Been playing the forza series since the first one and yeah, after going through the glitchy heartaches of forza horizon 3 as well as Forza motorsport 7 even after waiting a few months for bugs to be squashed only to still deal with bugs after that, I figured on waiting on seeing how Horizon 4 worked for everyone before buying it since it took 6 months of patches and tweaks to get FH3 and FM7 each to work alright. And after reading some of the Nightmare stories on here about blue screens, incomplete loads, and graphics issues all on pc’s here stronger then mine I was starting to entertain getting “The Crew 2” instead (changed my mind on that one too after reading the forums there. 60FPS limited??! No thanks). But after seeing the standard pc version of Horizon 4 was a part of xbox game pass and I was being offered a 2 week free trial i figured why not? If it’s a crashfest i’ll just erase it.
Here’s my PC specs for reference:
i5-7600k (stock clock)
Corsair 16gb ram (2400MHz overclock)
MSI GTX1070 gaming 8gb (factory settings)
samsung 960 Evo M.2 250gb main drive
samsung 850 Evo 500gb ssd (for fH4)
Pagefile adjusted to 16gb on main drive (has helped ALOT with FM7)
Xbox one controller with USB cable connection.
AOC 24in 1080p monitor 144hz
I gave it a download on my pc and the main game downloaded first with the drift pack afterwords. And after a week of playing I’m surprised to say it’s been working almost flawless!! I tried it on the recommended settings (which the optimize scan put at “Ultra” with FPS set to dynamic 72fps) the first 2 nights and then adjusted the graphics to ultra or high on everything except mirrors and window reflection with FPS set to 144. I have avg anti-virus in the background but i have not once tried running FH4 with MSI afterburner on. Its been smoother so far then FH3 or FM7 was in the first months of their individual releases but There are a few weird quirks with FH4. I have seen texture pop in and shadows can be iffy at times. Framerates average between 120fps and lows of 95fps. Only when I got a maxed out Mclaren F1 to 250+mph through and out the tunnel straight did i see some slight stuttering or skipping. Otherwise framerates have been smooth. Biggest gripe is staying in a online session. One second i’m in a session with 34 people and after going to my garage to get a car for the forzathon LIVE event starting in 10 minutes i go to check the map and i’m offline! Again!! Sometimes i have to hit “find session” twice for it to start searching. And yes, before i even start this game I have to Open up “services” and restart “ip helper” just like I have to do with FM7 and FH3 before i can hope to get online.
All in all I feel sick for those that bought the ultimate edition and have had nothing but issues. It’s like they paid an extra fee just to be a beta tester with a few extra car packs to enjoy…if the game ever works right for them. Honestly I think the real issue isn’t just with the game but also the windows store distribution. Either stuff wasn’t downloaded completely or installed correctly thanks to windows store. I really wish turn 10/playground would learn from other game developers on the merits of Really good beta testing. Other companies have done it with Grade A titles and it has proven its worth every time. There’s no shortage of willing participants here both on pc and xbox one and it’s a shame if turn 10/playground refuses to tap this resource come the next forza anything installment. With that said I’m not sure if i’m buying FH4 yet. I love Britain and there’s some nice stuff in this game but online play is virtually an afterthought compared to FM7 and FH3. And this map does not seem bigger then Australia. Maybe in terms of content and things to do but in sheer size Australia seems bigger and thats without it’s add ons. If things improve or there’s cars and expansions that really grab me, then maybe i’ll buy but we will see.
I just wish the developers at turn 10/playground would look at these forums and truly listen to their customers. The answers to making these games great and work great are really right here. Teamwork really does make the dream work ya know?