Forza Horizon 6 wishlist :)

Miscellaneous General Forza Topics Forza Miscellaneous
1

While there is no FH6 forum yet for me to put this post in, I think there’s no time better than now when the development is likely just starting off to suggest features that I’ve wanted to see since I’ve started off with Forza Horizon 3 in 2016.

  • more elaborate story mode.
    The Horizon team has been trying to push this with every iteration and yet we’re not quite there yet. I’d really like to see high quality cutscenes throughout the whole game, with an interesting story along with it. Please, try to lean back more into the festival/party/motorsport feeling that the first and second Horizon games emitted. While the current Forza Horizons act like they focus on elements like that, it doesn’t feel that way. Simply mentioning “there’s a party going on” doesn’t make you feel like you’re in that party, you need to actually experience it.

  • bigger track list and radio stations.
    Take a look at GTA V, while they’ve got only around 10-20 tracks per station, they’ve got more than 20 radio stations. And that’s even though you don’t spend a lot of time in the car in GTA V because you’ll be around on foot a lot. For game focussed around a music festival where your radio is constantly turned on and songs used in every race, the soundtrack has a miniscule track size. So far in both of the Horizon games I’ve played a lot, I was able to tell what song would play after the first sound and already have it running in my head because it’s been jammed into my head as often. The “mere exposure” effect in that case really makes me dislike the songs because I simply cannot hear them as often.

  • more interesting track and street design.
    The more open world your games is the harder it is to have high fidelity in detail, I get it. But just look at games with closed off streets vs Forza Horizon. Look at Need for Speed 2015 with it’s gorgeous city at night with highly detailed surroundings and fun street designs. Or look at the big brother Forza Motorsport with the “Forza lore” tracks I think they’re called now, such as Dubai, Rio, Prague, Swiss. While I usually have more fun driving actual motorsport tracks, these showcase tracks look marvelous (I’m down bad for the new Motorsport with all of it’s new tracks). I’m not asking for that high amount of detail, yet I think even Forza Horizon 2 did a bit of a better job of making environments look visually interesting. We need more of that.

  • put more focus on the cars (with Forza Vista)
    I loved the original vision of Forza Vista with FM4 up to FM6 where each car with FV had its own narrated cinematic experience with those pretty cool stats VFX. Things like this really just made me start caring for the cars on a deeper level. With Forza Horizon you never get to know the cars, you’re bombared with hundreds of them and race them but you never really get to know them if you haven’t done so before. It feels like you’re racing “just another car”, while in Forza Motorsport and alike you have a bit of a deeper connection. I think the campaign in FH5 might put a little more focus on cars, for example with the Volkswagen Vocho, and I’d love to see more things like that. Having Forza Vista as a Motorsport-exclusive is alright to me (especially because it might take up too much storage in FH), but still, I’d like to see more attention being put on the cars and their history.

  • make tuning more fun for beginners and enthusiasts alike.
    I never really got into tuning with Forza because it seemed overwhelming. I thought I’d never get into it if I wasn’t really motivated to teach myself more about it. But look at NfS 2015, for example. That game makes tuning deep but also fun and easier to understand and get into. That’s mostly due to every part having it’s own bigger visual focus in the menu along with (fairly) interesting descriptions. The menus really made it easier to understand what’s good for racing and what’s good for drifting. Horizon is lacking that completely. I know some car enthusiasts that are also interested in tuning, one of them tuned his own car, yet in Forza they only choose the most expensive parts because the stats improve, without being able to tell me much about the parts. I bet they could if they played NfS 2015.

  • … japan

What do you guys think?

3 Likes
2

Not at this time. We’re taking all Horizon related feedback in the existing threads. Thanks.

3

Maybe worth it, to reactivate this topic?
I think some of OP’s points are good.

