The Fall of Forza Horizon 

Great video as always! I agree that FH3 was the best title of the series. FH4 was good in the beginning, but rapidly lost its attractiveness to me because it felt so, meh, compared to the masterpieces that 2 and 3 were. And I really put some great hopes into FH5 but was once again disappointed. It is probably my least played Horizon title and mind you, I started with FH2 (also with the 360 port, so same as you xD) and only played FH1, afterwards at the time when 3 was a year old or so. The only fun I had in 5, was driving up and down the volcano in a slightly tuned Miata, which also got very boring, very quickly... I also started with FM3 as my first ever Forza and I hop back every once in a while. You know a game is great, if you enjoy to revisit it even so many years later! At this point, I dont even know if they can stop the decline anymore. I am really, really hoping that the new Motorsport will be a good game again. Same goes for whatever a new Horizon title would look like... Id wish for a good single player campaign with a REAL story line (The "stories" in 4 and 5 are a joke), aswell as an environment, which feels more organic and diverse, like it did in FH3. Australia was the perfect map for a Horizon game, since it combined all the different "zones" of the map sooooo well. The environment always felt vivid but also natural. GB and Mexico in comparison kinda feel dull and the same-ish all around the map. As to other racing games, I am most excited for TDU Solar Crown and I hope it will show us an upswing, or a turning point for the WHOLE racing game industry.

I love how in the first Horizon, you start as a nobody and you earn your way to the top. All of the new ones, you are the center of attention and it just feels like some "influencer" power fantasy

FH5 is the prime example of "So much to do, no reason to do it"

10:32 FH2 has THE BEST entrance scene ever. Such a vibe and good feelings, very emotional really. Loved it, everything.

I remember Forza Horizon 2 was advertised as "you can go almost anywhere on the map!" First thing I did was collide with an indestructible guardrail.

Finally i saw someone quotiong how Forza was focused in customization. A lost in time aspect from the franchise

Every Horizon game after the first one is missing the one thing that made the first game so great, the progression. Having to build your cars to be competitive in a restricted car class with the limited money you had from competing in the previous races was amazing. I feel like they went way too far in giving players the freedom to choose what car they used to the point where you could be driving races in some of the fastest cars in the game only a couple hours into the game. Nothing about that is rewarding and it ruined the series for me.

I want Horizon to go back to being about climbing your way to the top and with races being locked to certain car classes or car types. I would also like for the game to not be so easy to get everything. You can get the fastest cars in the game in like a hour or two just because wheel spins are so easy to get. I started with the first Horizon game when it came out and it gave a reason to keep playing.

I was one of the OG FH1 players when the game released. Seeing someone understand and share the same views makes me feel great that I'm not alone. I used to no life infected day in day out for like 4/5 years and honestly, Infected hasn't felt the same since then. There's just something about the pre-game lobby that we'll never get back

by far my favourite part about horizon 4 was the mosler incident. playground games made a limited time event where you could get a mosler mt900s from completing a weekly challenge set to a certain amount. one of the challenges being to win an online race (or multiple races (I forgor)) which would give you most of the required points. however, people quickly found that the mosler mt900s was a completely broken vehicle. one of the best for drag, downforce, corning, and top speed, all in one neat little package. when everybody started realising this, people started desperately clawing their way into the weekly championship to try and get one. I can't remember why exactly (it may have been people trolling the system somehow) but the influx of people made it nigh on impossible to get the darn car, and when the week ended, thousands of people were left without the car and would have to hope that the vehicle was put on auction and that they would be able to snipe it down. and then ~3 days after the week ended, playground games gave the vehicle to every single person who had ever played the game for free. this completely demolished the rarity of the car and all the in game leaderboards were flooded with mosler mt900s entries. good times.

There is something in Horizon 2 that just clicks for me. I love 1, I really like 3, and I had tons of fun early into 4's life before FOMO seasonal stuff got the best out of the series, but there is nothing else like the sunny European countryside and its occasional dramatic storms. The part that sucks big time is that it'll never be on PC, at least not the version I'm fond of. That's a major reason why I'm keeping my VCR Xbox One up and running for as long as I can.

