Forza Horizon Catch-All

Rally Expansion trailer:

So.

F*cking.

Excited.

Only downside: still no Merc 190E.

It'll be worth it just to see proper a racing suit instead of that stupid watch and Ryan Gosling jacket.

Damn that trailer is hot.

Day One!

Between this, and the MASSIVE XBLA sale Sally Nasty posted in the TA thread I am gong to be very broke this Christmas.

Might have to skip the Steam Sale entirely!

Spoiler:

Who am I kidding?

Hmm, my knee is feeling mostly better and after mid-day tomorrow I start vacation until the new year. I'm not leaving town until the weekend so sounds like time to get back into Forizon!

Co-Driver calls! YAY!

Farscry wrote:

Co-Driver calls! YAY! :D

New sound effects! Dump valve blowoffs, wastegate chatter, and anti-lag bangs, I'd assume. The constant clatter of gravel against the skidplate, like in Dirt, would be very appreciated too.

IMAGE(http://compass.xboxlive.com/assets/a2/05/a2058024-2b43-40a5-8c2c-5451d7bae9a7.jpg?n=Rally_Expansion_Announce_Subaru_Impreza_WRX_STi.jpg)

Rally Expansion deets:

http://forzamotorsport.net/en-US/new...
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/12/1...

Rally-tuned cars
• 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STi
• 1982 Lancia 037 Stradale
• 1992 Ford Escort RS Cosworth
• 1992 Toyota Celica GT-Four RC ST185
• 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII MR

Rally upgrades
• Rally tires (improved grip on dirt and gravel), springs and dampeners (raise and soften ride), transmission (shorter gear ratios)
Body kit upgrades available for the five new cars only
• All non-body kit upgrades available for any car in the game

New stages
Accessible from the main menu, and raced from a hub (like the Street Races)
7 new events, each divided into 4 stages (SS3 is typically SS1 reverse, and SS4 is SS1-3 combined)
The stages are existing roads, terraformed and redressed for rally
Not available for Free Roam
"It’s not going to be part of the open world, because obviously we’re changing quite a lot of the world and that’s going to make synching up between people who have and don’t have the pack difficult." (http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...)
At least five new events (judging by the cheevs)
• "[F]ull of severe and sudden terrain changes, including steep banks, narrow tree-lined cuts, big bumps, jumps, drops and natural hazards like rocks and trees. In addition, we've got more road surfaces than ever before, on-track vegetation with new physics properties, and new particle and sound effects."

Co-driver calls
• Example: "One hundred, easy right, into medium left. Care bumps."
• No info yet on co-driver gender or accent, or if there are styles of pace notes (1-6, 1-9, etc), though I'd assume not

Multiplayer modes
• Social Rally, and Veteran Rally playlists
• Single-player events become rivals
• Monthly Rivals events

And on January 15:

IMAGE(http://compass.xboxlive.com/assets/4d/09/4d0981cc-114c-495b-81d9-a4e4e9d88256.jpg?n=2012_Honda_Fit_Action_2_embed.jpg)

Honda Challenge Car Pack (free)

http://forzamotorsport.net/en-US/new...

• 2013 Honda Civic Si Coupe
• HPD Rally Fit
• 1986 Honda Civic Si Coupe

I get my Fit! Well, even better, a B-spec Pike's Peak-tested Fit.

Edit: Minor corrections.

Edit 2: Updated Rally details.

11 minute look at the expansion:

I didn't hear any bang, chatter, or blowoff.

I want to know if you can switch the co-pilot directions to authentic verbiage. Instead of "easy right, hard left.", etc. I'd prefer the number call-outs ("right seven, left three", etc.). I know the DiRT series lets you toggle either option. Wonder if it made it to Forizon.

I'm also looking forward to trying the latest update, featuring a vibration slider that lets you pump up the feedback on your controller of choice.

