Forza Horizon Demo Reviews

Good discussion so far everyone. I knew after playing the demo that it was going to be pretty polarizing, so no surprises there.

Here are my thoughts after thinking it over for a day:

-It is just a demo, and most demos are not exactly similar to the finished product

-As such, they have to fix the crash physics, right? Right?!?

-Even though I've never been much for arcade racing, I can see some niches for this game to fill (rough day, want to smash something; due to meds/evening out I'm just not 'sharp' enough for FM4; why the f#@& can't I shave off another tenth on this track!, screw it, I'm playing Horizon)

-Although the video Mark posted makes part of me cringe (what, do the wheels have grappling hooks in them?), who doesn't want to pull a backside 540 with a Reventon?

i doubt they'll do much with the crash physics because:

A) penalizing hitting cars can make driving in a open world too difficult.

B) they want the game to be accessible to lesser experienced people.

where is the offroad suspension shakes and rattles? Demo reminds me of the original Need For Speed. Hope I can cruise with just club members. Test drive, I remember getting online and people smacking me around for no reason at all.

Bob... Online play will be similar to FM4... You will have "career" events and rivals available to you, but you will cruise in your "private" open world. (this I know for sure).

When we set up a lobby, we'll have a community based open world where we can host events (guessing on this one)...

By the way, how effin' brilliant was it of T10 to create clubs? Created social enjoyment/pressure to play, greatly increased time spent playing the game, and formed a built-in 'well all the guys are going to buy the next pack/game, so I suppose I will too' environment. Wonder how many millions that one decision will generate for them for years to come. Not complaining, just commenting on the genius of it...

Good point...

One thing to add... How many of those that would might not have purchased the game but did due to the club actually end up enjoying it in the end?

One other 'realization' I had today...i'm probably less likely to buy the DLC stuff for Horizon. Only because I don't think the cars are going to have super noticeable differences...so I'm not sure I will be able convince myself a car pack is worth the MS Points for cars that basically just look different from what is already in game.

In F4, I bought every car pack, because, well I was curious how many ways the Hennessey Venom could 'kill' me...or what my laptime on Nords would be like in the Ford Transit, or a stock Beetle...and each one felt different 'out there'...I don't think the same will be AS TRUE in Horizon.

...my xbox is also being very strange lately...hoping it's not on it's last legs.

BiggLou55 wrote:
Anyone else with a wheel care to chime in on the differences...?

Sure!

This:

shinnsoon wrote:
Nay - The vibration on the controller is weird. Maybe it's because I've been playing a lot of DiRT3 since Friday, but driving on dirt and there's nothing? Even on asphalt, the feedback is pretty poor compared to FM4.

I'm not sure why but Forza, including FM4 for me, seems to forget that we might have vibration motors in our steering wheels. Vibration was tame in FM4, yet completely nonexistant in this demo. I don't get it. F1 2012 makes some use of it and GT5 goes apeshit with it. The wheel is fine, it just feels like that feature is underutilized or completely ignored.

Also This:

My immediate impression of the demo was pretty negative. I went straight in with my CSR-E, using my typical FM4 setup. The initial Viper drive was OK, but the dirt track was TERRIBLE. The FFB on the dirt race was so far from enjoyable that at one point I thought to myself that this was going to be exclusively a controller game. That's...so wrong.

The FFB felt violent, jerky, and not really connected to my car. Again, I'd expect a vibration here, not a brick-gloved fist-fight with my FFB motors.

I also thought about the frequency that I'd want to change the SENS on my wheel, depending on what kind of race I was doing. The 900 degrees of rotation on the road was ok, but it was awful on the dirt. I switched to my F1-2012 preset which is set to 270. Control was better, but the FFB was still miserable.

I finished the dirt race and moved on, still troubled by how my wheel was handling the game. Having transitioned from the AWD rally race to the RWD Mustang race, however, did calm any concerns I had regarding realism or that the cars wouldn't feel different. I was oversteering on every corner and letting that Mustang completely whoop my ass by not driving her right. I thought that was a good thing, but it also kind of bugged me since I wasn't interested in taming a Mustang at the moment -- I was trying to race a goddamn airplane. I crossed the line, having lost, and sat there thinking.

