After my trip through the history of Need for Speed games I decided to do something similar for the Forza Horizon series. I blew the dust off my Series X and logged in to see what Forza games I still had access to in my library. The earliest one in there was 3 which came out back in 2016, fully 4 years before the pandemic when I actually got seriously obsessed with driving games. The times before Covid seem like a million years ago and I had very little memory of Horizon 3. I honestly couldn't even remember if I played it very much. So I downloaded it and yeah…I played it a lot.
When I loaded up the game I could see that the next event available for me to race was literally the finale. I raced it and the fucking credits rolled! I had apparently played the shit out of this game but did not want to beat it (This is something I have a tendency to do). A quick look back through the archive reveals Jerry and I both loved it. I considered trying to restart the game but once the credits were finished a bunch of new shit got unlocked! I had fully intended to check out the other Horizon games and I did jump into 2, 4 and 5 for a couple races but I kept coming back to 3 because the map is so great!
Back in 2020 they stopped supporting Horizon 3’s online functionality which sucks because I was looking through the menus and was reminded that we had a Penny Arcade racing league with over 300 members!
The ancient precursor to the modern day Penny Arcade iRacing league!
I realize there are two newer Forza Horizon games that can still be played online but it’s still a bummer there’s no multiplayer support for 3 anymore. The most recent one, Horizon 5, came out 3 years ago and is still getting new updates. I’ve tried to get into the fifth game which is set in Mexico but the map, while pretty, feels very empty and boring to me. I liked the seasons in Horizon 4 and their take on Great Britain has some fun sections but Horizon 3 and its Australian map is too good!
Also X-Men 97 kicked incredible amounts of ass! As someone who loved the original series this was a perfect follow up. It deals with some great stories, artfully distilled for a Saturday morning style cartoon. It’s also beautiful with most of the show being done in a style that evokes the 90’s look of the original but with some beautifully fluid action sequences that look straight out of an anime. I’ve seen some headlines suggesting X-Men 97 didn’t perform well which, if true, sucks. With this season finale they have set up some cool ideas for the next season, I just hope they are allowed to execute on them!
Also, Also, May Sticker drop is this week on Thursday the 23rd!
-Gabe out
