One of Microsoft's best games is EXTINCT. 

Game dev here. This has nothing to do with digital games or DRM, this has to do with licensing which have term limits. Both music and cars. People can still play the game so it clearly isn't a matter of DRM (which would prevent people from playing purchased games). Whether physical or digital anyone who has bought the game can still play it. My brother's band was part of GTA V DLC and there was no term limit, meaning that the game can be sold digitally in 50 years and it covers that. Again, nothing to do with it being a digital copy or the game having DRM. So your complaint has to do with inadequate licensing practices which is often tied to licensing costs. Games have a much longer digital shelf life than physical shelf life. Licensing agreements need to take that into account. GTA makes enough revenue to sign these no-term agreements and it would be nice to see that with all games but it's pretty unrealistic to expect.

Not a licensing expert here but the reason Forza horizon ( or any horizon game after 4 years ) get delisted is because of the car licenses expire every 4 years, ( this is why Horizon 1 was delisted in October 20 2016 ). They can renew them but would cost more then what Microsoft gets in return plus they may not get certain car licenses back. In terms of music, the license is 10 years most of the time.

Pirating old games is completely ethical in scenarios like this.

This is why I support physical media, among other things. Can't delist a physical copy of a game, movie, or album.

the first horizon is truly a time capsule to the early 2010s. i currently have it on my modded 360 and i absolutely love it.

Forza horizon 1 has the best music, the best cars, the best progression system, the best dialogue, the best handling, and the best story. Not to hate on the new titles but this one did a lot better.

I was fortunate to get this game as a free gratuity after playtesting it for Microsoft. Such a sweet deal as a kid. Although I consider Forza Motorsport 2 as one of my all-time favorite games Forza Horizon 1 is probably the most solid, well-rounded the series has ever been. Fantastic video! Keep up the good work!

I bought this game like 2 months ago on my birthday XD guess i pulled the trigger just in time i missed playing it and bought it literally 2 days after I saw it at a gamestop

The thing that makes the map more enjoyable than the latest installments is that you HAVE to use the roads and cant just plow straight across the map or fast travel everywhere. I know it seems counter intuitive at first to say a "less free" map is more fun but it realy is a lot more fun to me having a more restircted map with tight and twisted roads than the huge flat map with a bunch of nothing made for the elimiator.

Bro I’m an OG since horizon 1. I feel in love with it instantly. Watching these roads and looking at that map…Holay it’s been a while😢

FM 4 and FH1 where goat. And the second and third installment of FH were also awesome. And please don't call FM a true simulation racer. That would be saying a SUV is a Hypercar. The term Sim-Cade suits it better.

The thing I missed most from this game is the vibe. Like most of the features you mentioned are also in the later titles, except for the class rivals and the banter between radio stations. In the later games you start out as the owner of the festival and a well known driver, you've won as soon as you open the game. Starting FH1 is like NFS MW where you're the underdog making it through the ranks. Saw a video where they put all the intro's from the games side-by-side, and you can immediately see how different 1 feels from all the others.

The things i would do to get a proper remake of this game, imagine just the tuning feature and customisation in this game. It needs nothing else.

Thankfully I can still play this game. It’s just a vibe that you can’t beat.

This was a well done video even tho u had not even played 2, 3, 4 and 5. Subbed

The first Horizon is a masterpiece! I’m still playing it today, excellent video by the way!

6:41 - The sense of speed is so damn scary that I miss the most from modern racing games. The other games that come close to this is NFS Pro-street/Shift(s), Driveclub, Midnight Club L.A, Project Gotham Racing 4, GT6 (Going around corners as fast as possible), Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, and Forza Motorsport 4. Now newer racing games have a dull sense of speed that I look at it and just see it as kind of boring... Worse case by this is the newer Forza Horizon games where FH5 maybe have the worst sense of speed that I have ever seen in a racing game due to having a longer running franchise and hitting over 300 mph just feels like going 130 mph in the older forza games... Is those little details in these older games that what makes it more than a video game, as cheesy as that sounds. Fantastic video! I wish more people like you appreciate older racing games from a handful of people do even if they are not really into it.

They should've kept the older titles on sale.

This is my childhood playing this game. Love you enjoyed it allot. Thanks for making this video made me really happy.

Miss the drift meets at eagle ridge and Red Rock

i still have it, it was the first video game i ever played in my life. Came with my xbox 360

I'd like to mention the Project Gotham Racing franchise, another Microsoft/Xbox IP, those games look beautiful for their time in my opinion!!

