Since ancient times, where our pioneers drove giant rocks like McLaren 720Ss, we as human beings have all strived for speed and dominance. Ironic that the very first racing video game was born in an era where the USSR and USA were vying for speed and dominance. Space Race (wow, how on-brand is that?) was Atari’s second game after Pong. Obviously, it was always going to be hard to top the game that literally gave video games its mainstream name (it was a commercial flop AND forced Midway to take away Atari’s royalties for the game). Nolan Bushnell admitted defeat but Space Race is engraved in the tablets of history as the very first arcade racing game. Pole Position would become the first actually good arcade racing game, but when people think of the pinnacle of the arcade racing genre, most would turn their attention to Daytona USA.
Released in 1992, this game as well as its banging theme song set the standard for the ’90s and even future arcade racing titles. With revolutionary graphics, sound, satisfying difficulty, and quarter-eating replayability, Daytona USA is very well regarded. Fast, fun, and addictive. That’s the formula for a successful arcade racer. Realism be damned. Feel free to use the walls as brakes and play bumper cars with your opponents. The laws of physics don’t hold you back on the race track. But as arcade racers evolved past the cabinets, the definition changed with it. Look no further than the Need For Speed and Burnout franchises.
Everyone knows how Need For Speed operates. Chaotic, blood-pumping street races with cops occasionally meddling in the action depending on the game. Drifting galore in the dead of night with lights from the city adorning the stage. Funny how the first game in the series was a serious simulation game with precise car data and controls. It just so happened you could get arrested too so I guess that translated into future games pretty well. The best NFS of them all came ten years after the first. Need For Speed Underground 2. A revolutionary game that mastered the street racing realm. And had perhaps the best main menu music of any racing game.
An absolute banger (it's on Apple Music and Spotify if your wondering). So what made Underground 2 so good? It had a great foundation to build off of. Underground 1 took many risks to separate it from the other NFS games. It was solely focused on honorable street races, with no cops around to spoil the fun. A perfect society in reality. With Fast and Furious sparking an interest in this culture, EA found themselves their own street racing champion. It had a story mode, and while cheesy, was very fun to follow. It gave the players some extra motivation to go through the races. It ditched the sunny and exquisite exotic locations of old, adopting the nightlife of Olympic City, a made-up locale with elements of Tokyo, San Francisco, and New York all mixed together like a Long Island Iced Tea. The only problem was that it also stole London’s tendency to rain all the time. It abandoned the prototypical rare and exotic cars people ironically became used to in previous titles. Ferrari 550 Maranellos, Jaguar XJR-15's, Lamborghini Countaches. Supercars chucked into the trash in favor of Toyota Supras, Mazda RX8s, Nissan Skylines, and Ford Mustangs. Street legends. Underground 2 improved on this formula for success in just one year. It continued the story from the first and even adapted a comic book style in its cutscenes. It expanded on the extensive customization options available and improved the overall driving physics. But Underground 2 decided to bring one element that shaped modern racers forever. The open world.
Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City had a cataclysm effect on the gaming world. These early 2000’s powerhouses showed how much potential a pure open world had. Granted, Need For Speed Underground 2 was far from the first open-world racing game. That distinction belongs to *checks notes* 1986 Turbo Esprit for the ZX Spectrum, which had a massive influence on GTA itself. Now a good open-world racer doesn’t simply mean plopping a car in an empty city and calling it a day. You must have a vast yet populous map that is easily accessible. One that invites exploration. While Burnout Revenge and Burnout 3 are both seen as the best in the series due to their addictive, destructive, arcady playstyle, Burnout Paradise did an immensely good job of translating that to an open world where you barely have to stop when it comes to doing races or secondary shit. Underground 2 ensures that you’re paying attention to the race thanks to various civilian cars always, unintentionally, vying to ruin your day. In the main hub world, everything was in it. You had to find paint, car, and upgrade shops based on the light they gave off, like this.
Even Kirby Air Ride does a brilliant job of bringing a contained, open world in City Trial with plenty to do thanks to the endless power-ups and items to collect in a short time frame. It helps that you can kick your friends’ asses and take their stuff in that time frame as well. I just wanted to find an excuse to give Kirby Air Ride its flowers but you get the point. While the trope got a little tired out towards the end of the 7th generation, it remains a key part of racing games today. This leads us to the opposite side of the spectrum when it comes to racing games, simulation.
