About FH5's license plates

[burnboost209mph]

I’m wondering, after reviewing all of the media for FH5, how license plates will work in this game. It appears, much like in FH4 (and FH3), there will be cars that will make use of the American-style plate and others that make use of the European-style plate. What’s strange is to see the two different plate types with quite a disparate appearance. Here’s what I mean:

American-style plate

European-style plate

The american-style plate has a white background with indications of Mexico. The European-style plate is just the UK one, and that looks quite off.

So my question ends up being: are those Euro-plates still placeholders, that will be later updated to a look unique to Mexico, or will we be able to customize the base appearance (color scheme) of our plates, instead of just the text?

[PTG_Wildcat]

I was curious so had a quick look. Mexican plates are roughly the same size and shape as American plates.

[burnboost209mph]

Alright. Upon investigating the available FH5 media, even further, it appears that plate customization will go beyond just letters.

This time around, we will be able to change the color scheme of the plates, as well as the shape of the plate we want to use. Let’s see some examples:

1. Here we have the American-style plate, but with the yellow color, instead of the white.
   
   

2 a) Here we have an American-style, white plate on a Land Rover Defender.

2 b) And here’s a Euro-style, yellow plate also on a Defender.

3 a) Here is a Euro-style, yellow plate on an Evo X.

3 b) And here’s an American-style, white plate also on an Evo X.

Unless, of course, all this is just unfinished placeholders and we’re getting none of this, we should be getting some extra customization options. I wonder if we can even pick FH3-style plates.

[AquaPainter168]

That’s an unfinished version, you can’t tell from that.

[PaulPunkGTR]

So the devs just didnt care? British style plates look so wrong in the game.

[FullNietzsche]

I haven’t paid a lot of attention but I believe most plates of cars I’ve driven have been white. At least one was yellow though. How that works, I have no idea.

[SoftMore15]

The European plates should’ve been white, just like those on the front.

[MottledFlame125]

this needs to be adressed, the amount of carried-over assets that just do look out of place in mexico is quite high (also the tow truck used in the vocho story - just a regular UK one)

[kritbualad]

Don’t worry, this game can also remove the original license plate. Most of them put the license plate sticker by themselves. Because this game uses the same Forzatech Engine as FH4.

[GraceMcClain]

It’s odd that most of the licence plates in the game are the correct white, slightly squarer type, but a load of them on sports cars are the UK style long, thin yellow ones.

[PascalW94]

I hope they bring white EU Plates in the game. They look much cleaner.

[RSB96]

It’s something I’ve noticed and it seems to me a little careless detail for the game.

The Taycan carries the European (British) plate, and others carry the American one, it doesn’t make sense.

[Panamere]

• Wrong license plates for Mexico?

Anyone that has played FH5 for more than an hour at this point has noticed that there are many cars in the game that still have the UK license plates that were present in FH4. Now this “oversight” or obvious laziness would make sense if ALL the cars in the game had UK license plates because that would just be easier to code and implement. But no, not all cars have UK license plates. Some cars have the supposed new license plate design, most notably ones that are making their first appearance in FH5 like the new Ford Bronco and Ford F-450. So someone in the team acknowledges the need to have new, non-UK license plates for the new cars but did not bother changing it for the rest of the cars in the game.

Genuine curiosity: What is exactly stopping someone at Playground Games from spending 10 minutes of their time to have all cars in FH5 have the same license plate? If not 10 minutes, then a whole day maximum, surely? Is that too much to ask to give the setting (map) of the game due respect?

And another thing that makes absolutely no sense to me is that cars in FH3 did not have UK or European license plates but PG made the effort to give cars UK license plates in FH4 but could not give the same treatment to FH5 cars. PG headquarters is in the UK. Nationality bias? No way!

In the image above we have a British car in FH3 with the steering wheel on the left side (wrong side if this is in Australia) that doesn’t have a UK license plate.

Here we have a British car somewhere in Great Britain with the steering wheel on the wrong side with a UK license plate.

Here we have the same car with the steering wheel on the correct side for Mexico but still has the same UK license plate from FH4. You didn’t even attempt to explain this nonsense lore-wise like “oh, we had to import them temporarily from the UK so they still have UK license plates”. No. This is just blatant laziness which stems from not just the license plate, but the placement of the steering wheel. You know the same car model would have to be re-used for future games and that is why most British cars have been LHD despite being featured in settings like Australia and the UK where they are supposed to be RHD.

