Why buy this game over other racing games?

[KalkiKrosah]

I'm not really a racing fanatic. I was just thinking about buying a racing game to play it casually. I'm not sure which one to get, Forza Horizon 5, that new Need For Speed game or any other game you would recommend. I'm making this post so some of you can try and convince me to buy this game, a competitor or an earlier title or save up for a different racing game that is close to release.

As for criteria, I would play casually. Multiplayer is nice, but I would probably be playing single player. I hate loot boxes and paywalls for anything that isn't cosmetics. And I am not a car nut so care more about the fun game play than how accurately the cars are to their real life versions.

So is Forza Horizon 5 worth getting, is there a different game that might be better or is there anything else you think I should know before deciding on one game or another?

[Kirby]

From all the games you can buy today. This is probably the best. Though that's because the bar isn't very high, the new nfs game apparently isn't that bad but I haven't played it.
I'd almost recommend some older racing games like need for speed most wanted (2005).

[kireta]

Different people will give you different responses.
For me the biggest deal is its driving model, that hits just the right spot between realistic handling, and being able to make most of it without driving wheel. Cars aren't nearly as punishing for mistakes like they do in full sims, but handling is authentic enough that real racing techniques can be used, and are worth knowing.
2nd is cars variety. Tons of road classics and junkers, you can ride as they are, or turn into sleepers using quite robust in-game upgrade and tunning.
Then there's tinkering with cars to modify their handling and performance (more than just "this stat goes up"), which I admit feels pretty good when you can feel and see your times improve.

This game shines in PvP though, AI in this game is pretty fing awful.

[LordOfTheBread]

Because thius is the best open world racing game there is right now.

[TyresTyco]

Minus the tuning part since I suck at that.. I agree with kireta, again. But to answer the title question...

Because forza has next to NONE competition. EA tries all the time but unbound is very bad and dead...everything codemasters spits out is meh too.

All the games are dead but horizon for some weird reason stays kinda active.

This game turned into a car collecting .. pokemon game if you are not into pvp.. you must be into collecting all the stuff to get something outta the game.

Racing against the AI is the worst of the franchise .. thats why I play pvp a lot. Thats where unbound tops this game. The A.I isn't that bad. But thats the only thing lol.

[Karumati]

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

I'm not really a racing fanatic. I was just thinking about buying a racing game to play it casually. I'm not sure which one to get, Forza Horizon 5, that new Need For Speed game or any other game you would recommend. I'm making this post so some of you can try and convince me to buy this game, a competitor or an earlier title or save up for a different racing game that is close to release.

As for criteria, I would play casually. Multiplayer is nice, but I would probably be playing single player. I hate loot boxes and paywalls for anything that isn't cosmetics. And I am not a car nut so care more about the fun game play than how accurately the cars are to their real life versions.

So is Forza Horizon 5 worth getting, is there a different game that might be better or is there anything else you think I should know before deciding on one game or another?

open world

[POPO Sandh]

It's not too arcade nor too realistic that's why I kinda like it heck I like games that are between mil sim and arcade even in shooter games

[jojo]

My reasons for buying the game: I was never into racing games until I bought Forza Horizon 4 when it was on sale. Since then I've played over 1 000 hours in FH4 and FH5 combined. There are tons to do from racing, freeroam, challenges, making liveries or tunes, online racing, making your own tracks or driving others custom tracks with a good arcade vs simulator mix. The driving mechanics are really good. It really does a lot a things right, but nothing is perfect. There are some bugs and cheaters, but you get that with any game these days.

[LordOfTheBread]

Originally posted by TyresTyco:

Minus the tuning part since I suck at that.. I agree with kireta, again. But to answer the title question...

Because forza has next to NONE competition. EA tries all the time but unbound is very bad and dead...everything codemasters spits out is meh too.

All the games are dead but horizon for some weird reason stays kinda active.

This game turned into a car collecting .. pokemon game if you are not into pvp.. you must be into collecting all the stuff to get something outta the game.

