After Colorado, South of Europe and Australia, the 4th round of the Horizon-Festival starts now in Great Britain. But the questions is, canc Playground Games beat the great predecessors games with Forza Horizon 4? Let’s find out.

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And there it is again, the shining in our eyes and the smile on our face while we are racing on the routes of the huge Forza Horizon 4 map and enjoying the landscape with loud music in the background. We do not want to leave the car in this moments. Reason for that are the great physics, which are perfect balanced between a demanding driving and pleasure which can be also more defused by activating some helping features.

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But pro racing gamer will also be happy about the alternative Sim-Variation of the driving-model. In this mode players are more claimed if they want to tame the cars that are packed with much horsepower. This is, because you will not get much feedback from your car. Yes, it is possible to drive very good with a controller, too, but we prefer to use a wheel. Thanks to numerous customization options, the Force Feedback is much more informative than before. It does not matter if you drive a Four-wheeler or an old car, a racing bullet or transit van, a classic cars or a brand new dream car like the McLaren Senna: Forza Horizon 4 is pure driving fun! And we think that with more than 450 licensed car-models like Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Ford, Land Rover and also exotics like a Koenigsegg or a Donkervoort, everybody shout find the right car for him. Especially VW fans will love it that they can drive now whit a Golf, Käfer and also the classic one, the Corrado. Players can win many cars at the wheel of fortune which can be found at the next car dealer.

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What we love is the cockpit-perspective. In addition to the classic in and outside perspectives, there is now the one that been presented in Forza Motorsport 7. In this inside-perspectives you move a little bit closer to the windshield so that you also do not see the virtual steering-wheel anymore.

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Once again you can release your creativity and paint the cars, use different templates and stickers, to have a unique car. Fantastic is, that you can import all paint jobs since Forza Motorsport 5 and Forza Horizon 2.

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Everybody, who has not the talent the release his creativity with painting has maybe more luck as a Setup Specialist. Players can once again configure on a lot of different parts like the tire pressure, aerodynamics, suspension, brakes or the differential. And like you know it, you can share this setups with the community. But we have to say that this setups are not so much relevant than in the big brother of this game. And there is also the rank list again. Clean rides take a higher priority in the rankings than those where you might be faster, but you have been more times outside of the track. There are also upgrades and tuning parts for your cars in this game. So once again you have the chance to transform harmless series cars into powerful racing machines. Any player who has not the time can activate the automatic upgrade function, which optimally assembles the parts for the targeted class.

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But anybody who do not want to do anything with tuning of the cars, has not to so it. For this reason the developers implemented a fantastic AI, which is totally trimmed to stage for the player a balanced racing experience. It is not the classic rubber band system. We noticed quickly that the developers try to create much possible tension and fight for the position in every race. Great is that mostly you win the race in the last second. Playground Games made here with it a great job, but it could happen that such feature of the game could be deadly from time to time. The reasons are the hard fight of the AI. And this is also why we recommend to you to do not activate the whole damage model. But, for a Arcade-Racer like Forza Horizon are features like this totally OK, because you can use the rewind feature.

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Like in other arcade racing games the tracks are short. You drive on round courses or sprint from point A to B. There is unfortunately no option to increase the number of rounds. Players can take a pause from the races, when they are driving through the world and increase the combo counter or do some optional tasks. This is the reason you will not use often the quick-travel-function. The navigationssystem ANNA lead players mostly to the target.

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What we like is that the developers could optimise the graphics so that we can enjoy the game on the Xbox One X with an impressive view of 60 frames per seconds. Unfortunately, the 4K-resolution requires some visual losses, but offers still a great, responsive control and a pleasant ride. The virtual Great Britain of Forza Horizon 4 is the most impressive and best looking open world in the racing-genre. In addition to the great architecture there is also a day- and night-cycle, a dynamic and in different level divided weather system and fantastic light effects which looking especially good in HDR. What we also like is, that additionally to houses that are also modeled inside, too, that they try to fill the virtual Great Britain with life. At the side of the tracks you will find from time to time tribunes with celebrating festival visitors, birds that are flying around and you can also see other animals. You will find also many other things happening like flying balloons, but we want that you find them and enjoy the view by yourself.

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There are not many limits while you are driving and enjoying the landscape. This looks different while you are in the middle of a race. Track boundaries and checkpoints make sure that you do not leave the track. This checkpoint lead the player in different disciplines from Asphalt duels to cross-country, excursions to spectacular show races where for example you drive a race against a hovercraft. In addition there is a lot what you can do while you enjoy the open world. There are Speed cameras, stunts you can do and even drift zones. This game will not get boring. In addition to the included racing events, you can also make your own blueprints, which allow you to define individual framework conditions such as restrictions on specific vehicles or classes. It is also possible to share them with the community. We wished it would also be possible to create own master Championships and you also can use ready created tracks. This could change quickly, because Microsoft and Playground Games already announced an update which could include a complete editor to create your own tracks. And there are also the story missions. There are very similar but allow players to check different cars.

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In addition to that changing weather, Playground Games included in Forza Horizon 4 changing seasons for the first time! This only changes the look of the game. This also has an influence on the track. Instead of the summery dust, there are large mud puddles in the fall. You can also feel the changes behind the wheel directly when you driving on snow. At this point we do not have to tell you, that the developers once included their Drivatar-System that works once again fantastic.

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They also did a fantastic job with the soundtrack. There are not many songs by people like Foo Fighters, Eric Prydz or Mozart. More of them are not known artist. But the songs they choose are fix fanatic to that atmosphere of the game and the speed. There are a few radio-channels you can choose from: Pop (Horizon Pulse), Electro (Bass Arena), Rock (XS), Hip-Hop (Block Party), Drum’n’Base (Hospital) and Klassik (Timeless) and the playlist is very long. In addition to that we can say, that we love the Radio-DJs that also talk about the actual situation and what happens in this game. We also love once again the sound of the cars’ engines.

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We noticed that the developers wants to push the online- and multiplayer part of the game in the foreground. Nearly all races you can play in the career-mode are also playable in a versus-duell against other players and even in a team-co-op mode. You can also once again joins clubs and play in funny chaotic gameplay-modes like “king” or “infected”. From time to time, Forzathon Live also features spontaneous events in which two teams compete against each other in several small Versus challenges. And yes, you can also buy some close for your avatar and even buildings. The buildings are not only status objects, but also act as a hub and possible destinations for the fast trip.

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It is a fact: The virtual Great Britain ROCKS! Unfortunately, we miss huge cities like London, but this is not the point. We love the look and the flair of the landscape. We love the changing weather and seasons. We love how many fun we have with this game. We love the feeling of driving, the wide selection of racing disciplines we can choose from and beside activities and the great ingame-radio. We love it that we can tune and upgrade our cars in so many ways. We love the integration of the online-community. We love how great Forza Horizon 4 looks especially if you are playing it in 4K and with HDR! We love it that you can alternatively play the game in 60 frames per seconds on the Xbox One X, especially when you drive in high speed. We love the story, the tons of different and great looking cars, the huge number of different races in different categories. We love all the great things you can unlock and all the freedom in this game. Yes, this review is a little bit short and we have not told you everything. But what we can say is, that this game is nearly perfect. Playground Games and Microsoft have made with Forza Horizon 4 the best arcade-racing game we have played…ever! Forza Horizon 4 is and will be the king of racing games for a long time. Well done and thank you for this fantastic experience.

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