You even get to personalise your numberplate.
You get to choose your avatar from a fairly basic list, as well as the nickname your assistant Keira calls you. This time, instead of merely being in attendance, you’re the festival boss. For those who do want to drive properly, a great feature makes a return: the ability to rewind by a couple of seconds and recover from a mistake, just like in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.Īs with the other Horizon games, the format of the game loosely revolves around a racing festival which is simply an excuse to go to different parts of the map and partake in different events. But misjudge that corner and smash up somebody’s garden fence? “Great wreckage”. You’re rewarded points for “Clean Driving” if you don’t hit something for a while. Sure, you may get tired of driving like that, but that hasn’t happened to me yet. “Turn around when it is safe to do so,” you say? No, I’m going to plough through this field and fly off a cliff, because that’s just how I roll. You could stick to the roads the sat-nav points you towards, or ignore them entirely and do your own thing.
However you drive, you’ll never be penalised. It’s like one giant game of Micro Machines, only better because every car handles differently. You could tackle mountainous terrain with an appropriate 4×4, or you can throw your Aston Martin DB5 down those hills, smashing through trees as you go. You could be as sensible or ridiculous as you want. There are 350 cars (and counting) and there are no rules about how you use them. But now we’re in Australia – a map twice the size of that in Forza Horizon 2 – and you also get desert plains, sandy beaches and dense rainforest, all with variable weather conditions to keep you on your toes. Want to stick to tarmac? That’s fine, there’s plenty of city and open road racing. For those who want a more difficult, more realistic driving experience, there’s an insane amount of customisation, right down to the tyre pressure.įorza Horizon 3 takes that element of choice and goes further. For those just after a thrill ride, every car is ready to go as soon as you get in. It strikes a balance between the bonkers fun of an arcade racer and the in-depth nature of a racing simulation – and that balance is tweakable to suit you. It’s clear that Playground Games understands this, and that’s why Forza Horizon is my favourite race series. The point is that you don’t need to be a petrolhead to like a good drive, to enjoy zooming through gorgeous vistas, or appreciate the idiosyncrasies of a powerful machine when the weather gets tough. I know nothing of torque or differentials, and I only ever pop the hood to add screenwash. But I’d be useless in competitive racing. I reckon it was the best thing I’ve ever done, at least where thrill-seeking is concerned. I once hired a Mustang and drove it around the southern US for two weeks.
Available on Xbox One (version tested) and Windows PC
0 kommentar(er)
