All goodwill I've had towards Forza Horizon is gone. It's over

Forza Horizon Forza Horizon 5 FH5 Discussion
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Now I’ll be honest I wasn’t really that pumped for the expansion in the first place. Even I found it odd I was super impatient and largely apathetic to the nearing date of the Expansion but to be fair even as boring as FH5 is I can still find some enjoyment in the map and cruising around and such.

But considering Forza Horizon largely had a very strict release schedule that was insanely broken my interest for what the expansion was going to be was piqued. Normally Horizon games release their first DLC strictly in the middle of December, usually on the 16th. So, considering even right now, nearing the middle of June I really was curious what was taking them so long with the expansion.

No way it could’ve been PGG ripping themselves off yet AGAIN right? Six months is a long time to wait, and big things in gaming take time. What could we get? Something entirely new right? Not another “bad weather island” expansion, right? Not another lazy, childish collaboration, right? RIGHT?

Well, in my ever declining respect for PGG, they really expected us to sit aside and wait six months, only to just completely rip-off their own product and make another Hot Wheels expansion. Talk about lazy, at least Fortune Island had an entirely different vibe despite looking and playing the exact same as Storm Island.

From the looks of the thumbnail alone it looks exactly the same as FH3’s Hot Wheels expansion too. Brightly-colored orange tracks twisting and twirling over a jungle and general tropical setting. I can’t imagine this being any different; no matter how they change up the layout, it’s still just going to be driving around on plastic orange tracks.

As far as I’m concerned this is the final nail in the coffin. This is where I get off. I’m done with Forza Horizon for the time being. I’ll eventually get around to it maybe (I was one of the clowns that bought Premium and thus get this recycling bin of a DLC for free) but right now I’m completely convinced Horizon is beyond redemption. No matter how bad I thought it would get, it just kept getting worse.

The lack of a new gameplay loop, minimally improved map, no progression, obnoxiously g-rated vibe, terrible and short soundtrack, appealing to the CCP, I really was completely mentally shaken on how terrible this game overall turned out. It’s not gonna kill anyone but if you’re coming to Horizon 5 expecting a grounded, car-focused experience with a bit of sublime autophile fantasy sprinkled over it, this isn’t your game.

Obviously in the grand scheme of Forza, me and how I think the game should be handled doesn’t matter at all. But personally to win me back it’s going to take a LOT of work that I don’t think PGG has the desire or energy to put in. It’s all about the money a game will pull in nowadays, and casuals who can’t seem to stop bragging about Horizon’s pretty landscapes and have a complete ignorance of cars seem to keep flowing in the cash.

Feel free to keep playing guys, but don’t complain when the rotting corpse of this franchise begins to start smelling.

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And then there are those like me that badly wanted to play the Hot Wheels expansion but missed out so are reasonably happy with this. I was able to buy a used copy of the base game and really enjoyed that. Still haven’t finished.

That said I’ve cut down my playing of Horizon 5 to just the weekly playlist. The rest of the time I’m playing Need for Speed Heat and Burnout Paradise City remastered. Both have awesome maps. I’m finding the Horizon 5 map a bit of a let down.

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Another gimmicky toy based DLC, but the fact its not going to be my little pony/piñata fortnite world is hugely disappointing for me! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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The only saving grace about this new expansion is that it isn’t that dumb Jurassic World expansion that some crackpots were convinced would happen.

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There’s still another DLC. It could have my little dinopony piñatas. Indominus Rarity. Rawr.

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I missed FH3 so I am excited for this expansion. I get why for older players it’s not so exciting, but thank you for the Golf I got gifted from you. I will be sure to drive it there. Hope the next expansion is more what you are looking for. :+1:

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I feel pretty much the same now. It’s clear where this game is aiming for, and what type of people it’s pandering and catering to, and I’m just not one of those people. So like I’ve said on repeat, I hardly touch this game anymore.

