Fm7 should be harder as it's sim, Forza horizon series is the arcade/fun game of the series
Forza Horizon 4
- Thread starter Parky
- Start date
Soldato
This game is on offer at the moment. I just bought the Ultimate edition. Will certainly pass the time over Christmas!
I've been playing a lot of this over recent months, mainly on PC but also a bit on XBOne. I think it's a brilliant game, somehow the FH series captures what I want in racing games, arcade handling but still with a good depth vehicles, upgrades, tuning etc. Haven't done a bullet review on here for years so here goes:
+Performance is really good, plus it has a good benchmark showing whether you are cpu or gpu limited, and settings labelled as to whether they impact cpu or gpu. Great example of something developed well for the PC.
+Decent graphics
+LOADS of content, without getting too repetitive. I enjoyed doing most of the story missions (have completed them all except Skill Streak), it adds a bit of humour and LaRacer had some nice throwbacks to old games. It's getting to the point where I've exhausted most of the content but I've put dozens of hours into the game. Some of the seasonal challenge events have also helped freshen things up and give me something to work for.
+Great range of cars, to the point of being almost overwhelming. I think I've got about 450 cars but there's probably only about a dozen that I've driven for any length of time. I tend to use the Jesko for pretty much everything except drift or where it isn't eligible.
+Nice range of environments from town centre to countryside to beach, plus Lego speed champs / Fortune Island
+Crossplay with XBOne is nice, sometimes I will play with my son in the living room.
+I like how races and challenges are blended into the game world, so you get familiar with various sections, and tick off various jumps / speed traps etc as you cruise around
-As with other FH games I'm still not completely sold on the way difficulty scales with PI rating i.e. if you upgrade your car then you race faster opponents. There are some races where the best strategy seems to be to pick a slower car so you face slower opponents but you have a slightly easier race because you aren't going as fast. On the one hand this mechanic does encourage me to try a wider range of cars than I otherwise might, but it also takes away the option of trying a race with a car and then upgrading or replacing it if you are struggling (which is what I did in e.g. GT5). The only exception I guess is the X rated cars where you never seem to face X rated opponents so do get a genuine advantage.
-It's annoying in story missions that you sometimes don't get to see the 3* target until you have hit the 2* target (e.g. for drift/skill points). This means you have no idea what you ultimately need to get, so you don't know whether you need to risk not making the time limit by engaging in excessive drifting early on or not
-Some of the menus aren't the most intuitive, it feels a bit like a mish-mash of random tiles chucked together on various tabs, and it's not clear to me why certain things are only accessible at your house/garage (given you can fast travel, and have cars delivered to you) - just seems to add unnecessary faff. "Horizon Life", "Forzathon" "Online Adventure" etc I have no idea what all these different things really are. Then you get spammed with notifications for business payouts etc that I haven't seen an obvious way to suppress yet. Auctions are annoying, if you list a car and it doesn't sell there is no easy "Relist" button that lets you put it back up for sale perhaps with a tweaked price. On the map, there is no option to filter out "Completed" events, you can choose "New" but that doesn't seem to necessarily give you all uncompleted events.
+Performance is really good, plus it has a good benchmark showing whether you are cpu or gpu limited, and settings labelled as to whether they impact cpu or gpu. Great example of something developed well for the PC.
+Decent graphics
+LOADS of content, without getting too repetitive. I enjoyed doing most of the story missions (have completed them all except Skill Streak), it adds a bit of humour and LaRacer had some nice throwbacks to old games. It's getting to the point where I've exhausted most of the content but I've put dozens of hours into the game. Some of the seasonal challenge events have also helped freshen things up and give me something to work for.
+Great range of cars, to the point of being almost overwhelming. I think I've got about 450 cars but there's probably only about a dozen that I've driven for any length of time. I tend to use the Jesko for pretty much everything except drift or where it isn't eligible.
+Nice range of environments from town centre to countryside to beach, plus Lego speed champs / Fortune Island
+Crossplay with XBOne is nice, sometimes I will play with my son in the living room.
+I like how races and challenges are blended into the game world, so you get familiar with various sections, and tick off various jumps / speed traps etc as you cruise around
-As with other FH games I'm still not completely sold on the way difficulty scales with PI rating i.e. if you upgrade your car then you race faster opponents. There are some races where the best strategy seems to be to pick a slower car so you face slower opponents but you have a slightly easier race because you aren't going as fast. On the one hand this mechanic does encourage me to try a wider range of cars than I otherwise might, but it also takes away the option of trying a race with a car and then upgrading or replacing it if you are struggling (which is what I did in e.g. GT5). The only exception I guess is the X rated cars where you never seem to face X rated opponents so do get a genuine advantage.
-It's annoying in story missions that you sometimes don't get to see the 3* target until you have hit the 2* target (e.g. for drift/skill points). This means you have no idea what you ultimately need to get, so you don't know whether you need to risk not making the time limit by engaging in excessive drifting early on or not
-Some of the menus aren't the most intuitive, it feels a bit like a mish-mash of random tiles chucked together on various tabs, and it's not clear to me why certain things are only accessible at your house/garage (given you can fast travel, and have cars delivered to you) - just seems to add unnecessary faff. "Horizon Life", "Forzathon" "Online Adventure" etc I have no idea what all these different things really are. Then you get spammed with notifications for business payouts etc that I haven't seen an obvious way to suppress yet. Auctions are annoying, if you list a car and it doesn't sell there is no easy "Relist" button that lets you put it back up for sale perhaps with a tweaked price. On the map, there is no option to filter out "Completed" events, you can choose "New" but that doesn't seem to necessarily give you all uncompleted events.
