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I've posted this because the video embedded in the article shows the in-game driving of an XR8 and XY.

Forza Horizon 3 Xbox One driving game review.


Driving the cars and roads of the latest Xbox driving game.



David McCowen
21 September, 2016



See the link below for video



One. Two. Three, four and five red lights in the Ferrari's steering wheel illuminate in order, arcing across the top of its rim as the V8 engine races toward its redline. Extinguished by the pluck of a gearchange paddle, the LEDs again burn in turn, accompanying the shrieking engine as a fitting light show to the greatest concert a driver can hope for.

A grandson of the legendary Diablo, the Lamborghini Aventador in my rear mirror is a devil on my shoulder daring me to stay on the throttle; the licence in my rear pocket begs me to stop. The latter wins out, because this is the real world. There are other drivers, animals, speed cameras, police and a professional reputation to consider. I'd love to keep plucking that paddle until the little red dots win their battle, glaring defiantly in top gear as the 458 Italia eclipses the 300 km/h mark.

But the consequences don't bear thinking about. Especially as I'd agreed to a $25,000 insurance excess a couple of hours ago, a number that would make for fairly awkward dinner conversation at home.



Drive's David McCowen joined Xbox on a Supercar tour of the Great Ocean Road. Photo: Supplied


The fine folk at Xbox arranged for a handful of Australian writers from gaming, tech and automotive spheres to come and sample an experience they tried to bottle for the new Forza Horizon 3 game.



Drive's David McCowen joined Xbox on a tour of the Great Ocean Road to promote Forza Horizon 3.


Unlike most driving titles, Forza Horizon isn't about being crowned world champion. It's not a contest to become the fastest, most cut-throat driver in the digital realm.

Instead, Horizon exists to help you have a good time. It's escapism into a world that doesn't really exist – one where you can drive as fast as you like, arrange cross-country road trips or street races, own hundreds of collectable cars and steer like a crazed Stig without negative consequences.

You're the star of the Horizon Festival, a party that blends road trips, racing, stunt-driving, photography, exploration and music in a way that no real-world event could match. It's Big Day Out meets the Goodwood Festival of Speed, a hybrid of Gran Turismo and Gran Theft Auto that takes place in an open world with few restrictions on where you go and how you get there.



Forza Horizon 3 Chopper Buggy Forza Horizon 3 brings Australian roads to gamers around the globe.


Microsoft's first attempt at Horizon was set in the rocky mountains of Colorado in 2012, while 2014's sequel took place in France and Italy. The third instalment unfolds in Australia, on the sort of truncated and topographically inaccurate map British backpackers seem to have in mind when first arriving in Australia.

The layout combines six core regions in a way that allows you to drive a loop from Surfers Paradise to Coober Pedy, Byron Bay and the Great Ocean Road in 15 minutes or so. While that's laughable at first, a driving game requiring you to while away countless hours on the Hume, Pacific or Stuart highways wouldn't exactly be a best-seller.

Ben Penrose, art director for the Playground Games studio behind Horizon, says the deciding factor for Australia's inclusion in the game was its visual diversity.

"You've got the rainforest, the beaches, the outback, the rolling hills and cityscapes," he says.

"There are things in this game that you would never have done in a Forza game before. They are all brand new experiences. It's a huge country and there's a lot to cover."



Forza Horizon 3 Coast Landscape Forza Horizon 3 brings Australian roads to gamers around the globe.


Penrose says his team spent plenty of time wrestling with how to make the map work. It's not perfect – Victoria's 12 Apostles are oddly positioned between NSW's Byron Bay and Queensland's Gold Coast – but it does combine a range of environments in an accessible manner.

The team visited Australia to record the local environment in cinematic fashion. Building a custom-made camera rig, they camped in the outback to record 24-hour cycles of Australian skies; the sun, stars and storms in-game reflect the beauty of our local landscape. You could say the same about the beaches and rainforests, the townships and villages reproduced in the game.

And of course, the cars too.

There are around 350 vehicles in Forza Horizon 3, and more are on the way as downloadable upgrades in coming months.

Penrose says it was "super important" to include locals cars in Horizon 3, and that "we could not go to the game without representing Australian car culture". With that in mind, there are plenty of Australian options throughout the game, including a limited-edition HSV Maloo GTS ute players can choose as their first car. Forza encourages players to customise cars – we picked a massive five-post bullbar with spotlamps and a choice sticker or two for our Jungle Green machine as a tribute to Deni Ute Muster and outback B&S ball culture.



2016 Holden Special Vehicles GTS Maloo Forza Horizon 3 brings Australian roads to gamers around the world.


HSV's Gen-F GTS sedan also makes an appearance, along with the retro Holden FX ute, Torana A9X muscle car and HQ Sandman. The VF Commodore is also in attendance as America's Chevrolet SS sedan. Ford Fans can have a crack at the final FPV GT-F sedan and Pursuit Ute, along with other cars including the FG-X Falcon XR8 and XB Falcon GT coupe.

