Before I picked up the XBox Series X I heard from nearly everyone that's owned an XBox that Forza Horizon 4 is the game to get. During Black Friday Forza Horizon 4 was on sale including all the DLC for a handful of bucks and I pressed the gas on that purchase and haven't let up on the pedal since.
I've played a lot of driving games and unless we are talking about Mario Kart, I'm not typically a fan of any. All told the art of racing around a track isn't that much fun to me unless we can throw banana peels and red shells at each other. I drive a lot more than I'd like in real life so one way to make that fun is to make is unlike any driving experience I have and Mario Kart delivers on that.
I have no experience with any prior Forza Horizon games but the series feels like they've mashed up the joyful exploration of Skyrim with a racing game you can ignore when you want. I first downloaded the demo for Forza Horizon 4 and it may be one of the best demos I've ever played. It starts you out driving through some epic parts of Forza as the game takes you through the different seasons. From there you can drive around the open world but you can't save anything and if you want to replay the demo you need to start driving through all of the seasons again. All told this does mean you can replay the demo but if you want to save your progress, you need to buy the game. That said, when I picked up the actual game I played Forza the way I start out a Skyrim or Fallout game... I just drove around for a long time to just explore.
So Much To See, So Little Time
Have a few minutes and you want to play a game but don't want to do anything that requires a ton of focus? Drive over a purple flower field in Forza or do doughnuts in someones lawn. Want to see something epic? Drive to the top of a rock quarry and launch off the top going 120 miles an hour straight to the bottom. Want to finally take your hand at a proper race? Go for it. The best part of Forza Horizon 4 is the game let's you do what you want and I never really felt like it was trying to get me to do the racing game part. But after a few months of doing nothing particular in the game but drive around I decided to progress through the game because I wanted to unlock more cars than the first one. To be able to finally unlock the game and all the DLC and such I had to unlock autumn and after a handful of other races and then all at once, the entire game and it's options opened up.
Forza Is a Game You Can Play With Kids
I love shooty shoot games but I can't play any of those games with my five year old. Forza Horizon 4 is one of those incredible games that I can not only play with him around but he can actually play too. He loves driving around and crashing into things and we just opened up some Lego DLC which he loves to drive around in. It's nice having a game he can play and doesn't get frustrated playing and frankly, I think a lot of games would do well to implement more sandbox modes that just enable you to play without any timers or twitch controls needed. At least, if more games did that my five year old would be happy.
The Forza Series Is An XBox Must Play
If you have an XBox it would be a crime to not at least try the Forza Horizon 4 demo. Microsoft is putting it's raft of games on PC and if you didn't have an XBox you could still pickup Forza Horizon 4 on PC through Steam. In a game landscape with a ton of shooters it's nice to get a game that doesn't have any homicidal agenda and just wants you to have fun driving and crashing cars.
I've played a lot of driving games and unless we are talking about Mario Kart, I'm not typically a fan of any. All told the art of racing around a track isn't that much fun to me unless we can throw banana peels and red shells at each other. I drive a lot more than I'd like in real life so one way to make that fun is to make is unlike any driving experience I have and Mario Kart delivers on that.
I have no experience with any prior Forza Horizon games but the series feels like they've mashed up the joyful exploration of Skyrim with a racing game you can ignore when you want. I first downloaded the demo for Forza Horizon 4 and it may be one of the best demos I've ever played. It starts you out driving through some epic parts of Forza as the game takes you through the different seasons. From there you can drive around the open world but you can't save anything and if you want to replay the demo you need to start driving through all of the seasons again. All told this does mean you can replay the demo but if you want to save your progress, you need to buy the game. That said, when I picked up the actual game I played Forza the way I start out a Skyrim or Fallout game... I just drove around for a long time to just explore.
So Much To See, So Little Time
Have a few minutes and you want to play a game but don't want to do anything that requires a ton of focus? Drive over a purple flower field in Forza or do doughnuts in someones lawn. Want to see something epic? Drive to the top of a rock quarry and launch off the top going 120 miles an hour straight to the bottom. Want to finally take your hand at a proper race? Go for it. The best part of Forza Horizon 4 is the game let's you do what you want and I never really felt like it was trying to get me to do the racing game part. But after a few months of doing nothing particular in the game but drive around I decided to progress through the game because I wanted to unlock more cars than the first one. To be able to finally unlock the game and all the DLC and such I had to unlock autumn and after a handful of other races and then all at once, the entire game and it's options opened up.
Forza Is a Game You Can Play With Kids
I love shooty shoot games but I can't play any of those games with my five year old. Forza Horizon 4 is one of those incredible games that I can not only play with him around but he can actually play too. He loves driving around and crashing into things and we just opened up some Lego DLC which he loves to drive around in. It's nice having a game he can play and doesn't get frustrated playing and frankly, I think a lot of games would do well to implement more sandbox modes that just enable you to play without any timers or twitch controls needed. At least, if more games did that my five year old would be happy.