A big issue of horizon 5 for me was that i felt like there was a lack of progression, i was young when the first game released and i miss the wristband system and unlocking things over time. In the new games you start with great cars and it doesn’t feel as satisfying when you buy something new that you wanted. Also i miss the feeling of horizon as a festival, idk if it’s just me but the festival atmosphere seems gone.

I agree it’s getting real board driving around Mexico

FH1 was special. A dynamic map that wasn’t crazy big. Car list was great, and music was memorable

I still have a physical copy, when i was a kid i loved racing games but as i started to get older i moved onto shooters and general open world games. Playing this game with my dad is what got me back into racing games and into cars again which now i am an enthusiast irl and couldn't be happier about the direction things went. The devs for forza horizon might have made a lot of mistakes over the years but I've never had more fun in any other open world racing games as I have in the horizon series and it has a special place in my heart for keeping me interested in cars and racing over the years.

I don't usually comment but your videos are so well made keep it up looking forward to see the channel grow about the game I have it still whit the Rally DLC which is awesome.

I remember playing the game on the 360 wenn I was 9 or 10 and to this day every time I hear a song that was played in the in game radio I get flash backs And u forgot to mention the most funny lines from the radio announcer I hope u have heard wenn u played the game And great video brought back memories 👍

My friend I also do care about photo mode in games , i like to capture the moments of the game , and I can say that in forza horizon series , forza horizon 5 have done the great job in photo mode , but the photo mode is not quick enough in FH5 , you need to click pic then save it , a long process , but although it's a good experience.

3:40 "such as the clouds drifting by-why is that minivan going 350 miles per hour?!?!"

FH5 just introduced a "back to the past Forza Horizon 1" sorta story... and I can't help thinking to myself, why should I be nostalgic for a game that doesn't exist?

Core childhood game for me personally, and criminally underrated. This game executed the atmosphere and story so well. I’ve heard some people say the dialogue is a bit cheesy but to me, it reminds me of an old sports film with clunky dialogue which clearly had a ton of love poured into it. The game is a freaking time capsule to 2012. The new games are technically impressive, but they don’t even come close to capturing the essence of the Horizon festival.

Didnt have a cringey storyline and the music was the best on this. Had a nice atmosphere to it even if the map is a little small when going back to it from others. Id say they got worse but they are all really good games as a whole.

Its crazy how good this game looks and it was on the 360

I totally agree! Something needs to be changed or we will end up not really owning any digital media. GOG on PC is a good DRM free store but it has a limited number of games and the cost of the device to factor in can get expensive. FH1 is still my favorite in the franchise. Great video!

I still have my copy's of the first three Horizon games on disc. My disc for Forza Horizon 1 is about 8 years old now.

Wait till you hear about Xenia Emulator

Game dev here. We recommend going to the high seas. You can get ALL DLC and a copy of the game is yours forever.

It had the best atmosphere and story. The roads felt real with their imperfections. The map had diversity and the road placement felt convincing. The car selection was good for 2012 and the sounds are as good or better than today. I find myself playing the original more that the other 4 combined. This game is a gateway to a better time.

I really wanted those dlc's man😢😔

Either the industry needs a way to make games currently non-distributed available without asking the publisher, or Microsoft needs to create new licenses that can be profitable in low sales volumes for all parties. Hope we can get the ladder, but the former would be significantly harder and making enemies while being very progressive.

I never played FH2 but just looking at it I think I like the progression system a lot more. I did play FH3, 4, and 5. 3 was pretty good. But 4 and 5 treat you like you are some sort of messiah and you are the most super special here's all the free hypercars with maxed out stats right from the get-go. I don't feel like I earned anything. Everything, cars and money, are given to me in such ridiculous amounts that the amount of money you get from racing seems absolutely paltry. I want to earn it. I want to be the no-name participant that slowly works his way up to being the best. I want to start off with the entry level wrist band and the slow cars before showing up to the next level of racing with a car I bought and paid for with my off-the-books street racing. Instead every time I log in to FH5 something new and over the top is just thrown in my face. To be honest it feels condescending. I feel disrespected as if I'm being treated as some drooling idiot child. "Awwww here comes little Xaeby here you go fucker a new Ferrari go away"

