FH5 is steadily decling in quality

This franchise is the definition of fun driving, but seeing how FH5 is treated by the devs, I think this era will come to an end sooner than later.

The patch showed that they don’t intend for the players to have fun, they want you to stick to this game for as long as possible through grinding. How did I draw this conclusion you ask ? Well, the patch came after 8 days after the official release (12 days if we take in the premium release) and all they did was to fix the “exploits”. Sure, they also said that they improved optimization and servers stability, but for me at least it’s exactly the same experience: disconnects, ALERT, can’t engage in H2H in Eliminator, that barren, desolate, soulless Arcade that is impossible to complete, convoy problems, losing the streak if you are disconnected and memory leak and streaming issues after one hour of playtime. I know, some people reported that they saw an improvement, others have the same experience as mine, but the fact that a studio owned by Microsoft can’t fix this mess is simply unacceptable. They had the time and money to develop and test the game, yet here we are.

So, let’s make an abstraction of the messy launch and focus on the present. What should they do ? They should start and work out on those bugs and listen to customers’ requests and complaints. What did they do ? Exactly, they went after a cheesy method implemented by themselves (and mind you, that still took some time and actual play, but somehow it’s an “exploit”) and another method that used a system but not for its intended purpose. Moreover, they also nerfed the custom events payouts, so my plans of creating a custom rally route around 20 or 30 minutes to drive and chill, and in the end to receive a significant amount of money and XP have gone. Why push the players to play the same events over and over instead of letting creativity go wild ? Some of you might say that I can still create it and drive it, but personally, I want to have a reward or a purpose when I do something in a game, I don’t enjoy just cruising. In addition, certain accolades can’t be completed in custom events (or can’t be completed at all, oh well) which hinders more the ability to enjoy the game.

Anyway, I digress. The previous paragraph had the scope of pointing out that PG is taking the route of Rockstar, where instead of fixing the game and improving the QoL, they remove any cheesy method, even if it’s not a glitch or abuse of a broken mechanic. And for what ? As far as I know, you can’t buy credits with real money, so it’s all just for higher playtime by pushing players to grind.

Now, I don’t cry that they fixed those things (however, I still believe that custom routes should be buffed, it is an incentive for players to play them), the message that I wanted to send through this post is to show my disgruntle towards PG on how they handled the game so far. They really should prioritize game stability, fixing broken stuff (accolades, dailies and so on) and improve the netcode instead of going for “get rich quick scheme”.

Also, fix Arcade for the love of God.

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+1

PG won’t listen, many of the problems you’ve mentioned, carried over from FH4.

It’s a shame. Nothing to add more.

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Honestly, I didn’t bother reading any further than this, because you already proved you have less than no idea what you’re talking about. Is the game a mess? Sure is. Does the content of the initial patch have literally anything to do with the dribble you wrote? Not even remotely close, no. There’s more truth in saying I’m king of the multiverse than there is here. Get off the computer, read a book, go for walk, and stop being silly on the internet. It’s embarrassing.

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FH5 is OKish for single player & new nice graphics and feel of car handling.

Anything else (Game design, etc.) is copy & paste FH4.
Including annoying bugs and issues they never cared to fix PLUS adding some which make online / multiplayer close to worthless. Multiplayer is not even in Beta Stadium. Its pure Alpha. Buggy as hell in all aspects / gamemodes. Just a marketing trick to make more sales.

Eliminator is broken since launch. Arena is broken since launch. Online racing is partially possible, but still invisible players and unexplainable framerate drops and lags. Missing time distances to opponents.
Missing time distances to your opponents this was a feature in FH4. Got removed for FH5. Idiotification, times are too complicated to implement or to read for the target group (the more stupid the player, the better - the next version they will remove round times altogether. Enough to know you made it across the line.

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I can’t say this launch has been great, and I’m openly avoiding some areas of the game as they aren’t functioning right (Convoys, Apccolades and Arcade). It’s also got some performace issues for me on Series S with occasional stuttering sound or a crash.