The Forza Series Is An XBox Must Play
If you have an XBox it would be a crime to not at least try the Forza Horizon 4 demo. Microsoft is putting it's raft of games on PC and if you didn't have an XBox you could still pickup Forza Horizon 4 on PC through Steam. In a game landscape with a ton of shooters it's nice to get a game that doesn't have any homicidal agenda and just wants you to have fun driving and crashing cars.
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I'm familiar with it, well as much as "it's an open-world racing game." You mentioned Skyrim, which points exactly to what confuses me about the game. How can it be an open-world Skyrim-like racing game? It doesn't compute. I think I'd have to just see it for myself. If you want to elaborate, I'd be happy to see what you have to say about it.
I'm not really into racing games, but Mario Kart is fun. Another racing game that I absolutely love is the Wipeout series. I like being able to use weapons to get ahead.
It's great to have a game you can play w/ your 5 year old.
Hm, I don't see a demo link on Steam, but I may have overlooked it. What surprises me though is that Forza Horizon 4 is the exact same price as Forza Horizon 5.
I picked up 5. It is a lot of fun, but boy do I suck at driving.
> How can it be an open-world Skyrim-like racing game? It doesn't compute. I think I'd have to just see it for myself. If you want to elaborate, I'd be happy to see what you have to say about it.
What I mean is that instead of the game making you play race after race after race you can just drive wherever you want in the open world AND partake in races, stunts or other stuff if you want to much like Skyrim or Fallout.
> I picked up 5. It is a lot of fun, but boy do I suck at driving.
Iāve gotten better over time.
That said, from a quick search it looks like the Forza 5 map is bigger and by most accounting a better game than 4. That said, happy to start with 4 and then make my way to 5 when it and all the DLC is pretty cheap.
I wonder if Forza or Microsoft Flight Simulator might meet up at some point? They seem like similar kinds of games.
METAVERSE
>What I mean is that instead of the game making you play race after race after race you can just drive wherever you want in the open world AND partake in races, stunts or other stuff if you want to much like Skyrim or Fallout.
Your initial description of it pretty much matches what I've known, but never fully understood about it. That actually sounds like a cool, relaxing game. I just never really looked for info about the game, but it was included in videos I watched or articles I read about good open-world games and I didn't understand how this was on that list.
Some of the cars are very sexy and the landscape looks really cool, too. Are you playing in 4K?
How's the music?
I am playing 5 in 4k. Music is great!
Awesome. I just plugged into the world of 1440p with a new monitor, but I'm now waiting for it's replacement since I found an issue w/ it. Are you playing w/ HDR? I'm just learning about it.
Do they have original music tracks or popular ones?
Iām playing in 4K as well, the game is incredible.
Music is on point too. I turned it to music mode which features less car sounds and more of the soundtrack.
Nice!
Playing in Dolby Vision, I think.
So Dolby HDR, too?! I just jumped into HDR myself w/ my new monitor. It seemed to make other things look shitty, but the HDR movie I saw looked great. Now I'm sticking w/ SDR unless something specifically says.
Iāve had Horizon 4 for ages but hadnāt played it a ton. I grabbed 5 when it came out and played the hell out of it, still do the weekly seasonal challenges and such, but Iāve also gotten back into 4. Iāve gotten into star levels on both (when you hit level 199 you wrap around to 1 with a star, then level 299 you wrap around to level 1 with 2 stars, and so on).
There is just SO much content in 4 and itās all amazing. The only complaint I have is that the end of the Lego Island DLC is a massive grind fest if you want to build all the different things you can and unlock the final race.
I had basically been ignoring some speed zones and all drift zones because I didnāt enjoy them, but I love them now, I am looking forward to going back to FH5 to do those now.
The music is varied and each station has its own groove. Iāve started listening to some bands because I discovered them on a Forza station. I tend to play the pop station in FH5 because it has Dua Lipaās Levitating which is a flawless pop gem.
I am a #ForeverPhysical kinda guy but I bought these on the MS store because you can buy once and play on console and PC. I love the 4k HDR 60+ fps on my PC for tricky challenges but I also like lounging on the couch for the more relaxing stuff. They both look fab on Xbox One X though Iām sure Jonās series X makes it look way better :)
> I am a #ForeverPhysical kinda guy but I bought these on the MS store because you can buy once and play on console and PC. I love the 4k HDR 60+ fps on my PC for tricky challenges but I also like lounging on the couch for the more relaxing stuff. They both look fab on Xbox One X though Iām sure Jonās series X makes it look way better :)
Agreed. I love physical but having it on XBox and PC is a huge benefit.
Damn, Travis you're dong 60+FPS at 4K?! I thought even the best RTX cards had trouble w/ that. I'm running 1440p now.
I usually do not get that performance in 4k in any other modern games, but these games are either far more lightweight than they seem or theyāre hella optimized.
Very cool! You guys make these Forza games sound interesting. Thanks for elaborating and sharing your experiences, I greatly appreciate it!