I made a slight oopsie and called the 599XX “new” as I thought it wasn’t in FH4, turns out it was, which means this update truly does have zero new cars and they are all recycled from Horizon 4. That and in the second chapter Scott says that Darius Flynt WON the 2012 championship, yes they literally forgot the ending of the first game. Well done playground, continually setting a new low for our expectations
I mean, this update didn't even bother me because I've given up on this game. It simply lacks the love of cars and driving and there's no authenticity of the location and style like prior games. 4 was on the decline and 4 is far better than this game. The game needs an overhaul from top to bottom. The location should have a rich car history and the game should play up that fact. The radio is trash and again should cater to the location as well as car/racing inspired songs (and not edit every other lyric out). Every car should have multiple options for bumpers, fender flairs, skirts, hoods, multiple wings, headlights, etc. Crazy engine swaps, including EV swaps, truck bed swaps/removal, nets to replace windows, remove the passenger seats to reduce weight, etc. You should do an extensive video on what you'd put in the next game if you were in charge. Location, ideas, everything. People will latch on and share it extensively especially on the forza horizon subreddit.
Horizon is a husk of what it once was, The whole festival vibe in the beginning and the thrill of just driving fast on long stretches of road or competing in the festival races has devolved into soulless and dull "get in an expensive car and drive around the map" and the festival just kind of..exist. Horizon has lost its touch but luckily there's still motorsport which I'm looking forward to and hoping it will be good since there's still a chance
@@grandtheftgameryt trust me man try the newer sim games out, they may not be what you’re looking for but hopefully you’ll grow into it like I did, I’ve recently been playing a lot of Grid Legends and I’ve been enjoying it so much! I’m about to go buy Motorsport as well see if it’s any fun as well.
it really was just super underwhelming. they had such a potential to make this anniv. a good one but they fcked it up and remained in their disgusting "advertising" style. what a shame
Let's not forget how little attention to detail they gave the dialogue in the story...Scotty, a radio host who was AT Horizon Colorado says that Darius won the 2012 championship which is just blatantly false. I also don't understand how the main character has no idea who Darius is considering he's a 4 time champion, but I guess it makes sense since everyone is a winner in the story nowadays. Lastly, while the soundtrack is a nice touch, you're reminded that the game will never be what it used to be due to added censorship because of the game's E for everyone rating...
@@jrm1007 Ha I remember in one of the livestreams back in Horizon 4 the guy that took over Horizon 5 said Horizon 3 was the first game to introduce street races LOL. These guys have no idea about the franchise they are supposed to be running. 😂
so, not to defend Playground Games or anything, but i think the reason for why the player character doesn't know Darius Flynt is because the character we play in FH5 was the same as the character in FH4, and that FH4 was that characters first festival, they never went to the previous ones, after all, the dialogue in 4 implies that we aren't the Boss from FH3.
They dropped just about everything that made Horizon one so good. The level progression (bracelets), having to compete against a rival driver character in the game, the final showdown between that driver and the player on the streets, and bringing any car you want to the event. That was a good story. Also, the barnfind cars being one-offs in the game was great too, especially if you're like me, and are annoyed when there is another of your car in the race. -and of course they only brought back the dubstep tracks for the anniversary, because anyone who is into cars must like dubstep.
Even then, the playlist is mostly Hospital Records artists; they couldn't even be bothered to bring back particularly beloved artists like Nero, Qemists, Duke Dumont, Digitalism, or Chase & Status. They just didn't seem to care.
Even as a kid, everytime I hear dubstep and now eurobeat in racing games (Besides the Initial D arcade cabinets), I completely mute the music and put on Daytona USA 1&2 like Sky high or Slingshot out of spite. I guess fuck all the passionate racing music that have effort put into them! Asswipes.
when i entered the event and discovered i can literally skip all the races by just jumping through grass fields my dissapointment was huge (also in the fh4 flashback in the mountain race the checkpoints are fake, they just put down the flares and you still can drive straight to finish) it is worse than i expected
It's pretty crazy that this is described everything I liked/disliked about this "anniversary" that being one of the only things I thought were pretty cool were the menu screens. The Colorado themed festival, whilst I wasn't expecting much... is laughable at best. I kinda got the impression that in the origins story, instead of seeing the cargo plane or the bikes that were in past showcase events, playground games must've thought it would be better for us to use our imagination instead 😂
A funny thing about the intro sequences is that they feature improved visuals and raytraced reflections. Something that was cut from everything but forzavista in the final game. It goes to show, yet again, that they have tech working in the open world that's being held back to market future titles
It's not being held back, at least if you ask me. The game was developed to run on Series X, as well as the Xbox One/One S. Maybe it would be running as "smooth" (relatively smooth that is), with Raytracing enabled at 4K60. My second assumption: They had to make compromises in order to make the One version sell well, as the vast majority of Horizon 5 players are playing on Xbox One/One S/One X, followed by PC. If the Series version looked too good, X.One owners would feel sad and maybe not even bother playing the game. Maybe i'm just talking complete rubbish but i hope it make sense.
@@k.r.99 Enabling certain graphical effects on one system has absolutely no impact on another. The series X could have had an RT option and PC definitely should have, especially as it was moddable anyway (patched out now). My guess is, because the RT was limited and fell back to cubemaps for the environments anyway, it wouldn't have the same marketing impact as waiting for the fully featured version in the next motorsport.
@EC AP GT7 has RT in almost every mode besides gameplay. The trailers were using those modes. It's scummy, but it's technically not inaccurate. Horizon 5 only has RT in forzavista and yet the launch trailer, hotwheels trailer, intro videos, and all official promotional images use RT in the open world. It's not even possible in photomode on the public build.
@@existentialselkath1264 The intro sequences will obviously have all the bells and whistles of RT because it is simply a pre-rendered video. It's not running on your machine in real time, it's a video. People throw the word ray tracing around but what they really mean is Real-time Ray Tracing. Since the intro sequences are not real time, having ray tracing in them does not prove that the tech for having Real time RT in gameplay is ready for Forza. There was a mod that did enable RT for gameplay but it was very messy and only worked on the player car and basically only had self reflections enabled while everything else was regular non RT reflections. Which goes to show that the game engine isn't ready for it yet.
@@ninjafrozr8809 the intro sequences are pre rendered using the exact same graphical tech that is used in game and the raytracing is still limited to self reflections like the mod. While it is prerendered, it was likely running in realtime when it was recorded. It's no different to a youtube video of the game or an 'in game footage' trailer
I'm genuinely surprised that you weren't attacked by complacent window lickers that tell us to shut up and enjoy the game because they have no standards.
A few things to critique -The 599XX was in FH1-4 so I personally wouldn't consider it new although it sounds i n s a n e -For the Celica midnight battle, it was supposed to replicate the FD RX-7 race from FH3 which had a big portion of it be off-road But that's about it, very well done review as always. This update made a joke of the previous games and I now have 0 excitement for any of the upcoming series, thanks PGG :)
Froot, I literally told him about 4 times during the video editing "The 599XX isn't even new, you're giving them too much credit, it was in FH4" and he's like "yeah ok" AND HE NEVER FIXED IT, I'M SO MAD
If this is how they treat the Forza Horizon sub-franchise these days now that it has reached 10 years young, I'm scared to think of how they'll fleece the Donut Media crew next month. P.S: Am I the only one who thinks the choice of Mexico just feels forced compared to prior entries? If you've been following Microsoft's socials the past year, you can see how they emphasized diversity and how they make games for everyone, only boasting how they have some 20 million people playing this game yet neglecting to mention player retention. No wonder almost every server I've been on felt flat. And also how PGG flaunted about how Mexico still has a car culture with that "Made in Mexico" garbage, yet ignore the fact that 95% of the cars represented in that story are from import automakers whereas in prior Horizon games there were plenty of domestically made cars to choose from.
I thought I was the only one who felt this way. As a Hispanic (I assume PG's target audience), I feel that PG did a pretty bad job representing Mexican culture and made the focus of this franchise stray way too far from the sort of rebellious and flamboyant but sincere atmosphere that made DiRT 2 and Horizon 1 so great for me.
I'm not Hispanic, nor do I know many people from Mexico, but my stepdad's from El Salvador and I know a handful of Mexicans at my school. It feels so patronizing compared to the actual culture... it's insane. It's just European-ized.
Yeah, there was no shortage of "american muscle" and trucks made specifically for the latin american markets. They could have included as many of them as they could find the rights to but no, that would take too much effort. At least 3 went through the trouble of adding Australian cars from all eras.
@@michaellorah9051 I agree. This may be controversial, but I'm amazed that PG thought it was more important to add pronouns despite practically no playerbase demand to appease a demographic that generally doesn't play these games. Especially in an age where audiences are becoming less appreciative of seeing identity politics seemingly getting shoved in everything. However, interior customization, window decals, single player drift races like GRID's, and important cars like the Chevrolet C-10, Ford Gran Torino, and a newer Dodge Hellcat Redeye or Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing are still absent. Their priorities seem strange to me.
"I managed to set my expectations absolutely on the floor, because of how Horizon 5 has been managed since launch, and I still somehow got my soul crushed" Yup...
