What can Japan offer for a Horizon game? Compared to UK (FH4), not much.
Japan has the car culture, you have streets and long mountain roads. Not a whole lot of Biomes going on. That’s why many people have been bored with FH4, compared to previous Horizon games. We’re not going to spend 2 or 3 years drifting the streets, it needs much more variety to have an overall exciting game & something new & fresh. Do note also, PGG has stated that they do not create large cities. (Tokyo for example)
Mexico has a bit of everything, similar to Australia. It has several types of deserts, more wild weather, large open jungle, whole variety of gravel & paved roads, mountains, snow, the culture is unique, it has great looking coastal towns, a unique city, it can probably offer more things like stunt areas, construction sites, we’re talking about a detailed & urban city & towns, including the rest of Mexico. The whole list goes on.
I knew from day one playing FH4, my excitement just wasn’t right up there because I started noticing how the map lacked so much and it was just full of open land, green grass and roads.
I think part of that was down to PG themselves rather than the UK itself being a poor location.
FH4’s Britain was/is the type of map I’d expect someone who has no idea about the UK to come up with and just went off stereotypes, not a company in Leamington Spa.
I still think FH2 is the best one they’ve done, they made the map feel bigger than what it was and going from Castelleto or Montellino in Italy to Nice or Sisteron in France genuinely felt like going from one country to another, particularly Castelleto-Nice along that coast road.
No, I was referring to PGG map of Britain, not Britain in real life. Then again, they don’t exactly have a desert or a jungle from what I know.
FH2 was in the same boat, it did lack Biomes, but it did offer more than FH4 like a big airport, the docks, detailed towns, realistic terrain. Each town did have its own vibe as you say, similar to the Crew 2. May not have the best graphics, but each part of the map had it’s own vibe.
That’s something Mexico can offer for a Horizon game.
I’m completely sold on Mexico after the dev blokes gave their vision of it and what it offers. Sounds fantastic. Mexico is literally the least of my concerns regarding FH5.
I was also on the ‘I’d like Japan’ map. But I actually think that Mexico is a much better choice. We’ll see how it plays out in the end, but I think that PGG know how to make a fun map.
They seem confident in their decision and I’m sure it’s well founded
I’m down for Mexico too.
Check out “guanajuato” location in mexico. Looks nice. Although I have a bad feeling about that tunnels.
IMO it is not Japan cause of Cross Country races. If I would have to sort countries by how much I associate them with CC or think of them as a good place to have CC races, Japan would be very low. Even my country (Poland) would be higher.
Mexico seemed like an odd choice to me when I heard it, but what I’ve seen so far looks good and has me interested. They’ve mentioned a volcano, which I just know is going to be disappointing. It’ll either only be a backdrop or there might be some mundane path up it, but I’ll be sad we’re not racing through it in VW Beetles.
I had a shoot for the moon idea that Summer would be Mexico, Fall would be Germany, Winter would be Norway, and Spring would be Japan. That way you could do a map that was mostly 1 biome (City for Japan) and still have that variety. Also I hate other people’s hard drives apparently.
I’m not at all disappointed in Mexico though, especially with the news that Winter may in fact be the best season for those of us who want to drive in ideal conditions at will. I know my idea was ridiculous, but hey, one can dream right?
I fully expect at some point we’ll get Forza Horizon World with a global map (maybe doing something like what Flight Simulator 2020 does with its terrain streaming). That could be a truly amazing game if done correctly, but I don’t expect a game like that anytime soon.
Mexico is an interesting choice. Not sure I would have picked it, but I can see most of their logic. Ultimately it will come down to the actual map layout. If they can get the right mix of urban, country roads and highways with interesting offroad areas to explore, it could be amazing. Especially with the addition of a racetrack (or more than one) and a properly long highway that actually logically connects things.
My only real concerns so far in what we’ve been shown are the lack of a proper snow biome (a small dusting of snow on the top of a giant mountain isn’t likely to be enough for actual snow road racing) and the fact that most of the roads look pretty bad, even the “paved” ones. The bad roads might be realistic for Mexico, but in a game with a bunch of hypercars and track toys there needs to be a respectable amount of actual good tarmac to take them on (not that Horizon has the tiniest shred of realism when hypercars go offroad).
At least the scenery and landscape should be much more interesting than the dreary, repetitive British map in FH4.
All of that comes into play realistically, based on the location of the map. It’s not a made-up GTA map we’re talking about. As my original post, Mexico is the perfect choice for that, as it can provide so many different biomes and different environment, such as skinny roads, wide roads, gravel roads, vibrant colour… the whole package.
My concern, is that too many people are whining about the lack of paved roads, when all we have seen is a very little part of the map. Half of the clips we’ve seen have paved roads, half were gravel or sand. This map is 1.5 larger than the previous. So people need to calm their farm a bit.
You mean left-hand side. Also feel compelled to point out that (I think) Japan is the only left-hand side country left. Most of the world drives on the right.
Edit: just realized you might have been talking about driver location, not side of the road. My second point still stands though.
Unless you can tell me how, I’ll have to disagree. Japan has a lack of Biomes. It can basically provide what FH4 has provided. Gardens, beautiful green grass & farm land, your typical mountains and car culture. Again, they had already stated they do not create big cities, so Tokyo is instantly a no go. Biomes also opens up and allows many other options to be implemented.
