5 reasons why Forza Horizon 3 is the best in the series

Forza Horizon Legacy Horizon FH3 Discussion
1

Forza “veteran” here. Played since FM4. Today I’m going to talk about why Forza Horizon 3 is the best in the series, from Music to DLC. Let’s get started

1: The Map

The FH3 map was really something special. The 4 different areas were amazing, and I loved having a big city with skyscrapers in Horizon. However, it wasn’t just the big areas. I loved the small stuff too. Stuff like the construction site, the brilliant airport, and the gold mine were some of my favorite areas to drive and hoon in for any Horizon game.

2: The Music

FH3 soundtrack really was fire. Every station had something really good, it wasn’t so inconsistent like FH4, and especially FH5. Songs were in the stations they belong in. The hip hop station actually had hip hop, with an actual mix of good classic stuff with a few modern ones too. The rock station was actually rock, and boy was it good rock. Timeless was really good too, and that isn’t even my kind of music

3: The DLC

Both expansion maps for this game were amazing and brought something new to the table. Blizzard mountain was a serious driving challenge, unlike Fortune island which just had lots of rain and a narrow cliff road in terms of challenges. The campaign for both expansions was great too. Hot Wheels was outstanding, it was unique, and tried something really different like LEGO did in FH4, but this time it was well executed with a beautiful map and crazy driving tracks. Even the cars added via car pass were great and all added something new to the game.

4 - The Cars

I love the car list for this game. There were some awesome additions like Tesla, the race cars, Lancia Rally Cars, and Hoonigan, but there wasn’t a ton of clutter. In FH4 and 5, there’s a lot of cars that don’t need to be in the game but are for some reason. Random reskins, etc. FH3 doesn’t have a lot of this. Every car is something special.

5 - FORZATHON and Bucket List

I’m a bit biased, I loved the bucket list in FH3. And boy, was it well done. In hindsight, they weren’t very difficult (except for #19, that one took me years…). The Forzathons were far superior to the messy festival playlists. It still felt like a Forza racing game, you got points for skills and racing. The reward cars were great and worth getting too.

Those are my reasons for why Forza Horizon 3 is the best in the series.

9 Likes
2

Good post. I agree. The Horizon 3 map was much better than 5.

3 Likes
3

The Map

It certainly has the best diversity in terms of the biomes, but the map is very flat and is composed of way too many straights. Makes most races in anything below B-Class boring as a result.

The Music

This was probably the last genuinely good soundtrack as a whole, though I still think nothing has ever trumped Horizon 1’s soundtrack.

The DLC
Don’t have arguments for this one. Both were fun, and due to nature of the championship structure, there was more to do in both compared to the DLCs that followed.

The Cars
Again, agreed, but as a Lancia lover and a Tesla hater, I will never tolerate praise for both in the same sentence.

FORZATHON and Bucket List
Forzathon was definitely better in Horizon 3 than the Festival Playlist that succeeded it in the next two titles as it was still engaging, but not time consuming. Only problem was that once Forzathon exclusive prizes were gone, they were gone for good. Bucket Lists were also better than the stories that came later. The less annoying characters the better.

4

Lancia forever! Shame they aren’t in 5…

2 Likes
5

The map was great, but there was almost no elevation changes. Other than that, I loved it and still like it better than FH5’s map. I definitely agree about the music. Never owned the DLCs or paid much attention to the car list, so I don’t have an opinion on those. I also came too late for the Forzathon, only bought it in summer 2020, but the bucket lists were fun. Super 7 seems to have take its place in the later games.

6

The bucket lists were replaced by Horizon Stories

Which is a shame. I can’t be the only one tired of “Papa fernando papa fernando” or whatever that mexican-wrestling-with-cars-thing was. The bucket lists were so much better

2 Likes
7

Yup the bucket lists were better. Some were really challenging whereas almost all of the stories are easy in Horizon 5. Even the Horizon 4 stories were better with quite a few tough ones.