When PG and T10 anounced they would do some sort of throwback I was actually thinking about buying fh5 simply because I thought they would recreate the vib from horizon 1-4 but I am pretty disappointed and thanks to you. I have saved 80 dollars.
They didn't bother getting the songs from the initial drive for the first two games either which completely ruined the vibe. Also some fan favorite artists like CHVRCHES, Nero, M83, White Lies atc are STILL absent from the game. I was certain they would add some of their music from previous games in this update but here we are.
Same, in my opinion the new radio station is...ok but i'm kinda disappointed that we haven't got liberate form fh2 and what the future holds from fh3 I was really looking forward to this songs.
This would have been a perfect time to reintroduce CHVRCHES but nooo. It still baffles me why they thought it was a good idea to leave out such beloved artists like them. That sums up Horizon 5 I guess
@@bencezavarko7312 Porter Robinson returning in FH5 was the only saving grace. Even then this game's soundtrack is extremely disappointing. Hardly even feels like Horizon.
Not surprised. Given how PG has handled the series lately, there was no way this update was going to be any good. I used to no-life the hell out of these games, and I made so many good memories. Horizon 5? Haven't touched it since March. This game sucked me dry of any passion I had left for the Forza series. Good video. Shame things had to get to this point.
@@jrm1007 You may be right. I just hope people are still hosting races - I started playing FM4 and FH1 back in 2017, and the lobbies were already sparse by that point.
I reinstalled FH3 a few days ago. FH3 at 4k 120p is smoother than FH5 4k 120p, and uses less resources from my video card or system in general. FH5 is horribly optimized, and has been from the start.
@@user-ql5ou1bw7x Oh, so you're just a shill. The game isn’t well-optimised, and networking and graphics have nothing to do with it. There's no excuse for this game to be 120 GB. People expect a good story because the game has a story. They don't have to specifically promise it. The story isn't the only thing to complain about either. Aside from the most basic mechanics, this game is shit. How old do you think millennials are?
Amazing content! Very informative and mature. My favourite Horizon games are 1 and 3. FH1 is exactly as Microsoft advertised it, an open world racer with an EDM festival at it's core. They did everything right, from making the map feel alive, to the different events to keeping true to the games original intentions. On to FH3, I'm not just being biased here because I live in Australia, but FH3 felt light, airy and free, in no way did I feel tied down and obligated to do what the game wanted me to. It was fun and the graphics blew me away when I got it in mid 2018 (yes it was a bit late but I chose it over FH4). I've played FH4 and have mixed opinions. The gameplay feels very smooth and mostly solid, the map is beautiful and the seasons were a cool and fresh addition to the game. Minimising these positives however are the somewhat childish additions to the game (characters dancing etc.), the pointless wheel spins and the horrid online mode. It is clear that Playground Games holds no homage to the Horizon series and I fear that it'll only get worse from here. It saddens me to think that, although NFS still hasn't reached it's early mid 2000s peak, I may have to take FH off the list of my favourite racing game franchises.
I sadly have to agree with everything you said. The soul & passion of Horizon has long gone. All they care about is player numbers & making money. I am aware all companies want this, obviously but at least actually care about the legacy you have built, not throw it aside to cater to the casuals who will play the game for an hour or two each week & then put it down. Do the right thing Playground & focus on the fans again… also, get rid of the stupid bloody emotes & Fornite inspired nonsense. Says it all when your host for the update livestreams is not knowledgable about cars & even your own staff on occasion from what I’ve seen. Shame.
FH5 has become bland with my first 2 months of playing it. After hearing about the anniversary update, I honestly had pretty high hopes for this update to get some nostalgia from the golden era of Horizon that I missed out on (FH1 & FH2). Though, like many others as well as myself, it wasn’t as great as we thought it would be. The only things I’d say were good from this update were the starting menus every week & the music they brought back from older Horizon games. I’m highly considering on getting FH2 for Christmas to experience nostalgia & a part of my still going but almost ending childhood that I’ve missed out on more than 8 years ago.
Fun fact: During most of the 4th/final week of the Anniversary Celebration, the entire game was broken and literally unplayable on the Steam version, due to a small patch they release causing the entire game to not even boot up, and I as well as thousands of other players lost out on most of the exclusive songs and cars and other rewards during that 4th/final week. I tried submitting a ticket explaining that I was literally unable to get the rewards since the game wouldn't load on 4 out of the 7 days, both via their CustServ email and in their official Discord server, but both times I was denied and pretty much told "Oh well LMAOOOOO Shoulda just bought an Xbox, idiot". I'm done with FH5, I'm done with Playground games, I'm almost done with Forza as a whole but I'm gonna see if FM8 is any good before I fully quit the franchise. Playground's constant mismanagement of the series since 2016 has been utterly abysmal and there's no excuse for why every game has felt like a downgrade since Forza Horizon 3, the peak of the franchise.
I don't know about you, but the number 1 thing that keeps me from being motivated to play this game was the music. It's not good to me. Only a few select songs are worth playing before I turn off the radio. This could've been easily solved by just letting us use our mp3 files in the game. No I don't mean having it play in another window, I meant actually playing in game, with the convenience of changing the songs on your controller, and songs stopping itself when it doesn't need playing (example, loading screens, pre race menu, etc). This was a feature since the original motorsport on original xbox. Why are we evolving backwards?
Agreed. Funny thing was it was a feature in FH3 and they originally planned on adding it to FM7 but cancelled that idea and removed the feature from FH3...which was dumb af. I miss that...
I was so hyped to hear Sunshine everyday from Rusko at the FH1 story…. But instead we got something I remember as ugh this again and switched Radiostations.
It's always embarrassing when games do the midlife crisis thing of looking back on the old and then trying to capitalise on nostalgia while the current game is trash
I am so glad that I ended up buying Forza Horizon 1 this weekend instead. I scratched my original copy, but I am ready to replay through this masterpiece.
When I played this update, it was a huge dissapointment to see, what is the Horizon series means to the devs. A series that started off as an open world spinoff to the Motorsport series is now completely dead in the terms of vibe, atmosphere and progression which things made the first Horizon such an experience.
Thank you man, you really nailed it. My biggest wish is that all Horizon games which are stuck on console get released for pc, so they can be properly preserved. With Horizon 5, my biggest issue is the festival playlist, it is looking up cars if you weren't able to complete it in time. So any new player won't even get a chance to purchase these cars from the Autoshow... Looking forward to your Horizon 5 review!
I thought I was in for something truly special seeing them recreate the original introduction and hearing all the throwback songs. As soon as I saw that lame mini festival not even marked on the map and dak’s boards not even giving you a progress message when you hit them I just was reminded instantly of how much better the original did it. This can’t be the same team making horizon anymore
9:00 So it's not just me. Honestly I decided to play the orignal Horizon on the day of the 10th anniversary as a means to celebrate it. I miss the time Horizon had NPCs with personality and intimidation, not like Born Fast. Horizon 1 felt more like the young reckless version that Forza Motorsport wasn't. I would love that thing to come back for Horzion 6 if they ever put it in Japan.
Looking at the ‘festival’ sites actually killed me. I could have recreated the same shit in 5 minutes using the creator tools in event lab. They LITERALLY ARE NOT TRYING. To ANYONE who says: ‘its free content, shup up’ i say this: Free content doesnt matter if its shit. WE PAID MONEY FOR THIS GAME. If the game isn’t ABSOLUTELY complete at launch, then we deserve GOOD updates until the end of its life cycle. Not to mention how enourmous of an update this SHOULD have been. We can literally make cities with completely custom roads in the event lab, and they cant be fucked making a couple of festivals. And dont get me started on the cars. PGG is not trying and is just slapping us in the face, and every time someone just sits back and goes ‘oh well’ it encourages them to continue. PGG. Give us PROPER updates. The most recent update is an even bigger joke, SOMEHOW. I honestly think all the biggest forza youtubers need to encourage people to stop playing this game until they give us something to come back to.