4

It would sound like a good idea as FH5 is slowing down somewhat after the release of series 43 (Midnight Muscle) and the announcement of the game coming to PS5, so here’s my wishlist/prediction for FH6:

Location: South Korea

While it’s understandable that the fans would want a location that’s either Japan or Germany, it would be too ambitious for FH6, not to mention it would clash with other racing games such as Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Assetto Corsa EVO.

The increasing presence of Hyundai vehicles in both FH5 and FM8 may seem to suggest that if it’s anything by past trends of cars coming as DLC, such as for example, Australian cars added to FM6 hinting to FH3 being set in Australia, and British cars leaked for FM7 back then hinting to FH4 being set in Scotland, then it’s likely FH6 could be set in South Korea. Come to think of it, a South Korean map for FH6 would bring back the diversity not seen since FH4, plus the “seasons” system could be put in place again.

Car count: Over 950 to 1,000 cars at launch

Taking into consideration every single car in FH5, licensing not withstanding, with the exception of Forza Editions, Welcome Pack cars, promotional cars and even the “movie cars” (Fast X, Barbie, Universal), FH5 would have 855 cars. Fans wouldn’t want to see cars from the previous game omitted at launch and held back as “recycled” content for a particular update or series, so it’s best that no car from the previous game, assuming there are no licensing issues, would ever be left behind.

This would result in FH6 releasing with the largest car list in Forza history, and it’s apparent they’ll want to go for 950 to 1,000 cars, and that’s rather plenty to add for the next game at launch. However, some older car models are reportedly being re-scanned ahead in advance and it’s likely these will end up in this game. And this count is not even accounting for any Car Pass cars, the VIP Pass or the expansions yet.

Personally, I don’t want to see any Forza Editions or Welcome Pack cars anymore as they artificially increase the car count with them not being actual cars to look forward to.

Now, aspects of the game I wish to see in FH6:

No more FOMO mechanics

One of the biggest complaints surrounding FH5 is the FOMO aspect which revolves around the Festival Playlist, where usually, new cars get added every month, and players have a one-week window to obtain a new car. While it does take about an hour or so to obtain one or both cars from a week in the Festival Playlist, some players would have reasons for being unable to play, and that this will eventually bore players into doing something like this.

A solution would be to make the Festival Playlist cars available in the Autoshow once the playlist has ended, so that players could buy them with in-game credits, so that it’s always available for them even if they have missed out. If players won the reward car from the Festival Playlist, then that would mean a free reward car they can use before it’s available on the Autoshow.

These mechanics also encourage bad habits such as “sniping” auctions in the Auction House with hyper-inflated prices, and that the Backstage mechanic isn’t any better as a solution - while these cars may end up there, a selection of cars picked by Playground potentially coming to the Backstage are picked by popular vote, with the winning duo of cars eventually making their way in. And with Backstage Passes being the main currency of getting such cars, you could only get these cars once, which means that should you want to buy a duplicate, or accidentally sold or removed one, you’re out of luck.

Another would be that if a car that could only be unlocked through Horizon Stories or discovering them from a barn find has already been obtained, that car can be purchased again on the Autoshow.

Better storytelling and writing

Most of the game’s storytelling aspects, even including the Horizon Stories feel really flat and not cinematic enough, where we’re just staring at a wide shot of two people standing next to a car, and the speaking character isn’t even moving their lips. I’d like a mix of better and more intuitive writing into various scenarios, as well as more cinematic cutscenes and interactions so we get a glimpse of how the other characters are like. Make it more of “show, don’t tell”, so we feel like we’re really there in the game’s world, foreseeing our role in the story, and so we’re properly introduced to the characters.

Further improvements to customization

I’d like to see decal and sticker placement on windows and other places of the car that were previously impossible in the past, like in the livery editor of Gran Turismo 7. Of course, more individual dress-up parts (wings, bumpers, hoods, side skirts, etc.) full wide body kits and rims are always welcome. But for the most part, we need redesigned Forza aero or more options for it as the usual Forza wing isn’t exactly that pretty to look at. Lastly, the ability to change headlight colors would also be a great idea.

1 Like