8

The thing that sucked about stories in 4 was the World’s Fastest. The snow didn’t ever go away for one week a month, so I ended up settling for two stars on the Vulcan and Senna stories until the weather goes back to dry

9

I love 3’s map. It has some hugely diverse areas, and a legitimate modern-day city is something that was sorely lacking in both 4 and 5. (Those city routes in 5 are just…ugh.) The graphics were more limited than what followed, but as a result it felt…brighter. Plenty of sunshine under that clear blue sky just put you in a good mood. Compare that with 4, where if the day ends in ‘Y’, it’s raining. I like 5’s map overall, especially the elevation changes, but there was just something really cool about 3. There was definitely a decline in overall music quality from 3 to 4, and then even more so to 5. The Bucket List is something I’d gladly have back over the later games’ storylines.

And yeah, the expansions are great. The Hot Wheels map was goofy fun, even though a lot of the courses got a bit samey, but I freaking loved Blizzard Mountain. Tearing around during a snowstorm in a rally monster was just sublime. The extra challenges in both expansions could occasionally be frustratingly challenging, but they added plenty of replayability to every race, whereas in 4 or 5 there’s no real reason to run most courses more than once.

1 Like
10

I am obsessed with Blizzard mountain. By far the best expansion in FH history, imo.

1 Like
11

I know this will be blasphemy to some but as much as I liked the Hot Wheels expansion, the actual racing wasn’t very interesting to me.

The boost pads and twisty banked tracks and loops kind of ruined any semblance of trying learn the best lines through the courses. I hated getting boosted into the sides of the tracks and other unpredictable aspects.

I did really love FH3’s soundtrack, especially Epitaph radio. Wish a metal station would come back.

I did enjoy the main map but as others have mentioned, no real elevation changes.

I think all FH games have had a good car list and I don’t really hold one above the other.

1 Like
12

FH3 was great except for the fact that it’s where the games as a service mess started, and when it went end of life a large number of cars that had been added over its life became forever unobtainable.

Also wasn’t really a fan of the hotwheels expansion personally, that was also where the franchise really started to become more childish and specifically targeted at a much younger demographic.

13

FH3’s map always felt like a holiday to me. FH4 was like coming home. Everything looked very recognisable as a European.

1 Like
14

American here. Never got the chance to play FH1

All of the games felt like a holiday to me. But, FH2 and 3 always felt fun, lively, and interesting. FH4 and 5 just got stale eventually, in terms of the map at least

15

Idk if it’s just me but one thing that I thought was better was the exhaust notes and flames. The exhaust felt much more aggressive. Love the map but i also come from Austrian ancestry so I might be a little bias. It’d be nice is there was more elevation but the small aspects made up for it. Gas station was a cool addition, the parking lots for drift or car meets, the city roads. The music was insane. I still play so many songs that I found because of forza. Partly what got me into edm music. Overall just a great game with a great community. Even thought I was younger and made some wacky paint liveries, I met so many cool people and even play w some every once in a while today. Played fh3 recently after not playing in a few years and it’s crazy the memories it brings back and how awesome the game was. Sure the graphics aren’t as good as 5 but still very impressive and fun. Love and miss fh3 in it’s prime

16

Yep, I think the actual freaking pop crackle pop every time the exhaust shot a flame helps. Plus the car sounds are amazing

17

yeah hands down simply the best

18

I disagree that 3 is the best in the series, its driving model was excessively arcade-ish for my tastes, the first game and to a lesser-extent the second had the cars not being as forgiving when you hooned them around (I connected my wheel to play the games so I preferred the harder-to-drive models when using a wheel in cockpit mode). Part 3 was the first game in the series to have REALLY next-gen visuals however, I must give it that…and it had an extensive car selection, also a big win…and I played it to death.

The reason it isn’t the best, however, is because of how much space is wasted on the map…they left the map far, far too open with fields and forests and dunes and so forth…there simply wasn’t enough road (the jungle section was great, the coasts were ok but fairly flat and uneventful)…having one long straight highway across the map may be representative of Australia but honestly, you know, it needed a few more roads.

Map wise, 4 is the most challenging to get around…Mexico is expansive, pretty, and has some good roads but like part 3 there’s too many dirt roads and too much wasted space in my humble opinion.