Naturally, the latest Ford and Holden V8 Supercars also get a Guernsey.

Forza Horizon 3 takes Australia's greatest cars and some of its greatest roads to a global audience. It's an interactive showcase of local automotive passion unlike anything we've seen before.

Every car is rendered in explicit detail inside and out. Most allow you to peer under the bonnet for a closer look at their inner workings, and all are customisable with a range of modifications that start at new wheels and tyres and stop some way beyond complete engine and driveline conversions. Toyota's 86 too plain? Add a Chev-sourced 6.2-litre V8, Rocket Bunny wide body kit, roll cage, racing tyres and custom paintwork to liven it up a little.

You can try everything from a historic Ferrari 250 GTO to Lamborghini's 2016 Centenario showcar, a rally-prepped Ford Ranger ute or an original Toyota LandCruiser four-wheel-drive. Enthusiasts will be disappointed to find Porsche is absent – though like other Forza games, it may arrive later for additional cost as an optional expansion pack.



Forza Horizon 3 brings Australian roads to gamers around the globe.


There's plenty of gravel, sand and mud to play in for off-road machines, and more than a few races, PR stunts and special challenges on tarmac and dirt to keep you busy.

Music remains a key theme of the game. You can choose to drive without a soundtrack, listen to your own music or tune into themed radio stations that include dozens of artists such as Australia's Chet Faker, Flume and Flight Facilities, retro rap from the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, bass-heavy beats with Skrillex and Diplo or chilled-out work from M83 and Chvrches that fit the game's party theme.

While the main host of the game is Irish, the environment's Australian flavour is reinforced by the cringingly ocker Warren, an advisory mechanic who sounds suspiciously like the Chopper Read send-up wrought by Sydney comedian Ronnie Johns. Traffic drives on the left side of the road, and the green-on-white street signs follow the local style. Take a closer look at many of the non-competitive cars ambling around the road and you'll find that they are left-hand drive models that wouldn't normally tour the land.



Forza Horizon 3 brings Australian roads to gamers around the globe.


The streets are partially populated by trucks, buses, and vanilla machines like Mazda3 hatchbacks and Subaru Liberty sedans that dawdle along aimlessly. But the majority of cars on the road are part of the festival – roll up behind a BMW or WRX, and you can challenge it to an impromptu street race. You can follow the game's career path, opening new festival sites, commissioning bands and concocting your own events for other players to try, or simply jump in and take in the sights in a favourite car. Personally, I'm more likely to chill out with the latter as opposed to completing the dozens of tasks laid out through the game.

That's because it stacks up as an enthusiast's option. While it's not intended to be a simulation, the cars look, sound and feel the way you expect them to. A rear-wheel-drive ute is a slithering handful to drive on wet roads, an all-wheel-drive performance car offers immense purchase on dry tarmac and a front wheel-drive hot hatch will induce lift-off oversteer if you push it hard enough. The game shares its fundamental physics with Forza Motorsport, a game that's easier to pick up and more fun to master than more serious simulations such as Assetto Corsa or iRacing, while giving players more of a challenge than arcade-like rivals.



Drive's David McCowen joined Xbox on a tour of the Great Ocean Road to promote Forza Horizon 3.


We sampled a Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari California and 458 Italia in the real world on the Great Ocean Road and found the game does an incredible job of mimicking their looks and style while imparting some of the thrill you get from steering a supercar at speed. Forza has always done an excellent job of reproducing the voice of a performance car, and the spine-tingling howl of the Ferraris' V8s and the nasal bark of Lamborghini's V10 are accurately replicated here.

One of the first challenges of the game involves a race between Ferrari and Lamborghini along a gorgeous stretch of road in perfect weather. It's an ideal that's hard to match, but we managed it with Penrose at the wheel of a white Aventador looming large in the mirrors of our screaming Ferrari.



Drive's David McCowen joined Xbox on a tour of the Great Ocean Road to promote Forza Horizon 3.


It was a special moment, but the more memorable drive came later, at the wheel of a Falcon XR8 that also features in the game. Touring through Lorne, Apollo Bay and the Great Otway National Park in Ford's final Falcon was a pleasure. The hum of its supercharger, the bellow of its V8, the glint of a setting sun reflected from a bulging bonnet and the futile tenacity of its rear tyres make for a visceral experience I'm unlikely to forget.

That's especially true, as it's a moment we can relive forever.

Forza Horizon 3 is on sale on September 27 for Xbox One and Windows 10.



2015 Ford Falcon XR8 Forza Horizon 3 brings Australian roads to gamers around the world.

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