Let's talk about why FH3's longevity is poor

Forza Horizon Legacy Horizon FH3 Discussion
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I really wanted horizon 3 to be great i really did, but for me it just didnt do anything new/special. this may be my least favorite horizon game. lets just talk about uniqueness in the horizon series.

horizon 1 brought the idea of combining car culture and EDM culture into a game it was really cool and had some really good festival bangers from people like Avicii, Porter Robinson, etc.

Horizon 2 comes around and introduces rain to the franchise as well as more off roading what hroizon 2 lost though was quality of music. it went from dubstep, complextro, and anthemic progressive house in horizon 1 to deep house, future house, and really just a bunch of chill stuff that i dont feel belongs in a racing game.

horizon comes and it gets slightly better music still doesnt beat horizon 1 though :confused: but it brought nothing new to forza gameplay wise which is evident is the way people are playing the game and the challenges that take place in youtube videos and playing it is just meh id rather play NFS because at least the devs brought something unique to a stale franchise (i know ill get hate for saying this but its how i feel)

sadly i dont think ill play horizon 3 ever again :confused: and that sucks because its just wasted potential in my eyes. it could have done more, it could have brought more, but its just more of the same. i mean think how cool would it have been if forza horizon 3 had focused more of customization and a balanced combination of tight street circuits and true offroad rally racing mixed with Touge and other racing types how cool would it have been if the game actually had a story i mean for me i dont see a reason in playing a racing game if im not being egged on and if i feel like theres no real human element to the game. and the festival upgrade system in horizon 3 was cool it fell short after the first couple of festival upgrades. i was hoping that we would be able to make our festivals as big as the real life music festivals but we cant we are stuck with these small festivals that all have the same upgrades and its honestly just trash. and planned DLC needs to stop it is very anti consumer because if you plan a dlc before the game is even out you cant exactly bring the things the community wants and thats bad. like really bad. no one will play your game if they cant have anything worthwhile for them to stay. which is the boat im in. i feel that hroizon 3 didnt have enough going for it.

hopefully next horizon game you guys at playground will actually make the game more focused and have human elements such as music you know theres more than just trap, future bass, future house, and deep house. theres way more, why didnt you bring the idea of the festivals being like a thing that feels real in game, really the only thing i liked about the game were the radio djs on hospital records because their station felt like it was fully thought out and had some actually funny jokes and generally just messed around. it was cool. but i mean i dont know it feels like it lacks something but i cant place my finger on what exactly the game is missing, i just dont find it very enjoyable as an experience. it felt kind of rushed.

dont take this thread as a bash on the developers. because playground can make some truly beast games and i feel that their full potential is not being used as it should be maybe its them playing it safe, maybe its microsoft telling them to play it safe or maybe its trun 10 i dont know all i know is that horizon 4 cant be more boring this or ill sadly put the franchise down until i see real innovations and real effort being put forth to make the best game possible.

but id like to know your guys’s thoughts. maybe you guys can tell me what its missing in comparison to the previous games.

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As a player who started playing the Forza series with Horizon 3 (technically Apex, but that’s barely a game in its own right) on the PC, I played this game for a very long time. I thought it was a truly amazing game chock-full, in part because of the fact that I didn’t have anything to compare it to at the time. Ever since I got an XBOX ONE and Horizon 2, however, I can definitely see where Horizon 3 improved and fell short compared to its predecessor. It does feel like Horizon 2 (how much I’ve played of it so far, anyways) is very similar to Horizon 3 in many respects; worse than its sequel in some ways, yet better in others, but mostly the same. I don’t think I’ll get as much time out of Horizon 2 as a result; in a way, mirroring how some veteran Forza players don’t play Horizon 3 as much as they did Horizon 2 for a similar reason.

Though I do not yet own Horizon, I am planning on getting it soon (assuming it’s backwards compatible on the ONE, which I believe it is) and seeing what that game has to offer, even though it has reached EOL status at this point. From what I’ve heard, the Horizon experience is much different and in some ways better than its later incarnations, so maybe I’ll see what exactly Horizon 3 is missing as a latecomer to the franchise.

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The atmosphere in the first game was incredible, full of little things that came together to make it really immersive. I’m not sure they’ll ever be able to capture that feeling again.

Horizon 2 had some of that same feeling in a fair few areas, but fell short in others. (I really liked the touch of having the cover car from the first game in the opening convoy to the festival)

Horizon 3 had that to start with, but fizzled out very quickly.

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The map really. It’s just not big enough. I expected more in that regard because they’ve made Australia feel claustrophobic at times when it should be huge and unfortunately I feel like it’s wasted a beautiful country on the list. Look at the crew for example. It’s lasted a lot longer then FH3 and having played both the only real reason I can see is the map. There’s always something I’ve missed or have just not explored yet which is a vibe missing in H3. Also the hype and atmosphere was lacking from the get go imo. The trailer didn’t quite excite me either tbh. Not like FH1 or FH2 and certainly not like the Motorsport series.