But I’m in this for the long haul, FH has always got 1000s of hours from me and so if it takes some time to fix them all then that’s the way it is.

That being said I’ve kept FH4 installed as there are some parts of that still superior to this, and in the long term if this game doesn’t fix its issues I know I can go back to that.

Edit -

One last thing, its poor launches of the next gen games that make me happy I haven’t gone upto a Series X. £450 isn’t worth it if this is the game we get!

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How is winning 5 seconds long “race” fun?

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Nobody is saying it is. We are saying it is sometimes less not-fun to do a boring 5 second race, than to do a boring 3 minute one.

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Why do you play racing game then?

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I play Forza games to race against other people, or to set fast times. Not to race against AI or do chores. (I do the chores only because much of the content is locked behind them.)

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I agree with you. I play this game because I like racing.
Yes, I enjoy all the racing events that I choose to do.
However, that of the playlist feels like a boring repetitive task. Especially when it comes to things like the weekly challenges.

They’re the same," their defenders will say. That’s true.
But there is a huge psychological difference between the act of playing of your own volition and being forced to play those events for the sake of a locked car.

“You may eat as much of your favorite food as you like.”
“You must eat as many of your favorite foods as we specify. If you don’t eat them, we will punish you.”

Would it be easier to understand the difference if we compare it like this?

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It’s a hotfix, not a patch.
But ok, the game is still a bugfest.

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Best Horizon ever.

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Based on your posts in other threads, I know you are serious.

Here is my list of bugs and observations I’ve compliled so far.

Custom and ranked adventures missing, a major regression from FH4.

Arcade events requirements are often too demanding, they should be lowered / scaled to the number of players and the time limit raised to 15 mins. (Or keep it at 10 mins and lower the requirements even more.)

Still can’t skip the game’s lengthy splash screens which are also still too loud. Complained about for 3 years of FH4, never fixed. Unlike FH4, alt-tabbing while this noisy chore completes does not mute the sound when the game window isn’t in focus.

Launch control makes some cars sluggish and unresponsive for a few seconds, this feature does not work well and should have an option to disable it entirely, just like with other assists such as traction control.

Can’t skip cutscenes in stories, this was a common complaint in FH4.

In stories, some of the requirements are ridiculously easy, so you can cut out a large part of the course and just drive directly to the finish, to a much larger degree than you could do in FH4, exceeding the 3 star time by a minute or more. But some of the other story tasks are very hard even for a skilled player. Vocho In the Baja requires driving perfectly and taking a specific shortcut, and even then you only finish it with barely a second to spare. Clearly not well tested.

Even on a fast PC with the game installed on SSD, the game has multiple short loading screens. The Series consoles apparently do not suffer from this, in which case it appears that PC users get an inferior version of the game which assumes the game could be installed on a slow hard drive, so takes the time to load a loading screen first, which increases overall load times unnecessarily. Sometimes the time to load the loading screen is equal to or greater than the subsequent loading. Everything from photo mode to going to the garage has loading screens or black screens / spinning circles everywhere. On a fast PC with a lot of RAM etc. this is just a bad design and it could have been significantly streamlined.

Can’t control volume of cutscenes, speech or music except radio. Most speech is not affected by the speech volume setting. The streamer mode still doesn’t disable that music either.

Radio regularly turns itself on, this never happened in FH4.

Radio ‘please change back to streamer mode’ bug when a skill song is playing (after the radio has turned itself on), even though you are already in streamer mode.

Missing graphics windshield reflection quality setting that FH4 had. FH4 let you disable this effect entirely, FH5 doesn’t.

Mouse pointer doesn’t hide when using controller, which it did in FH4.

Game is too dark in certain lighting conditions, much darker than FH4 while using the same default brightness setting of 50. If you turn it up to 70, it fixes that problem but then is too bright for most of the time when the game is in daylight.