And this then brings me to other parts of the game that triggers me to no end. Firstly, I want to preface that I come from a country that has only ever been featured in ONE video game, so I do not have any bias towards any particular car makes, models, or anything featured in Forza Horizon. I buy and play these games because I love cars, so much so that this will be my first and only forum post because I’m the only one bothered by this.

• Cars that are clearly not supposed to be in Mexico

Now, if you know something about cars you know a little bit about something called ‘badge engineering’, often called “rebadge”. This is where manufacturers develop a car together and sell an identical car under different badges or pay another manufacturer for the rights to put their own badge on another manufacturer’s car, or somewhere in between.

Forza Horizon has its fair share of rebadged cars. In FH5, we have the Vauxhall Corsa and Vauxhall Monaro. The Corsa is a rebadged Opel and the Monaro is a Holden.

Now, for FH4, which is set in the UK, where Vauxhall cars are actually sold there, this makes perfect sense. To whoever had the idea to include the Vauxhall Corsa, Astra, Insignia, and Monaro in FH4, you know your cars and I applause the attention to detail. However, this has sadly turned into laziness because the same cars are now featured in FH5, with the same badge, name, license plate, and steering wheel on the wrong side.

The thing that triggers me the most is the Vauxhall Monaro, and I’m not even from Australia. So, the Vauxhall Monaro is originally a Holden Monaro. It was sold under different names depending on where it was sold. In Australia, Holden Monaro. In South Africa, Chevrolet Lumina Coupe. In the US, Pontiac GTO. In the UK, Vauxhall Monaro.

Now, if you lived in Mexico in 2002 and wanted a Holden Monaro, do you import one from Australia, pay gigantic shipping fees, and deal with having a RHD car? Or do you just import a LHD Pontiac GTO from your neighbor to the north? Obviously you just buy a Pontiac GTO. So why is there a Vauxhall Monaro in FH5 and not a Pontiac GTO!?

And before I disappear off into the sunset, I want to know one more thing. Where is the Nissan Tsuru? The game is set in Mexico and you don’t have a Nissan Tsuru? Including the Beetle and playing it like it means so much to Mexican culture is just being stereotypical. Anyone under the age of 40 in Mexico has no memories of their interactions with a Beetle.

Thank you for reading. If this at least gets someone at PG to reconsider just license plates then I am happy. Good bye.

[MottledFlame125]

@Panamere

• Wrong license plates for Mexico?

Anyone that has played FH5 for more than an hour at this point has noticed that there are many cars in the game that still have the UK license plates that were present in FH4. Now this “oversight” or obvious laziness would make sense if ALL the cars in the game had UK license plates because that would just be easier to code and implement. But no, not all cars have UK license plates. Some cars have the supposed new license plate design, most notably ones that are making their first appearance in FH5 like the new Ford Bronco and Ford F-450. So someone in the team acknowledges the need to have new, non-UK license plates for the new cars but did not bother changing it for the rest of the cars in the game.

Genuine curiosity: What is exactly stopping someone at Playground Games from spending 10 minutes of their time to have all cars in FH5 have the same license plate? If not 10 minutes, then a whole day maximum, surely? Is that too much to ask to give the setting (map) of the game due respect?

And another thing that makes absolutely no sense to me is that cars in FH3 did not have UK or European license plates but PG made the effort to give cars UK license plates in FH4 but could not give the same treatment to FH5 cars. PG headquarters is in the UK. Nationality bias? No way!

In the image above we have a British car in FH3 with the steering wheel on the left side (wrong side if this is in Australia) that doesn’t have a UK license plate.

Here we have a British car somewhere in Great Britain with the steering wheel on the wrong side with a UK license plate.

Here we have the same car with the steering wheel on the correct side for Mexico but still has the same UK license plate from FH4. You didn’t even attempt to explain this nonsense lore-wise like “oh, we had to import them temporarily from the UK so they still have UK license plates”. No. This is just blatant laziness which stems from not just the license plate, but the placement of the steering wheel. You know the same car model would have to be re-used for future games and that is why most British cars have been LHD despite being featured in settings like Australia and the UK where they are supposed to be RHD.

And this then brings me to other parts of the game that triggers me to no end. Firstly, I want to preface that I come from a country that has only ever been featured in ONE video game, so I do not have any bias towards any particular car makes, models, or anything featured in Forza Horizon. I buy and play these games because I love cars, so much so that this will be my first and only forum post because I’m the only one bothered by this.