Damn FH3 during its peak is definitely one of my top 5 games of all time, sad to see where it’s gone from then

I remember while playing FH4, after getting bored of doing the series constantly, I'd just customize a police car and post up on the motorway and chase people trying to drag race. Gotta make your own fun somehow

I feel like car damage became worse over the years. I remember playing Forza Horizon 1, and the car damage was pretty good, with the bumpers breaking off, windows shattering, and side mirrors breaking off, and some pretty deep dents. Forza Horizon 2 kept these damage designs, but improved upon them by making the damage dents more deeper. Forza Horizon 3 was also an improvement, with deeper damage dents and more overall damage to the body of the car. Forza Horizon 4 was when it started to fall, the bumpers stopped falling off and windows stopped shattering, the damage dents also became smaller. Forza Horizon 5 went along with this devolution with even smaller dents and the same damage minimizers as 4.

Horizon 1s bass arena is still incredible. The games soundtrack shaped my taste of music. And somehow in my 20s now this game has every car I love. It’s the perfect racing game for me

In my opinion, 3, 4 and 5 took away progression. You could jump straight in with super cars and the amount of money you could earn straight away was stupid. Whereas 1 and 2 forces you to begin with class E and D cars and money was harder to get so by the time you’re on class A you gotta chose a class S car or upgrade your car to S to compete

My brother and I had a heated discussion that eventually ended with us agreeing that: In terms of graphics and environment, FH3 was the best, but we liked how you had to start from basically nothing on FH1. If they make a new one, I want to be some unknown person, not super popular and start with everything.

FH1's singleplayer with it's armband system is just goated. Forever in my heart. I've beaten the game like 5 times, with last time being May2023 and if definitive edition ever comes out I will cry

What I miss the most from FH4 to FH5 is the online free roam community. Horizon events weren't a constant thing. When one appeared it always had a large group of people who would show up. Usually a couple minutes early. Everyone in a different car, customized different ways. It was an impromptu car meet. The only interactions you had were to honk the horn, do some burnouts and spam "Nice Car" or "Nice Paint" in quick chat. And it worked. It was a weird genuine interaction without being able to even type to the person. After the event you could go back to the highway, join up with a random group, cruise the highway back and forth until the next one. Now the events are non stop, 2 at a time. Its rare to have even 1 other player join you. Which was a massive problem at launch when the goals were set to be done by multiple people so it was impossible for 1 or even 2 people to complete an event. Luckily they fixed it so now it scales to amount of players in the event. Still terrible and pointless overall though. It also seems that less people drive around together compared to 4. I tried going back to 4 recently only to find my save is completely gone and I lost everything I did in FH4 and since I don't wanna restart im stuck with FH5. And by stuck with FH5 I mean I watched this video waiting for IRacing to download on Steam. Loved the video.

Horizon has almost completely lost it's soul. 1 and 2 nailed their respective atmospheres due to the focused setting, music choice, and world building in the cutscenes and sponsors. They were also grounded in reality, to the point where you think that someone could pull off a festival like it IRL. By 3, they dropped the stories and characters, went for generic popular songs for each genre, de-emphasized the festival, and reduced the realism with jumping being a core part of the gameplay. Someone pointed out that each intro screen removed the number of people, and then by 5, the removed cars entirely from the intro screen (until the anniversary intro). The series really needs to re-focus on atmosphere and the festival because that's what made it's initial identity so successful.

Awesome video. Forza Horizon 4 will always hold a very special place in my heart. I remember getting this for Christmas, and I was super excited since, I only played Motorsport, but the 5th Motorsport was so bad, so I decided to give horizon 3 a shot, and I thought it was awesome. So once I got Horizon 4, I immediately played it for 10 hours a day. I had so much fun, and has always been my most played game. I never really had a problem, and I never really played multiplayer. It was amazing, and I had so much fun. I will always love this game. Honestly underrated

In fh1 there was actually a grind, you weren’t just gifted a lambo. My best memories of the game is when I was grinding the 100k race 22 times just to get the veyron. These days they give u the rarest cars for nothing.

Fh5 is my first Forza horizon game, I’m about 25 hours into it and I don’t even know how to access multi player, haven’t even looked for it 😂. But I am 40, and if it’s not couch competition, I’m not playing with other people. The fh5 presentation and progression is a blast compared to all the sim titles I’ve played prior to this non-sim. I’m having fun, gonna stick with it, haha.