When you choose ‘get in car’ from free roam, it still asks if you want it delivered to you. Redundant step, of course I do. Issue never fixed from FH4.

Replays not improved from previous games, still poor compared to competitors. No auto TV camera type option.

Syncing FH4 liveries took 45 minutes. Microsoft’s cloud saves still operate at a snail’s pace. ‘We should be done soon!’ is wishful thinking.

Importing FH4 liveries and vinyls must be done laboriously one at a time, no option to import all, or a tick box system where you tick the ones you want and import all those at once.

In Rivals, still no way to change car or tune without laboriously quitting back to free roam first.

In Rivals, bug where after you beat a rival’s time, it subsequently shows you the next rival as the one you just beat.

In Rivals, in ‘my rivals’, if you delete them too quickly, the game crashes to desktop, confirmed bug on PC and console which still exists from FH4.

When choosing a paint from your designs, it still doesn’t show you designs for the car you are in first, you have to manually scroll and identify the compatible ones yourself visually. This is something which works properly in Forza Motorsport 7.

When using fast travel, returning to free roam or changing cars in free roam, still have to wait for a camera panning animation to complete before you are allowed to use the menus or drive the car, which effectively doubles the loading and waiting time for no good reason. Using fast travel during arcade events to save time, like doing repeated jumps, is hindered by this baked-in delay where every second counts. Bad design.

When you fast travel to an event, race or story, sometimes there is no prompt to start the event. You may have to drive forwards some distance, and then the prompt will appear behind you, requiring you to reverse back to it.

‘Saving’ spinning circle sometimes never goes away until you exit an event and restart it, same bug from FH4 still present in FH5.

Can’t zoom out on the map enough to see it all at once. Old games like Test Drive Unlimited let you do this.

When selecting a speed zone or trailblazer on the map, a big text box covers the route or destination so you often can’t see where best to start it from.

Endless nag screens. If you’re in Horizon online and it disconnects, you can choose Horizon solo, but then it will bug you to ask if you want to go online instead. Whatever you do, it never leaves you alone for long.

Crowd still animates at 30fps, regardless of the framerate the game itself is set to.

Eliminator still tells you the destination distance by road rather than as the crow flies, which would be much more useful in a game where taking a direct route is often required. You can be very near the destination but it might say you are miles away.

Eliminator still begins while blocking your view with a big message, and doesn’t display your HUD, meaning you are disorientated and can’t see if there are car drops or opponents nearby and are vulnerable. Never fixed in FH4 either.

Super 7 challenge cards can still appear in a language different to your own, an issue never fixed since FH4.

Rewind is still broken from FH4, sometimes it won’t let you rewind after a certain number of times. This is a hindrance to hitting some bonus boards which require trial and error.

PR stunts refuse to register a time if it is too soon to the previous one, it insists on showing all the many notifications first before it will register any subsequent attempts. This annoyance persists from FH4 and means rewinding to do it again is impossible.

PR stunts have a bug where you can beat the requirement, in the correct car, but it says you are 1mph or 1ft short.

Seasonal goals have a bug where it might tell you to win an event but in fact you need to come second, or it tells you to do a clean rivals lap, but actually only a dirty one works.

If wheels are turned before taking a photo, wheels revert to straight ahead during photo mode. This worked in FH4, now broken.

Online races no longer show split times, a major regression from FH4. Also, game stats don’t keep track of your number of online race wins any more (except Eliminator).

Eliminator problems include invisible players, inability to challenge other players and the finish line not registering when you drive over it.

Custom controller settings insists you assign a button to the map, an annoyance which remains unfixed from FH4.

Forza Link is a regression over the old chat system because it only allows two custom chat phrases rather than four. The two it chooses for you tend to go unused because they are generic things like ‘Hi’. In a race it would be fun to have a mix of phrases which were banter, to apologise for a mistake, to acknowledge good driving, or to say GG at the end for example.

Other players can no longer see your ‘prestige’ level on leaderboards, rendering ‘prestige’ pointless because you appear to be a lower level player than people you are actually higher level than.

