A screenshot from Forza Horizon 4
© Microsoft/Turn10 Studios/Playground Games
Games

How Forza Horizon 4 aims to make Britain's roads thrilling

As Forza Horizon comes home, we speak to the guy behind the most fun racing series money can buy.
Written by Damien McFerran
9 min readPublished on
While the mainline Forza Motorsport series continues to push the envelope in terms of sheer realism, the Forza Horizon sub-franchise has developed a reputation that's a little more light-hearted and fun. It's been compared to everything from Sega's OutRun to Criteron's gloriously freeform Burnout Paradise, but in reality Horizon is very much its own thing; it combines meticulously detailed cars with wide open roads and engaging challenges – many of which are underpinned by an infectiously addictive online system.
Later this year, we'll be getting the fourth instalment in this rubber-burning series, this time set in the traditionally damp United Kingdom. Given that previous entries have seen players racing across North America, soaking up the rays in the Mediterranean and driving across sand dunes in Australia, relocating to Blighty might seem like something of an anti-climax for fans, but creative director and co-founder of Playground Games Ralph Fulton thinks the new location is the perfect setting to show off one of Forza Horizon 4's most innovative new features.
"We always look for a diverse setting that provides beautiful scenery and great driving roads, and Britain certainly provides all of that," he tells us. "However, it was our decision to implement dynamic seasons for the first time, which really cemented Britain as the perfect location for Forza Horizon 4. Britain is a very seasonal location which changes completely throughout the year. In a way, choosing to do seasons meant we had to do Britain, and choosing Britain meant we had to do seasons."
Of course, there's also the fact that Playground Games are based in the UK, so you'd expect them to have an intimate knowledge of the winding roads of Britain – which should mean this is the most authentic Forza Horizon yet. "I think that’s definitely what we’re aiming for," Fulton says. "We’re a British studio – all of our staff live here and many grew up here, so we have a greater level of intimacy with the subject matter on this project than ever before. When we’ve recreated locations on past Forza Horizon games, we’ve done so from research and reference photography, and I think we’ve done a great job. What we didn’t have was the local knowledge to know when we got something wrong. On Forza Horizon 4, because we have that absolute familiarity with Britain, we intuitively know when something’s not quite right and we’re driven to fix it. That has definitely increased the visual authenticity of our world this time. We also have a pride in the country we live in, and we want to present it in the best possible light – we want to show our players the incredible Britain that we’ve rediscovered during this project."
Given that the UK is significantly smaller than Australia, you might be concerned that Forza Horizon 4's map has less to offer than its direct predecessor. However, Fulton assures us that's not the case – and that the changing seasons will make the map feel bigger than it actually is. "The overall footprint of the Forza Horizon 4 world in Britain is roughly equivalent to Forza Horizon 3, but it features four dynamic seasons that change gameplay and visuals completely on a regular basis," he explains. "Seasons change the world around you, with each bringing its own striking beauty and impact on gameplay through new driving experiences, events, challenges and rewards. You’ll feel like you’re exploring a completely different world after each season change."
Indeed, this new system has the potential to radically change the way Forza Horizon looks and feels, and Fulton is only too happy to give an example. "Seasons change everything in the game, from the look of the world and the way it drives, to the gameplay and events you’ll find during each season. The perfect example of how seasons change and impact gameplay is Derwentwater, a lake in the north of England which we have in the game. In Forza Horizon 4, it freezes in winter allowing you to drive on it, which in turn allows you to access gameplay on an island in the middle that you can’t get to for the rest of the year. In summer, some rivers dry up entirely making races which offer a different challenge than when the rivers are full in spring or autumn. And in spring, heavy rain can change offroad races as dirt becomes heavy, deformable mud, and flooding changes the best lines to take on the track."
A screenshot from Forza Horizon 4