I'm kind of late but to me at least it seems like FH5 is just a racing game set in Mexico (albeit a pretty poor representation of it imo) that just so happens to have a Horizon festival going on, vs the previous games felt like they were Horizon games that just so happened to take place in X country. A lot of the main storylines in FH5 to me felt like it was more about cramming information about Mexico than it was letting you explore it and appreciate it. I recently started playing FH4 again on a different Xbox account so I got a fresh start, and the main thing I noticed was that the main focus was racing and doing Horizon stuff, not being bombarded with tons of cultural information. I think PGG tried way too hard to try and make themselves look "cultured" and "inclusive" and ended up making something that felt completely disconnected from the rest of the game. Like you get an hour's worth of history and cultural lessons and then it is never mentioned again, let alone built upon the more you play the game. Like the game is set in Mexico, a culture and history-rich country where you could dedicate your entire life to studying just one tiny subculture, but the most you get is "Oh look some ancient ruins that serve no purpose other than the initial wow factor" "VW Beetle is literally a god" and "Heres a city that we are going to make feel completely dead and abandoned". And don't even get me started on the map design... or lack of map design. 80% of the map looks identical, if there was no map to look at it would be difficult to even start to identify where you are, it's a huge map filled with absolutely nothing of value, it's big not because PGG wanted to add a bunch of content and easter eggs and things to explore, its big for the sake of PGG being able to say its the largest Forza map ever. The game feels soulless, bland, and empty even when you are just driving around aimlessly. Not to mention the seasons change little to nothing that actually affects the way you play, now whether that's a good or bad thing is up for debate, I personally loved the seasons in FH4. Another thing is I think there was a severe lack of a prominent water feature, humans love water, we just do. I mean compare the little reservoir thing in FH5 to Derwant Water from FH4 and there is zero competition. And thats just comparing size and grandiose, not even mentioning the fact that FH5 doesn't value the reservoir at all, its just there, vs in FH4 where Derwant Water had 3 player homes along the lake, and in FH3 where one of the festival sites was a stones throw from Maroondah Reservoir, and somewhat overlooked the dam holding the water in. PGG made those areas feel valuable and special because they must be for two, million-dollar-plus player homes to be along its shores, or for a festival site to be very close by. Compare that to FH5 where that reservoir is just kinda nearby Mulege, which despite PGG best efforts Mulege just feels like a small, soulless town plopped off of a highway exit. Idk to me the one thing I can never overlook is how badly PGG messed up the map design and how it is presented in FH5, they had a huge chance with somewhere as diverse as Mexico, but then just made a huge map with nothing in it that felt special.
I've been praising Forza Horizon 5 lately, but I suppose the series themes have been blinding me from the messes that have came with the updates too. I experience a lot of the issues referenced here. I've just been looking for more good than bad because we will miss this game when it is gone, at least some of us will. Like I remember saying that we will miss FH4 when it isn't the main focus and I was right. This update doesn't showcase a lot now that you have pointed out the obvious flaws which shouldn't even be in the game at all. The series is not what it used to be and I don't think it ever will be. I regret saying Forza has returned to it's former glory because it truly is a shadow of the series it once was. It even had more potential in the earlier better games. Crazy how bad it is now compared to what it used to be.
I can’t even say how disheartened and sad I am to see where this franchise has gone. This was my favourite racing series ever. Every 2 years I was so excited for a new horizon game. Horizon 1 was magical and I’d still say the best horizon game. Amazing multiplayer (still the best system). The progression and story in campaign. I can’t even describe how good this game is in words and do it justice. The level of fun I had in the custom lobbies back in the days when this game was popular was some of the best times I’ve ever spent in a racing game. Horizon 2 and 3 (while being inferior to 1) were still amazing games in their own rights. New content, amazing expansions, new features (car meets etc). Had their own identities and kept me hooked. Then we get to 4 and in my opinion that’s where the franchise just took a massive downturn. Become too casual, felt like it was made for 2 year olds, nothing to motivate me, took 7 months to make multiplayer even playable. I did like some of the innovation of Horizon 4 such as the battle Royale, route creator etc but overall was just a big disappointment but I still stuck with it. Horizon 5 I can’t even say the same for. It’s a carbon copy of 4 just in Mexico. Recycled cars, exact formula. The crappy multiplayer, rubbish campaign etc. I just can’t get behind this game. Forza Horizon 1 is still peak horizon in my opinion. How we went from a game with an amazing campaign and multiplayer to this rubbish astounds me. Horizon 5 has completely turned me off this series all together. We have developers who have no idea or clue, and I don’t have any hope for the future. This is the first time I’ve actually considered not buying or wasting my time with the next horizon game because I’ve just given up. What’s worse is they had an extra year to develop it and they ended up creating something made of rubbish. Until the franchise is handed to people who have a clue, I don’t have hope for it anymore. That died with Horizon 5.
I'm scared for the future of this game if they can't do something grand for the 10th anniversary then what is the point of continuing the franchise? FM reboot needs to be good and boy doesn't it need to hit hard.
Like i said on Ericships 111 video and I'll say it again. Kinda pressed about the update, like it's good but at the same time it's disappointing, I was expecting returning cars from older titles that would make a comeback for the anniversary, but I still like this update
@@serperior2264 I'd say that apart from this and explaining some things for too long, his videos aren't terrible, plus he's the only major forza content creator I know of to make a video dedicated to forza's deformed car models
I agree with you on this one Moses, even for me a person that played Forza Horizon 4 as the first Horizon then 3, then 5, then went to Horizon 1 with the Xenia Canary emulator and then playing the 360 version of Horizon 2, i feel that 5 is getting more stale by the minute, but at the very least my irl car the Sentra B17 is back in Horizon, specifically the place it got assemble (heh) Mexico, I just wish that they did the correct thing and remaster or remake Horizon 1 to be played on PC but no... and in the good words of reviewbrah *My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined*
as a xbox 360 player, i have never known that forza horizon 2 on the xbox one was vastly different to the one on the xbox 360 also i completely agree i want a remaster of 1 and 2 and/or the next expansion to be colorado, if those dont happen i wont touch the game again like i did after the day it got released (i played early access hoping it was gonna get better)
each Horizon shouldve been a totally isolated event with a new person who has to become that region's new champion. It makes ZERO sense the champion of Colorado 2012 would automatically be champion in other regions.
Horizon 2 got the biggest middle finger in this update. The least songs into the Mixtape Radio Station. The shortest chapter in the horizon story.. it made me mad cause it's my favorite horizon game
Imagine this almost impossible thing, five of the best racing devs that were already dead, Black Rock, Black Box, Bizzare Creations, Criterion and Codemasters veterans came in-front of microsoft and they told them that they gonna make the best arcade open-world racing game with the name of their protected racing simulator franchise on the peak of its popularity... and they said yes, and then they fucking nailed it! and in the Xbox 360!!! a console alredy for retirement... Why I say that? because an anniversary is a celebration of what you have done, and watching back to your roots and how you improved and matured after all that time and see if you are still the same in spirit and love in what you have done. Like a marriage anniversary... This just tells me that PG games isnt the same devs as 10 years ago, those madlads are gonne, so ironic coming from their start, and also so sad.
I managed to play through this update even though I hated it, but this new Donut update is abysmal. I think it'll be the first update since game launch that I haven't unlocked everything in.
The funniest thing is that this series has no evolution. It barely adds anything new and compared to other, even some older games, feels like a step down in everything but graphics.
I'd like to say that I feel this all emphasizes why I'm kinda grateful in a way that FH5 didn't take place in Japan, because they no longer care. Seriously, there were so many opportunities for really amazing things here, for example; what if Scotty saying "If you really are Darius Flynt" was true and it was actually the main character from FH1 or one of the other rivals pretending to be him. Part of me feels Playground devs actually did want to give us the update we deserve, but the corporate hands didn't care and wanted it shipped out ASAP without any regard for the playerbase, thus it was rushed and unfinished to the point it started causing game breaking bugs. Every part of this update screamed rushed..
As a Forza fan who started on Xbox 360 with Horizon 1, the fact that the OG festival is only a prop and not even a real festival just made me sad, i'm a big fan of the Horizon franchise, but i didn't even feel the vibes i had while i was played Horizon 2 or 3, i was disappointed.
I would say, this update is mediocre, and got overhyped by the team and the nostalgia (nostalfags too). I appreciated the title screens and cutscenes, but at the end of the day doesn't help this franchise at all. Likewise, I might want an entire reboot to the series because they don't know what else to do with the upcoming titles anymore. I spent my entire teenage years playing Horizon and what the game stands for me is freedom and the joy of festivals, but since 4 I felt the last one gone missing.
I'm glad to see more people are getting wise to FH but I wish it had come sooner, a lot of things wrong in 5 are just continuations of stuff that started in FH4 which people still coo over and seem to ignore that the signs were there in that game. The live service like in pretty much every AAA franchise that's adopted it in recent years has been awful for the series.
After the anniversary update, I think I kinda stopped caring about Horizon. I never got to play the first 3 games Horizon 4 was kinda fine, 5 straight up feels like a “side-grade” of Horizon 4.
the only issue i have with the older games is the quality of life updates in the newer games. putting in ghost traffic for stunts, especially drift zones, is a life saver, but beyond that, fh5 feels like the next downward step in the slope of the series
I think the Horizon team need a break from these types of games. If they want to keep making Forza related games, I'd love to see a more streamlined narrative Forza game in the style of old Need for Speed, Underground 2 or Most wanted (2005). That'd help with the endless unfocused amount of content they shove in these games.
I might've mentioned this on another video of yours but there's one thing that bothers me in the newer titles that is probably noticed by many but not mentioned often. It's the amount of talking during sections of the game and the general A** kissing they keep giving you. It gets annoying and bland at a certain point, no rivalry that feels motivating as it lacks a ''villain'' or big buildup to some super event that feels special. No feeling of building up your character to greater heights as the game already feels like it has acknowledged you as the best around. It makes a bit of sense , but doesn't change my opinion on how tiresome it gets. There are other issues too, but most of them have been mentioned countless times.
