I like driving around in my car, there’s something about the road that I find very appealing. It happens more than once that I’m just driving around without an actual destination, just sucking in the beautiful surroundings of a road trip. This is exactly what Forza Horizon 3 delivers, a virtual and yet very realistic road trip through the Outback of Australia.
Conquer the Outback
So the new setting of Forza Horizon 3, being Australia, looks very impressive. The developers actually went there for months of shooting and video recording of the impressive environments. The map of Forza Horizon 3 is huge and is a combination of the best parts of Australia. You’ll be able to conquer the Outback, drive through pink lakes or attend in races that take place in the bigger cities of Australia. Variation is key here and it’s great to see that the team really managed to pull this one off. The game looked incredible compared to Forza Horizon 2, which is a good-looking game.
The most impressive part of the environment was the sky however. The team recorded the clouds and natural light of the Australian sky for months, using high-tech cameras. These recordings were translated to 3D clouds and resulted in the most realistic sky we’ve ever seen in a game. It’s not only impressive to look at; the technique behind it is rather impressive as well. Since the sky acts like it would in the real world, the light always feels natural and reflects differently, based on the objects it’s hitting. As impressive as it is, tech isn’t everything so let’s talk about the game a little more.
You are the boss of this festival
The biggest change in Forza Horizon 3 is that you’re in control of the Horizon Festival. In the other games, you were always guided towards certain races at certain points but in this one, you’ll need to create those. You can really decide where you want to hold an event and what type of event this should be. Of course, you can pick some pre-set events and place them at a certain location, or you can go crazy in the blueprint mode. In this mode, you can tweak and change everything, from the weather to the cars. Setting up your own events is a huge part of the social interaction. Every event you’ll create will automatically be shared with your online friends; this works the other way around as well. Thanks to this, you’ll never run out of content and always find new challenges to compete at.
Drivatars also make a return and play a bigger role than ever before. You can actually hire up to four Drivatars of your friends to compete in the festivals you created. These Drivatars will pull in other drivers from all over the world to turn your custom festival into a true success. If one of your friends is using your Drivatar in his/her festival, you’ll gain experience points even if you’re not actually playing. The more you play, the better your Drivatar will become naturally. Since you can only select four Drivatar at once, you’ll need to disappoint some of your friends by deleting their Drivatar from your festival. It’s another great social feature that can even push some of your friends further to become really good at the game.
Constant stream of content
Our presentation ended with the team sharing a new feature what could best be described as keeping the game alive after it launches. Each week, the developers will host a special festival in which every player can compete. These special events will feature great prizes that only the best racers will be able to acquire. Some of those prizes are highly fan-demanded vehicles, so be sure to keep an eye out for those special festivals from time to time.
You don’t need to worry about the amount of course by the way, since there will be more than 350 playable in the game. For the first time ever, the team added Buggy-type vehicles to conquer the Outback. Thanks to the great suspension on those, you can really become king of the hills. It looks like the team figured things out perfectly and will be able to please the fans for a very long time to come.
Early Conclusion:
Forza Horizon 3 looked very promising thanks to the level of control you heave, the impressive amount of vehicles and the gorgeous setting. It’s a huge leap forward compared to Forza Horizon 2 and we’re sure the team will convince a lot of gamers to play this Forza Horizon 3 for a very long time to come.