Muddy funster

© Microsoft/Turn10 Studios/Playground Games

While Playground's base in the UK means the studio should be able to recreate the atmosphere of the British Isles perfectly, this isn't a team which leaves things to chance; when making Forza Horizon 3, Playground actually sent people to Australia to record footage of cloud formations to put into the game; the sky you saw as you pelted across the Aussie outback was the real thing. Fulton explains that his studio is taking similar steps to ensure the UK is replicated as faithfully as possible in the fourth game.
"Typically on a Forza Horizon project once we’ve selected our location, we send a small research team out to the location to gather reference photography and videos from which we build the game," he says. "As Forza Horizon 4 is located in the same country as our studio, we were able to send many more of the team out on research trips and more of them had the chance to experience the areas in our game first-hand. And because our game features dynamic seasons, it wasn’t enough to do just one research trip – we visited every location in the game in every season to gather the reference material we needed. Thanks to these multiple research points, we’ve effectively researched more on this title than on any Horizon game to date. And because Britain is right on our doorstep, we’ve been able to do research at incredibly short notice, like when ‘The Beast from the East’ covered the entire country in snow earlier this year. That storm was terrible for everyone who lives in Britain, but it was great for the purpose of getting some great reference material for the game!"
If you've played a Forza Horizon game before then you'll be aware that a huge part of its appeal is the feeling of being involved in a massive living world, with other players racing around the same roads as you. This won't change in Forza Horizon 4. "The shared open world will allow everyone to experience changes in time of day, weather, and seasons together," Fulton comments. "The world is a single, community-wide shared world, and your game is populated with other real players. To maintain a stable and highly performing experience for everyone, the service seamlessly zones players to make them visible and you will see up to 12 real players in the game at a single time."
It's a rather boring question to ask year after year, but we're going to do it anyway: how many cars are in Forza Horizon 4? "In the Forza franchise, our goal is always to create a roster of cars that touches on a huge variety of automotive interests and suits each game’s unique experiences," replies Fulton, who must have been asked this same question about a million times over the years, but never seems to mind too much. "Forza Horizon 4 features the largest and most diverse line-up of vehicles available at launch in the Forza Horizon series yet, with more than 450 cars from over 100 licensed manufacturers to collect, race and customise. There are cars for every season, every type of terrain, and every taste. Each is fully explorable – interior and exterior – using Forzavista, built for the Xbox One family of devices and Windows 10 PCs to be precise recreations of their real-life counterparts with cockpits and working gauges, gorgeously-reproduced interiors and exteriors, full damage, effects for rain, dirt, snow and mud, and working headlights and windshield wipers."
The game's changing seasons are rightly grabbing people's attention, but Forza Horizon 4 has another new feature up its sleeve which is potentially just as exciting – especially if you're a fan of arcade racers like Crazy Taxi and Ridge Racer. "Horizon Stories is a brand new feature in Forza Horizon 4 which allows you to go out and get a job to earn your keep at the Festival," Fulton explains. "This being Forza Horizon, the jobs are all pretty fun and offbeat, and they all involve driving cars fast." One of these missions sees you team up with a vlogger who is trying to recreate classic video games in real life. "Thanks to Horizon, she has the cars and you provide the driving. One of the video games we pay homage to in this story is Crazy Taxi, as well as classics like Ridge Racer, Project Gotham Racing and Sega Rally. There are a number of really fun Horizon Stories in the game and we plan to keep bringing new ones to the game post-launch for free to all players."
DLC has been a big part of the Forza series for some time now, so it might not be too surprising to hear that Forza Horizon 4 will be getting its own fair share of downloadable delights post-launch, as Fulton explains. "Deluxe and Ultimate Edition owners will automatically receive the Formula Drift Car Pack and Forza Horizon 4 Car Pass, and Ultimate Edition owners will also receive the Day One car pack, two expansions, and VIP Membership, in addition to early access to the game on September 28. We’ll have more to share on additional DLC in the future."
The franchise has travelled thousands of virtual miles since its inception in 2012, covering three major continents in the process. Are the team at Playground Games in danger of running out of new locations? "I don’t think we’re losing sleep over it, no," replies Fulton with a smile. "For now, we’re completely focused on Forza Horizon 4 and we intend to be supporting this game with new content and features for a long time to come. Beyond that, Horizon works wherever there is beautiful scenery and great roads to drive on, so I reckon there’s more than a few places left on Earth that might meet that criteria."
Forza Horizon 4 launches on Xbox One and PC on October 2, 2018.