I've been a big fan of car games for a long time. I remember playing Colin McCrae rally games with my uncle on my PS1 and having the time of my life. I remember going through the golden age of racing games when Forza Motorsport 3 and 4 were released or when I would spend hours upong hours playing and collecting cars in Gran Turismo 4. I remember when NFS really started to become mainstream after NFS Underground 2. Man those were the days huh? Why is MicrosoftWord03 focusing so much on nostalgia? You may be asking yourself. Well it's so that my point can hit even harder.
I don't think there is a gaming genre that has taken a bigger hit over the years like racing games have. As the videogame industry grows, studios and projects start getting pressured into creating bigger games that have more stuff and are more profitable above all. To me it's such a shame that soul and passion (the very motor of a successful game ironically) get pushed to the side in the name of profit. In the name of making your game as accessible and bland as possible. It's ok for your game to say something. It's ok that some people will not like it - and I know I am talking about an open world racing game, by nature it would seem like it doesn't have much to say by design - but I would disagree.
Sometimes the message is encoded within the encasing. Sometimes the aesthetics are the message. Sometimes player freedom is the message. you get what I mean? It's not necessary for a game to have a huge story line and one million rpg features for it to speak to players. Car appreciation speaks to millions of people around the world and it's truly heart breaking that Forza throws even that to the trash - all in the name of profit.
I know many games and game genres have fallen prey to these practices, but something as pure, free and simple as driving games (especially open world) have never felt so clinical and sterile like they do in Forza Horizon 5. There's not much else to say. This game is a politically correct, culturally neutered blob of corporate appropriation and i think that sucks. A husk of what a great racing series used to be.
In any case:
2.5 crashed and forgotten barn finds out of 5
🚗🚗
I don't think there is a gaming genre that has taken a bigger hit over the years like racing games have. As the videogame industry grows, studios and projects start getting pressured into creating bigger games that have more stuff and are more profitable above all. To me it's such a shame that soul and passion (the very motor of a successful game ironically) get pushed to the side in the name of profit. In the name of making your game as accessible and bland as possible. It's ok for your game to say something. It's ok that some people will not like it - and I know I am talking about an open world racing game, by nature it would seem like it doesn't have much to say by design - but I would disagree.
Sometimes the message is encoded within the encasing. Sometimes the aesthetics are the message. Sometimes player freedom is the message. you get what I mean? It's not necessary for a game to have a huge story line and one million rpg features for it to speak to players. Car appreciation speaks to millions of people around the world and it's truly heart breaking that Forza throws even that to the trash - all in the name of profit.
I know many games and game genres have fallen prey to these practices, but something as pure, free and simple as driving games (especially open world) have never felt so clinical and sterile like they do in Forza Horizon 5. There's not much else to say. This game is a politically correct, culturally neutered blob of corporate appropriation and i think that sucks. A husk of what a great racing series used to be.
In any case:
2.5 crashed and forgotten barn finds out of 5
🚗🚗