The fan base for these games are like battered wives that are experiencing severe Stockholm syndrome. People are so deprived of any meaningful change or update to the gameplay of Horizon that in the lead ups to these updates I actually saw people getting hyped because they thought we'd be able to put stickers on the car windows. Just think about for one second. I was sitting there thinking to myself that is something that was a standard in racing games like NFS Underground which came out TWO DECADES ago and people were getting excited that they might put it in a game that was released 2021. If that doesn't show the regression of games in general I don't know what does.
Forza Horizon is an excellent showcase of how well recycling and throwing a lot of money at marketing and review platforms pays off. It paid them a lot. Recycling doesn't cost a lot of money, but brings in a lot money. 5 was broken before it even came out, but all the fanboys kept it alive. This was the moment the higher ups should've been taught a lesson. So, with that said, shame on us for paying them for rubbish work. We shouldn't have expected any better to be honest.
I'm glad I left the franchise after the disappointing FH4. Doesn't look like things got any better in 5, which is a shame as FH1 is my favorite racing game of all time and I still replay it start to finish every now and then.
I feel ya man.. I started with FH4 and I have to say that I prefer it over FH5. While it still did a lot of handouts it still kinda had a sense of progression. You had to complete basically all races before you unlocked the gauntlet, leviathan and so on. Plus some of the engine sounds were better in 4. Not all of them... But the rally engine was miles better in FH4
The first drive sequel should be able to highlight the biggest wrong of fh5: the map. Colorado's mountain chase in the Viper has risks of crashing into barriers, off-road pavement that are shortcuts, and an intense moving goal that persuades you to catch up to. There's not even half of that in FH5, in fact it made the roads in Mexico fell flat and useless. Same goes to FH2's road trip, now that you can scatter all over the off-road section to just get to the end faster. Maybe, and just maybe, having barriers in open world makes a better map. The barriers that's purposely made to dead stop your car from falling over. Sounds like a joke, but giving too much freedom to do anything could lead to purposelessness, and that's what i felt bout the map. Just an opinion.
I've stayed away from watching this video quite a few times to only watch it now and realize you are right. If I had a big complaint with anything it's the new radio station. Same complaint as yours just adding onto the fact mine only has the "Dawnbreaker" song on each time I switch to it. and it's real sad because that's the only radio station I feel interested in listening to but since that song is always on when I switch to it, I never end up listening to that radio station. It is sad like someone said that to me, Horizon 5 is the game you just get in some exotic and drive around the map. Which is a perfect summarization of what I do in the game actually. There really is no attempt at speed physics in Horizon 5 and so for some reason in some cars it can say you're doing 200mph, but it might feel like 60mph. I could honestly rant about Horizon 5 for days but I'm not going to do that here.
Even though I was quite disappointed by this update despite my low expectations, I must admit, hearing Porter Robinson’s Language and seeing the new rendition of the og horizon intro was enough to almost make me forget about the disappointment… almost
My theory is they are more or less preparing for FH6 with the next gen engine. They released this lackluster filler game because they had to. That way they can shift more of their people onto this next big project.
My most hated part was the commentary in the stories. They kept praising things that eventually aided in the demise of Horizon. For example leaving the roads in FH2. It can be good as seen in FH2 and 3 but when you overdo it you get to the point of boring roads and vast emptiness with nothing to stop you. Festival playlist in FH3. I don't have to tell how bad this became aka the festival depression. Then they compared Mexico to the other maps and of course they think it's the best out of all. The amount of self praising almost made me vomit. They are this out of touch
I'm new to the Forza games with F5. Even I thought it was oddly meh. I was happy with extra content but it felt a little underwhelming. But for those who have more time in the series, must have been worse.
The arcade racing scene in general is just so empty. I got more and more into sim racing cause of it but sometimes I still just wanna sit down with a controller and have a casual car experience. Forza Horizon isn't fun anymore
I've only played FH3 and FH5 when this update came out (just started playing FH4 since a few days ago) so it was like oh cool 10 years of Horizon anyway, since i really only had nostalgia for FH3. when it was the FH3 chapter i was cringing at Australian parts since i'm Australian and when ever games or shows try to do a fake Australian accent or anything Australian its just so cringey. I'm the type of person to watch something and go its alright i can see some issues with something and then watch a video about it and it opens my eyes to see more of what's wrong with it then i realise how bad it actually was just like this video. Very good video well done!
@@ultraviolet_channel Sure... there's about a handful used copies available on Amazon for between 25 and 70 dollars, for those who already have a console to play it on.
If I were in charge, the 10 year anniversary would have been DLC. I would have remade the maps in the Horizon 5 engine and really celebrated the 10 year anniversary with exclusive stories in each location, returning cars from the previous games, and special features specifically for each map. Then throw the maps into the Eliminator rotation. That would have been worthwhile.
there's clear signs of Playground being overworked and/or understaffed for what they're supposed to be doing. A brand new ForzaTech engine for FM8, FH6, and a new Fable game, on top of regularly updating FH5... Microsoft is probably treating the employment there the same way as 343i
Good job highlighting all the flaws with the series that culminated from their 10 year anniversary. Ive tried numerous times to point it out on the Horizon subreddit, but the die hards refuse to take off the rose colored sunglasses, quoting that this is the best horizon of all. But the problem goes deeper than just horizon becoming a shell of a game, it began with the motorsports franchise. Diminishing returns is the motto with turn10, with each subsequent title of their games delivering a stunningly floored level of quality in their games. Everything from ignoring bugs, barely addressing the griefers IF at all acknowledging they exist soley to ruin lobbies, rehashing old content under the guise of "NEW AND IMPROVED DLC!!!", and cutting out what made previous titles amazing all for a more consumer friendly experience....that is hardly consumer friendly.
I just got into the series 2 years ago and now I own all the games. Starting with FH4 it's clear that they started making the games with live services in mind which makes the single player progression basically nonexistent.
I still have a tiny bit of hope for maybe a Colorado expansion for the second expansion, but it I highly doubt it. It will probably just be another island like Storm Island from 2 or something.
When I found out the 7th gen Celica was in this game I got it ... and now that I got it I haven't played it since and I just don't care about this one as much as I did 2 or 3 or hell even 4 as much as that one feels like the one that started to wear thin on my like of the Horizon series. I feel like I haven't missed anything but the cash I spent buying this game. I really want to like and even love Horizon 5 but something keeps me from giving a damn about it and this video might have just shined a big ass light onto why. Thanks!
I made a slight oopsie and called the 599XX “new” as I thought it wasn’t in FH4, turns out it was, which means this update truly does have zero new cars and they are all recycled from Horizon 4.
That and in the second chapter Scott says that Darius Flynt WON the 2012 championship, yes they literally forgot the ending of the first game.
Well done playground, continually setting a new low for our expectations
I mean, this update didn't even bother me because I've given up on this game. It simply lacks the love of cars and driving and there's no authenticity of the location and style like prior games. 4 was on the decline and 4 is far better than this game. The game needs an overhaul from top to bottom. The location should have a rich car history and the game should play up that fact. The radio is trash and again should cater to the location as well as car/racing inspired songs (and not edit every other lyric out). Every car should have multiple options for bumpers, fender flairs, skirts, hoods, multiple wings, headlights, etc. Crazy engine swaps, including EV swaps, truck bed swaps/removal, nets to replace windows, remove the passenger seats to reduce weight, etc.
You should do an extensive video on what you'd put in the next game if you were in charge. Location, ideas, everything. People will latch on and share it extensively especially on the forza horizon subreddit.
The whole Horizon Origin story feels like a Family Guy cutaway gag
if only 💀
Yep
"Geez Lois this is worse than that time I had to drive a coke head through a thunderstorm"
@@codyC423 "I can be smart. like that time i uninstalled the game after becoming a mess"
"Hehehehe, hey Lois... I'm a Horizon Champion :)))"
Horizon is a husk of what it once was, The whole festival vibe in the beginning and the thrill of just driving fast on long stretches of road or competing in the festival races has devolved into soulless and dull "get in an expensive car and drive around the map" and the festival just kind of..exist. Horizon has lost its touch but luckily there's still motorsport which I'm looking forward to and hoping it will be good since there's still a chance
LET'S GO MOTORSPORT WOOOOOOO!! 😸🤙
Thank God motorsport has no ties with playground games
I always hated motorsport as I like arcade racers. Both NFS and Forza Horizon have gone downhill from their best years
@@grandtheftgameryt trust me man try the newer sim games out, they may not be what you’re looking for but hopefully you’ll grow into it like I did, I’ve recently been playing a lot of Grid Legends and I’ve been enjoying it so much! I’m about to go buy Motorsport as well see if it’s any fun as well.
@@VelociJX one more step and you'll be going into the world of sim racing heh.
The anniversary "festival" from the first game that was added, was a huge fucking slap in the face for the OG fans
it really was just super underwhelming. they had such a potential to make this anniv. a good one but they fcked it up and remained in their disgusting "advertising" style. what a shame
Let's not forget how little attention to detail they gave the dialogue in the story...Scotty, a radio host who was AT Horizon Colorado says that Darius won the 2012 championship which is just blatantly false.
I also don't understand how the main character has no idea who Darius is considering he's a 4 time champion, but I guess it makes sense since everyone is a winner in the story nowadays.
Lastly, while the soundtrack is a nice touch, you're reminded that the game will never be what it used to be due to added censorship because of the game's E for everyone rating...