Racing against the AI is the worst of the franchise .. thats why I play pvp a lot. Thats where unbound tops this game. The A.I isn't that bad. But thats the only thing lol.

Theres actually competition, NFS Unbound is an open world, The Crew as well and a new one is coming soon.

None of these games has as good of a driving model tho, hence why Horizon is so popular.. But I agree that I'd like competition to ramp up so it put pressure on Horizon to improve on the formula as it sure is pretty stale.

[kireta]

There's also Test Drive Unlimited 3 coming, though this one will likely have nothing on FH carlist, I expect it to focus on supercars and luxury cars. And it's been long enough from TDU2 for driving model to be a complete wildcard.
The Crew Motorfest appears to be trying to copy Forza Horizon. Hopefully it will have good enough driving model to become a direct competetion, and lit a boonfire under PGs collective backside.

[T-Bone Biggins]

Dip your toes in FH4 if you have not done so yet, many people will agree with that. It runs better and is cheaper on top of most people considering it a much better experience front to back.

[TyresTyco]

Dude I wish unbound would actually be good since I enjoyed the handling of some cars a lot. But it's no competition to forza. They wish it would since they copied a lot of stuff from horizon. Like the class system and some tuning.

I dont consider it even close to forza because unbound has no satisfying pvp loop. It's a grind totally seperated from sp. Which is a bad idea imho. Since I also had performance problems while also disliking the greyish monotone... dead tone of the game.. I didnt even think about the mundane speed trap etc side content there.

You can't have much fun in the open world because of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ cop system that is far to aggressive.

The crew... I have both of them and while I had fun.. the pvp experience there also is very bad. Yet alone because of RNG tuning parts. The grind man.. the grind.

Is it a true competitor tho? I dunno.. if you ask me.. ubisoft can burn in hell.. I wouldnt even consider their games, games anymore. More like beautiful interactive checklists.

Sorry.. valhalla and riders republic broke me.

We really can use another good racing game that has it all. Good world to drive on.. good, satisfying sp and pvp.. great handling.. argh. May Solar Crown be it.

[T-Bone Biggins]

Originally posted by TyresTyco:

Is it a true competitor tho? I dunno.. if you ask me.. ubisoft can burn in hell.. I wouldnt even consider their games, games anymore. More like beautiful interactive checklists.

Far Cry 2 and 3 was their last true innovations, after that Ubisoft just started mashing parts of Far Cry 3's systems into Assassin's Creed and vice versa making a bunch of mish-mash games that are all mushy. Plus they picked the side of censorship when it came to game chats and such.

[KalkiKrosah]

Originally posted by Kirby:

From all the games you can buy today. This is probably the best. Though that's because the bar isn't very high, the new nfs game apparently isn't that bad but I haven't played it.
I'd almost recommend some older racing games like need for speed most wanted (2005).

That seems to be the sentiment I read in other forums. Forza Horizon 5 is a good (not great) racing game and it is the best modern racing game not so much for it's achievements and innovations but because the competition just isn't competitive these days. That's why I asked my question in here, I am not big into racing so wanted to see if there was a racing game I overlooked or if there was one that was going to come out soon that will probably improve on Forza Horizon 5 in some important ways.

Need for Speed Most Wanted, I think I remember that game. It's the one where you can customize your car to have neon sidebar lights right? Never played it but remember the aesthetic of that game from back in the day.

[KalkiKrosah]

Originally posted by kireta:

Different people will give you different responses.
For me the biggest deal is its driving model, that hits just the right spot between realistic handling, and being able to make most of it without driving wheel. Cars aren't nearly as punishing for mistakes like they do in full sims, but handling is authentic enough that real racing techniques can be used, and are worth knowing.
2nd is cars variety. Tons of road classics and junkers, you can ride as they are, or turn into sleepers using quite robust in-game upgrade and tunning.
Then there's tinkering with cars to modify their handling and performance (more than just "this stat goes up"), which I admit feels pretty good when you can feel and see your times improve.

This game shines in PvP though, AI in this game is pretty fing awful.

