I have a few I like to put down, hopefully some of them can be sent as questions for Torben on the 27th.
1. Where is the AE86’s laser-scanned model? Will some old models be replaced in future updates?
2. Why can’t we still rev our engines on the 3 2 1 countdown in races?
3. Will the main map be expanded, including the potential feature of Mt. Fuji?
4. Why can’t we customize the new Forza aero wing the same way Gran Turismo 7 does theirs?
5. Will we still have ‘baby talk’ from the characters, like in FH5?
6. Will the songs still loop and be badly censored on the radio?
7. Will we still have any form of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)?
I can answer a few of these the reason Mt Fujii is not accessible is more than likely have to be the Japanese Government cause Japan takes serious pride in their culture and such as for the songs censorship thing is cause Forza Horizon games are now rated E for everyone that’s why you’re favorite songs are censored for I’d give anything for the series to go back to be rated T for Teen like Forza Horizon 1 was but unfortunately that’s never going to happen and finally the Festival Playlist is returning however we don’t know if anything has been changed to it or not same thing if we’re going to have the cringy dialogs from Forza Horizon 4 and 5 cause people who have early access couldn’t show certain things probably due to bugs and glitches or something of the sort.
Edit: I meant to say Now Rated E instead of No Shake My Head
For me that’s the wide roads on some locations. Roads need to be wider, i’m not asking for them to be 1:1, but some area allow you to fit 5 cars which is too much.
Customizations, not that much to say, we’re all disappointed, and the Forza Editions cars doesn’t help. The mx5 have that crazy custom who make sense as a Forza Edition cars for show the extreme side of customizations it have.
But the 86 FE ? It’s just a body kit like some cars have, it’s like removing the KRC Japan body kit from the supra for put it on a Supra Forza Edition. Same for the RX3, why a standard model can’t be customized this way ? Why we can’t use the drag customizations from the GTR FE ?
The wuling Sunshine is a good example of crazy custom who make sense to be locked into a FE car, same for the BRZ Offroad, but the rest just feel like they tease us something we could have been able to get on standard car.
I love the map, i’m just a bit sad we doesn’t have more of Hakone and Lake Ashi.
For the tuning menu, i’m sad we’re back on the one of FH5, FM allow to see the speed of each gear when you tune for example which is a lot when you tune your gear.
For me, it’s removing some Japanese cars from past titles (Motorsport 5/Horizon 2 - Horizon 5/Motorsport 2023; for example, Honda Prelude 2000, Infinitis, Lexus ISF, etc.). If these cars don’t make it on May, then I hope they will come to Forza Horizon 6 soon.
I would like to know the internal progress of their vehicle remodeling plan. They once promised to remodel a batch of vehicles in 2024, but the previously promised Focus and AE86 were not remodeled in FH6. I am curious about their internal progress—has the work been affected by the layoffs in the middle of the process?
Most JDM cars are still using very bad old models, especially the AE86. The developers previously promised to remake it but haven’t done so. This game is set in Japan, yet it can’t even get the basic models of Japanese cars right.
Car customization is still too limited, and only the Forza aero parts can be adjusted. Many newer widebody kits are still missing. For a racing game set in Japan, where car tuning culture is so prominent, this is completely unacceptable.
The license plates look terrible and are far from real Japanese plates—the font is too small, even smaller than in FH5.
The number of new to forza cars is quite small, and many brands are missing. Some vehicles that were added in FH5 have disappeared entirely.
There are too many Forza Edition cars—they could have just given those modifications to the standard versions instead.
The city is too small. Although it’s much larger than FH5, the night visuals are quite poor.
The tunnel lighting and shadows are even worse than those in games from 20 years ago.
Why add Baja cars to Japan?
The roads are too wide. While it’s understandable from a gameplay perspective, they’re even wider than those in FH5’s Mexico.