I missed that detail. I cannot believe they literally forgot the ending of the first game, never underestimate the stupidity of PGG
@@ultraviolet_channel Another detail being how Scotty mentions Skill Songs didn't exist in 3.
they debuted in 3
@@jrm1007
Ha I remember in one of the livestreams back in Horizon 4 the guy that took over Horizon 5 said Horizon 3 was the first game to introduce street races LOL. These guys have no idea about the franchise they are supposed to be running. 😂
@@TheJayden3977 wow that is absurd lol. Just shows how little of the original team is likely still there
so, not to defend Playground Games or anything, but i think the reason for why the player character doesn't know Darius Flynt is because the character we play in FH5 was the same as the character in FH4, and that FH4 was that characters first festival, they never went to the previous ones, after all, the dialogue in 4 implies that we aren't the Boss from FH3.
They dropped just about everything that made Horizon one so good. The level progression (bracelets), having to compete against a rival driver character in the game, the final showdown between that driver and the player on the streets, and bringing any car you want to the event. That was a good story. Also, the barnfind cars being one-offs in the game was great too, especially if you're like me, and are annoyed when there is another of your car in the race.
-and of course they only brought back the dubstep tracks for the anniversary, because anyone who is into cars must like dubstep.
Lol it was a huge meme that Forza H1 was dubstep dubstep and more dubstep.
You can bring any car you want to events.
@@thelunchbox420x I was referring only to the showdowns.
Even then, the playlist is mostly Hospital Records artists; they couldn't even be bothered to bring back particularly beloved artists like Nero, Qemists, Duke Dumont, Digitalism, or Chase & Status.
They just didn't seem to care.
Even as a kid, everytime I hear dubstep and now eurobeat in racing games (Besides the Initial D arcade cabinets), I completely mute the music and put on Daytona USA 1&2 like Sky high or Slingshot out of spite.
I guess fuck all the passionate racing music that have effort put into them! Asswipes.
when i entered the event and discovered i can literally skip all the races by just jumping through grass fields my dissapointment was huge
(also in the fh4 flashback in the mountain race the checkpoints are fake, they just put down the flares and you still can drive straight to finish)
it is worse than i expected
It's pretty crazy that this is described everything I liked/disliked about this "anniversary" that being one of the only things I thought were pretty cool were the menu screens. The Colorado themed festival, whilst I wasn't expecting much... is laughable at best.
I kinda got the impression that in the origins story, instead of seeing the cargo plane or the bikes that were in past showcase events, playground games must've thought it would be better for us to use our imagination instead 😂
it's a shame too, considering the potential this update could have had
the only thing i like about fh5 ingame is that they brought back avicii levels with the skrillex remix
that's it
A funny thing about the intro sequences is that they feature improved visuals and raytraced reflections. Something that was cut from everything but forzavista in the final game.
It goes to show, yet again, that they have tech working in the open world that's being held back to market future titles
It's not being held back, at least if you ask me. The game was developed to run on Series X, as well as the Xbox One/One S. Maybe it would be running as "smooth" (relatively smooth that is), with Raytracing enabled at 4K60. My second assumption: They had to make compromises in order to make the One version sell well, as the vast majority of Horizon 5 players are playing on Xbox One/One S/One X, followed by PC. If the Series version looked too good, X.One owners would feel sad and maybe not even bother playing the game. Maybe i'm just talking complete rubbish but i hope it make sense.
@@k.r.99 Enabling certain graphical effects on one system has absolutely no impact on another.
The series X could have had an RT option and PC definitely should have, especially as it was moddable anyway (patched out now).
My guess is, because the RT was limited and fell back to cubemaps for the environments anyway, it wouldn't have the same marketing impact as waiting for the fully featured version in the next motorsport.
@EC AP GT7 has RT in almost every mode besides gameplay. The trailers were using those modes. It's scummy, but it's technically not inaccurate.
Horizon 5 only has RT in forzavista and yet the launch trailer, hotwheels trailer, intro videos, and all official promotional images use RT in the open world. It's not even possible in photomode on the public build.
@@existentialselkath1264 The intro sequences will obviously have all the bells and whistles of RT because it is simply a pre-rendered video. It's not running on your machine in real time, it's a video. People throw the word ray tracing around but what they really mean is Real-time Ray Tracing. Since the intro sequences are not real time, having ray tracing in them does not prove that the tech for having Real time RT in gameplay is ready for Forza. There was a mod that did enable RT for gameplay but it was very messy and only worked on the player car and basically only had self reflections enabled while everything else was regular non RT reflections. Which goes to show that the game engine isn't ready for it yet.
@@ninjafrozr8809 the intro sequences are pre rendered using the exact same graphical tech that is used in game and the raytracing is still limited to self reflections like the mod.
While it is prerendered, it was likely running in realtime when it was recorded. It's no different to a youtube video of the game or an 'in game footage' trailer
Lets not forget about how they've chosen the eagle speedster to be the reward car for FH3. A car that WASN'T even in FH3
Didn't it debut in FH4? Lol
@@darrens3 Exactly. It was in Fh1 and came back in Fh4
I wish they would make horizon feel like it did before, a huge music festival with sick cars and vibes.
Honestly bro
I am SO GLAD people are finally calling out PG’s blatant laziness.
I'm genuinely surprised that you weren't attacked by complacent window lickers that tell us to shut up and enjoy the game because they have no standards.
A few things to critique
-The 599XX was in FH1-4 so I personally wouldn't consider it new although it sounds i n s a n e
-For the Celica midnight battle, it was supposed to replicate the FD RX-7 race from FH3 which had a big portion of it be off-road
But that's about it, very well done review as always. This update made a joke of the previous games and I now have 0 excitement for any of the upcoming series, thanks PGG :)
I totally forgot about the 599XX in FH4 somehow, jesus christ PGG
Froot, I literally told him about 4 times during the video editing "The 599XX isn't even new, you're giving them too much credit, it was in FH4" and he's like "yeah ok" AND HE NEVER FIXED IT, I'M SO MAD
@@serperior2264 IM SO SORRY
If this is how they treat the Forza Horizon sub-franchise these days now that it has reached 10 years young, I'm scared to think of how they'll fleece the Donut Media crew next month.
P.S: Am I the only one who thinks the choice of Mexico just feels forced compared to prior entries? If you've been following Microsoft's socials the past year, you can see how they emphasized diversity and how they make games for everyone, only boasting how they have some 20 million people playing this game yet neglecting to mention player retention. No wonder almost every server I've been on felt flat. And also how PGG flaunted about how Mexico still has a car culture with that "Made in Mexico" garbage, yet ignore the fact that 95% of the cars represented in that story are from import automakers whereas in prior Horizon games there were plenty of domestically made cars to choose from.
I thought I was the only one who felt this way. As a Hispanic (I assume PG's target audience), I feel that PG did a pretty bad job representing Mexican culture and made the focus of this franchise stray way too far from the sort of rebellious and flamboyant but sincere atmosphere that made DiRT 2 and Horizon 1 so great for me.
I'm not Hispanic, nor do I know many people from Mexico, but my stepdad's from El Salvador and I know a handful of Mexicans at my school. It feels so patronizing compared to the actual culture... it's insane. It's just European-ized.
@@pancake7408 Leave it to the Brits...
Yeah, there was no shortage of "american muscle" and trucks made specifically for the latin american markets. They could have included as many of them as they could find the rights to but no, that would take too much effort. At least 3 went through the trouble of adding Australian cars from all eras.
@@michaellorah9051 I agree. This may be controversial, but I'm amazed that PG thought it was more important to add pronouns despite practically no playerbase demand to appease a demographic that generally doesn't play these games. Especially in an age where audiences are becoming less appreciative of seeing identity politics seemingly getting shoved in everything.
However, interior customization, window decals, single player drift races like GRID's, and important cars like the Chevrolet C-10, Ford Gran Torino, and a newer Dodge Hellcat Redeye or Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing are still absent.
Their priorities seem strange to me.
I'm so glad my influence has made your music selection infinitely more based
Infinitely grateful ma’am
"I managed to set my expectations absolutely on the floor, because of how Horizon 5 has been managed since launch, and I still somehow got my soul crushed"
Yup...
The update is just a reminder of how much worse horizon has gotten. Love your videos!
When PG and T10 anounced they would do some sort of throwback I was actually thinking about buying fh5 simply because I thought they would recreate the vib from horizon 1-4 but I am pretty disappointed and thanks to you. I have saved 80 dollars.
They didn't bother getting the songs from the initial drive for the first two games either which completely ruined the vibe. Also some fan favorite artists like CHVRCHES, Nero, M83, White Lies atc are STILL absent from the game. I was certain they would add some of their music from previous games in this update but here we are.
Same, in my opinion the new radio station is...ok but i'm kinda disappointed that we haven't got liberate form fh2 and what the future holds from fh3 I was really looking forward to this songs.
@@ZychaPL I feel your pain.
Man I need some Clearest Blue on the FH5 radio.