The Mustang encounter and the FFB issues collided into a new thought, which was "well hell, if this is more on the Arcade side, let's drop the realism lust for a minute and run with that". I created a new 3rd preset for Horizon and started dialing down stuff.

SENS to OFF (270)
Sho down to 80
Dri up a notch (to 001)
Spr down to -1

In the game I knocked down my FF to 75. Then I tried again.

The result was a very loosey-goosey almost Dave and Busters-ish experience that, quite frankly, I really enjoyed. I went back through the events and did MUCH better. The dirt race was FUN. The Mustang didn't buck me off over and over. Sure I didn't feel the "I am really in this car" connection that I feel in FM4, nor did I have the white knuckled sore-shoulder F1 experience. Instead I had a "a beer would be good with this" fun time driving around and being a dick to random cars on the highway.

Closing thought:

I'll be buying it, but I've had second thoughts about the LCE. As viper said, I'm not sure if I'll care as much about DLC this time around. I'll probably keep my LCE order as a "better safe than sorry", being that regret is a bitch, but we'll see how enchanted I really become by this game.

I applaud them for doing something so different. I don't currently have any Arcade-ish "action" racers in the house, and if I did I'd want it to be in the Forza family. I doubt I'll ever end a session feeling like I learned something about driving or racing, like I sometimes do with FM4 or F1-2012, but that doesn't have to be the point everytime. It's fun. I like fun. Let's just hope it doesn't make me any worse than I already am.

Thanks for the heads up nub. I haven't used my wheel in it yet, but honestly I'm not surprised by the FFB being too strong. Again, the devs are from CodeMasters that did DiRT. If you played that game with a wheel, it was more a wrestling sim than a racer.

I think I'll wait till full game is in before I start mucking about with wheel...I can't see much changing between demo and release, but potentially a title update down the road will address some of the issues once the community have a chance to chime in.

That's interesting Nub... For my CSR, I used the same exact profile I use for FM4 and it worked perfectly. I set the in-game steering to Simulation and I was feeling every bump in the road on dirt and was getting great feedback on tarmac.

I think we need to gather more info on this from all CSR users here..

Per the other thread it looks like you're already on 270 anyway, which is huge.

You also have a DRI of 1 and you turn down the FF directly on the wheel itself (whereas I do it in game). I suppose this means we end up in the same ballpark settings-wise, though I've loosened up a bit more in a few other places that you have not (Dampening & Shock).

How's the vibration in your rim? That sounds like a filthy question but it isn't.

LOL... It's fabulous!! What I mean is that I'm not noticing the lack of vibration or too much vibration....

I will say that I prefer tuning the wheel while keeping the in-game settings the same (at least where they overlap in settings). I'll adjust things like dead zones in-game, but that's about it. That allows me to change certain things on the fly if need be (like FF, lock to lock, acceleration, etc...)

Could you try it once with the wheel ABS disabled? I'm curious if you're getting that or if you are truly getting road vibration that Shin and I are not.

I will pay more attention when I run through the demo again.

I just saw a horizon commercial on TV and I agree with you guys - if the commercial looks anything like the game, the graphics are very... odd....

the weird thing is that the trailer on the FM forums and the behind the scenes videos looked almost exactly like forza 4, but this looked kind of cartoonish

Did a third playthrough of the demo this morning. Speaking of, I wish you could resume the demo rather than have to redo the entire thing each time. Minor whine.

It's growing on me...a lot. I'm having a lot of fun in here since tweaking my wheel settings.

This is a really good Horizon review on IGN.... I think it clears up some stuff about the origins of the game and the intent....

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This quote kinda says it all for the handling physics...

IGN wrote:The handling is entirely satisfying, whether you’re drifting around a gravel corner on the game’s new offroad surfaces or weaving through freeway traffic with your foot on the firewall. If you prefer your racing games a little more straightforward and manageable, Forza Horizon will suit you fine with its full suite of driving assists. However, this game is definitely at its best with simulation steering on and traction control off because that’s when it’s at its most unpredictable. It becomes more than just mashing the throttle and pointing your car in the direction you want to go at this point; it demands finesse.

So... assists on will feel very locked in and super easy, but turning them all off will be more FM4-like, which I agree with. It's not 100% FM4, but it's close... Kinda like racing with Stability control on without the speed scrubbing penalty!

