Forza Horizon 3 release date, trailer, pre-order info and .everything you need to know
Forza Horizon 3 is arguably Microsoft's biggest release in the coming months, bursting onto Xbox One and Windows 10 with gorgeous visuals and engaging gameplay. It's also part of the Xbox Play Anywhere programme, meaning you get two copies for the price of one.We've compiled everything you need to know about Forza Horizon 3 below, followed by a hands-on preview by Games Editor Brett Phipps.
Watch the latest trailer below:
Playground Games is taking us to the blazing Australian Outback with Forza Horizon 3, providing players with a completely dynamic open-world to explore with all new cars, challenges and secrets to uncover. Set to be twice the size of Forza Horizon 2, the long-awaited sequel will put you behind the wheel of 350 different cars, with more to follow after launch as free and paid downloadable content.
Instead of competing in the Horizon Festival this time around, you are now the director, providing racers with instructions and setting up adventurous new events across the open world. This means creating your own custom tracks, vehicles and challenges for you and other players to beat.
Forza Horizon 3 will launch with two different editions: Standard and Ultimate. Those who pre-order the latter will gain access to the game on September 23, four days before the official release. In addition, they will also receive six downloadable content packs alongside exclusive cars and events.
Read on for our hands-on preview.
Forza Horizon 3 Preview by Brett Phipps
Forza Horizon is my favourite race series. Playground Games’ bonkers racers ooze fun from every pore, while still maintaining racing quality. They’ve also treated us to gorgeous vistas and allowed us to race (and smash to pieces) the world’s most glorious cars. In Horizon 3, the series is at its very best, and we potentially have the most enjoyable racer on the planet.Playground Games creative director Ralph Fulton informs me that the word ‘fun’ is plastered in big capital letters across the walls of the studio’s offices, and it shows. The third entry wastes no time getting you behind the wheel of a supercar and racing. Set in the beautiful and varied landscapes of Australia, it immediately places me in the Lamborghini Centenario, the car that adorns the game’s cover. As always, the first drive is a race to the festival, and this one shows just how varied a canvas Australia is.
Within minutes I’ve driven across the Outback’s open roads, desert plains and through dense rainforest, each rendered in gorgeous detail. This is comfortably the best-looking racing game I’ve ever seen, leaving its rivals in the dust. The lighting glimmers through the trees, bouncing off the Centenario’s body with a real shine, shadows realistically passing over the car and sparks flying as I smash into the steel barriers on the side of the road. There are certainly no training wheels or beginners’ events here; Playground loves to throw racers in at the deep end.
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After doing potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds in damage to the Lambo, I switch into a monstrous 4x4 and head off-road onto the sun-kissed beaches. Being able to skip the roads altogether means my amateurish driving is given a pass, and I soon arrive at the festival.
Playground has pitted players in the role of the festival boss, but this isn’t as dull as it sounds. Rather than worrying about portaloos and blue M&M’s for bands, it instead gives greater choice for drivers. I’m now able to dictate which radio stations are available from the off – the choices are fairly limited; there’s no outrageous techno or even a station dedicated to ’90s pop – and with Horizon Blueprint, I can also customise race events.
Previous Forza games catered the type of races you could join to the cars available to you, either in your garage or what you could afford to buy. Now you can customise these events – from the weather, time of day, number of laps and even your opponent cars. It’s something which can help get a little extra mileage out of a car that’s beginning to feel old.
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I must also choose an avatar and name which my assistant – Keira – will refer to me as. I’m pretty sure somebody at Playground was left unattended while creating the options. There are five variants of “bro” (Brah, Bro, Bromeo, Brother and Abroham Lincoln, in case you were wondering), one Bantasaurus Rex and even a Simpsons/Swedish Chef reference in Bort. I go with Bort, because I love the Swedish Chef, and Keira is Irish, and hearing “Bort” in an Irish accent is adorable.
It’s then straight into the first Horizon event, which is the amazing race against a car carried by a helicopter you may have seen from the E3 stage demo. It’s as fun and insane to play as it is to watch. A few times throughout the race your opponent will come crashing down mere metres in front of your car, and in first-person view it looks brilliant. The race feels heavily scripted, which takes some of the fun and thrill out of the chase, knowing that I’m going to overtake the car on the very last corner, much like I’ve done with most of the Horizon event races.
After the race I’m back in the Centenario and the Horizon map has exploded with events and things to do. Playground has let go of my hand and I’m free to approach the game as I please. Heading to the first event I must choose my actual first car – unfortunately you don’t get to keep the Lambo. After jumping into a BMW M3 and winning the first race, the metagame unfolds.
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There are now three forms of currency earned from races: XP, which will allow you to level up and earn spins where you can get bonuses and potentially free cars; Credits, which will allow you to buy new cars; and Fans, which will allow you to expand your festival and eventually open up into new areas of the map. As always you can simply ignore the progression system and keep driving to your heart’s content. There’s no real grind and you won’t find yourself “stuck” at any point.
What Horizon 3 has over its predecessors is the variety of races. While Horizon 2 could change the scenery, the majority of races were set on the road. Being set in Australia means I can be enjoying a road race fighting around tight corners in a supercar in one race before flying over hills in the pouring rain in an ATV the next. It’s a great way to keep things interesting and avoid fatigue, which can be a problem for the more casual racers.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Once the game opens up this is pretty much the Forza Horizon you know and love, with a new lick of paint and in a brand-new setting. While functionally it remains similar to its predecessor, the new location, new cars, new events and sheer variety of racing are enough to keep everything fun, enjoyable and fresh. It helps that it’s an absolute pleasure to drive and looks stunning.
Forza Horizon 3 represents the joy of driving these outrageously fast cars. It treats these machines as what they are: expensive playthings. Horizon 3 is like an enormous game of Micro Machines. It’s simply the most fun you can have in a racing game if you aren’t too worried about the apex.
With just a couple of weeks left until launch, I’m counting down the days.
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