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Horizon 1 was good because it was a new way to experience forza, horizon 2 was good because it expanded the map by taking away the barriers, horizon 3 although prettier for sure hasnt evolved much from 2.

Since theyve decided to make the cars the “star of the show” instead of us the players the games have suffered. I dont know anyone that rushes home to go look at a car in forzavista, they want to race, they want to have fun.

Out of the hundreds of cars available in these games only a handful are ever competitive. It takes away any feeling of pride or individuality in someones choice of car if your forced to use the same cars as everyone else. Every car has to be upgraded and tuned so similarly that they end up feeling the same. It gets monotonous after 10 years of forza to continually have to play it the same way.

Then theres the map. Im not expecting it to be as large as The Crews, but its just not big enough for an open world game, GTA 5s map is bigger. Theres no exploring to be had, theres no secret areas or easter eggs to find, just xp boards, yay. You cant cruise around with friends because it literally takes a couple of minutes to go from one side to the other.

They still have speed traps and speed cameras and they added stunt jumps and drift zones, but same as before the leaderboards are not separated into classes. So everyone once again needs to use the same handful of cars to place well.

They chose to bring back road trips, changing nothing about them even after all the complaints. They have a couple of new playground games, why not bring back car soccer or cat and mouse, or on blizzard mountains frozen lake car hockey.

I know selling dlc car packs is their bread and butter but at some point gameplay has to be the focal point. Once again they’ve made a solid game and you cant take that away from them but in my opinion forza 6 and horizon 3 are not as fun as their predecessors and its a problem. Maybe they planned it this way to get people to get bored of one forza just to buy the next a year later.

Forza 6 and horizon 3 are my least played forza games. On technical levels they are fantastic games but it just feels as though the passion is gone and the creativity they once had has given way to this cold corporate business as usual approach to their games.

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I think FH1 was the last Forza game that the devs truly put their heart and soul into before the games became just about how shiny and pretty the graphics are, how big the map is, and how many new useless features they can cram in.

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I now own every unique car available from autoshow.

Why am I unlikely to play the game much?

  1. Online does not give enough xp to make it seem sensible to play that when SP gives better xp options.

  2. Online searching is now messed up and too hard to find a game.

  3. Unbeatable drivatars are way too beatable so all I end up doing is hotlapping whether I want to or not.

  4. The PI system needed changing but not as far as this.

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I commented on another thread as regards this and pretty much their seems be a pattern in why people including myself don’t feel the need to go back to the game. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it while it lasted but I’m not as interested anymore, I’ve been playing forza games since the first motorsport but the forza games and alot other games are suffering franchise fatigue.

Especially not helpful is the pre order this and pass that, it’s ruining the games overall by cutting content then charging for it. I get it that programmers etc need to be paid but 10 years ago games was original and made properly, now they release games no where near properly done. Point is the pre order business model isn’t a motivation for developers or publisher’s overall because people are paying full for something they don’t have

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I’ve been playing since FM4 and I have to say H3 is by far the least compelling. I played H1 every second I had. Myself and a couple other guys would spend literally hours going up and down Red Rock in our modded F50 GTs, or drifting “slammed and cammed” S2000s around eagle ridge. I honestly miss those times playing a fake game more than some actual experiences I’ve had…
Then came H2. It had everything I loved about the first but now I could tune. The map/environment was beautiful, the cars where awesome. Sure the gameplay, I.E. having to drive from festival city to the next, wasn’t great but man I think most of my XP came from drifting in Nice. My friends and I would play “will it drift” and try to get hummers and transit vans sideways…
And then came H3… I was beyond excited. I played it every second I could…for 4 days. And then, I just kind of didn’t want to. It was like I would sit down to play it and not feel any joy… now with that being said I am level 421 so I do evidently enjoy it somewhat but it doesn’t have the draw H2 did and I’m convinced that nothing will ever top H1 in importance in the genre, maybe NFS Underground 2.

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It’s funny but l agree with this somehow. In paper it’s pretty much the best racing game lve played but it doesn’t excite me that much anymore. Maybe its too sandboxy. Maybe games need some direction. I have access to all cars and events. I feel like l want more to chase after.

I got FH1 briefly before this from games with gold and l still feel compelled to go play it. The sounds and soundtrack are better even if older quality. It’s funny when l think to myself what would make FH1 better it would be the ability to edit the events. Now l have it here but l’m still not excited.

I think franchise fatique is well said like some said here. Maybe that’s leering in the seems. You can feel it but not describe it.

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From the other thread:
https://forums.forza.net/turn10_postsm668603_Has-anyone-grown-tired-of-the-game.aspx#post_668603

The one good thing that Forza Horizon 3 has done longevity-wise is Forzathon. I come back for an hour every week to do those challenges. Unfortunately, there’s not much else to keep me coming back for the other 6 days of the week…

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+1 I come back for Forzathon some weeks and other weeks for a cruise but I echo the longevity issues. In fact for me personally Forzas haven’t had genuine longevity since FM4. That game can still be played and enjoyed to this day (I think the last time I played FM4 was sometime in 2016). I’ve always thought Forzas should get more development time, would an extra year developing the game help with longevity? I’d like to think so.