Enjoy!

.....and I love the closing remarks. It pretty much nails how I feel about Forza Horizon as it relates to FM4... FH is a companion game not a replacement!

IGN wrote:This really is minor stuff, though, especially when you look at Forza Horizon as a racing game to play as well as Forza 4, not instead of Forza 4.

THE VERDICT

If you love Forza 4, this is the perfect companion. If you love cars, this is essential. The school of thought may be that it’s hard to push racing games this late in a generation, but Playground Games hasn’t just moved the needle here. It’s buried it.

Ladies and gentlemen, the open road beckons. And racing developers of the world? Playground Games has just put you on notice.

Cheers!

really well said

From the Pre-order incentive thread...

FraidKn0t wrote:Giant Bomb gives Horizon a 5/5 --- Link

IGN gives Horizon a 9.0 --- Link

Yeah, Metacritic has it at 86% as well, pretty good. And, off-topic, saw Dishonored at 89. Think I'm gonna have to check that out.

Also off-topic: since I'm a little slow you guys have probly already noticed this, but pretty fun to look at Beef's signature then his avatar on here. Bye bye Paula!

I played the demo and the first thing I noticed was how differently the car drove compared to FM4. it seems like you have to correct half of the time, but maybe thats because I have grown accustomed to being able to fine-tune my cars....

I am also wondering why it took up 1.6 gigs of memory for a 3 mission long demo....

It's the open world... Takes up a lot of space... You'll also notice that there are more cars in there above and beyond what you get to drive!

I got to get hands on with a full demo today. I powered through miserable allergies, Austin rain, and ACL Fest parking to get to an event being held downtown. The wife went too because she's a trooper.

In a back room they had some Xbox kiosks running with "full" versions of the game. I messed around for about 20 minutes, checking things out. Unfortunately none of the online stuff was accessible.

Immediately after launching the game from the main menu I was placed in what appeared to the epicenter of the Horizon festival. Lots of people and noise, and I was in control immediately. I was on small circular track, which I quickly realized served as the main menu of the game. Several "corrals" were along this circle, with large colored banners indicating what that corral was for. There was the Auto Show, Garage, Marketplace, Car Club, Race Central, and Painting (I think I'm remembering this name wrong, but you get the gist).

Auto Show was where you bought new cars. The UI was the same design as FM4, with a row of manufacturers that you scrolled through on the bottom of the screen. I went straight to Lambo and bought myself a Countach. A white one. It was fast.

Garage was where you upgrade your cars, load saved upgrades, etc. The GUI was very familiar, with the same upgrade categories that we're used to. While the bottom scrolling action of categories was right out of FM4, the upper half of the screen where the car is visible has been overhauled. It was snappy and fun, with the camera jumping to the part of the car affected by the upgrade category you were looking at. I was disappointed, although not surprised, that the tire didn't visibly change when I upgraded from stock to racing compound. Overall this section felt more fun and polished than in FM4.

Painter, as you'd expect, is where liveries are made and cars are painted. Again, very familiar. Happily, as has been mentioned before, there was a big 'ol option to load FM4 vinyl groups. Hooray!

Race Central looked like it was right out of FM4, but with a different palette. It looks like our rivals menu, starting with "Monthly Rivals" and then onto other categories. I couldn't get very far in here without an XBL account and internet connection, though.

Marketplace was inaccessible without XBL.

Car Club was also inaccessible, unfortunately. That said, it was great to see it as such a prominent feature, being a corral right there on the mainstage. From that alone I'd expect it to be as feature rich and expansive as our current club system.

I did a little bit of racing, but that was more of the same as the demo we already have (just with different events). I did an event that weaved through the central festival section. It was a small track, class C cars, and naturally I whooped the AI. Satisfied, my wife and I started filling a bag with free shit to make up for the $15 we had to pay for parking a mile away and we headed back home.

I got a couple snaps before we left. Here's me looking fat and happy (in a gaming t-shirt, of course) next to their SRT Viper. /drool.

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Nub you're awesome, we've finally got some insider details on the game!

Glad to hear they didn't change it up too much. I like that part about upgrading and how it focuses in on the part that gets upgraded. That'll be a little detail that I enjoy, and I'm glad to hear the upgrades are pretty much the same too.