The original Forza Horizon had the best and most engaging story, making it easily the best in the series in my opinion. Start off with nothing, and at the very botton of the festival. Slowly but surely you get better cars, more money, get the challenge some of the big names...its exactly what a stroy needs to keep you engaged. My biggest problem with modern racing games is you are given everything for free with no work required, creating no grind in the game. You feel like you didnt do anything to earn the stuff you got. And that has never kept me engaged

Oh my goodness, as the co-editor and script overviewer for the UltraViolet channel (formerly Moses B) I kinda jumped when you mentioned our video on the racing game community, makes me feel like I'm famous! that aside, this was a really well made and edited video actually giving me some inspiration for what to do with our channel too, and a lot of what you said is stuff we totally agree with as well. If I had anything more to add, I'd say freeroam rush was one of the worst choices I've seen ever made for a forza game, that and the fact that FH5's map was primarily designed with the eliminator in mind. Either way, keep up the fantastic content, I can't wait to see more in the future!

I love the first one. Cutscenes, Story, music - creates a unique atmosphere and: progression

I loved the FH1, mainly because it was one of the only race games that had a storyline, and you ranked up along the game, while racing against bosses and betting your own car against them, and there were also illegal street races and legal races in the same game, among with exotic cars like the gumpert, the ultimate aero, and so on, it was different, but then the other games of the franchise removed all those features and stayed basically the same for years...

Just gonna say, I loved FH4s map. I lived in England for a few years and it reminded me of that, plus it looked pretty damn good, and it wasn't super unrealistic. But yeah, that's ll I liked about the game

As an avid Forza player, I started playing in 2006 and I have played every single Motorsport/Horizon ever made and this is what I have to say... Forza Motorsport 4 was and is STILL the GREATEST FORZA GAME EVER MADE. EDIT: Also FH4 was my absolute favorite in the Horizon series. Something about the game taking place in England just made it so great. I always felt like I was on an episode of Top Gear. I remember the game releasing and I played it nonstop for the first 2 years. It was like a drug.

I actually got myself Horizon 4 a few days ago because I wanted to get into Forza for a while and 4 seemed the most accessable to me, and I personally haven't really had any problems with the game. Mostly because I'm a casual player and because I wasn't aware of some of the issues beforehand. but I can understand why the game isn't everyone's cup of tea though.

For us PC players FH4 and 5 are a total blessing. Only a handful got to play FH3 back then.

There is a perfect meme out there to describe it. Forza Horizon 1's target audience were car fanatics who wanted to realize their fantasies in a sort-of realistic way. Forza Horizon 5's target audience are toddlers who want all the toys.

I just gonna say it. Horizon one has the BEST vibe being the location/setting/story and time of year. Its was far more intimate. Horzon 2024/25 need to be a return to the "smaller" music festival back in Colorado. They could even explain the story why the festival is a bit tone down this year. Maybe im just super nostalgic of that 2013 autumn/fall and how the world was through the eyes of 22 year old 🤷🏿‍♂🤷🏿‍♂

I remember seeing multiple instances in FM4 of 2 bots going neck & neck, and when they reach a corner, one of them forgets to brake and just goes way off the track.

I've had a lot of love for the game and the series, and I hope they can put it back together with experience and feeling in the future, but only time will tell. I agree with a lot of what you say here, especially how the community is the biggest strength and weakness at the same time. Thanks for making HRA the shining star, it means a lot because we want to help and foster a helpful community together. We broke the 2000 member mark today. Thank you for the support!

When did the western gaming industry decide that "playlists" and "battle passes" are a proper substitute for a properly designed single player progression? This kinda affected all genres and ruined entire franchises, but for some reason racing games got hit the hardest. Not a SINGLE mainstream racing game resisted succumbing to the death of proper single player progression. The fact that there are entire big RU-vid channels dedicated to replaying GT4 over and over again TO THIS DAY with different rules and challenges should tell you the caliber of what we lost.

I remember FH4 game fondly for 3 main reasons: It was my first FH game, they included music from my favorite electrinic group (Odesza) and I used to play it with my best friend (now we don't have time to play anything). However, for some reason, when I played FH5 I didn't find that sparkle that made me love FH, the only thing I liked was the main soundtrack (I thought that I would love it because it was placed in my country, Mexico, but I didn't like it).

It's nice seeing your recent success. I remember we used to do group posts together a couple years ago on FH4. It wasn't a great game, but it didn't matter when I was having fun with friends. Thanks for the awesome content, and your editing style is great.