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I’ve been playing since Forza 2. But it was 4 that made me a fan of the franchise. FH1 won me over as well, and my esteem for the series has never been higher. Some disappointing technical flubs in FH2–and more importantly the silence and complete inaction from the developers–eroded that confidence significantly. FH3 has sadly cemented in my mind this perception of lax official attitude toward software maintenance and the players. Technical and design issues continue to go unanswered while nearly the whole of the software changes relate to car packs and DLC. This has to have an impact on game appeal and longevity, to be sure.

Still, I found FH3 superlative for what it was, and held my interest for several hundred hours. I’m not at all sorry to have experienced it. I just don’t see myself investing any more into it.

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Actually i am playing since day 1 (or two i dont remember) and i still have to do the half of the events and tournaments.
So in my opinion longevity is quite good, as i was expecting.
I complain about the tuning part. Maybe it’s me i’m lazy, but i always search and download tuning setups to reach the class i want.
In FH2 and FH i spent lot of time in tuning. Here with this download thing, i never opened the garage.
Second thing, it is way too easy: all you have to do is to find what is the best car and setup for a race, and you always win eyes closed (hardest AI level, naturally as well as no driving helps).
Third and last, someone mentioned the map to be small, that’s true and not true: the problem is that the circuits may be repetitive across time. Instead of putting a desert covering 1/3 of the map, or a forest taking the other 1/3, i would have added more different circuits.

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For the next game they need a way to make actual custom checkpointed races so that you aren’t left with only one track with lap times much over a minute.

-k

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It’s a boring game, the lack of event variety is what kills it for me. I wish the game had touge, drift and drag events but it doesn’t, they half-arsed it and it shows. I honestly don’t get why it’s got so much praise, it’s not unique and it has some serious flaws.

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Custom track editor would do wonders for this game. Also I feel like the hardcore racecars have no place in this game, it skews all the PI and I’ve honestly never used any of them. More actual street cars with more unique mods and engine swaps should’ve been added. Tighter courses and roads should’ve been added. Honestly more paved roads should’ve been added. The game shouldn’t force you to barrel through fences and such and do insane jumps if they seriously penalize you while using simulation damage while the AI isn’t affected at all. The drivatars need to get trashed completely, bring back the AI drivers from FM4. I understand the whole freedom aspect and driving across any surface, but I feel like the developers used it as an excuse to call the map “bigger” instead of adding proper roads for people to enjoy. To summarize: add custom route editor, get rid of race cars (or have them on their own PI scaling), add more street/tuner cars, don’t force players to race or crash into things, add more unique mods/engine swaps, add more paved/technical roads, and get rid of drivatars and bring back proper AI drivers.

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Simple answer

Repetitive, repetitive, repetitive …

On its own this isn’t the death knell for games. If you’ve great gameplay doing the same thing time and again is fine.

However, the racing is unrealistic, clumsy, frustrating and to a degree predictable. That’s why it doesn’t hold the attention for long.

I’m of the opinion now that any “racing” game that takes place on public roads with random traffic is to be avoided at all cost.

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I find that the game has a few issues that affect it’s longevity. A big one is the location/map. When they said there would be a more open map, I was hoping for some cool spots (parking lots/other cool structures) I guess I was foolish to think that “open” meant anything other than “you can go offroad more often now.”. There are few good spots to do meets. There are no hidden parking lots/ tunnels etc. What you see is what you get. I feel like they are now putting a focus on offroading, but that may just be me. To sum it up, the map is boring in my opinion, and they’ve just made 3/4 of it desert/forest. At least it looks pretty. I now find myself going back and forth between Byron Bay, the city and the airfield.

The car selection is quite good, but I feel like the developers add in some cars just to fill space. There are cars that are in the game that I’ve never seen driven, and just sit in the garage. (Maybe car sounds could be improved)

The biggest thing for me is the lack of a goal. The game is too non linear for me. There is no drive/ motivation to do races besides money/completion. In FH2, you had to do tons of races to unlock the finale, so it was almost impossible to not complete most championships. Now, you just do a couple championships and you’ve beat the game. There is no finale, and after the final showcase, there’s no reason to try out the other championships.

(Also worth adding, the online players seem to only want to drift/drag race. I got the game on release and I’m yet to encounter someone who wants to cruise. Kinda makes online boring, but this is beyond the devs control.)

Honestly, If I didn’t have FH2 to compare it to, FH3 would be the greatest game ever though.

If anyone agrees/disagrees with me, please share. I’m interested the hear your thoughts.

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I agree, way too much offroad. They should’ve let you drive into multilevel parking garages and once again tighter/more technical paved roads. I actually found some awesome roads, the problem is…its offroad -__-.