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Forza Horizon 4

Started by The Boston Crab, November 10, 2018, 11:40:02 AM

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I'm going to suggest that this is the greatest looking game ever made.


I don't know if it's familiarity with British conditions and the colour palette which makes me appreciate it so much more but they have created a lighting and ambient colour system which utterly floors me. The models and the assets and all that are certainly excellent but it's the lighting and atmosphere of the thing which elevates it beyond anything I've ever seen before, even in Red Dead.


Earlier in the year, I played a lot of Forza Motorsport 7 and even though it was extremely beautiful in sunsets and the like, I would always play in the overcast conditions marvelling at the atmosphere and lighting. It has a beautiful sobriety to it that I had never experienced before in a game.


Being set in the UK, Horizon 4 is predominantly dealing with quite muted, dreary greys and but it looks so gorgeous. The water reflections and glare from black ice and so on. It's gobsmacking.


It's rare these days that I go mad purely for graphics but this has made me well up a couple of times, it's so beautiful. Get the classical station on, some sweeping strings, bombing it through Edinburgh in the drizzle and out onto a blank canvas of snow covered fields in your '92 Escort, it's enough to make you believe there's something more beyond this material world and if not, it's already much more than enough.

BeardFaceMan

Enjoyed Horizon 3 much more than I thought I would, it was right up my street so I was looking forward to this. Played it for a while and it was indeed great, looked fantastic, played great, but the audio is completely fucked. Music cutting out, engine sound effects stuck on a loop, cutting out and stopping the game loading and it crashed a lot too. Shame, as I was really starting to enjoy it.

Damn, that's weird. I've not had or noticed anything like that. You're on XB as well aren't you, not PC?

Maybe they've patched it very recently? I only started a few days ago.

BeardFaceMan

Yeah I got the Xbox Game Pass for a month for 3 quid so I could give this a bash, managed about 2 weeks of it before the crashing made me give up. I tried restarting and reinstalling and all that bollocks but it still kept happening. I'll probably try it again once it goes on sale with all the DLC. I loved the Hotwheels expansion for FH3, I'm not not a sim racing guy at all so Forza Motorsport doesnt interest me in the slightest but these Horizon games are a lot of fun.

All I can say is that it's running like shit off a shovel for me this week so it must have been patched by now. No issues at all besides I have a headache from sitting 2m from the telly.

Mister Six

Not really familiar with these games but have watched a couple of videos. Is it basically set in Edinburgh and the countryside around it? Are there any other cities?

It's predominantly set in the Lake District and Edinburgh and surrounding areas, including some coastal and mountainous routes. It may seem a questionable choice in that it's kind of similar but because of the rotating seasonal aspect, the world is constantly refreshed and this means it's not only aesthetically very different but it also affects the gameplay and handling. There's also little extra stuff like a gorgeous lake which is frozen over in winter so you can drive on it! I expect they'll add more diverse areas with the expansions as they've done previously. Rumour is the Isle of Man, looking forward to hearing more, maybe at XO18 this evening.

Mister Six

I quite like that - focusing on beautiful but less commonly portrayed areas of the UK. Shame I'm not really into driving games or online multiplayer! It does indeed look great though.

Fortune Island expansion is fantastic. Dramatic storms aside, it's pretty dreary but as I said elsewhere, I think this is where the lighting system truly sings. Forza Motorsport 7 in overcast conditions is the most photorealistic lighting I've ever seen and this very much follows in that vein. It's made me much more aware of real life lighting and reflections and stuff, the daily wonder of ambient light and colour and foliage. I have a regular commute through country lanes overlooking rolling fields and also through a village and skirting a town and into the city and I'm so much more aware now of how diverse these areas are in terms of light and atmosphere. If I'm up and out before daybreak, which is pretty common, I'll get to enjoy even a fairly mundane sunrise in a different way now. Those grey and vaguely purple clouds can be just as stunning on some days. I genuinely owe a lot of this fresh perspective and appreciation of British weather and lighting to Forza Horizon 4.

God of War look like God of dogshit next to this. This is the true GOTY and has much more to say about the human condition on a purer primal level than that Sons and Daughters tier melodrama. It really makes you feel alive and love this actual Earth and feel the joy of expressing reality, not some let's pretend wank fantasy chode fodder.

Thursday

I believe you, but I don't have an Xbox and the PC version is only on the windows store, so it can get completely fucked.

If you can stomach the Windows store, I believe there's a demo available.

Twed

Thanks for showing me this. I've always wanted to get into one of these games, and this setting seems perfect. It really does look beautiful.

Recency bias notwithstanding, I have enjoyed this more consistently, for longer and enjoyed more peak moments than with pretty much anything else I've played this year. The only other contenders by those criteria are Tetris Effect and Assassin's Creed Odyssey (which I would never have imagined) but this is the one which also pulls me back and which I always want to fire up. I've been playing a lot with the Peugeot 205 recently, fully kitted out like some desert rally cross thing, and tearing up the city centre parks and sidestreets of Edinburgh. The handling is a total joy. Then mixing it up by taking the Koenigsegg One:1 down the M6 at 250mph and feeling completely on the edge of my seat at the rawest sensation of speed I've had in any game. I can't recommend it enough.

