Forza Horizon 4: for each race, there is a season

The Forza Horizon series of the Xbox One is all about racing, stunts and love of cars. His fourth entry promises to be bigger and more immersive than before. This is the latest in the Horizon series, the most elegant counterparts of the Forza Motorsport series from Microsoft Studios. Horizon games emphasize the culture and music that surround cars.

I recently went ahead with a draft of the upcoming title and I had a taste of the first hour of play. Here's what I learned

Four dynamic seasons

The Horizon Festival, a fictitious race and music festival, takes place in the UK. No, the open world map is not an accurate representation of the country, but we are told that players will be able to travel a little larger area than the smaller version of Australia.

Previous entries in the series introduced cycles and dynamic day-night weather conditions. The fourth entry innovates with a dynamic cycle in four seasons. You start by experimenting each season during the presentation of the game, which cuts between the races of autumn, winter, spring and summer in an epic sequence.

After a few tutoring missions, the game will then synchronize online with a four-season cycle shared by players around the world. Each game season will last one week in real time before moving to the next season for everyone.

Games Playground Games has told me that with the changing seasons, you can technically consider this game to be four times more replayable than the previous one. The game is affected by each season in a surprising way: a river that you cross in the spring, for example, can be drained in summer or frozen during the winter, opening new shortcuts in races or open world roads.

As a player who really enjoyed going out into the open worlds of previous Horizon titles, I can not wait to see how this system will work (my demo only lasts an hour) and I'm curious to see how the base of players moves around the dynamic seasons . Will some seasons be more popular than others? Or will constant change allow players to come back? Time will tell us.

The online connection means that the card is shared with other players – it's not a massively multiplayer contract, but you can see a handful of players wandering the streets of the Horizon Festival, looking challenges. If you play video games to escape human contact, you can of course refuse to play online in the game's menus.

So many cars

During our demo, I had a taste of the McLaren Senna hero car – which is featured on the art box – during the introductory mission. The controls and physics have the same feel I used in the Forza series and you can customize the aids and settings to achieve the desired balance of realism and arcade fun.

Shortly after, the game gave me a more realistic choice of starting cars. I had to choose Audi TTS, Ford Focus RS and Dodge Charger R / T for the first routes, but soon I also had the choice between Subaru WRX STI, Lancia Stradale and Ford Escort RS Cosworth for the many dirt races that are heavily represented in Horizon 4.

Finally, after a few introductory missions that will teach you the different types of races and challenges scattered throughout the game, Horizon 4 immerses you into the open world where you can win and buy the cars you want. Approximately 450 cars will be available at launch from more than 100 manufacturers.

While browsing the list of launch cars, many have noticed the omission of Mitsubishi and Toyota, although there are some Toyota race trucks. It's a little disappointing that there's no Lancer Evolutions, Celicas or Supras on the road, all the more so as they've been there for the 10 previous titles Forza Motorsport and Horizon. I guess they could always reappear as downloadable content?

And there will be a lot of DLC: About 20 DLC cars will be launched on the day of the launch as part of the various editions Standard, Deluxe and Ultimate you have chosen. As part of the Forza Horizon 4 Car Pass, 42 additional DLC cars will be delivered over a 21-week period.

Showcases and the stuntman

There is a lot to do in Forza Horizon 4. In addition to hundreds of road, dirt and street races, with point-to-point and circuit variations on the three themes, you can also create and share custom races with the community. Technically, this means that there will be a potentially unlimited amount of content, although the quality of this content created by the players varies enormously.

The sensational Showcase races that are the highlights of this Horizon series are back for the fourth outing. During my demonstration of one hour, I ran against a scary hovercraft in the truck Toyota T100 Baja from Ivan "Ironman" Stewart. The promotional material refers to the race of a locomotive in an Ariel Nomad and a kind of stealth bomber in a Aston Martin Vulcan. And I can not wait to see the Halo inspired showcase with the M12 Warthog from this game.

Forza Horizon's innovative narrative missions allow you to participate in races and theme stunts to win cars, player houses and benefits at stake. I've had a taste of "The Stunt Driver", a story that places the player in the role of a Hollywood stuntman facing challenges such as jumping Bugatti Chiron as far as you possibly can or going down the hill in an Auto Union Type D without damaging an inestimable artifact of the history of the automobile.

I did not go into my project for an hour, but it was said that Horizon 4 would offer a better integration between the online game and the open world so that the Horizon Festival is more lived and shared with from other real players.

Custom avatars are back

Horizon 3 has introduced the ability to select your silent protagonist from a dozen avatars – all types of hipsters of different ethnicities and genders – as well as hundreds of player names that NPCs at play can speak out loud. The gang is back for Horizon 4, so if you want to be an Asian woman going through "Night Man" or a black man named "Alice", you're covered.

There is no way to change the hair or faces of these avatars, but Horizon 4 introduces about 500 clothing choices that you can unlock to personalize your look. There are also about 50 emotes and dances that can be seen during the cinematics before and after the race.

Another novelty for Horizon 4 is the buyable and unlockable player houses and businesses that unlock the content and benefits of the game. For example, during the "The Stunt Driver" mission, I opened a cottage. Playground tells me that even Edinburgh Castle is on the market in this fictionalized version of the UK.

Play anywhere

That said, Forza Horizon 4 looks like an improved version of Forza Horizon 3. That's exactly what I want from a sequel, so I'm looking forward to playing more when it will be launched on Xbox One consoles and Windows 10 CP on September 28, 2018.

This is an Xbox Play Anywhere title, so buying it for either platform will unlock and sync with the other. Xbox One X players (and PC players with sufficiently powerful hardware) will be able to play in 4K HDR.

There will be three editions at launch. The Standard Edition ($ 60) includes the base game and the Formula Drift Car Pack with seven downloadable cars. The Deluxe Edition ($ 80) adds the Car Pass FH4 – 42 additional DLC cars delivered over a 21-week period after launch. Finally, the Ultimate edition ($ 100) includes a Day One car pack (10 additional cars), VIP Forza benefits and two post-launch expansion packs expected in December 2018 and early 2019, bringing "new venue, vehicles and gameplay ".