaign in these games can be quite fun as well, since they offer different kinds of races such as passing enough cars, knocking down bowling pins, threading the needle with cones, racing a rival and so on. But yeah, just imagine playing Motorsport 5 and going through all the dozen tracks over and over again 30 times. It was not fun, lol. Motorsport 6 and 7 should at least have better campaigns.

Last night i jumped into FH4 to quickly buy a house with 10 super wheelspins and 4 hours later i logged off. This game is just so fun to play. Finished off the stuntman races and did a few rounds of the eliminator.

I'm going to be putting in a ton of time into FH5 over its lifetime clearly

@JohannVanDerSmut its just so easy to get stuck into the game. Really should come with a warning label or something

@Krzzystuff Forza Horizon - Like crack but with no comedown! Buy now!!

@LtSarge I've had a good go on it now, every track. I think I'm ready to turn it off. That skittles thing sounds cool actually. But yeah, maybe I'll get on Motorsport 8 if I get a chance to!

Took some more screenshots but my Xbox app won't update to show them so I'll try and post them later.

I didn't realise hot shot racing was leaving game pass today n all so I might have a quick go on that

I beat that Hot Shot Racing in the end. (My definition of beat in this game is win every GP on normal difficulty and see every characters ending). I really liked it. It's like a combination of Ridge Racer, Virtua Racer and a take-your-pick kart racer. You get boost by drifting and tailgating in people's slipstreams. It's cool. There's a lot to unlock and play if you choose to take it further than I did. But if anyone is interested in having a go then I'd say you could beat all the GPs and do a few extra GPs to see all of the character endings inside of 2 hours. So enough time to do it before it leaves game pass basically!