Lee Van Cleef

Best driving game I've played since PGR2. I had an absolute blast with this and ended up getting the 1000g for it. The seasons are a nice addition, it's bloody gorgeous, and all the challenges are great fun/infuriating. Didn't play it as much as Sea of Thieves this year, but had a great time.

The other great thing is that I only ever played about ten or fifteen hours of FH3 before getting rid of of my previous Xbox (like a dunce) so I've got that waiting with the 4K patch and everything when I've exhausted 4. That was also incredible and way way varied, albeit mostly sunny and colourful.

BeardFaceMan

The expansions for FH3 were great too, significantly different to the normal game. Not tried the FH4 expansion yet.

QDRPHNC

I liked Horizon 3 a lot, so I downloaded 4, with the XB1 game pass on sale and all. It's definitely nicer than 3, but I don't think I'm seeing what you're seeing in it, that makes it the best looking game ever. Although it depends what you're looking for, I suppose.

Lee Van Cleef

Quote from: QDRPHNC on December 29, 2018, 08:08:16 PM
I liked Horizon 3 a lot, so I downloaded 4, with the XB1 game pass on sale and all. It's definitely nicer than 3, but I don't think I'm seeing what you're seeing in it, that makes it the best looking game ever. Although it depends what you're looking for, I suppose.

I don't know if it's the best looking game ever, but playing it in 4k on the 1X is the best looking thing I've played this year. Even more so than watch the sun set over the waves in Sea of Thieves.

madhair60

Is this worth buying if I don't have Gold?

BeardFaceMan

If you like driving games then it cant really be bettered at the moment, unless you like sim driving games rather than arcadey style driving games.

ASFTSN

Not into car shit but just looked up some videos and yeah it's pretty stunning looking. I like to do this completely pointless thing where I squint at modern games sometimes and think "I wonder if I just glanced at this in passing whether I'd think it was real" but the squinting's becoming less necessary.

Twed


Blue Jam

Quote from: ASFTSN on January 09, 2019, 11:37:37 AM
Not into car shit but just looked up some videos and yeah it's pretty stunning looking. I like to do this completely pointless thing where I squint at modern games sometimes and think "I wonder if I just glanced at this in passing whether I'd think it was real" but the squinting's becoming less necessary.

Just watched a video of the Edinburgh Castle circuit on YouTube and was about to swipe the screen before remembering I wasn't on Google Streetview.

Still not given Forza Motorsport 7 a go after getting it for Christmas 2017 (sorry Mr Jam) but will be getting Horizon 4 too at some point.

Osmium

I know it most likely an afterthought in this sort of game but the NPC chat is some of the most tediously awful shite I've ever heard in any game.

Lee Van Cleef

Quote from: Osmium on January 24, 2019, 06:07:29 PM
I know it most likely an afterthought in this sort of game but the NPC chat is some of the most tediously awful shite I've ever heard in any game.

LARacer can fuck off. Even if the callbacks are pretty cool.

I like Dan Thompson on Timeless FM though, always makes me chuckle, and the music is great too (Halo theme aside).

Benevolent Despot

Quote from: Osmium on January 24, 2019, 06:07:29 PM
I know it most likely an afterthought in this sort of game but the NPC chat is some of the most tediously awful shite I've ever heard in any game.

True. It makes British people sound like twats. I suppose lots do though. The game acts as a tourist draw for the locales and a tourist repellent for the banter. Net neutral effect. Pretty good game despite that, almost identical to Horizon 3, just a new map. Roads unrealistically wide and unrealistically empty. Can't ever remember driving through Edinburgh IRL and only seeing 10 cars. I completed all the races on the map and only got my most enjoyable car near the end of the run. Modified Jeep Trailcat with 1300hp, drives over, up and through anything. 180mph kilometre-long drifts through fields, awesome.

Osmium

The lack of traffic seems to be a drawback of always being online. There is a noticeable increase, similar levels of traffic to previous games, if you switch to solo mode.

Quote from: Lee Van Cleef on January 24, 2019, 09:48:45 PM
LARacer can fuck off. Even if the callbacks are pretty cool.

I like Dan Thompson on Timeless FM though, always makes me chuckle, and the music is great too (Halo theme aside).

Yeah, the radio is alright. It was the likes of LARacer that had me wound up enough to post. The newly added Taxi missions specifically.

Blue Jam

Just bumping this thread because I started playing this on Game Pass again recently and found there's something properly relaxing about being able to drive around Edinburgh at a time when I can't go out there for real. Driving round the lochs and then up Arthur's Seat with a bit of Debussy on the radio as the ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel come into view. It's a lovely bit of escapism and just what I need right now.

How long do you have to play this before you can buy Edinburgh Castle?

Neomod

Yeah, i've been enjoying Forza H4's just drive about a bit relaxation. A pity my xbox 360 wheel and pedals is incompatible cos driving around southern France at night on Forza H2 was a lot of fun with it.

I've heard you can get adaptors but they seem pricey/choosy about what wheels they work with.