Forza Horizon 4 is Microsoft’s latest dive into their iconic Forza Horizon series that sees some of the best features of Forza Motorsport come to life in an open-world experience. Now, here we are, the fourth installment in the world-renowned Xbox and Windows exclusive franchise, let’s take a dive into the Forza world once more with our latest review.

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Pros:
+An exuberant open-world experience brought to life through its racing elements and social aspects
+Features an astonishing gallery of cars with over 450 to choose from and enjoy
+One of the most detailed and visually stunning games on the market
+Car handling feels authentic, realistic and immersive experiences to date
+Online features create an impressive and extremely dynamic world in the Forza franchise

Cons:
-Repetition does set in after a while and can make it hard to enjoy after prolonged periods of times
-The Forzathon Live events are tedious and time-consuming

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Forza, Microsoft’s iconic racing series that has silently taken the gaming world by storm since the launch of the franchise on the Classic Xbox. In my opinion, It’s the only game to both satisfy the driver and put you right in a tornado at the same time all wrapped up in a bundle and thrown onto the race tracks.

The game jumps right in and gives you a rundown/tutorial and introduces one of their classic features we all have grown to love called “Rewind”; the feature simply does exactly that, it rewinds from an exact moment to a few seconds before. Now some of you guys who’s never played the game in its series and are reading this article are wondering, now why would I ever want to rewind, that’s cheating.

Now, before you get in that low coupe with your mighty horsepower pushing your foot on the gas, let’s not forget who was using those cheat-codes back on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on PS2 because you needed more money. So, bring it back down and let me explain why rewind is such an awesome feature.

Racers! Start. Your. Engines!

Everyone should be aware of this awesome feature but for those first-time racing gamers who’s lead foot and push the ground at home while you play Call of Duty just isn’t working anymore, let me run down the awesomeness really quick.

Let’s say you are racing down the backside of road and you’re giving her all she’s got and you are going at least 130 when the arrows on the ground go from light blue to yellow then to red and before you can hit the emergency brake, it’s too late, you’ve crashed and your stuck at some poor old lady’s house which seems to be mad out stones. But what the smart tag team duo over at Turn 10 Studios and Microsoft Studio have done, they’ve given us the option to rewind from that exact moment and backtrack from that crash to about 10 seconds before that and let’s say you would like another 20 seconds to prepare for that crash, then they’ll give you exactly that too.

Another awesome feature they’ve put in your passenger seat is you are racing against your actual XBOX Live friends. So, no more of those lame computers who are racing against and they seem to always have the upper hand. The boss you’ve always hated, your brother down the hallway, your smelly roommate from college, your best friend who you’ve met online back when Forza first came out; If they’ve played the game online then their profile is synced and you can race against them. It caught me by surprise because I was thinking how did my friends join this race when I didn’t send out an invite.

Forza Horizon 4 had plenty to offer and it was absolutely stunning

These are just two feature of the many awesome features Forza Horizon 4 has to offer. This game has so much to offer such as, street racing, dirt racing, cliff jumping, and even being a stunt double job for an up and coming movie. This game has it all and I applaud the guys over at Microsoft to allow the XBOX Live Pass users to have access to it for free.

Now onto the picture quality and resolution. With their breathtaking, cutting-edge, revolutionary graphics; I mean absolutely stunning and eye-catching bits of detail that I’d never have expected from an open-world racing game.

I found myself having to come back to this game for the graphics alone because they are so mesmerizing that you get lost in actually racing and just chasing the screen for more. I have never seen a game that has captured the art of a racing and thrown into the mix the different weather conditions as well.

The Conclusion – The past is in the rearview mirror moving forward

If you are feeling risky, change that point of view and race from behind the wheel like you are going down the Interstate with no police in sight. Driving at top speeds with the raindrops on the windshield, I promise you, it will change your life.

Imagine if they decided to come out with this game on the PlayStation VR or a Windows Mixed Reality headset – That would be a major GAME CHANGER, but unfortunately, this game is a Microsoft exclusive, so we’ll just have to enjoy all its glory on our 4K television and hope the Microsoft team can come out with something similar soon.

Of course, we all know the Forza franchise has two different style racing games. Motorsports and Horizon, with Motorsports having been around a little while longer and been an experienced player on that side of the board I just saying, I am loving the Horizon vibe a little more. I got my first house in this game and that’s before anything in real life so I am happy and a little bummed I can move any of my things into my nice shack but that alright, at least it keeps Hunter happy.

Forza Horizon 4
Platforms: Xbox One and Windows
Version Reviewed: Xbox One via Xbox One X
Developer: Turn 10 Studios, Playground Games
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Release Date: Available Now
Cost: $59.99

Forza Horizon 4 is now available in both retail and digital formats. Xbox Game Pass owners can download it free of charge today through the Windows Store.

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Our review is based on a retail version that was provided to us by the publisher of the game.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

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 Final Score: 9 out of 10

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About the Writer:

Tyvon J. Hunter is the latest member of the crew. He brings to the table a unique take on video games and sports. He brings an unparalleled sense of inspiration through his sheer excitement to the team as well as those around him. Also, he likes to build theme parks and a lot of them in his spare time.