You may recall that I had mentioned Pole Position as one of the first ACTUALLY good arcade racing games. What if I told you it was one of the first good simulation racing games too? I mean look at the cabinet! An immersive driving seat accompanied by brake and accelerator pedals, a gear shifter, and of course, the driving wheel. You were rewarded for being an actually good race car driver, not in the sense of being clean like Oxy Clean but overtaking your opponents and putting in an effort to win the race. Despite its age, Pole Position is a very sophisticated and virtuoso game. It ain’t the type of racer to play drunk. If you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, you’ll spend 99% of the time trial heat bumping into cars, driving on the grass, and constantly trying to shift between gears. This game will make you look like a doofus at the Barcade while Daytona USA will make you look like Jeff Gordon no problem. Now we know arcade racing didn’t need to separate from simulation knowing it was the first one to the party. When was the point we can clearly say, “yeah that shit looks too hard, it's simulation.” Let me again check my notes. Indianapolis 500: The Simulation.
You’re probably wondering why on God’s green Earth this video is two hours long. Well, it's one whole race. The 200 lap race. A whole ass simulation of the Indy 500. Any amount of damage can and will end your run, even if you’re on like lap 150. Engine and tire damage is catastrophic, even after getting repaired in the pits. Steering is as realistic and difficult as you can imagine. But hey, if you’re the type of sicko that can actually complete this kind of race, you’ll have the built-in excuse to celebrate with some milk. Now let’s fast forward. It’s the dawn of the 2010s. Graphic accelerators have made racing sims as close to the real thing as humanly possible. Developers have vast tools to capture elements such as track details, engine sounds, and interior views. And two titans would have a two-generation long bout for the top simulation racing game.
We talking about Forza Motorsport vs Gran Turismo. Gran Turismo started on the PS1 so I guess it had the first punch. And what a punch it was. The first Gran Turismo is a technological masterpiece, the grandfather of all racing sims. It took five years to develop (which makes you think that this was probably going to be on the Nintendo Playstation) but you could see how. The graphics, controls, the career mode, and the sheer amount of cars. Fun fact: arcade mode was literally tacked on last minute because the developers thought we Americans were too stupid to comprehend the career mode. As a dumb American, I take offense to that! Gran Turismo’s prime was definitely in the 6th generation. And Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec was akin to Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown season. The peak of its career. An absolute marvel of its time. Realism and attention to detail never before seen in a video game (it's 2001 mind you). The controls were at their best, both for track and rally. Yeah, the number of cars was butchered compared to its predecessor but they were all redesigned specifically to take advantage of the new hardware. Gran Turismo 4 was able to add on to A-Spec and still look drop-dead gorgeous but they got kinda carried away with the license tests (yeah you have to take these driving “tests” before you can move on in the career mode, and yes, they’re boring as fuck). But I digress. Both Gran Turismo 3 and 4 are gems of the simulation racing genre and some of the best PS2 games of all time.
Now it begs the question. While GT was establishing its roots in the 5th generation and sprouting like mad in the 6th, what was Forza doing? Pretty much the same thing but a generation later. The first Forza Motorsport came a few months after GT4 and it made the world know that Xbox has a racer. Was it better than the GT games on PS2? No, but they had something close to it! Forza Motorsports 2 and 3 were a matter of adding on to the rock-solid foundation. Improving the graphics, tuning the singleplayer mode, adding interior views, and simply adding more cars and tracks. Not to mention taking advantage of the fact that Polyphony Digital was taking their sweet ass time developing Gran Turismo 5. But everything would culminate with Forza 4.
Released about a year after GT5 and two after Forza 3, Forza 4 was the culmination of all the developments made by both Forza, Gran Turismo, and even Project Gotham Racing (who were now defunct, even after the especially solid PGR4). This game stretched out every single fiber out of the Xbox 360’s being when it came to graphics as well as content (it did require two disks after all, much like the third). The tight, attentive simulation controls were there and the new World Tour career mode was a perfect blend of classic and new when it came to the single-player campaign. The sound design was at its peak. Fun arcade modes were “borrowed” from Project Gotham Racing. And with Forza now in popular culture, they were able to secure the rights to use Top Gear for parts of the game. This includes the autovista mode, the Top Gear test track, and Jeremy Clarkson’s fire intro for the game.
The developers went to great lengths to ensure this Forza would finally top Gran Turismo. From snapping hundreds of pics at Hockenheimring to using a Tesla Roadster solely for recording tire sounds (due to the fact the Roadster was quiet as a library, leading to a clean tire sound). They did also focus on getting Kinect to work but hey, we all miss sometimes. Reviewers were enamored and plenty agreed that this was the premier simulation racer for the 7th generation, NOT Gran Turismo 5. GT5 was a fine racer in its own right, but the polish wasn’t as shiny as Forza’s. The overtake was complete. But Turn 10, the developers of Forza, weren’t done. They felt it was time to go off the track a bit, so to speak, which leads us to the star of this whole article. Forza Horizon.
