Speculations [Updated with new info]

The Forza series is making its first major change with Forza Horizon, but will it be a good one?

First of all I am excited about Playground Games being the major developer of this game, as I love DiRT, TOCA, and Grid. Lets just hope they'll only add positive change to the Forza series instead of dubbing it down to an arcade-type racing game, much like DiRT and Grid are.

My thoughts are this: Horizon makes me think about a lot of open road, kind of like what Testdrive: Unlimited did. It would basically be an open world where you are free to drive around and do whatever, including driving yourself to the events and races. I personally do not want this, as this has become too common in racing games. Need for Speed, Testdrive, and Burnout are just a few games to name that have done this, and I don't want Forza to conform to this.

At this point, anything is a possibility as there is no information on the game yet. What are your speculations though?

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I like the idea of an open world racing game using the Forza game engine, but it will have to get a few things right or it'll bomb in my eyes:

1: The car selection must remain the same. i dont want it dumbed down to only the best supercars, or a limited number of vehicles. I want to see all my Forza 4 favourites.

2: The tuning options must remain the same. I dont want them dumbed down to an arcade style racer system. I want to be able to fiddle with my cars as usual.

3: The world must be large, varied and interesting.

And a few other things i wonder about.

- Will there be weather and a day/night cycle?
- Will there be traffic and other road users?
- Will there be traffic police ? (Hope not)
- Is the terrible crash/vehicle damage system going to be improved?

The way i see it this game has huge potential, it also has the potential to be a total arseup. Only time will tell. Hopefully we will get more detailed information soon.

Thats a tad disappointing. I liked Forza when i had an Xbox, it was a good alternative to Gran Turismo. I think that will be bad news for GT fans as well, because it will have no competition and PD might dumb GT down even more.

Console gaming is turning to crap. I don't really want to, but it looks like i'll definitely switching to PC next gen for games that are more "serious".