9 Things I’ve Learned From A Week Of Binging On Forza Horizon 3

The game is gorgeous, mostly

The Xbox One has been about long enough now for developers to really exploit its potential, so it’s no surprise that the graphics on Forza Horizon 3 are very pretty indeed. The scenery is properly beautiful, it looks amazing when you’re kicking up dust on dirt roads, and the wet weather simulation is cool too.

One thing I was less impressed with though was the beach you’re racing on right at the beginning: the shore looks a bit naff, and doesn’t sit well with the otherwise comely aesthetic.

Smashing stuff is fun, until it goes wrong

As with previous Horizon installments, smashing up random bits of scenery plays a big part in FH3. It’s stupid, puerile and amazing fun.

It’s less fun however when you get your Mustang GT350 stuck on those solar panels you’d been busy obliterating. I was also particularly miffed to have a skill chain ‘canceled’ due to hitting a fence - something which I should have been given points for.

What I take umbrage with most though, are the trees. Some trees you can smash through quite happily, while others will stop you dead. And the issue is the breakable/non breakable bits of foliage don’t look that different - often you can’t tell until it’s too late and your Aventador is flipping end on end after hitting an immovable plant at 100mph.

As someone who grew up playing Gran Turismo and driving a bunch of cars that sounded like domestic appliances, I always appreciate a driving game that gets the sound right. And get the sounds right FH3 does - the previous Horizon games already did a good job, but the noises are even better here. For instance, having spent a week in a real-life Audi R8 only a few weeks ago, I can tell you the one in the game sounds very, very close.

There are a few exceptions I’ve found so far - the Ford Mustang GT350 isn’t quite there and the Ferrari F12tdf is weirdly distorted on the interior view - but on the whole the noises are impressive and make playing the game a nicely immersive experience.

BMW 3-series compacts are everywhere

And I mean everywhere…

The handling is the perfect balance between arcade and simulation

A fun, open-world driving game like this is something you should be able to pick up and enjoy quickly, and that’s certainly the case with Horizon 3. Cars handle vaguely as they should (unlike Need For Speed), but will grip and stop a lot better than they will in a sim racer or IRL. And no, I don’t think a Lamborghini Aventador SV is quite as good at thumping over dirt roads as this game would have you believe…

But that’s all fine, as what you’re left with is a game that’s entertaining yet just about realistic enough for hardcore petrolheads to play it with a ‘WTF’ look smacked across their chops.

The roads aren't twisty enough

This is probably my biggest complaint about the game. The map is twice the size of Horizon 2’s, which makes it great to explore, but there’s a surprising lack of cool, twisty roads.

Most are straight and relatively uninteresting, and while weaving in and out of traffic at 180mph in a supercar might make them more exciting, is it too much to ask to have a killer mountain pass to carve up? After all, having a map very loosely based on bits of an entire country gives you a whole heap of creative license to play with. Imagine something like Forza Motorsport 3’s Fujimi Kaido - or better yet Bathurst - dumped at the outer reaches of the map. How cool would that be?

What you will find in abundance though are dirt roads. Lots of dirt roads. In fact I was massively disappointed to find out that what looked to be the curviest road on the map was actually an unpaved trail. Sure, the whole bouncing around in an Ariel Nomad deal can be fun, but it’s not the main draw of this game for me.

Driving on the left is weird

Yes, I live in the UK. Yes, we drive on the left here, and yes, that should mean driving on the left in the Australia-set Horizon 3 should come naturally. But I’m so used to playing games like these - be they previous Horizon titles, Grand Theft Auto V or Test Drive Unlimited - that place you on the right, that I do naturally try to drive on the wrong side of the road in FH3.

A few crashes later, I’m just about getting out of the habit…

Ultimate Edition doesn't include everything

Our test version of Horizon 3 is the Ultimate Edition, which means it comes with ‘VIP Membership’ (that gets you more money on ‘spins’, by the way), extra cars and free DLC access for six months among other things. Whether or not that’s worth the extra £35 over the regular game depends entirely upon how much you like your DLC, and how into cool steel game cases you are.

It is worth pointing out that Ultimate doesn’t get you everything, however. There are a pair of expansions coming and these aren’t covered by the six month DLC package - you’ll need to shell out an extra £29.24 (weirdly specific number, right?) for a pass covering both.

It's one of the most entertaining driving games I've ever played

Yes, the extra content is expensive, the map’s not perfect and the trees are irritating, but other than that, there’s little to dislike about this game.

The key thing is it’s delirious fun. Whether you’re being serious and dominating the exhibition/championship races, going through the campaign co-op style with three of your mates online or are being a clown and racing a bloody great freight train, loading up Horizon 3 will almost always result in a good time.