This game is a disaster

Forza Horizon Forza Horizon 5 FH5 Discussion
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For the first few weeks or a month of playtime, FH5 is a fun game. However, the game gets stale very quickly, and it’s a problem.

This game is great at entertaining you for the first few weeks. There’s new stuff to explore, places to go, things to do, and cars to try out. But once you finish the campaign…what else is there?

Naturally, the post campaign content is online stuff, which was fine in FH3 and FH4, but the online content is a disaster. Firstly, the servers suck. Good luck playing with anyone, because You have been disconnected. Please try again later. So that leaves racing, drifting, and Eliminator, which all have problems.

Racing is okay, at least you can now choose class based lobbies. Despite this, the races aren’t a lot of fun without ranked. In FH4, you had incentive to keep racing. But now, we don’t have a ranked leaderboard to climb through. Oh, speaking of leaderboards, we’ll get to that later.

Drifting is godawful. You can’t select class based lobbies like you can with racing. The lobbies aren’t even separated by drivetrain, which is a horrendous decision. Without drivetrain-separated lobbies, you’re gonna be obliterated by AWD every time. It isn’t fun.

Eliminator is a mess. The car levels are messy, there’s a Level 2 with a higher top speed than most Level 9s. There’s also a truck that’s worse than the Beetle, and it’s a Level 5. On top of this, the game mode is filled with bugs that have been there for months.

The PR stunt leaderboards need to be wiped. Literally the top few thousand on every PR stunt are cheaters with 3,000,000 points drift zones/1000000000 FT danger signs/500 MPH speed traps and zones. Something needs to be done to stop cheating, because cheaters are ruining leaderboards.

This game is incredibly stale, and nothing is being done to fix it.

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And nothing will be done about it. But hey at least we get the new expansion next week which should be good fun for at least a month.

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And then it will be stale again. Gotta love FH5, eh?

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While I agree with many of your points I have no issues with being disconnected. Last year in Horizon 4 I recall that once the Steam version launched there were a lot of issues. 5 has been pretty reliable for me.

Although I do the weekly playlist the game as you say is pretty stale. I’ve gone back and been playing Horizon 1, 2 and currently on 3 getting all of the achievements etc. Plus playing Need for Speed Heat and Burnout Paradis City remastered. Heat has a really great map. The game is just let down by very arcady physics and handling. Still a lot of fun to play.

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5

In between the first two expansions they will no doubt add features or QoL improvements we want but not the way we want them.

This game is good but casual at best. This specific version is not competitive which is my biggest gripe. Why they removed ranked etc which was in FH4 and an optional feature is beyond me.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this game could be so much better with a few tweaks, fixes, improvements here and there. I’ve outlined this in detail in numerous lengthy posts. However I am well aware none of my suggestions will come to fruition because of how they develop and operate as a business.

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I don’t know Mike Brown outside of the fact he’s the principal game designer for PGG. But I blame him for the direction he’s taken in regards to the lack of engaging end game content in FH5.

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I’m sure I’m not alone in saying I just won’t buy FH6

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Oh I’ll definitely buy FH6 along with the FH5 expansions. I just agree that this games end content is lack luster and needs improvements.

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Imo, if FH5 is such a disaster now, it will likely only get worse. PGG clearly doesnt care

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I’m not going to defend this game but it’s not a disaster. Far from it. It’s one of the best titles on one of the biggest and “best” gaming services.

The problem is if you let someone brand new to this game or genre play it then they will most likely be blown away. But if you get someone who’s played a previous horizon title to play it then you will most likely hear at least one or more complaints about it.

Take me as example. I loved FH4s map, seasons, ranked racing and eliminator. In contrast I think FH5 map is big but boring, which makes eliminator boring in comparison and there’s no ranked or distinct seasons. So am I a happy camper? No, hence why I only play it casually now.

In saying that I know alot of new people are blown away by the FH5 map and eliminator is still very popular and people enjoy the non competitive online race so go figure…

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I don’t consider it a disaster, but it hasn’t kept my interest like the earlier Horizons. I think it is because it is too similar to Horizon 4, which I played constantly from its early release date until August of 2021. For me each of Horizon 1, 2, 3 and 4 were different enough from one to the next that I still go back and play those older titles often, especially Horizon 1. Horizon 5 for me is just a reboot of Horizon 4, moved to a new location, with the same structure, weekly events, etc etc.

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True. I guess that’s why some call this game FH4.5. For me it’s the same game, different map, less features.

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I started playing FH1, all single player/ offline of course, earlier this week just to get to know the roots of FH, but man that one is pretty nice .

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FH3 and 4 were significantly better with keeping players engaged post launch

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Can’t speak for Horizon 3 since I didn’t play while it was being supported, but the Festival Playlist in Horizon 4 got tiring after about a year. At the time, it was a new and novel concept that was loaded with problems (mostly due to bad choices in championships by Playground themselves) and honestly things haven’t improved in Horizon 5. The only thing that I’ve liked about the Festival Playlist in 5 that wasn’t in 4 is that system goes by points instead of percentages. Other than that, its still sloppy, and as I pointed out in a post that everyone seemed to ignore, is not single-player-only friendly. Its all a ploy to get people to buy Xbox Live Gold and invest more time into the game that could’ve been spent in another.

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Is gold even needed for anyone else other than us schlubbs that buy their console?

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From what I’ve heard and read, no. PC players definitely have an advantage when it comes to getting online access. I will gladly stand corrected though if I am incorrect though.

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I haven’t found it any more or less engaging than at least the previous two entries, but I also don’t PvP.

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They introduce rank mode but remove clean racing score on final result at the same time in FH4.
Everyone start attacking others more than actual racing.
And clearly the game is not design and build for pro-competitive from the ground.

and because there are too many modes with not much players numbers it basically kill custom lobby matchmaking.
and those ranked ladder things often make people addictive on a never-ending-grind but not actual improve gameplay itself.

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For me
In public PVP
It still have 30sec ghosting
It still short races.
It still dont have track space if there are more than 3 people fast/good in the front.
It is less balance.

There are less chance to having long good close race. And often good fight end early/ only fight like 3 corners.
And I have to take more than 3-5min on loading/waiting/ghosting/matching then maybe I have 30sec~1min good fight.

Atleast it should add new track update.
In custom lobby the game repeat the same track very often.

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The problem is
People usally suggest sim racer for proper PVP but I dont really enjoy sim racing.

But in the arcade market there are no much option. Most of those arcade racer only last about few months or no proper PVP.

I wish xbox dont only support 2 racing game (forza horizon and motorsport) but build more car game. PGR or New casual NFS like racing game.
And even something like “runabout”

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Please just stop. I don’t recognize your name from ranked racing and what you’re saying is factually inaccurate (at least at the higher ranks) and is just misleading.