You seem like you know the game pretty well. Care to elaborate on some of your points?

What makes handling in this game less punishing? I am a casual racing game player so it may be hard to explain this without saying "you just gotta try it for yourself" but if you can put it into words I would appreciate it.

And the tinkering, how elaborate/complex is it? Is it explained well enough that anyone can do it or do I need real world knowledge of cars to properly make use of the tuning properly? Because I played this one game "From the Depths" (not a racing game) where you had so much freedom to create boats, planes and whatever you can think of but the tuning of the automated AI was extremely complex making it a high skill floor game. Is Forza Horizon 5's tuning system intimidating to learn or is it oversimplified or is it somewhere in between?

What are some real racing techniques you can use in this game? Because I only know of drafting and the pit maneuver.

And the AI is awful... How awful are we talking about? What are some examples and can I customize the AI to be easier or harder at any point?

[kireta]

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

What makes handling in this game less punishing? I am a casual racing game player so it may be hard to explain this without saying "you just gotta try it for yourself" but if you can put it into words I would appreciate it.

For a starter, Forza Horizon uses physics from Forza Motorsport, which is a racing simulator. Not as brutally realistic as say, Assetto Corsa or iRacing, but enough for most casual players to bounce off it. I'd say about same as Grand Turismo, if you played it.
To get technical, there's few differences in physics that make cars easier to get under control. First, they recover much easier from loss of grip, so if your rear starts running from under you, regaining control is usually as easy as lowering throttle and countersteering.
Second, grip between right and left side of your car is equalized, meaning very hard turning, hitting another car, or driving off tarmac during cornering don't carry much risk of spining you out. It's also very hard to rollover a car because of that

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

And the tinkering, how elaborate/complex is it? Is it explained well enough that anyone can do it or do I need real world knowledge of cars to properly make use of the tuning properly?

Upgrading is not overly complex, things are mostly logical, but there's plenty of interaction between parts so you have to avoid bottlenecks. For example, more power to engine is good, but you will eventually need transmission with more gears to recoin it to speed effectively. And plenty more teoretical speed, means you'll probably want sticker tires so you can accelerate more without doing a burnout, and corner at higher speed without sliding off track. With good tires and good brakes, you can brake later.
What makes it interesting, is class system which is used for matchmaking and events. Every car starts with certain PI score that represents its teoretical strength. Better parts improve performance at cost of increased PI. Eventually you have to pick and choose what to spend remaining Points on. A-class 380HP Supra with reduced weight and on racing tires will handle differently than A-class Supra that instead of these got 200HP more in engine upgrades.

Tunning is more tricky, because it's almost always something-for-something. Changing ratios in gearbox can make your car accelerate faster, but at cost of lower maximum speed. Adjusting spoiler to press you harder to road will let you turn at higher speed, but will curb your top speed. Increasing differentials lock up-point willl help you turn better, but will make it easier for your car to lose grip.

If you feel overhwhelmed, or just can't get tune right no matter what, you can always download upgrade/tune presets made by other players. It's a mixed bag though, for every good tuner, like GrandmaRacing, there's plenty of trash tunners like Ugrundy, who clearly don't know what they're doing.

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

What are some real racing techniques you can use in this game? Because I only know of drafting and the pit maneuver.

I'd say lift-off oversteer and trailbrake are bread and butter of Forza. Fast going cars don't turn well, so sliding your rear in opposite direction helps a lot. Scandinavian flick works too, though you won't be seeing much of FWD racing to need it. It can come handly if you decided to stick to stock brakes when upgrading a car, and can't tune them.
Most of these don't require knowing them IRL. Physics are good enough, you can figure them out by yourself, just observing how your car behaves on road.

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

And the AI is awful... How awful are we talking about? What are some examples and can I customize the AI to be easier or harder at any point?

Ignoring ingame physics, blatantly rubberbanding awful. You can adjust difficulty when not in active race, it curbs their acceleration and top speed. Events force difficulty, but all of them can be done in coop, so even if you're somewhat new to game, you can still win just by having few good players on team, and not crashing into them.