Re: Can I Buy Cars In Forza Horizon 4 Demo
Magali Swinderman
The time has finally arrived! It's time to rip through the grassy hillsides and road-lined coast of Southern Europe in the second hipster music/car Horizon Festival. The Forza Horizon 2 demo just dropped a few hours ago, and I thought it might be cool to share some impressions of it here. Here are my initial thoughts.
In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty inconsequential, but I loved the way the first Horizon opened up and the sequel arrives in similar style. Pulling off of a ferry in an exotic and powerful Lamborghini Huracan into the tight city streets of a sunlit coastal city clearly inspired by the likes of Monaco and Naples, it's immediately clear that this game has a bit of a different flavor to its car filled environs. Obviously the next gen graphical fidelity bump is pretty jaw-dropping on its own, but the Southern Europe style comes across very well, and it makes the game immediately feel distinct from its predecessor as you drive your beastly new Lambo along cliffsides and through hilly vineyards to finally arrive at the Horizon festival grounds just in time for nightfall.
The first Horizon was debatably one of the best games of the last console generation, and I feel like this game carries on that pedigree very well. Car detail seems to be on par with what was in Forza 5 and looks great, but it's the environments that are where the game really shines.
What catches my attention more than anything though is the detail of it all. The city streets are filled with stuff - a line of bikes, a souvenir stand, benches - and the hillsides are packed with swaying flora and fauna that makes this feel a lot more lively than the mountains of Colorado. There's the occasional shadow flicker, messy texture, and minor pop-in here and there, but in general, everything looks great and the draw distances are amazing - even the typical open-world issue of cars popping in just ahead of you seems to be a thing of the past. Also, there was clearly some time spent on refining the tire smoke to please the drift enthusiasts.
This largely feels like the same arcade-tuned Forza from the previous game. The biggest effort seems to have been put in to improving the feel of different surfaces and making it actually fun and desirable to take the car off-road, and it seems to have really paid off. When the new dynamic weather system kicks in and wets the road, the car handling definitely feels looser, turns wider, and generally feels a bit more squirrelly. The off-road rally style events in Horizon weren't that great, but the feel in the dirt here inspires hope that it will be a bit better.
The biggest change in the physics though is clearly in making going off-road and bounding over hills super fun. The Cross Country event in the demo is a load of fun, and I'm really looking forward to doing more.
With this being a limited demo, it's hard to make judgements on the size/scope of the full game, but what's here definitely inspires hope in me that it will deliver something at least on par with the last game.
The two normal events in the demo, a cross country race and a circuit race, both felt really good and were moderately challenging to work your way to the front of the pack. The drivatar system has returned from Forza 5 though, so it will be interesting to see how things change once your horribly aggressive friends enter the fray.
The over the top challenge events have also made a return. The event in the demo has you racing against an aerial display team, and it's just as fun and crazy as anything I recall from the first game.
There are also "Horizon Bucket List" events which appear to have taken the place of the sponsor challenges. The one in the demo is initiated by finding a parked Koenigsegg and "driving it like you stole it" which essentially boils down to hitting a particular target on a speed camera.
The online mode also appears to have been further filled out (it was a bit light in the first Horizon), but there's not a ton here in the demo aside from a video teaser and a sampling of online free roam.
That intro video is easily my favourite thing of the demo. Already have my preorder in.
I really like the fact that they added in detail tuning into this horizon (which was missing from the first)
I'd also say that Horizon 2 is probably going to benefit from having a denser and more well designed world, and the new feel of off-road driving in Horizon 2 makes it feel pretty good even in the spaces between the paved surfaces. The Crew has a lot of mileage to cover, but much of it isn't anything all that special and if you get off of the asphalt in any car not tuned for off-road, it seems like you're in for a bad time.