I had said that Turn 10 wasn’t finished. Well, I lied there. Forza Horizon was developed by Playground Games, an amalgamation of former employees who developed Project Gotham Racing, Driver, Colin McRae: Dirt, Colin McRae Rally, Race Driver: Grid, and Burnout. An astute observer would notice these games aren’t simulation racers. Rather a blend of arcade racers and rally racers. Truth be told, this wasn’t a typical Forza title. And Turn 10 knew this when Playground pitched the idea. A purely open-world racer that embraces a more sim-cade driving style with rallying and offroad events included. Each developer would bring the love and soul seen in their games into this one. A true celebration of racing games both past and present. Despite the inherent risk involved with outsourcing to a third party, Turn 10 took the plunge. And boy what a glorious decision that was.
As you clearly see and hear with all the blaring EDM and dance music, this game is centered on the Horizon Festival, a street racing haven with the face of a hyperactive music festival. No cops of course, much like NFS Underground 2. It’s a perfect street racing society. Festivals like Coachella were a massive influence on the development of this game and you can see those general vibes throughout the open world. At first glance, you can see that this game is drop-dead gorgeous. Nine years later and this game will still make you stare in awe. It looks even better when played via backwards compatibility. This game brought out the full potential of the Xbox 360. There were some adjustments that had to be made. While Forza 4 ran at 60 FPS, Horizon had to settle for 30. But it’s a concrete ass 30. Most open-world games would be eaten alive by frame drops. And with a game of this elegance? Mind boggling. Now, what made this festival and the game itself tick? It found a perfect balance between arcade and simulation, as well as tailoring its soundtrack and open world to the festival. They let you get sucked into the atmosphere and live vicariously through the eyes of your driver. The intro to this game does just that.
Now the Forza series, and Gran Turismo as well, have always been hard to immediately jump into. Their controls demand your full attention. Hench why both series ease you in (either through easier races on test tracks like in Forza or through the monotonous license tests in GT) before really letting you loose with A-class cars everyone is familiar with. These games simply didn’t trust you to handle the game’s best cars right off the bat knowing your dumbass will probably crash into the nearest wall. Horizon? It plops you straight into the flagship car, a 2013 Dodge Viper, and tells you to just go. Learn on the fly as directions scatter across the screen. An impeccable first impression that absorbs you into the addictive world of Horizon. It gives you that taste of pure speed, like a delicious plate of fried mushrooms with garlic aioli. But like with any appetizer, you’re not at the main course yet. Thus why the game introduces you to the titular, silent protagonist and HIS car. A slightly tuned turbocharged 1995 VW Corrado, racing amongst Corvettes, Ferraris, and RUFs (a workaround for not having the Porsche license) for the final spot in the Horizon Heats. And they couldn’t have picked a better starter car. Auto Express magazine regarded it “…as one of VW’s best ever drivers’ cars.” A cult classic. Also, am I the only one that thinks it’s cute that Corrado and Colorado are similarly spelled? That had to be intentional.
Going off of the Corrado, any racing game worth its mettle NEEDS a good car list. I mean, it’s kinda the whole point of the game, right? Forza has always been reliant on its massive car list. Even the lead developer wanted players to collect various cars like Pokémon. It needed to establish this feel knowing the sheer amount of cars Gran Turismo would pack in (even if a lot of the cars in GT5 were just upscaled PS2 models). Forza Motorsport 4 would cram in over 500 cars in two discs, all with their own interior view. But Horizon had to take a more quality over quantity approach when it came to its car list (not saying the amount of cars in Forza 4 weren’t quality though, you get it), all in the name of disk space. The developers were adamant on not doing two discs so they tested the capacity of the 360 in both ways, both actual hardware and software. This results in a concise car list that totals out to 212, even less than the first Forza which has 231. DLC did help but you can no longer access it (pour one out). While this car list lacks in numbers, it more than makes up for it in focus. Like a high grade brisket, a lot of the unnecessary fat was surgically trimmed off. Imagine Pokémon Sword and Shield and their cutting but in this case doing an actual good job. Cars like the Hummer, race cars (this was on the streets after all), older versions of a certain car that didn’t really belong, AMC, and some rare brands like De Tomaso, Bertone, and sadly DeLorean (eh the BMW M1 is a better lookalike anyway). This car list reads off like a greatest hits album for most car brands combined with the latest hits like the cover star Viper. When it comes to the engines, the sound design was stellar (I will admit Horizon 2 is the best but it’s close). Superchargers and V10’s especially sound like a heavenly hurricane ready to leave everyone in the dust.
Now, how did these mechanical beasts handle? Well let’s have a little comparison. Here we see a humble BMW M3 in Forza Motorsport 4. Powerful, but as tail-happy as an overenergetic Labrador. Why is this here though, didn’t we already cover Forza 4?