I like when you transition to another horizon game, the backround theme correlates to how well it was like Forza horizon 1, 2, and 3. Then 4 comes and it’s just funny

Moral of the story for anything that has to do with cars; Non car ppl will want to be invloved, but they shouldnt be allowed

They needed to make a FH where u start as the star of the festival, for the tutorial, but at the end it reveals that's not actually u, u're in the crowd just watching, and u gotta climb a NFS:MW blacklist like beating rivals in various scenarios. Tuners, off-roads, rally, etc

I'm surprised you didn't mentioned how horrible the car sounds were in fh4 and motorsport 7. Fm4, fm6 , fh1,fh2 fh3 had of the best sounds especially the accuracy of the Hondas with the vtec crossover, mannn that sounded so sweet, everything was spot on in this video, great job

As somebody who is new to the franchise and relatively new to the genre, and who loves FH4 and bought FH5 and am enjoying it (once I updated my graphics drivers to stop the graphical bugs), I can't wait to see this hot take on my beloved games.

My biggest issue is they keep getting further and further away from single player content. And like you said. it is soo multiplayer pvp focused now. Also. FH5 is the Mary Sue of Racing games. It gives you everything. Nothing feels earned. FH5 just feels like a hallow shell of what it should be. Devoid of any real meaning. I never really felt immersed or a part of something. I love progression. FH5 removes that from the game for the most part. The "Story" is shallow and feels like an afterthought. Every new FH game seems to lose more of what it was. FH5 is beautiful. And I did enjoy it for what it was. But every time I logged in, I couldn't stop thinking about I was missing. Thanks for the video. Very well done.

The open world cruising community in forza horizon 5 is awesome, take out a car you like, drive around, if you run into someone beep your horn some and follow them/let them follow you. Its why I still play forza horizon at all. I love drifting or cruising with random people and seeing their unique cars

For me Horizon is the awesome combination of locations, music, ambiance, community and cars. The whole horizon festival setting is mainly why I love the series so much. It feels like it’s more then an open world racing game. It really feels like an escape to a dream universe. A RoadTrip Fever Party Universe. Customization are such a small thing compared to the whole setting for me. Despite the downgrades in 5, it still brings me into that dream universe. 4’s my favorite 🙌 Love you guys ❤️

Forza Horizon 2 was the first Forza Horizon game I played. My first Forza game was Motorsport 5, which was alright but as soon as I played Horizon 2 I was hooked. I loved that game and played it for years. The intro where you press A with the theme playing in the background is etched into my brain at this point, and I cant help but tear up a little when hearing it. I also loved Forza Horizon 3, and played that a lot with friends and did a whole lot of solo races. Although Forza Horizon 4 was where I started to lose interest. I did do quite a bit of racing and goofing off with friends, but I never played it as much as 2 and 3. And finally Forza Horizon 5. I have hardly played that game since release, and I might pick it up again but I dont know. Out of all the Forza Horizons, 2 will always be my favorite.

"lets see what they can do with 5 and a half years of development time for Forza Motorsport" My brother in christ, I'm sorry for your loss

Just want to say this is a really good video. Been a Forza fan since FH2 , and I agree with basically all of your points. I hope they can bring back the spirit of the old games but I’m doubtful. A big problem I’m having in enjoying the games is now that there really isn’t any story progression, you basically have to play online (which I don’t find fun) or with friends, and now that I’m in my mid-20s myself and my friends don’t have much time to grind anymore..

Good to see. I used to be the biggest horizon fan and played them all through never getting bored. Horizon 5 lasted about 3 months for me and I haven’t touched it since. Sad and 8 doesn’t look to justify its 6 year wait. Unfortunately racing games are just heading downhill.

I’m pretty proud to have Australia be the feature country in the last good horizon game but disappointed for those who haven’t yet had their country shown off in a Horizon game, maybe playground games can bring it back to what it was with Horizon Japan, we can atleast dream 😅

Horizon 5 compared to other racing games is like a weird mashup of all of them. Horizon 1 was my favorite by far just for the cars, the map, the way you play through the races and progression. It made sense too, small time racer goes off to the big festival to make a name for themselves. And you felt good about getting through the game beating cars with better stats and such. It actually took time to play the game. The games just progressively got more and more cathartic to the point of when you start horizon 5 you can basically have any car in the game in a couple hours. Where’s the fun in that? It was like take2 just said “here’s all the endgame stuff, now fuck off we just wanted your money”. It’s pretty much pointless to even have a progression system in a game that gives you everything before lvl 10

To be honest, since the newest FH5 update, the community really got back to the game. Even myself.

