Simcade. If the physics model was closer to motorsport it’d be much better. I don’t see why they feel the need to make them feel miles apart. That’s just weird. Imho Horizon should feel just like Motorsport yet allow you to do all the stuff that Horizon allows you to do. Motorsport = track day, Horizon = everything else. Same feel, same sound, same look. Just share the assets 'n stop trying to be 2 separate entities.
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Such a fun and entertaining read. Although a bit long. Whoever made the original comment has obviously never driven a real car. Never driven into a brick wall or a wooden fence, or headed blindly out across fields of brush and trees.
They’ve never driven on snow or across a “semi” frozen lake with pools of clear “unfrozen” water. Or driven across…
FH4 is an arcade game. The one “sim” thing about it “might” be the fact you can tune your cars. Other way to read that is car-tunes, get it?
And the tuning is pretty far from real sim life as well.
FM7 and FH4 both fall short in severl areas. Putting bigger wheels on for one. It lowers your car handling? Anyone who has ever gone to a lower aspect ratio tire (usually with bigger wheels) knows the lower aspect ratio equaling better handling more than compensates for the added unsprung weight of the bigger wheels.
Yeah FM4 is a simcade. Do the math, that’s 3 parts sim and 4 parts cade. Maybe FM8 will be a Simulade when it comes out. 5 parts sim (Simul), 3 parts ade (arcade)
So back to FH4. It is NOT a sim. Not by any twist of the imagination. Not in winter nor in Summer nor in any season in between. Purely an arcade game. And just a game.
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Nope I’ve never driven anything in my life. I walk everywhere:-P And why would I drive into a brick wall or a wooden fence? I have driven out into a corn field once in an old beater. Pretty wild stuff. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Sure it has arcade elements to it but that is simply to give people a different kind of racing besides just track racing like in Motorsport. Otherwise why would it exist if they were identical? As far as the tuning I’m aware that it is not 100% realistic but it does make a difference. What arcade racers have as many tuning options as the Horizon series? It’s usually just throwing parts on a car if that in other games.
I still say it’s not a full on arcade racer and it’s not a Sim. It’s a combination of both.
Your reply to the y post is
Hilarious
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Horizon series is 100% arcade. Having tuning doesn’t make it a sim. That being said arcade doesn’t mean it’s ok to behave badly. Onrush is not even a racing game at all lol
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How does Horizon compare to games where you can’t go off the track at all? Where you can literally floor it around every turn and the walls are always there to save you. That’s arcade to me 100%.
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It depends on how you define “arcade”.
Originally it meant racing games that ran on arcade cabinet hardware, and had more to do with the race format (quick one-off races against AI racers or linked cabinets) than anything to do with vehicle handling. Unfortunately, the term “arcade” has more recently been used to describe greatly simplified vehicle handling popular with many arcade racers even though there’s plenty of other arcade racing games with very good vehicle handling models for their time.
Horizon doesn’t really fall into either of these definitions of the word. The game structure is very much not arcade (most of the game is randomly driving around the world instead of actually racing), and the vehicle handling, while not a hardcore simulation, is still much more realistic than most car/racing games. I’ve heard the word simcade used to describe this sort of middle ground, and I would argue that most popular racing franchises (Forza, GT, NFS, etc) fall into this category rather than just arcade racing.
Modern arcade racers would be something like MarioKart or Sonic racing where it is very quick and easy to jump into a one-off race, and both also very much satisfy the second definition of the word as well with their cartoon physics.
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Oh really 
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Very insightful comment. I’ll get back to you in 2025 when I’ve had enough time to decipher it.
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Simcade
Nothing more
Nothing less
Bang
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It’s funny how even in this topic can see "FH4 it’s not sim so it’s mutch be arcade!!! Well i just leave this here 1.2: Arcade vs. simcade vs. simulators - Virtual Racing School (VRS)
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It doesn’t matter if you call it sim or arcade. It’s a video game. Expect people to do whatever the game allows them to do - sometimes even with the goal of winning. It’s not a gentlemanly sport. Abandon all hope ye who enter.
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The word arcade is getting out of hand lately. Some people are actually describing Paradox grand strategy games as “arcade” when they have more newbie-friendly Civilization-like features instead of being hardcore world simulators.
I like to say that Forza games are “physics-based”. You know, to separate them from “driving-themed action games” or whatever.
And the reason I drive pretty bad over in Motorsport is that it’s not an arcade racer. 
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I work with a few millennials (who grew up on video games) and they claim FH4 to be an “racing game for gear heads”. This is one reason they did not play it for very long, as it seems the best results are produced from tuning the cars and understanding the physics of tuning. These guys weren’t having fun swapping parts to get better cars, much less actually spending time “tuning”. They don’t care to learn how to tune nor all the meaning and physics behind all the tuning settings… they are looking for a straight arcade race game. For me, a Gen-X’er, home video games did not exist en force until the later 80’s so a lot of my youth was spent with my own real-life vehicles. I am no auto mechanic, but on my first cars I changed my own oil, replaced brakes, made minor repairs, etc., mostly learned from my Dad, neighbors, friends, and Chilton’s Manuals from the local library. Because of this, I have much more love for cars (past, present, and future). So, the thing that drew me into FH4 is the simulation-aspect tuning depth and the sim-arcadish racing physics combined with the mostly arcadish game environment. I have played a few racing games which I consider straight simulations (old NASCAR and F1 games) and these became boring…fast! When the entire game is tuning your car and refining your driving line to shave a hundredth of a second on a walled track, it is not for me. I need to smash 12-inch trees, make 1500 foot jumps off cliffs, and dropping a 6.2L V8 with AWD in nearly any car I want is still very cool. It is funny reading through these posts… sim vs arcade… FH4 is neither and both, at the same time. This is why I love it. At its core, FH4 offers more for my racing video game dollar than anything else out there…ever. It offers just enough sim with just enough arcade.
Since I am only a few weeks into FH3, it appears to be the same as FH4 in most respects. I like FH4’s seasons, but I like FH3’s guidance through the career. I felt like FH4 abandoned me after the first couple weeks and now that I’ve played FH3, I like having the hand-guided career mode and the voices telling me about pop-up races, barn finds, events, etc. Even though I can still sandbox if I please. Otherwise, they are basically equal games.
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Good read.
All I can add, this whole thread is one fun read.
FH4 is more fun than I though, I still like FM7 more, and I’m still waiting for the “grand upgrades” we were hearing about for FM7 (but probably aren’t going to see).
And I’m looking forward to getting FM or FM9 and probably FH5.
Let’s just say it’s a lot more realistic than pure arcade racing games such as the NFS franchise, especially if you turn off some assists.
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The amount of air your cars get over little bumps, clearly this IS an arcade racer. I mean a 1/4 mile jump, land, drive away. LOL!
Whatever Simulation factor is left in the Forza Horizon series will surely be gone soon because of all the whining that goes on here.
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