Games
We hit the tarmac with the forthcoming Xbox racer – it’s time for an Italian cruise.
The Forza Motorsport series is seen by many petrolheads as Microsoft's confident reply to the PlayStation’s popular Gran Turismo franchise, the American muscle car to Sony’s Japanese import. However, unlike Sony and Polyphony Digital, Microsoft and Forza studio Turn 10 are happy to step things up a gear and try something different to make sure the widest possible audience is invited along for the ride.
2012's Forza Horizon for instance took the existing game engine and allowed it to run riot across a sprawling open world, and gained positive reviews and commercial success as a result. Developer Turn 10 is once again collaborating with Horizon studio PlayGround Games to produce a sequel which not only improves on what has gone before, but bridges the generations. You see, Forza Horizon 2 will launch not only on the next-generation Xbox One, but on its predecessor, the Xbox 360 – with that version being overseen by another UK team at industry veteran Sumo Digital.
In every possible way, Forza Horizon 2 aims to surpass the achievements of its forerunner. It's a bigger and bolder undertaking, set on another continent entirely, and Playground Games creative director Ralph Fulton harbours no doubts regarding the game's impressive scope. "Forza Horizon 2’s world is not only bigger, it is also far more open, more interactive and more diverse," he tells Red Bull with a degree of pride. "Not only can players freely explore southern Europe from the Mediterranean coast to the foothills of the Alps, Forza Horizon 2 opens up the countryside to create three times the drivable play space."
The environment is one of the most significant changes over the original game, which was set in the dustbowl plains and rugged mountains of North America. This time around, players are burning rubber around the Old World, and as Fulton explains, these new locations offer many tangible benefits – including the chance to truly show off the graphical muscle sitting under the hood of Microsoft's next-generation system.
"We wanted a location that would highlight the power of the Xbox One hardware and our best-in-class graphics engine," he says. "The beautiful and diverse landscapes of southern Europe come alive in Forza Horizon 2, providing the player with a multitude of stunning settings to explore in stunning 1080p detail. From the start, we knew we wanted a brand new 'world', something that felt completely different from the original game’s Colorado setting. Just as we did with the original game, we had a massive list of potential locales we considered, but southern Europe quickly rose to the top. It’s a part of the world that is known for its stunning vistas, amazing historical cities and towns like Nice and Amalfi, as well as some of the best driving roads in the entire world. Everywhere you go in this part of the world is picture-postcard beautiful and we knew it would be a wonderful challenge to bring that to life in the game."
The additional power afforded by the Xbox One has allowed Fulton and his team to create a racing experience which delivers impeccable realism, not only in the way in which the cars interact with the track, but in how the world around them behaves. "Forza Horizon 2 features a dynamic day-to-night cycle with spectacular weather, lighting, and visual effects all running at 1080p," Fulton says.
"Weather effects include summer rain storms that bring even more diversity and beauty to the world, in addition to new driving gameplay challenge. Bringing dynamic weather to the Xbox One means we don’t have to 'fake' anything. We can build our weather system with an emphasis on simulation. Our sky isn’t blue in our game because we painted it that color, it’s blue because that’s the way light separates in the air when it interacts with water particles; it’s why the sky is blue in real life. If conditions are right, we can simulate mathematically accurate rainbows in our world, creating these stunning moments of incredible natural beauty. Dynamic weather means we also were able to include working windshield wipers in every car in the game."
Such opulence is going to come at a price, however. While many have assumed that the arrival of next-generation machines will signal the start of the 1080p / 60 frames per second revolution, that isn't necessarily the case. Just as Evolution Studios has done with the PlayStation 4 title Driveclub, Playground Games has been forced to lock Forza Horizon 2 at 30 fps. However, like Evolution, Playground doesn't see this as the drawback that many armchair experts seem to think it is. "With Forza Horizon 2, we are delivering a beautiful, immaculately constructed world unlike anything ever seen in a driving game before," says a resolute Fulton. "A world full of action-packed, open-world racing, stunning vistas, dramatic weather and dynamic time of day at 1080p resolution and locked 30 frames per second."
Online play is another area in which Forza Horizon 2 will comfortably eclipse its predecessor. "We’ve aimed to create a game that erases the line between solo play and multiplayer," states Fulton. "As a result we’ve designed a single game experience – you either play the game solo against Drivatar-powered opponents or online against real people. All of your progression, leveling, and rewards carry over whether you are playing online or solo, and no matter what you are doing in the game. When you make the decision to go online, we make that transition seamless with no lobbies and no waiting. Being able to go online instantly has proven to be incredibly popular to the people who have seen it, and I can’t wait for all Forza fans to experience it."