To clarify, *DRM is a measure where owners (companies) monitor if users (us) is using the product/service without messing up the rights (ie control of owner).* This comes through anti tampering software for software and game products to stop them from cracking. Current famous DRM is Denuvo, used in big PC and now even console games. Is DRM illegal? No. Is DRM wrong? In many ways, yes. It can affect playability (SecuROM had hardware install limits; Denuvo games can not be activated without internet connection, games will die once their server goes offline). Cracking them after some point in time is important, because companies rarely care if games die,

I grew up on this game and had it on my 360. I unfortunately bumped into the console one day and the entire disc scratched inside the console, so I couldn’t play it anymore. But I thankfully found another copy and replayed through the entire campaign and finally beat it.

@6:55 Yeah, watching the in cockpit view, and all the lush scenery, if you like this game, look up Car X; Highway Racing. Not quite as big a game, but if you love this, you'll enjoy Car X.

I was luckily able to buy the original gold bundle of forza 3&4 when I did... theres no signs anywhere of a digial release

I wish they didn't kill off the servers for the older Xbox One Forza Games. Forza Horizon 2, Motorsport 5 & 6 servers went offline in 2022 I believe, without a warning. When people would contact the Forza support page, they would just give a copy/paste message, "Oh, we don't support legacy titles". Then they announced a server shutdown for Forza Horizon 2 on 360 & Xbox One, but the servers were already offline.

I have all of the Horizon games, but Horizon 1 is the one that I always come back to, the music, the car list, the setting was all executed perfectly, and the handling model makes just about anything fun to drive around in, and yes, the photo mode thing is annoying :)

I was a senior in HS when this came out and I absolutely LOVED this game. I'm glad I was lucky enough to be able to play all of the Horizon games when they were new.

FH1 still remains my favorite Horizon. It just has the best mix of presentation quality, music, festival setting & vibes, handling & driving physics, and of course its gameplay loop, and career progression. Yes, sequels improve on many things here and there (mostly visuals), but nothing else could capture & hold my excitement to the levels this game had. Oh, and about that screenshot/photo mode feature that you mentioned, it's a real shame its high quality render counterpart was server-dependent, and not local thus it's not available anymore. I don't remember actual megapixel count (shown on HUD display in photo mode), but I remember the 0.9 MP would return a 720p jpeg picture momentarily, while the other option would return a whopping 4k image but through a painfully slow upload to your 'Gallery' on the game site instead, where it would create a link in your gallery that is ready for download (and AFAIR there also was a time limit for you to actually grab that sweet sweet 4k png image to your drive through a - guess what - painfully slow download). UPD: I looked it up, and it was 8.3 megapixel 'Big Shot' thing. Yeah, I remember I was obsessed with Big Shots in Forza Motorsport 4 where it provided super clean, super detailed images with no issues or graphics errors whatsoever, and I absolutely loved to grab those, take 'em into Photoshop or Lightroom, and edit them, adding effects, etc. etc. The photography was a huge part of why I loved the Forza series, it still is but not to the same extent anymore. Although in some of my pictures the 4k output would somehow introduce graphics bugs & glitches whereas a standard definition 720p image wouldn't (like missing background foliage, or something).

I had so many memories playing FH 1, FH 3, and FM 6. They were great games with lots to do. I stopped playing Xbox when I got older, but dang I sure did had fun with it! If only the newer games were the same.

I’m a fellow like you I still have the physical copy and play this game on my Series X here and there. This is a game that deserves a PC port and a remake. Imagine this game to freely roam off road since FH2 was the intro to roam off road freely. For a game that first released on 360 at the tail end of its life cycle in 2012 it still holds up great!

Forza Horizon 1 is most likely the most influential game in my life, a big part of why Im studying mechanical engineering is because the upgrade system in the game made my 12 year old mind realise how much I like the idea of improving/studying a machine. Played 1-4 but stopped playing games mostly by the time 5 came around so havent played it yet

Forza Horizon 1 to 3 were the best. 1 being the most atmospheric and magic. With 4 the series started dropping off. Also, don't show too much footage of final missions in the video, I imagine this video will motivate some people to buy and try the game, let them discover it by themselves.

I still have my physical copy. Love this game. Played a lot of this one and Horizon 4.

The Forza 4 title screen music gives me waves of nastolga.

