What 5 things must FH6 improve upon from FH5? I think it’s a good question to ask given it may not arrive until 2024/5 or later.
For me:
MP - FH5 brings nothing new to the table in terms of multiplayer game play. In fact it brings less with the removal of game modes such as ranked racing which was an optional game mode adored by many including myself.
Map - The big flat open Mexico map with tiny cities doesn’t do it for me. I would much prefer a smaller map such as Great Britain where you could drive up/down/over/around/through things in different ways to get to a given destination. Whereas in Mexico if I want to get from point A to point B I just hold down accelerator and drive straight across the fields. I also miss the seasons in FH4 and being able to drive through forests without hitting logs on the ground.
Major content updates - Most games I play have major content updates that get you excited both before and after the release. FH5 hasn’t done this for me yet. I thought HW’s was neat but that lasted all of 2 minutes. It’s hard to invest yourself in a game when things stay stagnant for so long. Major content updates need to be just that… major updates to content…
Leaderboards - Say no more…
AI - I’m not a big fan of single player as I much prefer MP, but given the lack of MP game play in FH5 I have been forced to do single player content such as the weekly chorelist. What kills it for me is how horrible and easy to beat the AI is. This subsequently results in unchallenging and bizarre gameplay for me personally. The reason I’ve listed it is simply due to how crucial AI is in a game like this.
FH6 hasn’t been officially announced but there have been job listings by PGG for Horizon recently and there’s no reason why there wouldn’t be a 6th or even 7th iteration of this game. Not to mention Horizon is one of gamepass biggest titles and gamepass continues to grow and recently reported revenue in the billions (if I recall correctly).
Undo most ‘improvements’ made to the gameplay compared to FH4 especially in online related racing, leaderboards etcetera. That we wanna keep our fit for all ages rating attitude is just not it. FH5 isn’t a really bad game, but apart from how it looks I don’t feel it is really a lot better than FH4 where it could have been. In 4 I used to play a lot more co-op championships as part of the seasonal playlist etc.
I think you catch my drift… The top of absolutely every leaderboard is infested with cheaters. And being cheated on in an online session just ruins my evening…
Overall Presentation - Dial back the crazy colors. Give the voice actors some Adderall. Fire the current writing staff and hire actual car enthusiasts with some sense of subtlety. Bring back racing mainstays like a three-second countdown and split times. Add more set dressing to the official tracks. I could go on forever on this matter.
Progression - Not asking for a thirty hour campaign here or to be stuck in D-Class cars for eternity, but provide some form of logical structure. For instance, I did all of the Horizon Stories first, and I managed to unlock all of the endurance races without competing in a single race. That is not how a game that places a large emphasis on racing should be structured, sandbox or otherwise.
Car List - Only cut cars that are redundant (for example, there’s no need for a Mercedes-AMG GT S when the Mercedes-AMG GT R exists) or cars where licensing is genuinely a problem between games. If a licensing problem is turned around after launch, return cars through a DLC pack. Do not drip feed them through the Festival Playlist. Start bringing back cars from previous games if you want “new” old content. Add more than 22 new cars at launch. Minimum should be 35 or 40 new cars.
Quality of Life Features - Make our game experience smoother. Options like immediately starting the next race in a Championship from the post-race screen, or being able to change cars after restarts should have been in the series by now, especially when both of these are already options in Motorsport. There is also more to say here, but I don’t want to regurgitate all of my features requests.
Post-launch Content - Add more courses and game types to keep things from getting stale. I’m a car guy through-and-through, but new cars mean nothing when there’s nothing new to do with them.
Map, agree with you, I’m also a bit biased as I prefer more city like areas than massive open fields everywhere, Horizon 2’s map was awesome to me
Custom radio stations/Spotify integration. Not a big deal to mute the in game radio and have my own playlist in the background, but with music festival being a big part of the Horizon theme it’d be nice to have more options when it comes to music
Putting newly added cars in the autoshow rather than making them seasonal rewards
More ways to play in Horizon Solo, turning off traffic/drivatars, custom time/weather etc. I prefer night time more than daylight, with how short nights are in Horizon it’d be great to have the option to enjoy night driving solo to my heart’s content
Better playlist options… I like Amy Simpson, always have, and I like the feeling of “festival” her commentary (usually) brings. But when you hate all but two of the songs on the playlist it kind of sours the experience
Totally agree with the multiplayer racing comments, though I would add that there should be more of a push to make people want to race properly. (meaning, clean racing… it is multiplayer racing after all. so it should emphasize good racing… reward good race drivers… not reward hacks who really can’t "drive)
Improve the view and gameplay for those of us who prefer the “real driving” experience of the in car view. (really difficult to race in S2 on Hot Wheels tracks)
(been said by many) bring back the FH4 Forzathon… I love when you “arrive early” and she suggests you “say hello to the other drivers” when there aren’t any, and even if there were, you don’t have “hi” on you chat thingy.
