Topic: Forza Horizon 2: broken game

[Cobra951]

Forza Horizon 1, on the X360, is an amazing open-world racer.  It has, to my knowledge after over 100 hours into it, no deficiencies at all.  It runs at a locked 30 fps with no screen tear and no stutter (ever).  It looks amazing.  I won't even qualify it by adding "for the hardware".  It features a terrific physics model, and everything behaves as it should.  It is the most immersive and addictive racing experience so far for me.

Cut to the sequel on much more powerful hardware.  It stutters, though only occasionally.  This can be minimized by disabling the DVR feature, but it doesn't cure it.  It has a lot of noticeable pop-in detail.  These are disappointing, but not fatal.  What does make it almost unplayable is a shocking bug in the audio that freezes the pitch of the sound of the engine for one or more seconds.  Any racer who isn't deaf uses the sound of the engine as crucial feedback to determine what to do moment by moment in a race (real life or simulation).  That frees him to look out the windshield instead of down at the gauges.  It becomes instinctive, and is absolutely essential.

Until they fix this (assuming they will), I recommend staying away.  If you have no interest, but know someone who does, pass the word.

Here is the thread on the issue at the official forums.

To dispel any notion of workarounds, this happens online or offline, with or without DVR functionality, with or without setting GPS waypoints, with or without the audio bits that can be turned off.  It happens on all cars.  It's a systemic bug.  Nothing the player can do.

[MysterD]

This whole attitude of dev's/pub's releasing games before they are ready is just...ridiculous. No wonder I don't buy most games ASAP. No wonder I wait for patches to be released + major price-drops before buying moist games, these days and age.

Especially since buying games ASAP, you spend more money for broken product or unfinished product w/ less content than waiting for the inevitable Re-Release Edition that might have more content, more graphics features, more fixes, and who knows what else.

[scottws]

It's starting to sound like hard drives in consoles have been more of a bane than a boon.  It allows publishers to be greedy and developers to be lazy.

[Quemaqua]

This is exactly why when consoles started getting hard drives and utilizing internet features more, I bitched a lot and said I didn't like it. Everyone told me I was a jackass, but this is what connectivity and storage options give people leeway to do. Not that it had to happen ... but it's people. So it was gonna whether it had to or not.

[Cobra951]

Everything is headed to digital, though.  It's unrealistic to assume that consoles could have stuck to the optical grind-fest and survived.  The Xbox 360 became a much better system simply by allowing disc games to be fully installed on the hard drive, a few years into its life cycle (and later, even to USB sticks).  That opened a door that we shouldn't yearn to close.  Having hard drives may allow bad developer behavior, but it doesn't mean we should tolerate it.  If we do, who's fault is it?  They'll only do what's necessary to get our money.

I'll take my share of the blame for paying for an unfinished product.  In my defense, nobody brought this up outside of an obscure thread in a website with overly restrictive admittance.  What we need is better watchdogs.  This problem should have been publicly exposed from Day One, because it has been there since Day One.  And the official response is the typical stone wall of silence.

[Quemaqua]

I mean you can say we shouldn't tolerate it and thus it's our fault, but that's always how these things go. People tolerate basically everything because it's easier than not tolerating it. It led us here and will lead us from here to whatever worse ends await. That's just how it is. It's a moot point anyway since the door is already open, and the doors will always open because there's nobody to keep them closed ... but this is what's gonna happen.

[PyroMenace]

Personally I'm with D, I wait before buying moist games these days and age.

[Quemaqua]

hahaha ... god damn it, pyro. you got me.

[scottws]

Plus you have a lot of non-discerning buyers in parents for kids and even kids themselves. They aren't going to read reviews even if the game reviewers give the game one star.

We've seen it for years and years on PC and in that case you did have more discerning buyers.  It's no surprise it is here on consoles.

[Cobra951]

It's just extra-shocking in this case, because these are cream-of-the-crop developers.  We're talking a new studio manned with ex-Codemasters and ex-Criterion devs teaming up with the Turn-10 powerhouse.  It was a foregone conclusion that the game would shine (and to be fair, mostly it does).  Trust seems so hard to rely on anymore.