In all honesty, I’m not too bothered about the Hot Wheels expansion, I really wouldn’t have minded it at all… If it were the 2nd expansion. But the fact that they’ve prioritised getting this expansion out before the more serious one is just a massive boot in the face to me. And it makes me extremely worried if the 2nd expansion is going to be yet Another kindergarten special.

I’m very glad I had the foresight to not pre-order or drop north of £80 on this game, ecstatic, in fact. FH4 was just the catalyst for the direction this game is going in, and FH5 has just set it in stone. So I doubt I’ll even bother buying the next game in the series.

I never would have thought that one of my most loved franchises would turn into one of my most hated… But the gaming industry as a whole is pretty much doing nothing but disappointing me over the past couple of years, so I’m far beyond getting worked up about it now.

I’m pretty confident that, sooner or later, all of these questionable direction changes will bite them in the butt, and I will laugh, profusely, when they ‘return to their roots’. But until then, this game is just background noise to me.

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Hahahha

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It’s funny how much this game echoes the original Tony Hawk series that was very prevalent throughout the 2000s.

The game started out as a massively successful extremely sports game, started to focus on goofy, wacky antics rather than skateboarding, and by the time they realized the series was falling apart they released a “return to roots” title that was largely ignored and undersold because EA’s new skating game was now out and basically dethroned and killed the franchise right then and there.

With Test Drive Solar Crown on the way next year, I can’t help but feel history will repeat itself.

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Hyping up a game that’s not out yet is better/different, how?

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I hope TDSC don’t return to the roots
with only one single kind of road :wink:
hqdefault

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These devs haven’t had an original idea since Eliminator. December 2019? Are you freaking kidding me? They’ve spent the past 4 playlists just recycling old cars. Everything is some recycled idea from another game, but made worse, because that’s what PG does. EVEN THE EXPANSION is recycled.

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They’re catering to the 10 million casual gamers that will buy whatever they put out, and don’t care how raw, unfinished, or just straight up bad it is

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Players finally realising they’ve been hoodwinked into thinking they were going to create some game changing DLC.

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just for info: we are already at 20 million+

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People trying the game out. I tried Minecraft out, I hated it.

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With some teens of millions players giving forza horribleizoncutandpaste at the very least a tryout. It should entice some other game studio to give a car racing game a try. There’s a good fanbase of players and for a “GOOD” game, I would bet every single player of FH5 would play. Because most gamers play more than one game anyway.

Edit, PGG will probably flag this as inappropriate content.

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Well, it won’t matter since, for every player who leaves, they get 100 more casuals who just want to throw cars around in loops, but man, did I feel happy for not wasting $70 on the Ultimate Edition, nor buying the Expansion Pass.

What’s funny is that I do love Hot Wheels and was thinking of getting HW Unleashed on the PS5. Just not a fan of how it works with Forza’s physics and the lack of freedom the Hot Wheels map gave you in FH3.

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Wait, the first expansion is going to be Got Wheels again? Well, so much for returning for the first expansion, I guess.

I don’t even mind the sillier expansions like that, heck the Lego one ended up being my favorite thing from FH4. However, to just recycle an idea from two games ago? Is it going to come with another racing suit that has the FH3 logo on it to match the one they copy/pasted from FH4?

Well, regardless, I’ll take a wait and see approach.

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There can’t be that many players with more money than… sense… umm, yeah, that didn’t sound quite so stupid when I started typing it lol.

I’d been saving beans for the expansion, thinking about adding dlc cars at the same time, to support the game in a real sense. All they had to do was show me they cared enough about the game in the last 6+ months. I guess I have some money for something else now. Maybe by the time the second expansion drops they’ll have changed my mind. IF I’m still playing.

EDIT : Since this was bumped to my attention with a fresh like I have to add since commenting above I stumbled on the Premium add-on Sale and, well, can’t pass up a bargain, lol, so yeah, I bought into the hype. Ah well, at least it’s shiny ! (the new Hot Wheels paint vinyl thing… and I do love the Red Lines… been mocking them up on some wheels for a while, now they are for real ! that alone is almost worth the admission price :wink: )

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