I’m so glad I have a copy. I’m wagering that if this game never gets a remaster, prices of physical copies are going to go through the roof in a few years

Forza Motorsport 4 and forza horizon are my childhood

I remember as a kid looking up open world games because there was a lack of them (that were PG at least) so I looked up on my iPad open world games and I saw this game and downloaded it, and even though I was disappointed it wasn’t open world where you could get out your car and walk around I still fell in love with the game and played it allll the time. Ever since buying that game I’ve got all the forzas even though I don’t play them as much

Dude. That beep was way too loud considering the audio level of the rest of the video. I had my volume pretty quiet, playing of my speakers but that scared the s*** out of me.

As someone who started playing forza in 2019, I would have loved to play FH1 and FH2 (and FH3's DLCs). Sadly, licenses/copyright is a thing.

If anyone wants to know the law behind this. Licences refer to a 'licence to copy and reproduce' the automakers' badge and car design. Copying a 3D car design, even from a 2D plan, in digital form is a breach of copyright without a licence. Therefore, the developers are required, in order to not breach copyright, to ensure that they have a valid licence to make such copies. The fact is though, if the automaker wished, they could licence the names and designs out, for this very specific purpose of gaming, for free in contract.

FH1 is the Most Wanted 2005 of Forza Horizon for me. Both perfect games with perfect vibe and a lot of passion and soul behind them

I still play this game 12 years later. Ive got all the forza horizons and, despite having “premium” versions of the last two games, nothing in the series beats the sheer atmosphere and the setting of the first instalment, alongside one of the best songs list and overall festival feel, which in the current titles of the series is close to absent. The only thing i dislike is the inability to get the dlcs for first three games, because those are also a big part of a game in the horizon series in particular, but also, a painful tendency for turn 10 to take down after a couple of years with the discontinuation of an older title in the series. What is most paining is that those same dlcs, while delisted from the store, which means no way to get them anymore, are advertised all over the main game, which is triple the frustration for me.

Amazing video man! Hope to see more similar videos in the future

The game was free on games with gold years ago. I can still enjoy it in glorious 4k on Series X.

Anytime I play this game I get instantly transported to my childhood

Forza Horizon 1 is just magical ! The World . The Most wanted type gameplay, that you actually have to work yourself up through the Classes . Fight against the Rival ! That is motivation ! In new FH you get a ton of Free cars and money that can be fun but looses all motivation for the grind ... not only forces you the game to drive races in all Classes instead of the new one where you take the best Car in R2 or R3 and boom wineverything but also makes you enjoy the "slower cars" ... the music is also fire ! But thats through the whole series .... and again i love Colorado , the pine woods in the mountains gives some Twin Peaks/LiS vibes . Oh and the Radio commentators . That comments on the progress and other Rical drivers who got Voice actors .... that just makes the World feel alive

There were also two DLCs for the original Horizon, the rally expansion, and the 1000 club expansion. Occasionally, you might be able to find a digital code for the rally expansion that works, but the 1000 club expansion was free and cannot be obtained at all, at least not by legit means. The rally expansion is absolutely incredible, it very much feels like dirt 4 with Forza Horizon physics.

The green Prosche looks perfect.

the online had such a community i miss it so much also the console mods where you could drive a glowing bus and the glowing paintjob. forza horizon 3 was the last game that felt like horizon made a ton of friends along the way too we used to insult eachother while dragracing and cruise around miss the sewnse of community these games had, u missed out bro

i played the first forza horizon on xbox 360, it was such a good game.

Everything feels meaningful and fits the festival theme. I love the little Race Sign Up spots. It feels like there is something not just dumb floating markers in thin air. This is exactly what makes the modern Horizon games so bad. Nothing feels meaningful and everything is cringe, boring and not about the Horizon Festival anymore. The first game is the most gorgeous and best Horizon game ever. 2nd is good as well. After the third everything went downhill.

I'm glad you were able to finish the video considering you've been writing this since 2022, hope you feel the effort was worth it! Very good video

I’ve played a bit of the first two games, but fh3 will always be my favorite. The hot wheels dlc, the airstrip “drag strip”, Goliath race, just a beautiful game

Why do they sign licencing contracts that expire? couldn't they just pay something equivalent to royalty's on each copy sold?

The first horizon is still my favorite out of the series. The music, the vibes, the location and the racing was fantastic. I've had alot of epic moments racing in this game and i never got to play it online. I've had the AI do some insane things during races. I've got them clipped somewhere.