Aaron D. wrote:

I want to know if you can switch the co-pilot directions to authentic verbiage. Instead of "easy right, hard left.", etc. I'd prefer the number call-outs ("right seven, left three", etc.). I know the DiRT series lets you toggle either option. Wonder if it made it to Forizon.

I've been trawling the Forza forums—many brain cells died to bring you this information—and I haven't read anything to suggest so. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts not. So, get used to this somnolent Ameri-bro:

Gravel clatter confirmed at least!

Remember, there's always this mixed with this.

Can't go wrong for under 10 bucks if you have a wheel and a PC with a decent DX9 card (no older than 6 years).

So I gave the Rally Expansion a spin last night and at first blush I'm...not impressed.

Something felt wrong from the start when I fired up the game and on the home screen saw a listing for Single Player, Multiplayer, and Rally Expansion. Yes, the Rally pack is completely divorced from all the other game content. Clicking on the Rally link immediately brought up a window listing the tiered events, aka there is zero free-roam at all. None. You just click the event and start your races. No over world driving to get from one event to the next.

This is completely counterintuitive to the nature of the whole game and was immensely off-putting. The content just feels tacked on and it sullied my whole experience where I didn't even want to progress any further after completing the first event. It just feels like a menu-driven collection of rally heats.

Boo.

I'll give it another chance once I get over my disappointment that the rally events are not integrated into the game world at all, but right now I feel like I wasted $20.

On a side note, if you go into Single-player mode after finishing a rally race, you do take your new rally car into the game world proper. But there's no way to use it in any meaningful way as you can't access the rally content from the standard game world/map.

EDIT:

Unless I'm mistaken, this also means you can't just tool around on the new rally stages (which are admittedly neat) at your own leisure. No speed traps or zones to score chase via leaderboard action. Nothing.

Wow, that is really disappointing. I had assumed it would be new roads with new events. I'd give it a pass now but I already have the season pass.

Well, while the no free-roam is disappointing, how are the rally courses themselves? Nice and lengthy (thinking like Colin McCrae 3 on the original X-Box) with good variation?

The actual content isn't too shabby at all.

Each event has four stages, the first three the beginning, middle, and end of a long stretch of road. The final heat combines the first three into a single run. Individual stages seem to last 2.5 to 3 minutes, so when combined in the final run it can be pretty satisfying.

There's a good combination of dirt and tarmac with lots of elevation changes that get you great air. I've read that some of the content is repurposed tracks from the main game, changing stretches of road from tarmac to gravel, etc., but I haven't noticed any repeating geometry yet. I even noticed some new structures like flat, wooden bridges and new window dressing alongside the roads.

I still feel ripped off because of the sterile front-end with no free-roam, but digging into the races themselves seems pretty cool so far.

Oh, and I can't hear the navigator worth a crap, and that's even with the music turned all the way off. What's worse is that if you turn down the music volume all the way, that carries over to the main game too. It's a shame because the festival/free-roam/goof around atmosphere of Horizon made me want to keep the music on for once in a racer (the music track selections are freakin' ace as well).

Glad to hear you're enjoying it, Aaron D. My excitement over it, mainly fueled by all the possibility, has been tempered by the reality. It sounds like a Dawnguard, when I was hoping for a Dragonborn. I'll still get it, and no doubt enjoy it, but not until it's on sale.

Yeah, I'm just bitter-pants 'cause there's no free-roam in the rally parts. As such, I likely would have waited for a sale if I knew this ahead of time, so I feel a bit duped.

There really might be some great content here, but at $20 I feel kind of burned. I'm just going to step away from it for a bit while I get over my buyer's remorse and give it another chance when I can see it with a fresh attitude.

Aaron D. wrote:

Yeah, I'm just bitter-pants 'cause there's no free-roam in the rally parts. As such, I likely would have waited for a sale if I knew this ahead of time, so I feel a bit duped.

I updated my rally details post Tuesday morning!