I started with FH3, and I played it for a long time and absolutely adored it. Still have it on my laptop today and booting it up while writing this comment. I then got FH4 and have to say its my favourite due to cars, map and music. We wont talk about 5. But FH3 will always hold a special place to me.

Well first of all I’m glad that you touched a little bit of the Forza Motorsport series, at least the ones from their golden years. Especially since they helped put the Forza franchise on the map of the gaming world. I’ve been playing the Forza games since the very beginning. And when they first made the Horizon series it completely blew my mind how a racing series that made the on-the-racetrack type would risk doing something completely different! And I had tremendous fun with the online multiplayer mode with both friends and family. Even as I played some of the later Forza games I have noticed that things were beginning to decline. Don’t get me wrong the newer Forza Motorsport/Horizon games are decent, in fact visually they are lovely to look at, and have cars that I like and know from older Motorsport games. Plus it has features that you can do for the sake of coming back to play it again. However the gameplay quality is becoming a bit more… desensitizing? Almost like it’s becoming more like copy and paste in a way. Now for the community… what to say. Well the Forza community has definitely built up and brought down the multiplayer experience. I have met friends, rivals and those who end up kicking me out of lobbies. As much as I would like to be more involved and have my name more recognizable within the community, you definitely had a really good point about the changing demographic. Heh sometimes kids can be pretty brutal! 😅 Other than that I really hope for the best for any future Forza games. I will still try to play the newer games for the sake of making content and whatnot. But I feel like the devs don’t know what their audience wants… and that worries me sometimes. At least we can all say is that they are trying.

This video hits alot of the high points in 5 and older games FH1- My fond memory in 1 was racing trying to progress or rping with myself at times (i was young), FH2- Dont recall playing it FH3 Many hours racing drifting thru the city with other players same with that that snow DLC. FH4- Only thing I remember doing is racing people on the highway in 599E and drifting thru main city/DLC island with players FH5 Doing the weekly cars sometimes highway but nothing fun just repetitive. think others could agree.

Small stuff i liked about fh4: -60fps for xbox -weather looks great -character customization -minimap looks back when you look back -menu is little better -new car customizations

I remember when I got my Xbox in 2014, it was the most amazing experience, my first game was Forza horizon 4, I was OBSESSED with it. And I pretended or roleplayed I was a tennager in the Europe side just having fun listening to music, every time a new one came out I would get so pumped doing any chores or anything to get the new one, then after I got 4 I was like “oh cool, this is fun” which is when I realized that the fun in my 12 year old never came back, I think I started to cry because that was the best feeling I have ever gotten in a long time and sure I’m maturing now, but the racing community is starting to seem like the beauty community or just corrupted community , with those whom are new or just want to get under those skin which will one day turn to all of the hackers making it a sandbox, but I miss the horizon 2 and it always brings me back, no crazy people, really unique settings, and amazing racing. I hope we change for the better and soon.

Excellent summary of the history of the franchise and the strengths and weaknesses of the games. One area you didn't really touch on that I've found to also be a huge negative is the time limited exclusive content that started to be added starting in FH3 and was later amplified through the playlist. Like you said FH3 was an inflection point, and this aspect of the game along with the auction house was the beginning of something really ugly in the later games.

I just hate the fact I am constantly fed with digital high fructose corn syrup in the form of new flashy cars and events every two minutes

I agree, I dislike how you just get like 14 super wheel spins when you get Forza 4, hence a lot of new players have good cars. I wish the grind for exotic and powerful cars would be harder, then you feel 10x more accomplished when you get the car you have been working towards.

If FH5 was timing me watching this video, they’d say I completed it in 10.261 seconds

FH2 will always be peak Forza Horizon to me. That could be because of nostalgia, but I genuinely preferred the progression FH2 had over FH3 where you had to get better wristbands.The fact almost every activity was thrown at me from the start in FH3 wasn't my cup of tea. However, what FH3 lacked in progression it made up for in it's open world and car selection, as well as the most based feature which I still mourn over. Groove music. Being able to play your own music was just based.

Excellent video! It was a joy to watch. You've expressed some of my same concerns. It feels good to be validated sometimes.