This would have been a perfect time to reintroduce CHVRCHES but nooo. It still baffles me why they thought it was a good idea to leave out such beloved artists like them. That sums up Horizon 5 I guess
@@bencezavarko7312 Porter Robinson returning in FH5 was the only saving grace. Even then this game's soundtrack is extremely disappointing. Hardly even feels like Horizon.
Not surprised. Given how PG has handled the series lately, there was no way this update was going to be any good.
I used to no-life the hell out of these games, and I made so many good memories. Horizon 5? Haven't touched it since March. This game sucked me dry of any passion I had left for the Forza series.
Good video. Shame things had to get to this point.
The only way to keep any form of passion is playing Motorsport 4 or Horizon 1 honestly.
@@jrm1007 You may be right. I just hope people are still hosting races - I started playing FM4 and FH1 back in 2017, and the lobbies were already sparse by that point.
I reinstalled FH3 a few days ago. FH3 at 4k 120p is smoother than FH5 4k 120p, and uses less resources from my video card or system in general. FH5 is horribly optimized, and has been from the start.
I mean FH3 is an older game using older tech. Of course its going to run better
@@user-ql5ou1bw7x
That's the optimisation people are talking about, dummy.
@@user-ql5ou1bw7x
Oh, so you're just a shill.
The game isn’t well-optimised, and networking and graphics have nothing to do with it. There's no excuse for this game to be 120 GB.
People expect a good story because the game has a story. They don't have to specifically promise it. The story isn't the only thing to complain about either. Aside from the most basic mechanics, this game is shit.
How old do you think millennials are?
@@user-ql5ou1bw7x
Oh no, I used a naughty word.
Horizon was the dream of Gumball 3000 turned game. The first two captured this well, they should have headed in the direction of TDU.
Amazing content! Very informative and mature.
My favourite Horizon games are 1 and 3. FH1 is exactly as Microsoft advertised it, an open world racer with an EDM festival at it's core. They did everything right, from making the map feel alive, to the different events to keeping true to the games original intentions.
On to FH3, I'm not just being biased here because I live in Australia, but FH3 felt light, airy and free, in no way did I feel tied down and obligated to do what the game wanted me to. It was fun and the graphics blew me away when I got it in mid 2018 (yes it was a bit late but I chose it over FH4).
I've played FH4 and have mixed opinions. The gameplay feels very smooth and mostly solid, the map is beautiful and the seasons were a cool and fresh addition to the game. Minimising these positives however are the somewhat childish additions to the game (characters dancing etc.), the pointless wheel spins and the horrid online mode.
It is clear that Playground Games holds no homage to the Horizon series and I fear that it'll only get worse from here. It saddens me to think that, although NFS still hasn't reached it's early mid 2000s peak, I may have to take FH off the list of my favourite racing game franchises.
PGR was discontinued and replaced for a franchise that doesn’t even care about itself at all unbelievable
what is pgr
sorry i have only played the first one lol
@@beansaresodelicious Project Gotham Racing
FH1 and more specifically its rally expansion remains my favorite horizon game. Sad how its fallen.
I sadly have to agree with everything you said. The soul & passion of Horizon has long gone. All they care about is player numbers & making money.
I am aware all companies want this, obviously but at least actually care about the legacy you have built, not throw it aside to cater to the casuals who will play the game for an hour or two each week & then put it down.
Do the right thing Playground & focus on the fans again… also, get rid of the stupid bloody emotes & Fornite inspired nonsense.
Says it all when your host for the update livestreams is not knowledgable about cars & even your own staff on occasion from what I’ve seen. Shame.
FH5 has become bland with my first 2 months of playing it. After hearing about the anniversary update, I honestly had pretty high hopes for this update to get some nostalgia from the golden era of Horizon that I missed out on (FH1 & FH2). Though, like many others as well as myself, it wasn’t as great as we thought it would be. The only things I’d say were good from this update were the starting menus every week & the music they brought back from older Horizon games. I’m highly considering on getting FH2 for Christmas to experience nostalgia & a part of my still going but almost ending childhood that I’ve missed out on more than 8 years ago.
Fun fact: During most of the 4th/final week of the Anniversary Celebration, the entire game was broken and literally unplayable on the Steam version, due to a small patch they release causing the entire game to not even boot up, and I as well as thousands of other players lost out on most of the exclusive songs and cars and other rewards during that 4th/final week. I tried submitting a ticket explaining that I was literally unable to get the rewards since the game wouldn't load on 4 out of the 7 days, both via their CustServ email and in their official Discord server, but both times I was denied and pretty much told "Oh well LMAOOOOO Shoulda just bought an Xbox, idiot".
I'm done with FH5, I'm done with Playground games, I'm almost done with Forza as a whole but I'm gonna see if FM8 is any good before I fully quit the franchise. Playground's constant mismanagement of the series since 2016 has been utterly abysmal and there's no excuse for why every game has felt like a downgrade since Forza Horizon 3, the peak of the franchise.
I don't know about you, but the number 1 thing that keeps me from being motivated to play this game was the music. It's not good to me. Only a few select songs are worth playing before I turn off the radio. This could've been easily solved by just letting us use our mp3 files in the game. No I don't mean having it play in another window, I meant actually playing in game, with the convenience of changing the songs on your controller, and songs stopping itself when it doesn't need playing (example, loading screens, pre race menu, etc). This was a feature since the original motorsport on original xbox. Why are we evolving backwards?
Agreed. Funny thing was it was a feature in FH3 and they originally planned on adding it to FM7 but cancelled that idea and removed the feature from FH3...which was dumb af. I miss that...
I was so hyped to hear Sunshine everyday from Rusko at the FH1 story…. But instead we got something I remember as ugh this again and switched Radiostations.
I entered the first story, experienced audio and visual bugs, exited the game and deleted it again. Playground might as well just spit on us
It's always embarrassing when games do the midlife crisis thing of looking back on the old and then trying to capitalise on nostalgia while the current game is trash
I am so glad that I ended up buying Forza Horizon 1 this weekend instead. I scratched my original copy, but I am ready to replay through this masterpiece.
When I played this update, it was a huge dissapointment to see, what is the Horizon series means to the devs. A series that started off as an open world spinoff to the Motorsport series is now completely dead in the terms of vibe, atmosphere and progression which things made the first Horizon such an experience.
Glad to see i wasn't the only one shocked by PG's disrespect.
Thank you man, you really nailed it.
My biggest wish is that all Horizon games which are stuck on console get released for pc, so they can be properly preserved.
With Horizon 5, my biggest issue is the festival playlist, it is looking up cars if you weren't able to complete it in time.
So any new player won't even get a chance to purchase these cars from the Autoshow...
Looking forward to your Horizon 5 review!
glad you share your thoughts with us
I thought I was in for something truly special seeing them recreate the original introduction and hearing all the throwback songs. As soon as I saw that lame mini festival not even marked on the map and dak’s boards not even giving you a progress message when you hit them I just was reminded instantly of how much better the original did it. This can’t be the same team making horizon anymore
9:00 So it's not just me.
Honestly I decided to play the orignal Horizon on the day of the 10th anniversary as a means to celebrate it. I miss the time Horizon had NPCs with personality and intimidation, not like Born Fast.
Horizon 1 felt more like the young reckless version that Forza Motorsport wasn't. I would love that thing to come back for Horzion 6 if they ever put it in Japan.
Looking at the ‘festival’ sites actually killed me.
I could have recreated the same shit in 5 minutes using the creator tools in event lab.
They LITERALLY ARE NOT TRYING.
To ANYONE who says: ‘its free content, shup up’ i say this:
Free content doesnt matter if its shit. WE PAID MONEY FOR THIS GAME. If the game isn’t ABSOLUTELY complete at launch, then we deserve GOOD updates until the end of its life cycle. Not to mention how enourmous of an update this SHOULD have been.
We can literally make cities with completely custom roads in the event lab, and they cant be fucked making a couple of festivals.
And dont get me started on the cars.
PGG is not trying and is just slapping us in the face, and every time someone just sits back and goes ‘oh well’ it encourages them to continue.
PGG. Give us PROPER updates. The most recent update is an even bigger joke, SOMEHOW.
I honestly think all the biggest forza youtubers need to encourage people to stop playing this game until they give us something to come back to.
Can you imagine what FH6 could've become if PG did the same as the FH5 updates?
