With “developer” being their job their driving ability has no relevance to their qualification as a dev.
BUT for their livestream cast they certainly should consider having a better driver/presenter. It’s atrocious to watch them play at times.
The general feel is the cast doesn’t know much about the actual game mechanics.
They are presenting new rims and can’t even remember one of them? No preparation whatsoever.
If I would be in charge for the streams I would’ve changed the cast a long time ago. They are representing the game and seem unprepared, clueless and more interested in Playlist puns than actual additions.
I wouldn’t accept such a bad light being shed on my product.
For example everyone can see Kelly doesn’t feel convenient with being there. Why keep dragging her in?
The cast generally consists of Torben who is the senior game design, and previously Mike Brown the former creative director. I would hope these 2 people know a lot about this game and it’s mechanics so I’m not sure if I agree with you on that point.
In saying that clearly a lot of players seem unsatisfied with these live streams so clearly there’s room for improvement. Maybe they should prerecord gameplay that is then played during the live stream. That way the experts such as Torben can continue to discuss these features without worrying about someone doing a subpar job at demoing said feature.
They have/had lead positions. They don’t necessarily know much about details of the game mechanics.
I am a lead in our company as well and many of our employees know a lot more about details of our products than I do.
Certainly in the case of Mike I highly doubt it. He always felt very disconnected from the actual gameplay.
Some of Torbens remarks on car specific things (tuning, tire choices) were also wrong. But he at least seems to me like the person that still cares the most about the game.
Nonetheless, I hope they improve the quality of the streams in the future.
Mike Brown’s incompetent driving during live streams was egregious.
You can be a good creative director yet suck at playing the game, that’s okay.
But thinking your crappy skills are good enough to display during a live stream to demonstrate your product, that just shows professional cluelessness.
Or possibly courage. Pure speculation on my part, but just from an outside perspective: he obviously knew his skill level going into it, so his intent may have been to put himself out there in an attempt to personalize with the player base. Completely ignoring it I’m sure would have brought about the 180 degree opinions that “he doesn’t even attempt to play the game so that’s why he’s completely clueless.”
I really liked FH4 Eliminator with that map. Better prizes too. Don’t really play it in 5, although I have won one. Just don’t like driving across acres of flat section of map trying to look out for one random building.
Personally, I feel like small tracks is what the Horizon 5 map is in desperate need of than a modern city. Horizon 4 had quite a sizeable amount of smaller circuits which made D-Class vehicles fun. Horizon 5 really doesn’t have that many small circuits (and most of them are still large), so they’re aren’t as many opportunities to have fun in cars that take over 10 seconds to get to 60 MPH.
I’m not sure if anybody else noticed this, but the sense of speed in FH5 is also very different to previous Forza games. Everything feels slowed down. I don’t like it.
In FH4, 200MPH felt fast, now it feels like a lovely Sunday drive.
Maybe that’s why lower class vehicles were more fun in FH4. I loved running by 140HP Abarth 131 around all the technical circuits trying to beat the AI. Good times.
I think that’s because the map is so huge and roads are stretched out. In FH4 there more close around you, much more traffic too. So you blew past stuff closely which adds to the sense of speed. You’re right we’re missing that in FH5. It gets better in Guanajuato though but you can’t reach very high speeds there
Modern urban environment for a racing game takes a lot of effort, so it’s not something I’d expect from Forza devs at all. I bet that the next game is also going to be a desert (or some other open field) with a few checkpoints thrown around.
A desert can look really cool. Have you ever played Mad Max? That map was awesome! And huge too. When you go into The Big Nothing (using cheats) there’s still so much more you can explore. It at least doubles the size of the map
Don’t really play it in 5, although I have won one. Just don’t like driving across acres of flat section of map trying to look out for one random building.