• Cars that are clearly not supposed to be in Mexico

Now, if you know something about cars you know a little bit about something called ‘badge engineering’, often called “rebadge”. This is where manufacturers develop a car together and sell an identical car under different badges or pay another manufacturer for the rights to put their own badge on another manufacturer’s car, or somewhere in between.

Forza Horizon has its fair share of rebadged cars. In FH5, we have the Vauxhall Corsa and Vauxhall Monaro. The Corsa is a rebadged Opel and the Monaro is a Holden.

Now, for FH4, which is set in the UK, where Vauxhall cars are actually sold there, this makes perfect sense. To whoever had the idea to include the Vauxhall Corsa, Astra, Insignia, and Monaro in FH4, you know your cars and I applause the attention to detail. However, this has sadly turned into laziness because the same cars are now featured in FH5, with the same badge, name, license plate, and steering wheel on the wrong side.

The thing that triggers me the most is the Vauxhall Monaro, and I’m not even from Australia. So, the Vauxhall Monaro is originally a Holden Monaro. It was sold under different names depending on where it was sold. In Australia, Holden Monaro. In South Africa, Chevrolet Lumina Coupe. In the US, Pontiac GTO. In the UK, Vauxhall Monaro.

Now, if you lived in Mexico in 2002 and wanted a Holden Monaro, do you import one from Australia, pay gigantic shipping fees, and deal with having a RHD car? Or do you just import a LHD Pontiac GTO from your neighbor to the north? Obviously you just buy a Pontiac GTO. So why is there a Vauxhall Monaro in FH5 and not a Pontiac GTO!?

And before I disappear off into the sunset, I want to know one more thing. Where is the Nissan Tsuru? The game is set in Mexico and you don’t have a Nissan Tsuru? Including the Beetle and playing it like it means so much to Mexican culture is just being stereotypical. Anyone under the age of 40 in Mexico has no memories of their interactions with a Beetle.

Thank you for reading. If this at least gets someone at PG to reconsider just license plates then I am happy. Good bye.

Thanks for your post. 100% agree with everything. It’s a lazy & ill executed job of simply slapping existing content in a new world without giving it any second thougt - but proclaiming “celebrating car culture” and “embracing mexico” - so, so disappointed with FH5.

[T_Ghost]

The bad/lazy choices you pointed are probably because they came up with a brand new game engine and most resources were put there, instead of an accurate car collection like it was in FH4. Also there is the fact that British folks have a tendency to be oblivious about other cultures, but not accusing PG of that, giving the benefit of the doubt that they probably had competing priorities with the new engine being a resource hog.

[LUKE3991]

@T_Ghost

The bad/lazy choices you pointed are probably because they came up with a brand new game engine and most resources were put there, instead of an accurate car collection like it was in FH4. Also there is the fact that British folks have a tendency to be oblivious about other cultures, but not accusing PG of that, giving the benefit of the doubt that they probably had competing priorities with the new engine being a resource hog.

The engine is developed by Turn 10 isn’t it? I’m sure PGG and T10 tweak aspects for their respective games but I wasn’t aware PGG were responsible for building it.

[AlwayzIntoWeed]

Having modern cars with RHD is another example of said laziness.

[RallyzX360]

@AlwayzIntoWeed

Having modern cars with RHD is another example of said laziness.

Curious comment, a third of the world drives on the left (incl. the UK, India, Australia and Japan), so cars are still made with right and left hand drive.

[AlwayzIntoWeed]

@RallyzX360

@AlwayzIntoWeed

Having modern cars with RHD is another example of said laziness.

Curious comment, a third of the world drives on the left (incl. the UK, India, Australia and Japan), so cars are still made with right and left hand drive.

And Mexico?

[FullNietzsche]

@T_Ghost

The bad/lazy choices you pointed are probably because they came up with a brand new game engine and most resources were put there, instead of an accurate car collection like it was in FH4. Also there is the fact that British folks have a tendency to be oblivious about other cultures, but not accusing PG of that, giving the benefit of the doubt that they probably had competing priorities with the new engine being a resource hog.

I’m British, I think we’re all well aware that the rest of the world doesn’t have Vauxhalls or think that all other countries use yellow number plates. We see enough American and other international movies / TV to see what colour they use.

It’s just laziness, there’s no need to tar all British people with some negative brush here.