-No mandatory Multi-Player. I’m the opposite of anonyyymous in that I would prefer exclusively single-player.
-No drip-feed of cars through Festering Playlist. Put the cars in the Autoshow where they belong. Let players do races for credits and buy cars they actually want. You know, like a Forza game!
-If they want certain cars to be rewards for a specific challenge, make it available permanently. Enough of this FOMO “better be here this week if you want to see your money’s worth!” crap. Also, make it a reasonable challenge.
-Fix the AI. The Drivatars don’t seem to work. They’re either impossible to beat because they sprout magic, invisible rockets and Ultragrip™ Tires when you get near them, or they seem like they’ve all but forgotten what the big round thing in front of them is for. In other words, they’re completely b0rked.
-More races. I’ve been playing much more of Horizon 4 lately than H5 because I seem to find more to do. I keep looking at the Mexico map and seeing so much wasted potential. For example, I keep wanting to blueprint races in the western part of the map because of those dusty, gravel roads there but there are only two dirt race starts and one of them is on the little track so it’s a bit awkward. It’s not just there, it’s all of the race types. I honestly think they hoped we’d all be kept busy by the Playlist or something so they just didn’t bother.
Anyway, I may consider buying the next one if they actually seem like they know their players exist and actually make some attempt at showing a little respect for us.
If it must be five things then that’s what I’m putting here.
Ditch the breakable crash barriers on roads, the corner ones are needed, especially on mountain dirt roads.
Get rid of the stupid, childish dancing, and the kiddie colours.
Abandoned airports have been done, what about a working airport with helicopters and planes taking off and landing ? The airports in the last two Horizon games have looked very untidy and poorly done, especially Horizon 5.They over did the aging in my opinion…
The maps look sterile and unlived, birds in the sky, and more visible wildlife would help. Helicopters flying around the sky etc would help too. Not enough visible people in the cities, they look dead and just like a model instead of living. The cities are just too small too.
Wheelspins should have upgrade car parts to win, and not stupid clothing that most of us do not want.
Petrol stations dotted around the map with upgrade parts etc, a car game without them just feels wrong.
1,New car models,some models in forza are too old
2,More wide body kits,such as LB silhouette
3,Modern city just like FH3
4,More spoilers!!!
5,More cars came out in recent years.
Map
Must include at least 1 large city, 2 smaller cities and at least 2 towns. Also must include immersive things like gas stations, malls, functioning airport, train station, tunnel system, highway system, harbor etc. Maybe add pedestrians for a change? More traffic. The map should feel more realistic instead of like a maquette.
More realistic handling/gameplay. Tyres barely squeel, braking is very poor on most cars. Go back to how it was in FH4 and FH3.
Much more customization. It’s one of the main reasons people play this game. You have an extensive livery editor but only a few parts to put on your cars. Rims list is fine but can be upgraded too. I want to be able to select different wheels front and rear by now and especially deep lip wheels in the rear.
Better story/progression. I don’t have the feeling that I have done something in the Horizon Festival. It’s supposed to be this awesome over the top festival for cars and music but you can’t tell because after the intro scene you’re just given races without any further explanation. Who am I racing against? What prize can you win at the Horizon Festival? Is there any at all? What’s our motivation to race there at all? Give us a story and motivation, a goal, an opponent, or a whole gang. I opened a topic about this before (too lazy to look it up now, just look in my profile if you want). You could make the Forza Edition cars opponent vehicles that you can win in pink slips so they actually serve a purpose and make them more desirable. Give them a unique vinyl design too. You have hired a whole team of pro painters so that’s not the excuse as to why they don’t have them.
Further development/evolving of the Forza Horizon game in general. Do something new, crazy. Give us police (hello illegal street races!), make it possible to switch lights on/off, the engine, openable doors, hood etc. in in-game photo mode. Carry damage over to the next race and make us pay to repair it like in Motorsport. More engine swaps, stuff like that. Maybe add Drag upgrades to build crazy powerful 2000hp machines like it’s done irl. Big fat rear tyres that are tucked in the body, wheelie bars (wheelies should be possible too!), brake chutes, you name it, maybe nitrous oxide?
Super 7 I can understand because it’s always just “drive here in this amount of time” or “jump this far” but Eventlab? It doesn’t need scrapping it needs fixing because when it works it’s great. They also need to improve the search function for it and have it show more than 15 blueprints per search.