Soldato
I haven't lost so many hours into a racing game as the Horizon series. I played a lot of the first and 3rd ones (also now have 2 to start as got a Xbone X and its enhanced) but 4 has been the biggest time sink lol. Being a massive car nut, the attention to detail on the vehicles and the sound recreation along the with the free play "do what you fancy" element just had me instantly from the first one.
I did lose interest for a bit during last year, but I built my brother a pc and got him on it, since then we have started playing loads together on it again.
I am not really interested in the eliminator and online cheat fest sides but multiplayer with friends just nailing about the countryside and taking on the weekly championshit events coop is such brilliant fun.
I did lose interest for a bit during last year, but I built my brother a pc and got him on it, since then we have started playing loads together on it again.
I am not really interested in the eliminator and online cheat fest sides but multiplayer with friends just nailing about the countryside and taking on the weekly championshit events coop is such brilliant fun.
Soldato
Thinking about buying FH4 after seeing it in the Steam sale, ~£18 for Standard; ~£24 for Deluxe; ~£30 for Ultimate editions.
Am I correct in thinking Ultimate comes with some of the DLC packs, but still leaves lots to buy? Worth buying over Standard?
Playable on keyboard, or do I need to finally unpack my G29, bought to replace my dying Fanatec wheel but stopped sim racing when I began cycling more?
Or is FH5 a better purchase these days?
Not much of a gamer these days beside Rocket League Rumble!
Am I correct in thinking Ultimate comes with some of the DLC packs, but still leaves lots to buy? Worth buying over Standard?
Playable on keyboard, or do I need to finally unpack my G29, bought to replace my dying Fanatec wheel but stopped sim racing when I began cycling more?
Or is FH5 a better purchase these days?
Not much of a gamer these days beside Rocket League Rumble!
Both FH4 and FH5 are on MS Gamepass if you have that. Even if you dont have it, it would be a cheap way to try them both out before making a purchase decision
Soldato
I'd say FH5 over 4, I can't think of any gamemodes they've added in 5 over 4 but a bigger map and more players - even if you don't want to do online racing, things like the auction house still require an active community.
As for using a wheel or keyboard, with a keyboard you might struggle a little as even with a controller you have some analogue control over the throttle and brake triggers. Though it definitely falls in the arcade side of things and easy to play with a controller so probably could do it with a keyboard too. I didn't try 4 with a wheel but 5 is pretty terrible with a wheel, out of the box with my CSL Elite it's terrible though others in the FH5 thread have said they've managed to improve things with some tinkering. Though consensus still seems ffb is pretty rubbish.
As Tombstone said though, gamepass is a great way to try one,other or both.
As for using a wheel or keyboard, with a keyboard you might struggle a little as even with a controller you have some analogue control over the throttle and brake triggers. Though it definitely falls in the arcade side of things and easy to play with a controller so probably could do it with a keyboard too. I didn't try 4 with a wheel but 5 is pretty terrible with a wheel, out of the box with my CSL Elite it's terrible though others in the FH5 thread have said they've managed to improve things with some tinkering. Though consensus still seems ffb is pretty rubbish.
As Tombstone said though, gamepass is a great way to try one,other or both.
Underboss
eventually they will drop support for FH4 (if not already) in favour of FH5
Soldato
I've heard of, but not familar with Microsoft Game Pass. Old age gamer syndrome, I presume. 
I pay a monthly sub and have unlimited access to certain games, for only as long as pay subs?
I pay a monthly sub and have unlimited access to certain games, for only as long as pay subs?
Soldato
I've heard of, but not familar with Microsoft Game Pass. Old age gamer syndrome, I presume.
I pay a monthly sub and have unlimited access to certain games, for only as long as pay subs?
Correct, I think it’s £8 a month normally but they have an offer on that the first 3 months are £1.
There probably is a way to get it cheaper using a vpn but I’ve got no idea on that.
Just do Game Pass, especially if you are a new customer.
Personally I would play FH4 first as it is likely to get dropped first from GamePass. I got caught out by not playing Forza Motorsport 7 quickly enough so had to buy it when it was being removed.
Personally I would play FH4 first as it is likely to get dropped first from GamePass. I got caught out by not playing Forza Motorsport 7 quickly enough so had to buy it when it was being removed.
Underboss
just reinstalled this now that i have a wheel (as i don't own 5)
set the graphics all to maximum, rebooted game to take affect, and nothing
cant adjust settings to get it working, is there a way to manually adjust it somewhere else ?
set the graphics all to maximum, rebooted game to take affect, and nothing
cant adjust settings to get it working, is there a way to manually adjust it somewhere else ?
Soldato
just reinstalled this now that i have a wheel (as i don't own 5)
set the graphics all to maximum, rebooted game to take affect, and nothing
cant adjust settings to get it working, is there a way to manually adjust it somewhere else ?
What is not working, the wheel? If so which wheel?
Underboss
all i get is this screen
Looks more like a Windows thing that.all i get is this screen
Run a SFC scan.
After find the .exe an run elevated.
Soldato
all i get is this screen
are you using a headset? i recall something to do with audio, change to another device before launch if so.
Underboss
VR ? nope
not available in VR i dont think
Underboss
will try, ty
Soldato
as in headphones/mic
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