Now with that out of the way, I move onto my thread.
We now know that Forza Horizon 2 will be made for both 360, and the XBox One, using the relevant platforms latest iteration of the franchise, ( X1 using FM5, and X360 using Horizon ) what has me curious is, since FM5 can and does use Open Wheel cars, will this be a unique feature to X1’s FH2? Or will they, because of the X360 limitation of not being able to utilize Open Wheel Suspension, keep these cars out of the game as a whole? This really has me wondering. We also know we now have rain, but don’t know if it is exclusive to X1 or is on both, I don’t think this can even be answered yet, but I figured it was worth starting a conversation about it until we know more.
UPDATE 8/5/14
We now know for certain there will be open wheel cars in Forza Horizon 2 as of today, with the announcement of the Ariel Atom. But we still do not know for sure if it will be just on XBox One, or for both versions. Time will tell.
This is my thought, because it would almost be unfair to those who still use 360 to not have the same cars that X1 would have, I only own the X1, so one would think I would be all for it, but I rather have equality content wise that have the open wheel cars when X360 cannot. But I can’t help but have a small inkling they’ll still include them. It’s only speculation at this point however.
Does anyone else think it would fair, or unfair here?
One way or the other, somebody is going to lose. Either the X1 version gets restricted to match the 360 version, or the X1 gets things that won’t make it into the 360 game. I think either way could be perceived has unfair, depending on the mindset of a given individual.
Personally, If I didn’t own the X1, I’d be inclined to be happy that there was a version for the 360. Being a realist, I wouldn’t be to caught up on the idea of it being unfair, though I might be envious. However, seeing how I am an X1 owner, and want the most from my equipment, I think I would be effected more by having that version held back from it’s full potential. Not so much that I’d be inclined to resent 360 owners themselves, or that I would want to rob them of the opportunity to play their version, but I would indeed always wonder what might have been.
In either case, I am expecting at least some rage come fall. Gamers seem to have gotten even more critical with recent releases (Watch Dogs…cough cough. ESO…cough, cough), and even though complaints are warranted on some issues, I’ve noticed an increase in the trend to pick apart every little thing, real or imagined, with any game that isn’t “perfect”. Given some rage is already considered a norm for a game release, to say that I see an increase lately is not a statement that I make lightly.
I’m hoping, with any luck, that Playground can find that sweet spot between the versions, and that fair or not won’t be a major issue on release day.
That’s a major disappointment, we shouldn’t have features and content took away from Xbox one users just to make the 360 version the same lined up like the xbox one version, we don’t spend 400 dollars on consoles just to get content that’s suppose to be in the game taken out because of Cross gen.
I know Horizon 2 uses FM5’s game engine, but does that mean that it also uses the in-depth physics engine? I was under the impression that Horizon is meant more for causal players and that the physics are “dumb-downed” a tad for the open-road title. If that’s the case, I don’t see why open-wheelers would be a problem. According to T10, the reason Open-Wheelers were held back is that they didn’t want to implement them until they had the physics down perfect. Horizon doesn’t take physics to that limit, if I am correct, so I don’t see why they would exclude them, unless it doesn’t fancy their taste.
As far as weather effects go, I am a bit confused. Wasn’t the lack of weather effects in FM4 blamed on the 360’s lack of juice to run it? So now we can have weather on the 360, even though Horizon 2 is running this whole “Play online with friends anywhere, anytime” type of environment. Sounds like a lot more juice is needed for that than it ever did for having a few drops of rain around Silverstone.
Of course we don’t know the whole picture, so it’s hard to tell, but you do make some great points.
I’m curious, as well, to see how this title turns out.
I think Dan said they would not do weather in Forza motorsports untill they could do it right. I take that to mean 60 FPS,since FH2 is running at 30 FPS maybe thats how they are pulling it off on the 360 version.
Who knows maybe Open wheel cars is in they’re, i don’t see why they would take them out considering the fact they finally know how to do the suspension and Forza Horzion 2 engine is running on Forza Motorsport 5 anyway, the only reason people are speculating about this is because for one Turn simply said they didn’t have the hardware for it to work on Xbox 360 and the same as weather or maybe Dan said until they get it right is when they would implement those features in the game, Playground games obviously has those resources for Day/Night Cycle and weather and Turn 10 has cars and data for physics, I really do hope we get to see open wheel, As far as Sumo Studios i don’t know what they can possibly bring to the table for the 360 version but as long as Turn 10 and Playground games get the core elements right and not have limitations then Forza Horizon 2 has won.
I’m not sure they entirely fit the basic atmosphere of a sandbox racer, but I agree that excluding them from the XBO version just because 360 owners haven’t bothered to upgrade is hardly my fault.
Which leads me to my next point, Honestly i don’t think the 360 version will have the same features or experience like the Xbox One, i think different content will be exclusively only to Xbox one.
All we will hear is complaints either way about what they should have done differently, may as well error on the side of progress towards the future and not bother being weighed down by the past.
Probably in the minority, but I honestly think that creating Horizon 2 as a cross platform game (X360, XB1) is a bad move. Though there may be minor tweaks version to version, to minimize development effort the game will have to concentrate on the lowest common denominator = in this case the 360. It also splits the player base into 2 separate iterations of XBL (unless Microsoft announces cross platform multiplayer at E3, which I guess might be possible, but hasn’t been rumored to my knowledge). Even with an XB1 version, it keeps H2 tied to the past, and will limit what it could be. I would not expect open wheel cars in H2, and especially would not expect any of the open wheel race cars in this setting.
The more I think about it, the worse this game being cross platform becomes.
With the apparent rumors/confirmation of weather in FH2, it would be the perfect opportunity for T10 to ship some experimental stuff off to Playground and give it a test-run before the eventual FM6. Even if the physics aren’t quite the same, it would be a great trial for the weather in and of itself, if nothing else. Not to mention it’s interaction with the day/night cycles. Ideally - for the sake of progress - the 360 version is just a hashed up re-skin of the original placed in Europe, while with the XBO version they have really pushed the envelope beginning at their FM5 base. The only thing that should really be the same at all is the setting, and the basis of the car list. Each can have specialty cars based on their respective base’s roster (FM4 vs FM5).
As the less-serious little brother of the series, FH has some serious potential as a guinea pig workhorse (with minimal risk against the sub-series in and of itself), and the franchise has hopefully tried to tap into that with this one. I’m frankly already tired of all of these developers splitting their resources between the outdated past and the as-of-yet unrealized present hardware.
Not all of them. Yes, the like of a F1 car or Indycar are, but what about the Plymouth Prowler, the KTM Xbow, Caterham. All those can be legally driven on public roads. As long as there is some sort of fender over the wheels, they are legal.
With that authoritative ‘nuff said’, one might think you were correct. But, you are not.
Furthermore, it’s a videogame where you race on public roads. So, let’s go ahead and agree that the level of realism is going to be relatively low in the name of having fun, shall we?