Today we’ve revealed the full map in summer season, the first 6 minutes of gameplay, and outlets are posting their hands-on previews. What are you most excited about?
Image: 2160x2700 map
Video: first 6 minutes of gameplay
Xbox Wire: Forza Horizon 6 Preview: Collectibles, Seamless Races and Open World Design Make for the Most Explorable Adventure Yet
Danielle Partis, Xbox Wire Editor
“Japan is such an exciting, interesting, intriguing location that many people have wanted from [the Horizon] franchise for a long time, that we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Design Director Torben Ellert tells us in a new episode of the Official Xbox Podcast. “What would it feel like if the Festival was there? It wouldn’t dominate Japan, it would be part of Japan, and with that we asked: ‘how do we give players permission to just be in Japan?’ Well – tourism.”
Xbox Official Podcast:
In this episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, we’re revving our engines and hitting the streets in Forza Horizon 6. We’re talking to the devs about what it takes to translate the idyllic countrysides and fast-paced cities of Japan into an experience that has something for everyone. So, whether you’re a fan of white-knuckled-down-to-the-last-second racing, just want to vibe and take in the sights, or if you’re a homebody who wants to customize your garages and villas to your heart’s content, this is the episode for you. 00:00 Introduction 01:12 What is the main difference between Forza Horizon 6 from 5? 03:37 How do people approach Forza Horizon Games? 06:07 What informs those Get to the Festival moments 09:41 How did you make that decision to shift that focus from professional driver to aspiring? 13:37 How did you go about tackling the various regions in Japan? 15:39 Have you had to approach how the cars around you drive in the Tokyo City location? 19:34 How did you create the various regions in ways that make them feel independent and unique to themselves? 21:48 How do you make a racing game that can make you stop to explore and how do you how do you approach stopping people? 24:18 Garage building and other customizations 28:45 Are you able to say anything about that mech tease from the end of the Developer Direct trailer at this point? 29:43 Outro
We’re just over a month away and there still hasn’t been a peep about physics or racing endgame.
The map looks great. Lot’s of elevation, multiple race tracks, doesn’t look compromised to serve the eliminator… I’ll be really happy if it turns into a proper racing sandbox and really disappointed if it’s used as a platform for pushing misguided online trends and hyper-specific metrics farming.
This has pretty much been the basis for the Horizon series for many years, with Motorsport boasting the “proper racing” aspect side of the platform, so I see no reason to expect otherwise. I would also expect the same FOMO weekly approach & DL farming/spamming of UGC to continue through the same methods we have seen grow & abused exponentially throughout the last 2 series unfortunately.
Racing endgame? You’re worried about that? After you complete everything you can take your cars out on the time attack tracks and dragstrips ! I’m really looking forward to setting actual times instead of just aimlessly driving around without any feedback whatsoever in the form of a set time.
And you can build up and change your Estate too. The endgame seems way better than ever before!
I would like to know if the auction house is returning,the yt previews ask what you would like to see but never seem to answer.lol.I assume the preview builds only allow a certain amount of progression.
One other thing,to me,the speed seems a little “off” if you know what i mean.I was watching gameriot driving the Civic and thought the speed was in Kmh until i noticed it was in Mph.100mph looked more like 60mph,even the GTR looked like it was going slower than indicated speed.Maybe they will tweak it before release or is this build the one we are getting? Just my thoughts,still cant wait to play in May 15th.
To add. I’ve watched some more vids and im convinced theres a lack of sensation of speed with some cars.
Better than ever before?! We used to have custom championships! That was virtually unlimited endgame. Now we get doled out a pittance of championships each week like we’re children who can’t have too much dessert.
Custom championships, ranked online mode, Club vs Club activities (including club rankings), custom club playlists, drivatar bounties, drivatar team meta game, bucket list challenges… these are just off the top of my head.
Time attack challenges are great, but they are extremely limited and do very little to fulfill the potential this game has for endgame.
EventLab has a ton of potential for endgame, especially if it can be paired with custom championships, but it had severe issues with curation and organization in 5.
Time attack mode is a decent addition, but it’s also just a drop in the bucket. The racing endgame situation is still pathetic compared to FH3, assuming there is nothing more to announce.
There is that racing spec series mentioned offhand at the end of the initial gameplay reveal, I have no idea what that’s about, and it could be everything I’m asking for. But after 8 years and 2 iterations of being completely mishandled when it comes to endgame, I’m extremely skeptical.
If you dont as that much bodykits then at least let us Extreem lower our cars …if it clip the ground nobody would care 100% Also let us adjust the downforce on all wings not only the forza one
a cars stands ( ride height and rims ) can make or break a cars these are facts
other then that…i love the Japan you created it look realy good 10/10 but i get the feeling you guys focused morew on the world and garage then the cars them selfs ( car parts )
So many questions from watching the preview vids.What SH4RPY4935 and TheWarmWind76 suggested regarding championships sounds a good idea.Unfortunately we probably wont find out much more details until the review copies go out.I am assuming most of the bigger details are locked away in these preview copies?
Apart from good championships,decent game progression and,for me,details about the auction house,the rest of the details will be a nice surprise for release day.They may ditch the auction house entirely like they did in FM23,but look how that panned out.
To be honest, I think this is the weakest Initial Drive in the franchise to date.
The biggest positive is that it’s far less obnoxious and more devoid of sensory overload than Horizon 5’s Initial Drive, which is commendable alone.
However, nothing really feels that special about the Initial Drive this time around. It feels tired, for the lack of a better word. Like the developers really weren’t sure what to do with it. I suppose that’s natural for any franchise in its sixth entry, but I don’t think this will be an Initial Drive I’ll want to relive vicariously through a YouTube video like the others.
Having just watched the video for the first time yesterday, I have to agree. I was actually debating whether to even watch it so the initial gameplay would add more to the experience at launch, but decided to check it out anyway as I was really expecting something special. I’ve honestly been feeling somewhat less enthusiastic about this one than I was with 5 & seeing the video only added to that for me.
Given the amount of “work” put into such a long awaited location, I expected a complete break from the norm we are used to seeing, but it felt more like the intro to 4. Nothing to really showcase the experience of the location & build on previous intros. I get it’s only the initial few minutes of gameplay, but as a long time gamer, I’ve always looked forward to the initial gameplay for any game to set the stage for the experience, regardless of how many iterations came before it. Really hoping it’s not a precursor for the overall gameplay & map experience.
