This has got to be talked about surely. I’ve pre-ordered every Forza Horizon game (purchased all the dlc too) and sure the first 2 games had their own little problems here and there, no massive drama really infact the best racing games on the console by far but 3 is a different story. Being Australian my level of anticipation for this game was through the roof but man what a sucker punch to the gut this game is, I’m not saying its a terrible game or that it has a lot of problems, actually it only has one massive problem and its now come to a point where I’m starting to regret the purchase of this game.
The issue with this game is the upgrades or more specifically the way this game gauges the performance index increases with those upgrades. Anyone who has played any previous Forza game should quickly notice that weight reduction, tyre compounds mostly and just about any other mod that drastically increases handling makes the majority of cars in Forza Horizon 3 skip classes altogether but by ignoring handling upgrades you can get up to if not more than 1,000hp in every class with any drivetrain layout excluding D class AWD cars they actually hit the class limit at about 600-700hp which is still stupid high. Now while these builds may handle like a hovercraft they absolutely destroy sensible racing builds that just about every Forza veteran is used to particularly online because nobody cares about smacking into walls to get first. Dirty laps do not affect that croud in the slightest and there is currently no way or any developer interest to punish that style of driving.
Driving like that is fine its just not how i enjoy playing which normally wouldn’t be an issue but since as far as I’ve seen you can’t get racing tyres onto a D class car for example and even if you could i imagine it would have about 40hp (i may actually check).
Even with a clean run 600-1,000hp vs 40hp or even 250hp in any situation is an unfair comparasin and i just cannot grasp how Playground Games decided massively changing the PI system this way was a good thing. I mean do the math there is almost anywhere between a 400-2,500% difference in horsepower between a power build and a grip or balanced build at all times until you reach S1 class and 9 times out of 10 a poorly tuned (worse than default tune) power build will chop a well tuned grip or balanced build that should simply be a top 25 rivals contender.
I really, really do want to love this game, a handful of more Australian cars and a balanced PI system that works and Forza Horizon 3 would be just about the most perfect racing game ever made so far, you came so close Playground Games… so close. Apologies if i wasted anyones time with my long rant, just felt like something needed to be said.
If i weren’t experiencing what i am currently experiencing I would believe you but I’m sorry i just don’t, either we have a very, very different idea of what classifies as a handling build or you are in slow lobbies or lobbies with other players using the same style builds that you are.
I am by no means a slow player, fastest in the world anywhere i can see with the Ariel Atom on FH2 (top 10 Garibaldi, Nice. Probably the hardest car in the game to drive fast) by far, from memory there was only one other person i had seen anywhere on FH2 with a top 100 time with this car and it was just barely (about 90ish). Im also very fast in regular cars consistently getting top 50’s and dominating lobbies with underdog cars particularly front wheel drives since after my main complaint with FH2 (which you may remember) I’ve become extremely knowledgeable on how to build them (and other drivetrain layouts) and tune them.
Now with that said I’ve spent a total of a hour to a hour and a half today racing A class on FH3 and the entire time i was getting destroyed on a constant basis in all areas of the game by a 1,300-1,400hp VL Commodore, just absolutely left for dead on tarmac, dirt, street races, small circuits, you name it i rarely won. Seriously try it while smacking into walls online its damn near impossible to keep up with anything less than 1,000hp. I tried a very power friendly Skyline, grippy Honda Integra and my beloved Falcon ute, all which had easily made top 20’s a couple days ago and just as easily dethroned once people caught onto the fact that handling is pretty much useless now. It is even worse in lower classes and almost all of the time someone with a power build in B class or lower will have at least 500% more horsepower compared to just about anyone with any of the tyre compound upgrades and it can get as bad as a 2,500% power difference specifically in D and C class.
Thankfully race and rally tyres are viable upgrades for competitive S1 Class cars, barely but the worst thing about S1 and S2 is that they are stretched over what would normally be 3, 4 maybe even 5 classes in previous games, so many rear wheel drive and just about every front wheel drive can’t even dream of making it to the top of S1.
What’s truly annoying is how you can’t apply race tyres to C, B, even A class or at all as far as I’ve seen for D class and still be competitive as you could with again previous Forza games, there is now no variety in builds and ultimately no balance between all power and all handling until you reach S1 class.
Hovercrafts can be fun too though. I’ve got a power build 1940 ford deluxe coupe in d class with around 600 horsepower and it will cream the competition even though I slow down for corners. I think what happened was that they wanted to bring out the drifters because a high horsepower build is ideal for drifting. This game puts a ton of emphasis on things that require you to have power and go fast in a straight line (jumps, speed cameras, drag races, long straights in almost every race).
I wasn’t crazy about it at first because the stock tires make cars feel like driving a boat but I have gotten more used to it as I’ve played. Unlike satniteeduardo I usually build with emphasis on power so I guess I adjusted quickly.
Of course, those like me who prioritize handling over power will get punished with the prospect of having to face much faster rival cars thanks to much higher PI… but I usually do stock anyway…
I think my biggest gripe with the PI system in Horizon 3 is just how big the gap between S1 and S2 is. I mean I get that they had to tweak the system to deal with the ridiculous cars like the FXX-K, and such, but I think they could have handled it a little better. Maybe by shifting everything down 100 points and maybe bringing back S3 or R class? I just wish there was a performance level at, or even just a little bit lower than S2 in Horizon 2, as at times that even felt a little too hectic.
Yea I dont get the tires PI rating thing as ive noticed it goes up far too much compared to FH2. Ive been using similar PI numbers for handling as I used in FH2 but due to the understeer ive had to add wings and tune more especially in higher classes. Reading from your post I will try online soon, seems as though handling wont mean as much as in previous Horizons I guess
All of the D and C class cars I loved in Horizon 2 are now far too drifty for my tastes. They do seem a little faster though. But I prefer handling and control to pure speed. Still working on builds and getting a feel for the new dynamics.
It seems like every car is a “drift” car and my goal is tune as much drift out of them as I can and so far I am losing that challenge.