Many Japanese cars are modeled as left-hand-drive USDM versions. While left-hand-drive cars are allowed on the road in Japan and are sometimes seen as more prestigious, it doesn’t make sense to use USDM versions when right-hand-drive models exist for the Japanese market.
There’re no Suzuki and Daihatsu, and there aren’t any Japanese vans or MPVs at all.
Although it’s an early build, it’s already very close to the release state. Even the XSX console version has many bugs, let alone the PC version after launch, which will have to deal with countless different configurations.
I think PG and T10 really need to seriously consider the long-standing feedback from players and respond to it in earnest… Especially regarding vehicle models and customization, as well as the most serious issue of asset reuse. I know that it’s already good enough if the framework, which has been in place since FH3, doesn’t hinder innovation, but necessary new content still needs to be added—especially the features that players have been asking for a long time. Otherwise, this could pose a real risk to their future.
Same ol’ boring wing and front splitter system with new coat of paint
Body parts tied to upgrades, meaning its affected when players use a Tune
No town in the Southwest lake where you see Mt Fuji in the first teaser trailer.
Too many breakable trees
City looks too dull and colorless
No convoy system
Too much focus on cultures unrelated to JDM car culture
The fact the Festival Playlist still exists
The cow dung known as the Eliminator
No option to disable stunt zones
Where the heck is Fujimi Kaido? (seriously, this was the perfect opportunity and you missed it!)
Making the game appeal to kids (again)
P.S: For #8, I dont mean PG focusing on culture in the environment, music, vibes, etc is a bad thing. What I mean that theres a lack of care for the car culture Japan is known for
I’m sure if they make a sort of Mini free game designed specificly around The Eliminator (like Rocket League) with the usual stuff like seasonal pass, it will be popular.
Instead of that they force this thing into FH which reduce its quality
All other issues are secondary to the horrible game design when it comes to racing endgame in my eyes.
Without custom championships (or something by another name but just as or more functional), the game just reeks of that horrible game design companies became obsessed with after the success of games as a service, where they purposely design games to be unsatisfying and leave the consumer always wanting more.
Without tools like custom championships that add depth and replayability, a lot of the positives fall flat, since the game becomes more like a tourist spot that you’re only supposed to spend x amount of time in as opposed to the proper driving sandbox it should be.
They can fix the car models, get rid of the FOMO, stop cutting cars from previous iterations, get rid of the cavernous road widths, and actually get serious about customization beyond the wheels selection, and it will still only move the needle a small amount, because all of these fantastic systems are relatively meaningless without a deep endgame to engage them with. I definitely appreciate an accurate car model with lots of customization, but it really undercuts the experience when I want to go use what I’ve acquired and lovingly built but I’ve done everything the game has to offer three times over and there are no deep systems that motivate re-engagement.
Now obviously having a bigger, better map is also a great way to add depth and value to these other systems, but that’s the hard work. Based on what we’ve seen, it seems like PGG has done that hard work.
But adding in endgame depth is mostly UI and menu options, with relatively simple logic gates and straightforward systems. Not only that, but it’s existed in the franchise before, so an easy reference to help with implementation. It’s the easy work. And yet they still haven’t done it! It feels purposefully malicious at this point, like they’d rather sacrifice the game to some algorithmic nonsense than make the best game they can.
Road reflectors are still not strong enough. On highways, things like orange poles, arrows, road dividers, and mountain road markers do not stand out enough. I hope they improve that and maybe add auto high beams in certain areas.
There is a lack of illegally parked cars, so the city does not feel alive enough.
The seamless open-world design hurts the map logic. It causes landmarks to appear from places where they should not be visible, or multiple landmarks to appear together in ways that do not make sense.
Another example is seeing Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge from a touge road. It is still a better map than the previous game, but I wish they would rethink the map design logic.
If you look at Japan’s geography, most areas are separated by mountains, and then connected by highways and tunnels. So the map should be divided into multiple areas, with long highways and tunnels used as hidden loading points to change the background and skybox.
The closest example I can think of is NFS Payback’s map design.