After finishing FH2 the last two years, i only recently started FH1 and was shocked at how much i enjoy it despite its depressing look (always yellowish/dull and same look, due to hardware limitation and style choices of course). Even with the servers being offline,i often find 1 or 2 people in orivate lobbys 😳

The one and only objective gripe I have with the Horizon series is that they make the roads too wide on purpose to make driving easier. The issue with that is it makes any thing lower than A-Class completely unenjoyable to drive on even the twistiest road. There's a reason you see more Miatas and MR2s around stuff like Tail of the Dragon than you do around VIR or Road Atlanta. Not because track days are more expensive but because most people would rather drive briskly on a narrow twisty road at 6/10 of the limit than to be blasting down a straight with their foot completely to the floor to only be doing 100mph by the end of it. It's what arguably made Test Drive Unlimited so long lasting. Even the slow cars were fun and challenging on the narrow mountain road of Oahu.

This game was only released on Xbox 360 and no mention of it whatsoever, especially since the narator mentioned many times how good it looks.

200mph in horizon 1 felt like light speed

Good thing I have a cd copy and play it on my Xbox one s

Project Gotham Racing was by far the best driving game i ever played, on the original Xbox...

Really great video. I never experienced the first horizon series game but your video was a great review. I highly recommend Drive Club. Game has amazing themed music. Graphics super cool aggressive cars. Like theres alot of heart and good ideas in that game. That i wish we could see a return but Great video man👍🏽

Horizon 1 had soul, all the others just went bigger but not necessarily better. Edit: still have my disc so they can't take it away with their all digital future

The AutoHDR looks really good even on RU-vid

Let me summaries Forza horizon series in few words. Drift simulator go brrr 10/10 would play again.

Love your analysis and general output. Binged through the Generation Kill commentary as well. Superb. Considering your style, film making and gaming I'd recommend playing through Cyberpunk 2077 especially after the DLC. I'm quite certain you'll find a lot of things to say about it.

I wish I had gotten fh1 and 2 before they were gone but at least I have 3

I have the game on disc, it’s so good to go back to this game. I never played online, but offline and solo is good enough for me.

Thank you for reminding me I still have my original Horizon 1 copy buried in my closet somewhere. Time to buy a Series X I guess

I still have this game on xbox 360. Really good game.

The issue, is the gamers themselves. If you play FH5 now, besides dragging the typical fast cars, no one wants to drive with you. No one wants to drift together. Everyone just maxes a car out, and will outpace you everytime when you try to drive/drift a more realistic way. I drift heavily in that game, but like doing drive runs around the map. Well a 550hp car to a 1000hp car, you cant keep up either drifting or driving when you have a straight to floor it. Thus no one will drive with you. Just yesterday drifting my 540hp silva s15, when a guy with a forumla one drift car (1000hp) wanted to tandem. Not even after the 3rd corner did he just take off, because my car doesnt do 100 mile an hour drifts, it stays within 30-80mph drifting. So our tandem lasted about 2 minutes, max. Back to solo drifting. Then go on freeway/highway to drive low hp cars, here comes the 250mph+ car wanting to group up, but obviously passes my 200mph fully floored silva. Back to being alone, again. In FH2, I ended up finding a group of 10 guys who all drifted together and kept their cars within the same parameters so they could tandem. And when we werent drifting, we drove around the map looking for spots to get a cool photoshoot. For an online game, it sadly feels lonely. The ai drivitars feel more realistic, then the real people who play the game.

Forza Horizon 1 was definitely an absolute masterpiece might be bias because I grew up playing it but this game made you want to progress vs like FH4 or FH5

i am glad i was able to get the digital version of this game from games with gold a few years back. it's my favorite Forza title of all time and i also own the physical copy so i can play whenever i want.

Seen the title and the thumbnail and thought you were gonna mention Bizarre Creations' Project Gotham Racing. The team who made PGR (Bizarre Creations) was purchased by Microsoft and merged with playground games to make FH1

I want the delisted Forza games relisted, and the downloadable contents. I bought most of the games late and when I learned I couldn't buy the contents anymore, I was devastated. Online services for these past games should come back too.

I'm so happy that i have the game files and run it emulated on my pc at least

This was my favorite and still is my favorite game. This was a big piece of my childhood.

FH1 was peak Forza, i wish to go back to those times tbh, go back 10 or 15 or so years to enjoy all these games without worrying about all this, all the delisting and such, so yeah