I'm kind of late but to me at least it seems like FH5 is just a racing game set in Mexico (albeit a pretty poor representation of it imo) that just so happens to have a Horizon festival going on, vs the previous games felt like they were Horizon games that just so happened to take place in X country. A lot of the main storylines in FH5 to me felt like it was more about cramming information about Mexico than it was letting you explore it and appreciate it. I recently started playing FH4 again on a different Xbox account so I got a fresh start, and the main thing I noticed was that the main focus was racing and doing Horizon stuff, not being bombarded with tons of cultural information. I think PGG tried way too hard to try and make themselves look "cultured" and "inclusive" and ended up making something that felt completely disconnected from the rest of the game. Like you get an hour's worth of history and cultural lessons and then it is never mentioned again, let alone built upon the more you play the game. Like the game is set in Mexico, a culture and history-rich country where you could dedicate your entire life to studying just one tiny subculture, but the most you get is "Oh look some ancient ruins that serve no purpose other than the initial wow factor" "VW Beetle is literally a god" and "Heres a city that we are going to make feel completely dead and abandoned". And don't even get me started on the map design... or lack of map design. 80% of the map looks identical, if there was no map to look at it would be difficult to even start to identify where you are, it's a huge map filled with absolutely nothing of value, it's big not because PGG wanted to add a bunch of content and easter eggs and things to explore, its big for the sake of PGG being able to say its the largest Forza map ever. The game feels soulless, bland, and empty even when you are just driving around aimlessly. Not to mention the seasons change little to nothing that actually affects the way you play, now whether that's a good or bad thing is up for debate, I personally loved the seasons in FH4. Another thing is I think there was a severe lack of a prominent water feature, humans love water, we just do. I mean compare the little reservoir thing in FH5 to Derwant Water from FH4 and there is zero competition. And thats just comparing size and grandiose, not even mentioning the fact that FH5 doesn't value the reservoir at all, its just there, vs in FH4 where Derwant Water had 3 player homes along the lake, and in FH3 where one of the festival sites was a stones throw from Maroondah Reservoir, and somewhat overlooked the dam holding the water in. PGG made those areas feel valuable and special because they must be for two, million-dollar-plus player homes to be along its shores, or for a festival site to be very close by. Compare that to FH5 where that reservoir is just kinda nearby Mulege, which despite PGG best efforts Mulege just feels like a small, soulless town plopped off of a highway exit. Idk to me the one thing I can never overlook is how badly PGG messed up the map design and how it is presented in FH5, they had a huge chance with somewhere as diverse as Mexico, but then just made a huge map with nothing in it that felt special.
I've been praising Forza Horizon 5 lately, but I suppose the series themes have been blinding me from the messes that have came with the updates too. I experience a lot of the issues referenced here. I've just been looking for more good than bad because we will miss this game when it is gone, at least some of us will. Like I remember saying that we will miss FH4 when it isn't the main focus and I was right. This update doesn't showcase a lot now that you have pointed out the obvious flaws which shouldn't even be in the game at all. The series is not what it used to be and I don't think it ever will be. I regret saying Forza has returned to it's former glory because it truly is a shadow of the series it once was. It even had more potential in the earlier better games. Crazy how bad it is now compared to what it used to be.
Don't forget FH5 was the Forza game that discontinued the Forza Faithful rewards running since like the first game.
All this update made me do is wish I was playing the previous Forza games
I can’t even say how disheartened and sad I am to see where this franchise has gone. This was my favourite racing series ever. Every 2 years I was so excited for a new horizon game.
Horizon 1 was magical and I’d still say the best horizon game. Amazing multiplayer (still the best system). The progression and story in campaign. I can’t even describe how good this game is in words and do it justice. The level of fun I had in the custom lobbies back in the days when this game was popular was some of the best times I’ve ever spent in a racing game.
Horizon 2 and 3 (while being inferior to 1) were still amazing games in their own rights. New content, amazing expansions, new features (car meets etc). Had their own identities and kept me hooked.
Then we get to 4 and in my opinion that’s where the franchise just took a massive downturn. Become too casual, felt like it was made for 2 year olds, nothing to motivate me, took 7 months to make multiplayer even playable. I did like some of the innovation of Horizon 4 such as the battle Royale, route creator etc but overall was just a big disappointment but I still stuck with it.
Horizon 5 I can’t even say the same for. It’s a carbon copy of 4 just in Mexico. Recycled cars, exact formula. The crappy multiplayer, rubbish campaign etc. I just can’t get behind this game. Forza Horizon 1 is still peak horizon in my opinion. How we went from a game with an amazing campaign and multiplayer to this rubbish astounds me. Horizon 5 has completely turned me off this series all together. We have developers who have no idea or clue, and I don’t have any hope for the future. This is the first time I’ve actually considered not buying or wasting my time with the next horizon game because I’ve just given up. What’s worse is they had an extra year to develop it and they ended up creating something made of rubbish. Until the franchise is handed to people who have a clue, I don’t have hope for it anymore. That died with Horizon 5.
I'm scared for the future of this game if they can't do something grand for the 10th anniversary then what is the point of continuing the franchise? FM reboot needs to be good and boy doesn't it need to hit hard.
Horizon fans trashing NFS ain't looking so valid anymore lol
Like i said on Ericships 111 video and I'll say it again.
Kinda pressed about the update, like it's good but at the same time it's disappointing, I was expecting returning cars from older titles that would make a comeback for the anniversary, but I still like this update
your first mistake was watching an ericship111 video
@@serperior2264 I didn't know he was that hated
@@moonshredder5181 have you seen the mans thumbnails? 💀
@@serperior2264 I'd say that apart from this and explaining some things for too long, his videos aren't terrible, plus he's the only major forza content creator I know of to make a video dedicated to forza's deformed car models
I agree with you on this one Moses, even for me a person that played Forza Horizon 4 as the first Horizon then 3, then 5, then went to Horizon 1 with the Xenia Canary emulator and then playing the 360 version of Horizon 2, i feel that 5 is getting more stale by the minute, but at the very least my irl car the Sentra B17 is back in Horizon, specifically the place it got assemble (heh) Mexico, I just wish that they did the correct thing and remaster or remake Horizon 1 to be played on PC but no...
and in the good words of reviewbrah
*My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined*
as a xbox 360 player, i have never known that forza horizon 2 on the xbox one was vastly different to the one on the xbox 360
also i completely agree i want a remaster of 1 and 2 and/or the next expansion to be colorado, if those dont happen i wont touch the game again like i did after the day it got released (i played early access hoping it was gonna get better)
each Horizon shouldve been a totally isolated event with a new person who has to become that region's new champion. It makes ZERO sense the champion of Colorado 2012 would automatically be champion in other regions.
Horizon 2 got the biggest middle finger in this update. The least songs into the Mixtape Radio Station. The shortest chapter in the horizon story.. it made me mad cause it's my favorite horizon game
Imagine this almost impossible thing, five of the best racing devs that were already dead, Black Rock, Black Box, Bizzare Creations, Criterion and Codemasters veterans came in-front of microsoft and they told them that they gonna make the best arcade open-world racing game with the name of their protected racing simulator franchise on the peak of its popularity... and they said yes, and then they fucking nailed it! and in the Xbox 360!!! a console alredy for retirement...
Why I say that? because an anniversary is a celebration of what you have done, and watching back to your roots and how you improved and matured after all that time and see if you are still the same in spirit and love in what you have done. Like a marriage anniversary...
This just tells me that PG games isnt the same devs as 10 years ago, those madlads are gonne, so ironic coming from their start, and also so sad.
Horizon turned into fortnite with cars. 1 was a truly virtual festival and love letter to the car culture.
I managed to play through this update even though I hated it, but this new Donut update is abysmal. I think it'll be the first update since game launch that I haven't unlocked everything in.
The funniest thing is that this series has no evolution. It barely adds anything new and compared to other, even some older games, feels like a step down in everything but graphics.
I really really really hope Test Drive will shape up the scene.
I'd like to say that I feel this all emphasizes why I'm kinda grateful in a way that FH5 didn't take place in Japan, because they no longer care.
Seriously, there were so many opportunities for really amazing things here, for example; what if Scotty saying "If you really are Darius Flynt" was true and it was actually the main character from FH1 or one of the other rivals pretending to be him.
Part of me feels Playground devs actually did want to give us the update we deserve, but the corporate hands didn't care and wanted it shipped out ASAP without any regard for the playerbase, thus it was rushed and unfinished to the point it started causing game breaking bugs.
Every part of this update screamed rushed..
As a Forza fan who started on Xbox 360 with Horizon 1, the fact that the OG festival is only a prop and not even a real festival just made me sad, i'm a big fan of the Horizon franchise, but i didn't even feel the vibes i had while i was played Horizon 2 or 3, i was disappointed.
You know, now this update feels pretty anticlimactic.
I would say, this update is mediocre, and got overhyped by the team and the nostalgia (nostalfags too). I appreciated the title screens and cutscenes, but at the end of the day doesn't help this franchise at all. Likewise, I might want an entire reboot to the series because they don't know what else to do with the upcoming titles anymore.
I spent my entire teenage years playing Horizon and what the game stands for me is freedom and the joy of festivals, but since 4 I felt the last one gone missing.
ooooh my yummy tasty pumpkin is nearly ready!!!!!
@@ultraviolet_channel your pumpkin sucks
you know what, you're officially banned from my channel
@@ultraviolet_channel im really sorry, I don't know what came over me, I'll never say it again
I'm glad to see more people are getting wise to FH but I wish it had come sooner, a lot of things wrong in 5 are just continuations of stuff that started in FH4 which people still coo over and seem to ignore that the signs were there in that game.
The live service like in pretty much every AAA franchise that's adopted it in recent years has been awful for the series.
After the anniversary update, I think I kinda stopped caring about Horizon.