Aaron D. wrote:

Yeah, I'm just bitter-pants 'cause there's no free-roam in the rally parts. As such, I likely would have waited for a sale if I knew this ahead of time, so I feel a bit duped.

There really might be some great content here, but at $20 I feel kind of burned. I'm just going to step away from it for a bit while I get over my buyer's remorse and give it another chance when I can see it with a fresh attitude.

Thanks for all the impressions, and thanks too for 'taking one for the team'. Maybe we can find you a suitable gift in the upcoming Steam Sale to offset the buyers remorse here (update that wishlist if you need to)

The lack of free roam for the rally type areas is a bummer. A huge bummer.

m0nk3yboy wrote:

Thanks for all the impressions, and thanks too for 'taking one for the team'. Maybe we can find you a suitable gift in the upcoming Steam Sale to offset the buyers remorse here (update that wishlist if you need to) ;)

Ha!

I'd be lying if I didn't admit to feeling like the GWJ guinea pig in this case. It's all good, though.

No worries on the Steam front, I'm a Dirty Console Peasant (tm.).

Got this yesterday for Xmas. I've noticed there's a GWJ car club... Could someone accept me into that, please?

Man, this game is fun.

Roger! Saw requests from you and Trashie, you're both in the club now.

Then I went and hit some multiplayer races for fun, encountered one particularly obnoxious guy who was racing super-dirty, so I proceeded to out-dirty him. Mustang vs Ferrari, I can tell you who's going to recover from a pounding more easily!

Farscry wrote:

Roger! Saw requests from you and Trashie, you're both in the club now.

Then I went and hit some multiplayer races for fun, encountered one particularly obnoxious guy who was racing super-dirty, so I proceeded to out-dirty him. Mustang vs Ferrari, I can tell you who's going to recover from a pounding more easily!

I really like this game too. Love the scenery and ambience. Racing is cool too. Could you add me to the 'Club' too please (I may be on there from awhile ago, but not sure).

Thanks

Also:

Forza Horizon January Recaro Car Pack Arrives Jan. 1, Screenshots & Trailer Included
http://www.operationsports.com/news/...

Sent via Flipboard

Sent from my iPad

Donan wrote:

I really like this game too. Love the scenery and ambience. Racing is cool too. Could you add me to the 'Club' too please (I may be on there from awhile ago, but not sure).

You would need to go to the Club spot in the game and apply to the GWJ club, then it lists you in the messages as an applicant. Once you show up there, I (or a few others) can see and accept your request. I'm not aware of a way for the club to send invites to individuals, unfortunately.

Farscry wrote:
Donan wrote:

I really like this game too. Love the scenery and ambience. Racing is cool too. Could you add me to the 'Club' too please (I may be on there from awhile ago, but not sure).

You would need to go to the Club spot in the game and apply to the GWJ club, then it lists you in the messages as an applicant. Once you show up there, I (or a few others) can see and accept your request. I'm not aware of a way for the club to send invites to individuals, unfortunately.

O.k. Thanks for the info, I'll do that.

I'm totally naive about these kind of events. Do they happen all over? What time of year? They are truly festivals of this sort? Some small or large depending on funding I suspect. Is there a central organization for them? Link or name? (or is this kind of thing just a fabrication by the Forza folks?).

I just assumed it was an entirely fictitious festival thing that the devs made up for the game.

Farscry wrote:

I just assumed it was an entirely fictitious festival thing that the devs made up for the game. :)

God, I hope so. It's a fun game and all, but we are clearly in the role of king douche bag. I mean, I get bonuses to knock down signs and buzz to close to other cars.

The people there for music have to hate our guts!

Got this for Christmas along with the wireless racing wheel (which is a blast, BTW). I'll probably apply to join the GWJ car club.

It seems pretty great so far, but yeah, I could do with a lot less "Obnoxious Bro Simulator"

I'm trying really hard to resist the urge to get the season pass, which I know would be big mistake, but....we'll see.