I mean I've also been finding each new release less and less interesting, but in my case it's (mainly) for 2 completely different reasons: firstly, I prefer single player, I don't care about multi player. As a result, is it really a surprise that I'm not that amazed by games where the single player aspect is an afterthought at best? secondly is a more psychological thing. With racing games, I like starting from the bottom and making my way to the top, I like progress up the ladder, so to speak. Horizon 1 did this really well, with you starting the game as an unknown nobody, but from Horizon 3 onward, it already feels like you're starting at the top at the beginning of the game, like in FH3 you literally own the festival, FH4 has so little story and progression there isn't even a ladder to begin with (and what little progression there is at the very start just feels like a tutorial), and in FH5 you already start as an iconic racing driver that everyone loves from the beginning. What that means for me is that those games feel like you have much less of a drive pushing you forward. They feel a lot more like sandbox racing games than anything else, and unfortunately that's not what I look for in a racing game I have to say though, that one rally race around the big mountain in the Horizon 4 Fortune Island? Chef's kiss, it was amazing. Driving a fast rally car around there was sublime.

Forza Horizon 5 was my first game and I got to know the franchise in 4. You can really see that the old ones are better, i just wanted to leave something here that I think many will identify with. I literally only keep playing fh5 nowadays once a week because of the cars that after the festival can only be acquired by buying them at auction for absurd prices. Literally I just play to have all the content if one day I want to enjoy it.

One of the big things I loved about horizon 3 was the ability to link up your groove music and play literally ANY song you wanted in game.

I'm really only a casual racing game fan but as an older gamer I've still played an awful lot of them over the years. I think where Forza Horizon lost me was 4. I was actually pretty excited to have a Forza set in the UK but it quickly became apparent that actual single player racing was a bit pointless no matter how good the map was as it would just shower you with rewards basically for just turning up. I remember seeing an analysis of the rewards and difference between coming first and coming last was pretty trivial. Not only that but that game wouldn't even recall you position in any events you tried and would just mark them as completed. It's not even as if it would remember my lap times so I could try and improve them or anything basic like that. The whole thing felt like a participation trophy. I mean I honestly think 5 was a bit of an improvement though I'd be hard pressed to explain why. It stil feels like it just gives you so much stuff and you still have all of those incredibly punchable NPCs all over it. I suppose I do like that the avatars are a bit more customisable.

I think the biggest problem is community. While there arent much improvements, the thing that annoys me the most is community. The weekly challenges include racing with players in a team. That wouldnt be a problem if players actually knew what team means. Just the other day i joined an online team race, in the first one i became second. I was first for a lot of the time, but when my teammate got behind me i just let him go as the last thing i wanted is losing points and the race because of a stupid fight for the first two places. The next round we started from the last two places only to get pushed out from the track by the players who where bottom last with like 20 seconds behind the ai.. We still managed to get back and finish third and fourth, but it still shows that even in team races players will do everything to finish ahead of you, and its not even PvP then

Spent an ungodly amount of time on FH3 and loved every minute playing with friends. FH4 collecting all the cars was so much fun to do. Now we are on FH5. Launch day, I was going to play with my best friend, but the game was beyond broken and could not connect. It took almost a week before I was able to even connect, and a month before I could even stay in the lobby. The lackluster of the game has worn off, i only hop on occasionally because I spent the money on the game and feel inclined to play it occasionally. Map wise, it feels boring and empty, nothing interesting to do or see or drive around.

hey fastminer! ive been waiting for this video! cant wait to see it premiere! keep up the grind!

the sheer vibe from 1 and 2 are just amazing. i love how they feel and enjoy how they play.

I tought i was the only one feeling like this. Glad to hear others have realised how it is all going downhill opposed to uphill.

Horizon 2 was my first forza and by far my favorite. Every once in a while I still dust off the old Xbox one and drive around just for the nostalgia

FH1 was amazing for progression FH2 was amazing for the online multiplayer racing in the form of car meets and local races FH3 was a very pretty game. I don't remember much but did enjoy it FH4 was based in Britain, so naturally I loved it. Also stunning to look at and to this day I love getting that "this feels like forza" feeling whenever I drive to those locations irl FH5 was a huge letdown. As another comment here says, lots to do but no reason to do it. Also, this really reached the pinnacle of Forza's growing issue of "every corner should be able to be taken at at least 150mph" Also, the use of seasons was brilliant for Britain's ever changing weather, but completely ridiculous when applied to Mexico which has very little seasonal change.

