Now that we’re two days into this new look for the game, here’s a listing of where things stand now, or at least as much as I’ve noticed:
First off, Backstage Passes are available for purchase for 250 Forzathon points. Yes, you can only purchase a single pass per week. Yes, this is completely insane. If there’s any hope of getting anything changed about the game going forward, this is at the top of my list.
As of yesterday, all of the cars listed in the opening post have been added to Horizon Backstage. Unfortunately there is still a limit of one purchase per car, which is also something I’d like to see changed. Still, finally got those four missing PO cars on my main account, so that’s a full garage at long last.
The normal Festival Playlist menu option now leads directly to your Festival history. Yes, you will keep clicking on this out of habit due to years’ worth of muscle memory.
There are still daily and weekly Forzathon challenges, just as there were during the playlist. You can find those on the #FORZATHON menu option under the Horizon Life tab. From what someone said, the current set seems to be repeats from summer of series 76. This is also where the Forzathon points shop lives, which currently has the usual wheelspin/super wheelspin, a rare car, and the Backstage Pass available.
The main map currently has a group of seasonal events on it. This includes the usual three seasonal championships and PR stunts, a Trial, and a seasonal Playground Games. Right now they’re all repeats from summer of series 77. I’ve heard (but cannot confirm) that it’s still possible to get the “A Summer in Pole Position” achievement by completing the three championships. The annoying part is that there’s no central listing for these events, so there’s not a fast way to see what prizes they offer. However, when traveling to any of them on the map and selecting them, you’ll be able to see the prize before you start them.
There are also two different Showcase Remix events active right now. This is handy for anyone who needed to complete the Star Card task associated with them.
The repeating seasonal championships and PR stunts on the expansion maps are still there, so the “Seasoned to Perfection” achievement on Fortune Island should presumably still work. Also handy for farming Star Card tasks or earning some extra wheelspins.
Super 7 High Stakes still has unique prizes available this week, though it seems like a repeated listing from the past month or two.
It looks like you can still get ranked for Online Adventure, but the rewards only include wheelspins, and the unique hats for each rank have been removed. Why? This makes zero sense.
So…where does that leave us? Honestly it all feels a bit silly, even once you get past the egregious Backstage Pass issue. Yes, the Playlist is over, but 90% of it is still on the map (everything but the Photo Challenge and the two monthly tasks, in fact). Will the events on the map just keep repeating series 77 forever? Why didn’t they keep something similar to the Playlist screen instead of just scattering them all over the map? We were told that we could complete tasks to earn Forzathon points, but it’s just the same tasks as were available during the Playlist, and now we can’t even spend them efficiently. Why were the ranked rewards all removed? Why is there still a limit on redeeming cars from Horizon Backstage? This all feels very half-baked…not that I should be surprised.
The PO cars have been added. I just bought my missing ones. Sadly there is now no way to get the Porsche 911 GT3 RS PO car anymore so that’s the only car I currently miss (and the HW Legends pack ).
One other thing I’ve noticed is the monthly (series) rivals still exists. As far as I can understand there’s no point or benefit to completing it.
It just feels like a void in the fh4 game experience. Nothing has really changed but the removal of the series/season rewards and a few unobtainables added to the shop. There’s no clear point to the change other than avoiding a minimal effort to correct the playlist to include everything going forward.
Yeah, you can still get the PO Porsche from playing the Eliminator.
And you’re right: if this was how everything was going to wind up, then why not just keep repeating the same Playlist series that have been on loop for the past two years? Just leave that going, add the missing cars to Horizon Backstage, and you’re done.
I suspect the weekly challenges will (randomly) change every week, otherwise we will be rewarded this week’s Stratos and Hummer for eternity. With any luck, some backstage cars will be rewarded, so I need less passes.
I’m guessing what the devs get out of this is that they could program the game to select (random) past evens from the playlist history for the season changes and can leave the game be now. As long as the servers run, no need to do anything. Like how FH3 is currently operating.
Use it in playground games when the c class winter comes around. It’s fun to ram people into oblivion with. 3 of us stopped any scoring during a round of king. It’s a fun monster style vehicle and it handles well.
Haven’t ever thought of that…and that could be a lot of fun lol. All that weight and power with handling. Not sure why it handles so well though. Always stumped me why some of the vehicles in the game handle and others don’t. Like the manx…I mean I literally grew up around these things, and they slide all over. In the game though…amazing circuit vehicles.
).
