Forza Horizon and How I feel About it

This past Tuesday I was sitting on the fence whether to buy Forza Horizon or not. Going back and forth with myself and after watching countless videos on YouTube I decided to bite the bullet only because my copy of Forza 4 was cracked and I was lacking a racing game. I wasn't sure what to expect from an open world racer, but with people from Turn10, some former Codemasters ( Dirt, Grid, F1 2012) people and Playground studios I was anticipating a fun game.

The first hour or so you go through the tutorial period and race with all the assists on, which for me seems remedial and super easy. As soon as I had the ability to change the settings and increase the games difficulty I maxed it out. Manual Transmission no driving assists, and AI set to insane, I was a Forza 4 veteran after all who played on the hardest settings should be easy. First couple races I was getting my @$$ kicked I couldn't believe it. Eventually I set the AI to hard to level the playing field and haven't touched it. I was surprised at how difficult the game could be and welcomed the challenge.

In Forza Horizon there is a hidden stability mode until you set the difficulty to expert, then it turns everything off and is close to simulation as your going to get. You can turn other things back on such as automatic transmission, driving line, rewind to your preference creating a custom setting. Even with all the assists off this game isn't trying to be Forza 4, but that is fine with me. You still need to know how to drive a car properly and use the racing line to have a chance to win race. A FWD car will not steer if your full throttle in a corner and a RWD car will over-steer if you accelerate to quickly in a corner, so discipline is still needed.

Another part of Horizon I enjoy is how large this world is. You can drive for hours finding cool roads to drift on, or hit the highway and red-line your super car. Speed Traps and Speed Zones set challenges while just cruising around. They track your speed at each location and post it leader-boards  Every time you hit one it tells you which of your friends you beat or who was faster then you. There are also other racers just cruising around which you can challenge to race to win some cash, but the earnings are small in comparison to the main events in Horizon.

Two things the disappointed me we the lack of cars and the same wheels from Forza 3. In Horizon there is just over 200 cars I believe and for myself only a handful are attractive. I don't understand while they chose some of the cars they did. There is an obvious focus on super cars. Ferrari has the largest selection with easily double or triple the cars compared to other manufacturers.
The wheel selection and body upgrades are the same as Forza 4, which means the same wheels as Forza 3. Forza has always been marketed as a title for the car enthusiast, but if you are one and you follow the trends in automotive styling you will know that few of the wheels in the game are actually applicable to today, with expecting of the timeless one such as Volk's TE-37's.

Overall I am enjoying my experience with Forza Horizon. I was glad a picked up this game and I'll be playing it for some time to come.

Extra Life Spot Lite - Michael Smith - PSM k3z3f

Its the time of the year again where gamers from all genres donate their time to raise money for Extra Life. If you haven't heard of Extra Life it is a charity that revolves around gaming. Extra Life is a gaming marathon that lasts 24 hrs and players raise money that will be donated to The Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals®. The money raised will go towards helping save and improve the lives of children at the CMN hospitals in their community.

This year a fellow gamer in my Forza 4 club is participating in Extra Life. Michael Smith a.k.a PSM k3z3f will be racing for 24 hours in Forza 4. His goal is to raise a modest $200 and he has surpassed that as I'm writing this ( WAY TO GO!). If your interested in donating to his cause you can visit his Extra Life page (posted at bottom) or you can race with him TODAY! He's running an extra life lobby. Just message him at PSM k3z3f on Xbox Live.

Michael's Page: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=35642

Extra Life: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?

Forza Horizon Announces Rally Expansion

Today Forza Horizon announced a rally expansion to be released in December. The Expansion is going to open up more roads and cars for players and add a new discipline to the game. Rally has been absent from the Forza franchise and this will be a welcomed edition.

They also announced further DLC plans for the game

Heres the full article: http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/Rally_Expansion_Announce/

Halo 4 leaked?

Today on Reddit a photo of Halo 4 disc's were posted by IAmMaximus!

 

 

How excited are you guys for Halo 4's release with a new studio taking over the series?

 

 

Follow the Blog and let us know!

Forza Horizon Demo Impressions

Today the Forza Horizon demo was released on Xbox Live. This is the first game in the Forza series to go outside the racing sim genre and welcomes a broader audience. However, Forza Horizon is not meant to be Forza 5.

As the demo started I was welcomed by a cut scene of a party culture and the beautiful Colorado landscape. Shortly after I found my self in a brand new 2013 Dodge Viper SRT chasing Horizon's champion Flynt. As I was speeding down the freeway I immediately noticed that this did not possess Forza 4's feel. The driving in Horizon is definitely more arcade like, but this doesn't mean that it doesn't have some f its qualities either (you can't go full throttle in the Viper around a corner). In the second race I was driving a Mitsubishi Lancer X on a dirt road, sliding all over the place like a rally car I was loving the dirt surface. Racing against a wide range of different cars and trucks. On medium difficulty and driving assists turned off I didn't have much difficulty winning the race. After I has won I was able to do a Rivals event (returning from Forza 4) and I again won that easily even after hitting a tree.

My next event was a little distance away so I needed to drive too it's location. I was given direction my a GPS voice system which was easily to understand and left little room for error. The roads were filled with traffic and turns. The scenery was awesome and I can see just cruising around being something to do in Horizon.

My next race was Mustang vs. Mustang. This event put me behind the wheel of a Boss Mustang while trying to beat a P-51 Mustang plane to check points. Now as cool as this sounds the event came off as a time trial. I rarely saw the plane and when I did it was flying through the checkpoint, after it passed it would fly off behind a cliff. The Mustang was fun to drive with its massive burnout and tail happy characteristic, even the arcade style handing provided a challenge to keep the car straight while in a turn. I narrowly won this event and had a awesome time with it.

The final race I had was back in the Dodge Viper. I was up against some other super cars in a fast point-to-point race. The beginning has alot of turns and the Viper was not forgiving if I accelerated to quickly. The rear end would slide out and I'd lose a position or need to make up some ground. As the race progressed I was going faster and faster.......even if I hit an oncoming car. There no penalty for this collision, I simply hit the car then the railing and then continued to race at 160 mph.

Forza Horizon is definitely a cool game, just don't get it confused with a racing sim. This game is for a more causal audience, which is great for the Forza brand. I find this to be a refreshing title in a genre that EA's Need For Speed has dropped the ball on. This Games going on my Christmas list!

- Cody Anderson

Its That Time of The Year Again

Whats up fellow gamers? Its almost Christmas and you know what that means!
GAMES! GAMES! GAMES!

Every time holiday season comes around we struggle to find the time and extra funds to pick-up the must have titles of  the year. Games like the recently released Borderlands 2, soon to come Assassins Creed 3 and the infamous Call of Duty series have been teasing us with trailers and game play videos since E3 or longer. With release dates closing in we need to make the hard choice of what to pick up and what to let pass by.  Assassins Creed is getting a long awaited new engine, which looks promising and will add a new feel the a tired series. COD Black Ops 2 is changing things up by placing the setting in the future instead of the past or present.

Everyone will be making these hard choices and waiting for the holiday season to get the rest.

What games are you picking up this season? Post a comment and let us know, and don't forget to subscribe!


Cody Anderson