Route creator has significant failings and limitations. https://forums.forza.net/turn10_postst169800_The-state-of-the-track-map-event-challenge-editor-is-just-embarassing.aspx

And https://forums.forza.net/turn10_postst170585_Route-Creator---Blueprint-is-effectively-unusable-for-people-putting-a-lot-of-work-into-tracks.aspx (horror story)

Seasonal PR stunts no longer give super wheelspins, only normal ones, a regression from FH4.

Weather bug where it can be stormy, dark and wet one moment but then dry and sunny instantly the next.

At the end of a race you have to wait five seconds (baked-in delay while the screen blurs for dramatic effect) before the scoreboard appears.

In cross country, there are green flags near checkpoints which are not much different in colour to the checkpoint markers, which can be distracting and cause you to miss a checkpoint.

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There’s your problem. Every game that comes out is a mess on PC at launch. I’ve been playing on Series X and it’s been bliss.

Well, some of the problems are across all platforms.

I forgot to mention also that they messed up the livery editor in various ways which I won’t bore people with again, but there’s already a thread on it made by someone else. I just remembered that because I just used it myself.

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Problem is, not everyone can get hands on a Series X with this pandemic and these shortages. Heck, I’m amazed at the amount of people who actually managed to snag one at all. While I’m on this topic, and since it rarely gets mention, optimization on the One consoles has been pretty poor too. I know it was never going to be as strong as the Series consoles, but the quality of the graphics the One consoles took a dive in comparison to Horizon 4 on the One consoles. That, and the load times are worse than Horizon 4 on the One consoles. Takes at least 30 seconds to a minute to just load a standard race, and the Initial Drive had minute long gaps with nothing but a black screen between stages in what was supposed to be a seamless introduction. The game isn’t “broken” like Cyberpunk is/was, but it’s still astonishing how this went unnoticed by the developers.

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I’m on the One X and don’t have those problems. I was amused the other day when reading a post (forgot which thread) where the person was banging on about how the One consoles were slowing everyone else down in loading times and graphics. They failed to take into account it is actually server response times and not the consoles. The graphics have been quite fine for me, i haven’t seen the difference between FH4 and this one but maybe i’m too old and my eyesights going. I don’t think the consoles are the problem per se, i think it’s more that you are unlucky to encounter bugs and glitches every now and then that should have been ironed out before release or with patches specifically for those bugs/glitches. I read about problems players have but strangely i have not encountered them or i have ones that they don’t seem to be affected by. I foresee some big patches coming through over the next couple of weeks…(well i do hope anyway).

replying to some of FN’s lengthy post

I think this is because the game also runs on the original Xbox 1 - not everyone runs it via an external drive

Never understood why they don’t use the system from Motorsport - this has been a bug since FH2

This happened in FH3 and FH4 until it was fixed

This happens far too often - I still have this happening in FH4 if I don’t leave it a second between deleting each rival time

I don’t understand why after pressing rewind to adjust a slight angle, the next rewind will stop after 2 seconds or move you even further back, and this changes on each subsequent press of the rewind

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In what way does that have anything at all to do a HDD, especially a slow one, though?

Simple. It stands to reason that if the game isn’t sure if a particular thing will take say 40 seconds to load, then it knows it better put up a loading screen. If the game knew it was definitely only going to take a few seconds to load, like on Series X or a fast PC with SSD, then the loading screen is redundant.

The loading screens in this game are often unnecessary. Here’s two examples: you can be in your garage, then exit it to free roam. Then fast travel to your garage and you get a loading screen again, before putting you back into it. Even though you’re already there. It should be instant. The loading screen only appears for 1-2 seconds on my PC but it’s pointless.

Photo mode is another one, after I exit photo mode in free roam, there are a few seconds of a black screen and spinning circle. It should be instant because I haven’t changed location. Everything is like wading through molasses rather than being snappy.

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