There are a few problems with the track selection in Horizon 2 that I think are worthy of discussion, in connection with the course count (80 or more) in Horizon 3. If the developers could look at these points (or already have looked at them), I and I think a lot of other players would appreciate it. Thank you.
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In Horizon 2, the selection of tracks did not fully utilize the open world. There are corners and roads that aren’t used anywhere for any track in the game. Example: 6:05-6:50 here.
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Horizon 2 only has one large “mega”-track: The Finale. Horizon 1 (2012) had two mega-courses: both the Street Race finale course (“Red Rock to Dam”), and the Boss Finale course (“Goliath”). An open world inherently offers many possible long and challenging mega-tracks, but we only got one in Horizon 2.
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Some tracks in FH2 had variations. This is great because variations are good, more tracks is good. But, some variations re-use the same roads and are very similar to each other, while nearby corners/combinations get ignored. An example is the town circuit(s) in St. Martin.
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The rotation in multiplayer seems to have glitches. I am level 500+. East Shore Street Race in Nice (great track! Could use a “Reverse” option!) has only shown up once or twice. I’ve barely ever seen it. Meanwhile, the town circuit (with variations) comes up on every single Road Trip that takes place in St. Martin.
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Horizon 2 has no “Reverse” layout version for the courses. Traditionally in other racing games, switching the Start and Finish line was a great way to increase variety without too much new investment. It’s a way to more fully utilize the existing assets, the track decisions that the developers already made. It would give “more game” for less than the cost of designing a whole new unique track.
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Sometimes in Online Road Trip, the trip to get to the next event is only 200 meters. It goes by faster than the loading screen. The road trips are a great opportunity to drive, and especially to drive on a unique route(!), but this opportunity is sometimes lost because the event randomizer doesn’t filter out ultra-short road trips. This is a moot point if Online Road Trip mode no longer exists…but Online Road Trip was great!
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Head-to-Head (“Bumper to bumper”) races don’t utilize your car’s current heading. If I drive to a certain road, and initiate a head-to-head with the goal of racing on the road ahead (forward), sometimes our cars are magically turned around at the beginning of the race. This might be because the head-to-head races piggyback on preset tracks. But when I initiate a head-to-head, my goal is to race the upcoming stretch of road, not to race the road behind me. If head-to-head race used a random GPS destination and respected the direction that your car is facing, this would be a way to race particular/favorite roads at will without having full custom courses.
Also, if you want to just race a certain track against AI drivers (or for X number of circuit laps)…you cannot do this. There’s no Custom Single Race mode (“Free Play” in Forza 6). So, the existing tracks cannot be used by the player at will. With point #5 above in mind, there is no way to ever play East Shore Street Race, so this thing that was put into the game goes under-utilized.
Again, if the developers could look at these points (or already have looked at them), myself and I think a lot of other players would appreciate it. Thanks.
No disrespect ment