I discovered Horizon playing FH3 via... "alternative" methods on PC 😅, some years ago, and fell in love instantly. My favorite aspect from FH3 was having the option of customizing every event including car class, amount of laps, weather, and also having customizable "championships" with up to 3 races ( where did those go?? 😥). It was the first time i ever saw this on an open-world racing game and was mindblown, along with the great car customization and huge car count, along the absolutely awesome map ( and expansions! ). I fell in love with the franchise and since then i have bought and played both FH4 and FH5 for 100+ hours each on PC. Don't like how the series has been centering more and more on the multiplayer side and singleplayer getting worse since FH3. Another feature i miss from FH3 was those special drivatars you could challenge on the open world that gave much higher amount of money when winning. Made this feel like another viable way of gaining money, which is since then missing. ☹ Got this latest Rally DLC for FH5 3 days ago and it has been REALLY disappointing for the 20€ price, that progression system they added on the Hot Wheels DLC ( which i don't own ) is nowhere to be seen and the map is much smaller. Finished the "story" part in just 2 days of playing and not even playing that much. Also the copilot voice was missing in Spanish due to a bug ( that they have fixed NOW, almost a week after release 🤦‍♂) And now i have a "wonderful" bug which doesn't let me participate in the weekly challenge race, it says "i'm not on the Hall of Fame" even when i'm on the upper 1% of players. Awesome huh? Along with this, now some weekly events are locked if you don't own both DLC which is really sad. Overall really disappointed on the state of Horizon, which is why i ended up here. If the next one they make doesn't change drastically i think i'm sadly done with franchise. Hoping FM8 is awesome, because i don't have much faith left for Horizon. 😔

I really liked all the DLC car packs and expansions from the first 3 games. With as much off road driving that started showing up I was really hoping for some more trucks being available. FH4 gave me hopes when the Typhoon and Cyclone showed up but that didnt last long. As far as BG music, ive always muted it and had my Spotify in the background. I havent heard any descent music in racing games since NFS Underground.

FH1 is still my favourite Forza game - and a racing game at that, it just never gets old and it's extremely replayable

I really enjoyed 1 for the music and 2 🔥 3 was great .. loved 4 being from the UK 🇬🇧 and 5 feels lifeless unfortunately….

I have preordered every Horizon up till 4. I never purchased or played FH5 because I started to realize the repeating formula. Start with a base car. Win the first race, earning a stupid high amount of credits, then purchase a lambo, be forced into some offroad race, then a cut scene and then you get free roam. I LOVED FH2. 3 was disappointing to me so I basically wasted my money on it but I have the collectable discast lambo cover car. FH4 was what I spent most my time on. It was super arcade like handling over FH2 but it appealed to a wider audience. So I never bought 5 and never played a minute of it but thats because I knew I would be insane to pay an exorbitant ammount to just have the same experience yet again. Seems like I dodged it here.

I just want the progression style of FH1 back.

Forza's customisation went from upgrading your car's unique characteristics to be better at certain things, into every competitive car being made in an identical way. AWD swap, engine swap, using the wrong tyres because they're coded incorrectly, only upgrading particular components because the PI cost is too cheap etc etc. If you want to win in online lobbies, you have to play the game "wrong", and everyone does the same build on every car. There is no variety. The games now have more cars than ever, but with less character than ever.

Fun Fact - You can't even play Forza Horizon 3 on most PCs because it only supports a specific version of Windows 10 I think 1809 or 1909 and below. Anything above it including Windows 10 newer updates and Windows 11 makes the game crash after the Forza Horizon 3 logo when you launch the game.

I love the music transitions you choose for each game

I feel like forza horizon 5 is pretty fun for someone who just plays casually. With the huge selection of cars and tons of maps in the creative hub it makes it very fun to compete with your friends. The graphics are also stunning, I find it pretty chill to just drive around the map and just look at the scenery while listening to some music.

Man.... I never realized how much people didn't like the online part of FH games. Being the ONLY offline racer that I am in the FH games, I always enjoyed my playtime. Granted I pretty much always just chill and vibe my way through the game. No meta builds, just casual racing and fun.

