Microsoft's Most Successful Racing Game

In 2011 the Forza franchise reached its peak with Motorsport 4 but they were not done yet, because one year later Playground Games came up with Forza Horizon, a game which had a massive impact on the Open World Racing genre for a decade now. So let's revisit and explore what made it so great to begin with
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Edited by: @Sharicite

[BiscuitsnTea]

Horizon 1 had the best story and rags to riches progression system. fh4 onwards just became a car ownership simulator, make millions within first hour of gameplay and then forget about racing and just drive around in all the different cars.

[MxMaxyImpress]

This game definitely sets up the benchmark of arcade open-world racing, simple ultimate goal but it's up to you to boost your way to get all those wristbands.

[POLO]

Wristband Meaning for people :
Yellow Wristband : Congratulations, you are admitted to the party Parking but don't consider going to the entrance.
Green Wristband : You're proven that you can go inside... The toilet area, no other advantages given.
Blue Wristband : Alright Alright, you can now get access to the Food-trucks and hear the music from the distance.
Pink Wristband : Welcome in ! You can now listen to our non-popular groups from all the scenes except the main one.
Orange Wristband : Grants you the access to the Main Stage. You also get the right of a free water bottle and a hot dog* (*before 7PM)
Purple Wristband : You're starting to be the real gigachad, You have priority of the first row for all stages and you can meet and greet one of the artists
Gold Wristband : You're the boss and everything is available for free now... oh wait... the festival's over... see you next year!

[SamuelSantos_]

FH1 had some limitations (lack of drivable space in the map, no tuning, a small car list by Forza standards), but it had a level of immersion that few racing games have matched. The characters, cutscenes, map/world details, soundtrack and even the UI made the game feel vibrant without being cringe. It was also a very engaging game to play through with a strong sense of progression which newer Forza games really lack. It remains my favourite Forza Horizon game.

[Rockport]

7:42 Restrictions is what forces players to change cars more often, in FH5 you can enter any race with any car which is stupid.
8:53 I like how the game tested the players for being in " Team EVO" or " Team Headgasket" :)

[horizon_angel]

If there's one thing I love about Forza Horizon 1...


Is how the festival vibe is present and strong here. Unlike the newer Horizon, this game have a festival site you'd expect from an actual music festival, filled with music you'd realistically hear there, and the fact that the game is fine with something adultery (actual trash talking than just a forced one, true festival vibe where you'd pretty much see everyone wearing clothes as freely as they want, and clown a$$ behavior), is showing how the devs are really making this game with love, and not just a corporate products requiring a yearly release

[BiscuitsnTea]

This was the First and Last Forza Horizon game to have good sense of speed, going 200mph really felt like youre going 200mph

[derosiflo]

Shoutout to tdu2 and its wrecks. Also a combination of FH1, 2, 3 and TDU1/2 would make for the most sick racing game ever (sprinkle some NfS in there too for good measure lol)

[kspectre]

I still love this game and go back to it every so often on my Xbox. One of my biggest regrets is not buying the DLC when it was still on offer since there's a lot of unique cars in there that have never featured again.

This was actually my first time ever really getting into Cars and Racing games outside of the occasional NFS game I played previously. I got a Copy of this with the Xbox 360 Wheel controller thing and had a lot of fun with it despite the toll it took on your arms. This game pretty much decided the future of my gaming hobby and I'm really thankful for it as I've had (and hopefully will continue to have) so many fantastic experiences with various parts of the Forza community.

Also I'm so thankful Emulation is now solid so a lot of newer fans of the franchise can go back and experience it since it's such a different vibe than anything released since. I don't think the lack of the open world even detracts from this as the roads feel intentional and purposeful with what driving experience they offer and how they contribute to races and events.

[CyanRooper]

Forza Horizon 1 and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2010 are the reasons why I'd love to visit Colorado someday.

[C-Runner]

Still one of the nicest games to date, a game that truly captured the festival feeling like NFS Prostreet did. It's a shame that while that feeling is there in the newer games it feels so toned down in general. Not only that but the fact that you had proper progression, something that's kinda missing in the newer ones. In a way I feel they need to return to this, a game that focuses on the festival vibe and not flowers and daisies all the time lol. Great video as always, props to you and your editor for this cool video.

[BiscuitsnTea]

For me one of the biggest reason Horizon has been a top Open world Car game is because of its Sim-cade physics. The cars behave somewhat realistically which is huge because it doesnt limit you to a certain gameplay /driving style .
If you want to drift around the corner than drift if you want to grip than grip. One thing ive seen with alot of free roam car games is that they force you into drifitng because thats the Meta/fastest way to drive in the game, and my other big issue which is sort of linked to that, is that with most open world racers, it almost feels like there is a rubbery string attached to your car and the road, and the game tries to predict how youre going to take a corner and sort of forces the car into that line or if youre driving past an intersection you can almost feel by how the car is magnatized to the left turn that the game is expecting you to turn left and it prepares a driving line that will look like a cool cinematic drift into the left turn so the player can feel like a good driver but meanwhile the player wants to drive straight ahead or take a right turn instead. This is prevalent with Need for speed physics and other brake to drift games .

Simply put with Horizon it feels as if you have full control over the car and theres no other interferences being done by the game (steering assist and braking assit off ofcourse).

[TallTapper]

even with tdu2's flaws a perfect open world racing game would be a tdu2-fh hybrid, as both kind of would complete one another
having a game with a nice single player is fun tho

[patrikpolda]

I was actually thinking about the restrictions few days ago. They forced you to try more cars. Nowadays if you don't play the festival challenges or if you're not trying to get all the accolades you can beat all the races in one car.

[Lumzilla]

13:57 Wasn't it Midnight Club Street Racing and 2 that inspired the Underground series?

[robertmcgahan]

I still remember getting the aventador and calling my friend on the landline to tell him about the cool car I unlocked. Best time of my life

[gabrielsobrosa]

How Forza Horizon innovated open world, and never done this again.

[truegamer]

2:43 thats a 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS but still a good video

[diecastreviews]

the memes of horzion 5 and 1 were absolutely funny. awesome vid!

[Liamzy]

Horizon 1 and 2 were the peak of the Horizon franchise to me, It's annoying at what it's become now :(