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Forza Horizon 5 - Review thread

Kagey K

Banned
I haven't played FH5 yet, and while I'm not a big racing fan either Forza Horizon 4 ended up being one of my favorite games, well, ever. I gave it a shot on a whim and it definitely put its hooks in me almost right away. The graphics, sound, thrill of zipping around a beautiful map - it's all wonderfully crafted and just plain fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously. It plays arcadey enough for someone who isn't big into cars or racing to have a great time with it. It's also open world, so you're not stuck just running race after race like a more conventional racing game if you don't want to. It's all very accessible to the layman.

I'm not sure about the progression system of FH5 other than what I had read, but FH4 definitely had that feeling of "just one more race" to get a new ride or a wheel spin for prizes. FH5 is said to improve on that with accolades and skill points not being tied to a particular car, so I can imagine this one will have even a greater "hook" than the last one.
I feel like 4 is the weakest in the series. If you liked it, you will love 5.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
FH5 literally ruined my morning. Went to bed hours too late, overslept and came late to work because of the "just one more time"-effect. The game is legit.

They've changed a ton of things in the game, some nice surprises like f.ex. driving rally-style / on dirt roads; it feels very different, better.
 
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Caio

Member
Amazing scores!

Playground Games must be the most consistently great developer MS owns.
FH5 - 91
FH4 - 92
FH3 - 91
FH2 - 86
FH1 - 85
Yeah; also, you must consider that Media are always expecting something more from the sequel, and to get the same score of the previous Game you must offer MORE. 91 meta for FH5 does not mean this Game is more or less like FH4; so, Playground is really showing how much they are talented, always offering more and more, putting so much effort in delivering something special, something fresh in a series which never fail to impress, every time.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Yeah; also, you must consider that Media are always expecting something more from the sequel, and to get the same score of the previous Game you must offer MORE. 91 meta for FH5 does not mean this Game is more or less like FH4; so, Playground is really showing how much they are talented, always offering more and more, putting so much effort in delivering something special, something fresh in a series which never fail to impress, every time.

I think for the game to score as well as it has it has two have that next gen shininess to it. its not a case of comparing it to FH4 it has to do more than just be the same
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Can you say whether or not someone who has never played a Forza Horizon game would enjoy this if they aren't a big racing fanatic? Will certainly play this whenever I can get my hands on an XSX to try it out.

I'm not the biggest racing fan, I think the only series I got into over the past 20 years was MotorStorm due to the arcadey nature and physics of it. And before that? I guess I was big on WaveRace 64, Diddy Kong Racing, etc.

Does this have any similar hooks to those games?
Sorry for the late reply

Honestly not a huge racing fan myself not hardcore anyhow but have always loved the Horizon Series due to the arcadey nature of this game.

I took my decked out super car into an active volcano last night and jumped off the rim and my car tumbled down the side of the mountain (there were a lot of people checking out the volcano right away)

Its silly shit like that that attracts me to this series.

Stuff like this:

MS Flight Sim 2.0;



Get the Reggaeton on blast.

Not sure if that gif is working, there’s a huge ramp at the end of the run way :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Another incredible game from Microsoft and their studios, and one that has a significant amount of replay value to boot.

Also, it’s going to be easy to discern which review sites aren’t to be trusted after this game breaks. This game has something for everyone unless you’re a steadfast hater of the genre, and then, why are you reviewing the game to begin with?
 

skyfinch

Member
Is Turn 10 involved with this game? I didn't see their logo in the title screens this time around.
I know this game still uses Forzatech, but weird not to see Turn 10's logo this time around.....unless I missed it.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Is Turn 10 involved with this game? I didn't see their logo in the title screens this time around.
I know this game still uses Forzatech, but weird not to see Turn 10's logo this time around.....unless I missed it.
They are working on Forza Motorsports 8 which I also can't wait for
 
Based on several of the responses here people ARE willing to buy a game even when it's on Game pass. I'm certain MS is learning here that amazing game + early access = purchase regardless of Game pass. It's pretty cool to see.
 

Bojanglez

The Amiga Brotherhood
Can't wait for this. FH is an exceptional series, probably the only Microsoft IP (apart from maybe some they just recently bought through Bethesda) that I have a genuine affection for. So glad it is reviewing well, this might be the game that pushes me to finally take the plunge on an OLED.
 

Stuart360

Gold Member
I think FM will be glorious as well. They are taking their sweet time with it, and hopefully that will give us a perfectly polished next-gen experience.
I just hope they have more fantasy tracks in FM8. Thats one area where GT always beats it. Forza split is more like 80/20 with real tracks vs fantasy tracks, and GT feels more like 50/50.
Real world tracks are boring for me.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
i would get a disc



Why is this one a fan favorite online? What sets it apart from 4?
The Map is fantastic, diversity of the environment (big city > mountains/hills > desert), best structure for progression, which seems to be same as in 5th. Best DLCs of Blizzard Mountain and Hot Wheels.
 

Billbofet

Member
i would get a disc



Why is this one a fan favorite online? What sets it apart from 4?
For me, it's the setting. I think they nailed the Horizon formula by 3, so to me, it's all about location.
It was cool to get seasons in 4, but I would almost always just prefer a sunny season with some rain here and there.
 

Schmick

Member
The Map is fantastic, diversity of the environment (big city > mountains/hills > desert), best structure for progression, which seems to be same as in 5th. Best DLCs of Blizzard Mountain and Hot Wheels.
I'm gutted I missed out on Rhe Hotwheels DLC
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I just hope they have more fantasy tracks in FM8. Thats one area where GT always beats it. Forza split is more like 80/20 with real tracks vs fantasy tracks, and GT feels more like 50/50.
Real world tracks are boring for me.
Ya. Thats the one drawback I have with circuit racers.