Like Sony's Driveclub, Forza Horizon 2 is also looking to nurture a social element which goes way beyond traditional competitive online multiplayer – it might not be racing for pink slips, but it’s the next best thing and certainly cheaper. "Just like festival culture and car cultures are inherently social, we wanted Forza Horizon 2 to feel the same way," Fulton explains.
"Our goal is to create a game that encourages social relationships, that allows players to play with their friends and make new friends along the way. Two features we’re bringing to the game that really encourage this kind of community building are Car Meets and Car Clubs. Car Meets can be found throughout Horizon 2’s world, and let you meet up with players, share tips, and essentially hang out with one another.
“The coolest thing about Car Meets is that I can drive into one from my solo game, meet people just like me, and we can drive out of the Car Meet together into the online game. Car Clubs are another great social feature in Horizon 2. Clubs can be as small or as big as you want in the game, up to 1,000 members so you can pool your creativity and skills into a massive Club and challenge the global leaderboards."
Of course, all of this counts for little if you don't have a robust selection of vehicles to drive, and it looks like Playground's game won’t disappoint in this respect. "Forza Horizon 2 will include a diverse selection of just over 200 of the world’s greatest cars to drive," explains Fulton. "This includes many of the stunningly detailed cars built from the ground up for this generation in Forza Motorsport 5, as well as exciting new cars never before seen in the Forza franchise. All cars feature authentic in-cockpit views created with obsessive detail, and even include working lights for every car."
Sadly, the "Unicorn" – rare and hard to obtain – cars of the original Forza Horizon won't be making a return, but Fulton insists that he and his team are still firm believers in giving dedicated community members their own little perks. "While we won’t have unicorn cars in Forza Horizon 2, we do have lots of ways for players to earn unique gifts in the game," he says. "One of the best ways is through our Forza Rewards program, which rewards players with cool in-game stuff just for playing Forza games. We have lots of ways for players to get involved with the community and, in many cases, earn rewards as a result. This includes unique liveried cars that our community team builds for special events/occasions, new cars, credit gifts and more."
While Washington-based Turn 10 is the studio which has become famous off the back of Forza, this new instalment is primarily being coded in the United Kingdom by not one but two different companies. Leamington Spa's Playground Games are in charge of the Xbox One edition, while, over in Sheffield, Sumo Digital are overseeing the Xbox 360 offering. You might assume that the distances involved would prove problematic, but Turn 10 creative director Dan Greenawalt insists that isn't the case – and counters with the point that Forza has always been a global project.
"It’s worth noting that we work with teams in India, Vietnam, and central Europe as well," he explains. "Development on the Forza franchise spans the globe. The first few months of a remote partnership naturally present unique challenges, but after a few months, it’s not as difficult as people often expect. We specifically chose to partner with both Playground and Sumo for their world-class expertise and their dedication to putting forward the highest-quality games possible. With Playground in particular, we are able to share our technology, our creativity, knowledge and experience, which allows both team to push harder and innovate more than we could do on our own."
The decision to bring Forza Horizon 2 to both the Xbox One and the Xbox 360 certainly turned some heads, but, to Greenawalt, the reasoning is clear. "There are millions of Xbox 360 consoles out there that people are still playing and enjoying on a daily basis," he says. "We wanted as many Forza fans as possible to experience the action-packed fun of Forza Horizon 2 as possible, whether that means on 360 or on the Xbox One." However, those expecting the 360 edition to provide the exact same content and experience with less detailed visuals are going to be disappointed – some of the game's core mechanics will have to be removed for the less-able system.
"The game has been built to take advantage of the Xbox One’s power and architecture," Greenawalt admits. "As a result, some of the features – such as dynamic weather – are only possible on the Xbox One." Greenawalt reveals that it won't be possible for Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners to compete against one another online, either.
Forza Horizon clearly has an awful lot to offer, and simply branding it as a "casual" version of the mainline Forza Motorsport series is perhaps a little unfair. Fulton certainly takes issue with that viewpoint, and believes that the Horizon series is all about choice, rather than dumbing down the experience for a less-demanding audience.
"Lots of gamers play both Horizon and the Motorsport series, because they offer different, but complementary, gameplay experiences," he says. "They both celebrate cars and car culture, which is what Forza is about. All of the driving mechanics in Forza Horizon 2 are powered by the same best in-class handling engine and physics system that powered Forza Motorsport 5. Every car has its own distinct personality – whether through the sound of its engine, its top speed or acceleration characteristics, or in the way it handles during complex cornering.
“Just as in real life, the cars in Forza Horizon 2 will display these kinds of unique physical characteristics that are thrilling to drive. Players will be able to tune the difficulty and driving experience to perfectly suit their driving skill and style with assists like traction control, braking assist, and more. It’s all about choice, so you can punch up the difficulty and test your driving skills to their limit, or dial things down, hit the road, and have a great time simply exploring the world."
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