I never got to play the first 3 games
Horizon 4 was kinda fine, 5 straight up feels like a “side-grade” of Horizon 4.
remember when you were a rookie and would actually compete to be the best at horizon? like 10 years ago
the only issue i have with the older games is the quality of life updates in the newer games. putting in ghost traffic for stunts, especially drift zones, is a life saver, but beyond that, fh5 feels like the next downward step in the slope of the series
I think the Horizon team need a break from these types of games. If they want to keep making Forza related games, I'd love to see a more streamlined narrative Forza game in the style of old Need for Speed, Underground 2 or Most wanted (2005). That'd help with the endless unfocused amount of content they shove in these games.
I might've mentioned this on another video of yours but there's one thing that bothers me in the newer titles that is probably noticed by many but not mentioned often. It's the amount of talking during sections of the game and the general A** kissing they keep giving you. It gets annoying and bland at a certain point, no rivalry that feels motivating as it lacks a ''villain'' or big buildup to some super event that feels special. No feeling of building up your character to greater heights as the game already feels like it has acknowledged you as the best around. It makes a bit of sense , but doesn't change my opinion on how tiresome it gets. There are other issues too, but most of them have been mentioned countless times.
The fan base for these games are like battered wives that are experiencing severe Stockholm syndrome. People are so deprived of any meaningful change or update to the gameplay of Horizon that in the lead ups to these updates I actually saw people getting hyped because they thought we'd be able to put stickers on the car windows. Just think about for one second.
I was sitting there thinking to myself that is something that was a standard in racing games like NFS Underground which came out TWO DECADES ago and people were getting excited that they might put it in a game that was released 2021. If that doesn't show the regression of games in general I don't know what does.
Dont play the horizon series but it seems playground games is becoming the gamefreak of racing games
Forza Horizon is an excellent showcase of how well recycling and throwing a lot of money at marketing and review platforms pays off. It paid them a lot. Recycling doesn't cost a lot of money, but brings in a lot money.
5 was broken before it even came out, but all the fanboys kept it alive. This was the moment the higher ups should've been taught a lesson.
So, with that said, shame on us for paying them for rubbish work. We shouldn't have expected any better to be honest.
I'm glad I left the franchise after the disappointing FH4. Doesn't look like things got any better in 5, which is a shame as FH1 is my favorite racing game of all time and I still replay it start to finish every now and then.
I feel ya man.. I started with FH4 and I have to say that I prefer it over FH5. While it still did a lot of handouts it still kinda had a sense of progression. You had to complete basically all races before you unlocked the gauntlet, leviathan and so on. Plus some of the engine sounds were better in 4. Not all of them... But the rally engine was miles better in FH4
I just redownloaded FH4 after not playing it since summer of 21. Needless to say, it is a miles better game than 5.
I wish they added Eric Prydz Liberate from Forza Horizon 2
The first drive sequel should be able to highlight the biggest wrong of fh5: the map. Colorado's mountain chase in the Viper has risks of crashing into barriers, off-road pavement that are shortcuts, and an intense moving goal that persuades you to catch up to. There's not even half of that in FH5, in fact it made the roads in Mexico fell flat and useless. Same goes to FH2's road trip, now that you can scatter all over the off-road section to just get to the end faster.
Maybe, and just maybe, having barriers in open world makes a better map. The barriers that's purposely made to dead stop your car from falling over. Sounds like a joke, but giving too much freedom to do anything could lead to purposelessness, and that's what i felt bout the map.
Just an opinion.
They should keep barriers off and instead make offroad uncontrollable in a car that's not modified for it🧐
@@myfaceisthefrontofshop nah, make every car significantly slower and harder to control, especially those that are not fine-tuned for it.
@@donnycorn3086 Yeah that's what I meant, I worded it poorly lol
i think they selected mostly edm because they're the cheapest to license
I've stayed away from watching this video quite a few times to only watch it now and realize you are right. If I had a big complaint with anything it's the new radio station. Same complaint as yours just adding onto the fact mine only has the "Dawnbreaker" song on each time I switch to it. and it's real sad because that's the only radio station I feel interested in listening to but since that song is always on when I switch to it, I never end up listening to that radio station. It is sad like someone said that to me, Horizon 5 is the game you just get in some exotic and drive around the map. Which is a perfect summarization of what I do in the game actually. There really is no attempt at speed physics in Horizon 5 and so for some reason in some cars it can say you're doing 200mph, but it might feel like 60mph. I could honestly rant about Horizon 5 for days but I'm not going to do that here.
Even though I was quite disappointed by this update despite my low expectations, I must admit, hearing Porter Robinson’s Language and seeing the new rendition of the og horizon intro was enough to almost make me forget about the disappointment… almost
However the song is ruined as they made the beginning segment loop on repeat.
@@jrm1007 Why didn't they let the beat drop? Utterly annoying!
My theory is they are more or less preparing for FH6 with the next gen engine. They released this lackluster filler game because they had to. That way they can shift more of their people onto this next big project.
My most hated part was the commentary in the stories. They kept praising things that eventually aided in the demise of Horizon. For example leaving the roads in FH2. It can be good as seen in FH2 and 3 but when you overdo it you get to the point of boring roads and vast emptiness with nothing to stop you. Festival playlist in FH3. I don't have to tell how bad this became aka the festival depression. Then they compared Mexico to the other maps and of course they think it's the best out of all. The amount of self praising almost made me vomit. They are this out of touch
💯💯💯
8:09 The bikes mentioned to smash are standing in front of some house to be literally smashed, somewhen the Scott tell about it.
I'm new to the Forza games with F5. Even I thought it was oddly meh. I was happy with extra content but it felt a little underwhelming. But for those who have more time in the series, must have been worse.
It's become madden with cars with the amount of reduce, reuse, and recycling they do the game.
All this being said, I am forever banking on FM8
The arcade racing scene in general is just so empty. I got more and more into sim racing cause of it but sometimes I still just wanna sit down with a controller and have a casual car experience. Forza Horizon isn't fun anymore
I've only played FH3 and FH5 when this update came out (just started playing FH4 since a few days ago) so it was like oh cool 10 years of Horizon anyway, since i really only had nostalgia for FH3. when it was the FH3 chapter i was cringing at Australian parts since i'm Australian and when ever games or shows try to do a fake Australian accent or anything Australian its just so cringey. I'm the type of person to watch something and go its alright i can see some issues with something and then watch a video about it and it opens my eyes to see more of what's wrong with it then i realise how bad it actually was just like this video. Very good video well done!
"If you want to play Horizon, get the old games."
You can't any more.
physical copies
@@ultraviolet_channel Sure... there's about a handful used copies available on Amazon for between 25 and 70 dollars, for those who already have a console to play it on.
I can't believe Horizon is the reason we haven't gotten a FM8
I’m convinced they have 98% of their workforce focusing on Fable
At least the Donut media update will make up for it! Oh wait…
If I were in charge, the 10 year anniversary would have been DLC. I would have remade the maps in the Horizon 5 engine and really celebrated the 10 year anniversary with exclusive stories in each location, returning cars from the previous games, and special features specifically for each map. Then throw the maps into the Eliminator rotation. That would have been worthwhile.
there's clear signs of Playground being overworked and/or understaffed for what they're supposed to be doing. A brand new ForzaTech engine for FM8, FH6, and a new Fable game, on top of regularly updating FH5... Microsoft is probably treating the employment there the same way as 343i
It ended when Lego and Hotwheels joined in... And we still haven't gotten Japan...
Good job highlighting all the flaws with the series that culminated from their 10 year anniversary. Ive tried numerous times to point it out on the Horizon subreddit, but the die hards refuse to take off the rose colored sunglasses, quoting that this is the best horizon of all. But the problem goes deeper than just horizon becoming a shell of a game, it began with the motorsports franchise. Diminishing returns is the motto with turn10, with each subsequent title of their games delivering a stunningly floored level of quality in their games. Everything from ignoring bugs, barely addressing the griefers IF at all acknowledging they exist soley to ruin lobbies, rehashing old content under the guise of "NEW AND IMPROVED DLC!!!", and cutting out what made previous titles amazing all for a more consumer friendly experience....that is hardly consumer friendly.
i called it when FH5 was announced.
nobody wanted to listen.
now we are here.
The only good part of the update was getting Porter Robinson back. Language still slaps all these years later
7:54 weee
I just got into the series 2 years ago and now I own all the games. Starting with FH4 it's clear that they started making the games with live services in mind which makes the single player progression basically nonexistent.
8:20 In regards to the Horizon 3 “smash those bikes” quip, they literally placed 3 bikes on the side of the road to smash. Just shear laziness.
I still have a tiny bit of hope for maybe a Colorado expansion for the second expansion, but it I highly doubt it. It will probably just be another island like Storm Island from 2 or something.
i came back to horizon 5 hoping for a cool update but no pure bullshit thx playground
"The queen of England was kinda bad tho" - Russell 2022
You need to be stopped
When I found out the 7th gen Celica was in this game I got it ... and now that I got it I haven't played it since and I just don't care about this one as much as I did 2 or 3 or hell even 4 as much as that one feels like the one that started to wear thin on my like of the Horizon series. I feel like I haven't missed anything but the cash I spent buying this game.
I really want to like and even love Horizon 5 but something keeps me from giving a damn about it and this video might have just shined a big ass light onto why. Thanks!