Forza Horizon 3 / Forza Horizon Australia is an insanely popular revolutionary car game that has racing, freeroam, and loads of customization. It is one of the most popular car games on the planet.
One of the best features in this game is the stunning landscapes and diverse environments Featuring Yarra Valley, Surfers Paradise, Byron Bay, a random bloody “Rainforest”, The Twelve Apostles, The Outback, A Dry Reservoir, The Kiewa Valley, and the Maroondah Reservoir. It also includes high-quality car models and tremendous attention to detail in car panel textures, including carbon fibre, raindrop and mud splatter.
Racing-wise, it includes complete Off-Road, Rally, Track, Drag, and Street racing tracks. The handling is super smooth and all the cars feel a little bit like a go kart. Customization options Include: BodyKits, Aero By LBWK Pandem, Rocket Bunny and more. Platform upgrades: Brakes, Suspension, Roll Cage, Anti Roll Bars, Drivetrain Swaps. Engine Upgrades: Pistons, Crankshaft, Block, Driveline, Engine Swaps, and much more.
Audio wise, the SFX Tire Sounds and Engines Sound amazing. Some honourable mentions: Nissan Skyline R34, Pagani Zonda R, Lexus LFA, The Nissan GTR R35, and Of course the cover car. the Lamborghini Centenario.
The soundtrack is pretty much the most memorable sound track of any forza game. Especially with the radio stations like: “Horizon Pulse”, “Horizon Base Arena”, and my favourite “𝐹𝓊𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝒞𝓁𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒾𝒸.” The ambience is very well made, the birds sound very realistic. Oh yeah and the voice acting is really nothing special, just voice acting.
One of my favourite memories of this game was from a few years ago when my mates and I got in a convoy and went off-roading in some massive offroaders and it was great… Anyway, my point is it’s got a great multiplayer mode for making your own fun with friends. Plus given that the game is 7.5 years old, the multiplayer is still very stable and even quick to load. Honestly you would click the “JOIN MULTIPLAYER” button and you would load in about 12 to 15 seconds later which is faster than some games that came out this year. I can’t lie, a lot of the achievements were just corny jokes but in the whole scheme of things, I guess the achievement system was decently rewarding, or at least painfully memorable.
What made the game always feel entertaining was things like Speed-Traps/Speed-Zones, Barn-Finds, Danger-Signs, and Drift-Zones. In the game it was actually decently hard to make money without money glitches which made the game more fun but it made cars harder to upgrade. It’s almost like a game you could spend hours and hours on without getting bored kinda like Minecraft back in the day.
Today the graphics don’t exactly keep up but for their time they were revolutionary. That’s pretty much the only thing that I would change for a re-release. With my personal experience I think the racing is a little lacklustre but on a different note the map and the free-roam is almost 𝒫𝐸𝑅𝐹𝐸𝒞𝒯! In my opinion it works best as a free drive/ cruising game and for me, that seems like it was the intention and what was intended worked, people loved it and still do. Forza games were already popular but this stepped it up a notch…
So if you’re Aussie and into cars or just into cars and you like Australia, Look into getting it. Hard copy disks are still selling for like $30-$40 AUD on FaceBook Marketplace.