FH1 truely stood the test of time in my opinion, even though you dont find a lot of players for it, the off-road-options are limited to say the least and there is no airport, where you could test out how fast your car can go, youd need to get on a highway with traffic and nah, but over all, I liked it. FH1 was my childhood. I also played FH2, but on the 360, it was not nearly as satisfying as 1, yes off-road became a thing (even on the 360-version), the map was bigger and there was an airport, but what I absolutely hated, was the fact, that you could choose what kind of cars would be in the race, which made it possible to beat the game only possessing one car. in FH1, I loved how I had to buy a new car, if I wanted to enter a specific race, those were fun! you had like "only german cars" or "from between 1980-1989", seeing that disapear in FH2 was kinda sad. I never got to play FH3, as I couldnt afford an XBOX One, like, ever. same goes for FH4 and FH5, I have heard, that FH6 will be the last of the series, so I might collect the money to buy a Series X or S just for this game. if it is the last one, I wanna play it before it becomes abandeonware, unlike what I couldnt do with FH3

the thing i hate most is that u cant just sell ur car, u have to auction it

If they can make FM8 1% less like FM7, and 1% more like FM4, it'll be the greatest game turn 10 has made since FH3

I personally loved FH4 (yes I may be biased as I'm from the UK), but I never experienced anywhere near as many bugs/connection issues than with FH5. I think bugs add character to a game and wouldn't be as fun without them, but when I'm joining The Eliminator in FH5 and 2/3 times I'm unable to challenge people, it gets boring, very fast, and not to mention the amount of times the game crashes compared to others, now my PC is fairly high-end yet I still experience many crashes. If I had to make a tier list of the Horizon series it would be this- 5. FH5 4. FH1 3. FH4 2. FH2 1. FH3. The state the game's in right now is pretty upsetting to me, as I've grown up with the series and it's definitely not what it once was. Update 19 releases soon and it's looking promising, being the best update we've had for a year now. So let's hope this new update is a turning point and that Horizon 6 will redeem the series. Had they of chosen better locations in the UK, then I'd of given it second place.

Not only was fh1 incredible but the social interaction the 360 had was perfect for it. I had countless hours in random lobies meeting cool ass people just by messaging or joining a public session. Xbox one sadly didn't feel the same. And the lastest forzas don't either. I hate when game companies throw out things that make everything good.

i remember having to ‘snipe’ rare cars on the auction house (which took ages) like the pre-order porsche and one of the ferraris to stand a chance down the highway on FH4

horizon 2 was just perfect to me , I enjoyed the story mode kinda thing it felt like it had actual progression and that map was flawless imo , I still go back to this day to play it. FH4 also holds a special place in my heart as someone who lives in Scotland , something special about me and my buddy's driving through Edinburgh

I’m pretty sad to see forza turning into this. I grew up basically only playing Forza 4 and Horizon 2 on my Xbox 360, couldn’t afford a Xbox One lol. I’ve played every Forza game heavily, even FH4. But FH5 was basically the first game I didn’t play much. The game got so boring so quickly, and it didn’t take very long to basically have everything I wanted. I played it a good amount for a while, but got to the point where it was really only taking space, so I deleted it. I hope that FM8 will be good, or I may be done with the series.

Forza Motorsport’s Infection around Test Track Airfield will always be my favorite game mode where you can pick any vehicle as long as it fit the requirements. Super fun stuff.

Your music taste is amazing. I am a musician myself and I am always happy to see someone being so passionate about music and have the same music taste as me. And yeah, great video (⁠•⁠‿⁠•⁠)

I agree it started to go wrong in 4. I liked the map of 4 a lot more than 5 but otherwise all the problems with the economy really turned me off it. Now I'm just frustrated at the state of FH5 because it feels lifeless. The map feels so bland and empty, and the roads feel like hot wheels tracks. The sense of speed is awful and doing 100Km/h in real life feels the same as 300 in FH5. There's no sense of consequence when driving at all and it's extremely easy. I used to enjoy cruising around on Forza Horizon 3 because the game physics, roads and car handling all made it feel somewhat connected to reality. But in 5 it is just not enjoyable for me any more. I really hope they can turn this series around. Hot wheels DLC for FH5 was worse than FH3 hot wheels, and the rally DLC is just roads they should have put in the original game.

I think the worst of it is that it kind of reflects onto the entire genre as a whole? Racing games have just felt VERY stagnant for the past 7-8 years with very little development or change happening that I can think of. Just little changes and tweaks, or slight bits of added player freedom to go "Oh that's neat" with then move on with your day. No major game changing shifts, it's like they've plateau'd and it's just kind of boring now.

Great stuff as always my man 👍

They made everything online and the sense of speed is so broken in the new games it’s just not fun