I'm not even a big circuit racer gamer, but it seems every GT and Forza game I've played has Silverstone, Nurbergring and probably some more. I think I even played these tracks on old ass F1 games on PS1.
 

TBiddy

Member
I just hope they have more fantasy tracks in FM8. Thats one area where GT always beats it. Forza split is more like 80/20 with real tracks vs fantasy tracks, and GT feels more like 50/50.
Real world tracks are boring for me.

I gotta admit - I have no clue which are real and which are not, outside the most famous ones.
 

Stuart360

Gold Member
I gotta admit - I have no clue which are real and which are not, outside the most famous ones.
Well i mean more the tracks from F1 or Superbike tracks. They all look the same )more or less), and get boring, especially if you play other racing games that also use these real world tracks.
I want to see more tracks like city tracks, maybe tracks in the mountains (like that alpine track in GT).
 

Ezquimacore

Banned


Btw, how is this on a 1080ti?

this game runs at high settings 1080p 60fps on a 1050 ti, I have a 2070 super and I can play it at 60 fps 4k high settings. So my guess is a 1080 ti could do 1440p easily and even 4k if you play with the settings.
 

Stuart360

Gold Member
this game runs at high settings 1080p 60fps on a 1050 ti, I have a 2070 super and I can play it at 60 fps 4k high settings. So my guess is a 1080 ti could do 1440p easily and even 4k if you play with the settings.
My 980ti can actually do 1440p/60 on ultra and it runs pefect most of the time, it drops down into the 50's at the festival area, or the big city in the game. 1080p/60 ultra is a breeze though.
My only problem is that even on Ultra, some shadows and pop in can be flickering quite close to the camera, but the way its doing it almost looks like a bug.
I'm going to mess around with it today, see what i can do.
 
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Ezquimacore

Banned
My 980ti can actually do 1440p/60 on ultra and it runs pefect most of the time, it drops down into the 50's at the festival area, or the big city in the game. 1080p/60 ultra is a breeze though.
My only problem is that even on Ultra, some shadows and pop in can be flickering quite close to the camera, but the way its doing it almost looks like a bug.
I'm going to mess around with it today, see what i can do.
I can do ultra 4k but goes down to 50 in some areas, this game is really well optimized. The 980 ti is stronger than the 1050 ti so that makes sense!
 

GHG

Gold Member
My 980ti can actually do 1440p/60 on ultra and it runs pefect most of the time, it drops down into the 50's at the festival area, or the big city in the game. 1080p/60 ultra is a breeze though.
My only problem is that even on Ultra, some shadows and pop in can be flickering quite close to the camera, but the way its doing it almost looks like a bug.
I'm going to mess around with it today, see what i can do.

It's not shadows that you're seeing popping in, it will be pretty much everything.

You need to set any texture/geometry setting to extreme to fix it. These are the settings I'm running now across both my desktop and laptop and I now get zero pop in or texture bugs:

gKWL4D.png



The settings I have on ''extreme'' are a must and then tweak everything else around them until you have satisfactory performance.
 
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Stuart360

Gold Member
It's not shadows that you're seeing popping in, it will be pretty much everything.

You need to set any texture/geometry setting to extreme to fix it. These are the settings I'm running now across both my desktop and laptop and I now get zero pop in or texture bugs:

gKWL4D.png



The settings I have on ''extreme'' are a must and then tweak everything else around them until you have satisfactory performance.
I'll give it a try GHG. I only have 6gb vram to play with but judging from your stats i should get away with it at 1080p.

Thanks buddy.
 
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SZips

Member


Btw, how is this on a 1080ti?

I'm running on a 1080 Ti with a Ryzen 9 5900X at 1440p.

Here are my graphical options I have set:
aUJCpiv.jpg
vwJrOFl.jpg
Umwcohr.jpg


I capped my framerate to half of my refresh rate. This allows the GPU just a tiny bit of headroom for more intense scenes, otherwise its usage is in the 90% range. During gameplay though the game seems to maintain 72fps almost all the time. I might still make further tweaks depending because I noticed some of the cities seem more intensive than the countryside, but for now I'm happy with these settings.

Strangely, I see the most dips when looking through the car list. For whatever reason that car list tends to jump GPU usage to 100% and framerates dip to 60s-ish.

Also, the ray-tracing being set to high is fine because it's only for the Forzavista mode. Yeah, your framerate will take a bit of a hit there but it makes for nicer looking photos and screenshots. I'd say keep it on high since it has no impact on the actual gameplay portion of the game.
 
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As an Xbox fan today I am looking very jealous to Playstation. Gt7 is that what Xbox should have with Forza.

Is the a new Forza Motorsport in progress?
Or was it buried in case of the grater success of Horizon?
Horizon has nothing to do with Motorsport.
 
As an Xbox fan today I am looking very jealous to Playstation. Gt7 is that what Xbox should have with Forza.

Is the a new Forza Motorsport in progress?
Or was it buried in case of the grater success of Horizon?
Horizon has nothing to do with Motorsport.

Forza Motorsport 8 (technically a soft reboot) is rumored to be coming out later this year. But so far, only footage is an in-engine trailer from E3 2020 Xbox Showcase.

Hopefully it's a great game; GT7 really turned around initial impressions for me with the more recent gameplay showcases the past few months. Seems like it's a very solid successor to the overlooked GT6 (tho the online requirement for some modes that seem they should be functional 100% offline is a bit irritating TBH).
 
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