Now here it is in Horizon. Notice the buff to handling and braking? While Motorsport embraces being as realistic as possible when it comes to oversteer, understeer, and handling overall, Horizon gives you a little leeway in most regards yet keeps that feeling of simulation. That is just one of many adjustments Playground Games made to bridge that gap between simulation and arcade. I will concede that Forza Horizon is far from the first sim-cade racer. PGR, NFS, and most rally games (notably DiRT 3, banger) have all made their strides and produced impeccable games as I had previously mentioned. But none of those series had one of the greatest sim racers of all time in Forza 4 to use as a base. You also have the liberty to make the game as hard or as easy as you want. You can lean more into the simulation side of Forza by disabling ABS, traction control, turn on manual shifting as well as simulation steering or make it feel like a better responding version of PGR with the assists on. The rewind feature, first seen in Forza 3, can be a double-edged sword. Yes, it can avoid the agony of restarting the race after one bump or one missed drift but it’s also effortless to be consumed by this power. You’re essentially given the power of a Jojos stand while you drive, why won’t you use and abuse it to ensure a perfect race? But guess what, you can disable it if you want!
When it comes to the AI in Horizon, it’s a wildly different story compared to later Horizon installments. While those games feature the innovative Drivatars as the primary opponents you face thanks to online, Horizon 1 makes up for this by featuring actual characters and a semi-concrete story, complete with Shadow the Hedgehog level cussing (you’ll never hear damn again in a Horizon game). As a rookie driver making his mark in Horizon, you get wristbands the more you win events. With each wristband comes its own “star.” And their personalities/driving styles change drastically. One is a maniac that always drives aggressively and relentlessly bumps into you. Another is an offroad specialist that will find every shortcut to take. Their cars will vary too, depending on the event. Like one driver always uses the most expensive car available to unnecessarily flex on the competition while another uses a more budget-oriented street racer to style on you. And what makes this all the more satisfying is that when you graduate to the next level of wristband, that star will challenge you to a 1v1 on the open road. If you win, you get their signature car! Being able to have the last word and talk your shit over these AI opponents is all the more satisfying knowing you steal their ride like a Yugioh card. Looking back, these 1v1 Star Showdowns are some of the best racing experiences in gaming, especially when that certain song kicks in. Speaking of that…
This game has hits stacked on hits like a can of Pringles. There are three main stations in Horizon. The guitar thrashing Horizon Rocks, with The Black Keys, The Hives, and LCD Soundsystem (who were prominently featured in Forza Motorsport 2). The upbeat, alternative Horizon Pulse, with Foster The People, Friendly Fires, and Miike Snow. And last but certainly not least, the party starting EDM powerhouse Horizon Bass Arena with DJ Fresh, Madeon, and Porter Robinson. A well-crafted soundtrack of mostly late 2000s-early 2010s bangers with some 80’s bops thrown in, such as She Bangs The Drums by The Stone Roses and Blue Monday by New Order. You gotta have a well-crafted soundtrack for a game like this, but sometimes, maybe you just want to enjoy the open world with no music blaring in your ear orifices.
And for my money, there are no finer open worlds than Forza Horizon’s. A fictional take on Colorado in the fall. The warm, vibrant, fall colors make you want to grab a pumpkin spice latte and sink into a comfy blanket while going 180 MPH. This is a pretty stark contrast compared to the sophisticated, suit and tie-like color pallet in earlier Forza games, especially when it comes to menus and UI. Compared to modern Horizon games, which take place in extravagant cities or countries, this take on Colorado is much more lowkey. There are rural towns, quiet upper-class neighborhoods, and spiraling roads with endless autumn beauty. With the final star showdown, you will get a full experience of the artistic extravagance Horizon has. I won’t fully spoil it, it’s something you need to experience yourself. Even if you decide to take a spin and drive around the map, you’re always doing something, whether intentional or not. From racking up skill chains with drifts, near misses, and combo skills (which were pretty obviously inspired by the KUDOS system in PGR) to stumbling across Barn Finds, rare one of a kind cars dumped in a old barn like it was Adam Vinatieri in his final year (he really averaged 68% and 78.6% for field goals and extra points. Oof). The map invited exploration, and perhaps it did better than ANY open world game ever.
Instead of major city areas, Horizon 1 has its own special monuments far away from the main hub. From hot geysers that randomly spout water and steam to the famous Red Rock Canyon, with the best drifting area in any video game. Ever. Where else could you do this?
I rest my case. Thanks for reading. I implore you, please check this game out, even if you have played Forza Horizon 4. I promise you, this game is a completely different vibe compared to its more “modern” compatriots. You can no longer buy it digitally but it ain’t hard to cop one from eBay or Craigslist for like 30 bucks.