@chaser324: Well having played the Crew and not having played Forza (I don't own an XB1 yet) I can clarify a few things. The physics feel more "realistic" than "arcadey" in a way. Cars have a lot of weight to them and you're not just popping the handbrake any time you feel like it to slide around 90 degree turns. Once you get used to it it's fine but I guess I wouldn't mind if it was a little more loose. Driving off road in a non-offroad car still feels cool. For the Beta I drove around in a muscle car and going offroad was cool. I can't compare city density since I haven't even seen Forza 2 in action much less played it, but cities weren't all that detailed in the Crew. When driving from place to place there are little mini games akin to the billboards you mentioned in Forza. You either hit a big ramp to go for range, smash targets, slalom between pylons and stuff of that variety. What is cool about them is that after completing each one you get a car part (which you can install on the spot) and experience with it - it's instant gratification.
So I guess we're just exchanging info about games we haven't played. I only bring this up because The Crew is a similar game to Forza that I'm interested in - open world racing - and since I don't own an XB1 it's the only one available to me.
I just played through the introduction, and holy shit the Horizon games have such a terrific sense of style. I'm not the biggest fan of racing games in general, but the original Horizon was the closest one has come to perfection since Gran Turismo 2, so I'm really eager to get my hands on the full version. If we're really lucky, maybe the rivals won't be completely insufferable and it actually will be a perfect game.
@humanity: It sounds like you maybe enjoyed The Crew more than most other people I've jabbed with about it, so I hope you do enjoy the full release. Your interpretation of it being more "realistic" and Horizon 2 being more "arcadey" seems a bit odd based on what I've seen, but I won't continue to speculate on a game I haven't played. I look forward to hearing impressions of how The Crew comes together in the end.
@optix12: @subwayd: Exactly, felt the same way about the game. I don't usually buy racing games and if I do I'll wait until they are dirt cheap, but this had me from the intro, too bad you can't skip it afterwards though. Also, have it pre-ordered, but I couldn't put down the $80-$100 for the extra versions though, is it worth it?
downloaded this demo last night but due to the time difference it didn't go live in Japan until 11pm. By the time it downloaded I only had about an hour to play before going to bed. What I did play was fantastic! The cars are amazing as you'd expect but the world in which you race is even better! I started with the Mitsubishi Evolution and must say that the handling was very impressive. The only downside for me is that the bumper cam is not much use in off road modes because of the tall grass. You can't see a thing :) still, I can use my favourite view on the circuit races.
Bottom line is if you like racing games or just cars then this is a game for you! As for all the rip off DLC, well.... You don't need to buy it. I never bought it for Forza 3 or 4 and it didn't affect my gaming experience one little bit.
@yakumo1975: The DLC definitely is a bit of a rip-off, but on the plus side, everything Playground Games has been saying seems to indicate that they tried to avoid falling into the same "free-to-play" traps of the Forza 5 economy.
This is the first game for me that truly feels "next-gen". There's so many little details in the visuals, some stuff I can't remember seeing ever before in a racing game. The way the sun reflects off of cars and the rain drops actually sitting on your car and then headlights and various dynamic light sources reflecting in those rain drops. I'm sorry but this demo just blew me away. I have to say I think the car handling in this feels absolutely perfect for this type of game. All those other racing games coming out this fall are going to be an after thought compared to Horizon 2.
Just played the demo for about a half hour, did the first two missions. Not sure what to think yet of the driving model. Simulation still feels pretty arcadey so I'll have to switch between that and full on arcade mode and see which is more fun. The scenery is beautiful and I'm a fan of the radio stations too. I haven't played a game of this type since Test Drive Unlimited, which bums me out knowing this game won't have motorcycles in it.
@chaser324: I hope so. I like to buy a game for the RRP and get my moneys worth without having to buy extras just to enjoy the game I bought or have to play online all of the time such as with Taitanfall.
So far I really am enjoying the demo and can't wait for the full game to arrive in a few weeks. I'm also surprised that Microsoft Japan are releasing the disc release here pretty much the same time as the west even though Forza 5 only just hit the shops last week. A big thumbs up to them for that move.
I have never been sold so hard by a demo in my life. Just played the demo and I was just blown away by it. I played Forza 5 some and I thought it was a good game, it just never clicked with me. Pretty game, seemed deep, but didn't click. This, however, they really have a special game on their hands here if this demo is anything to gauge the product by. The last time I felt this way about a racing game was probably NFS: Underground. I'm having a hard time not gushing about it right now honestly as I usually am not one to be floored by a video game but this did it.
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