Microsoft Games/Turn 10/Playground Games
I got the game from a Gold Box deal on Amazon and when I started playing the game, I loved it immediately. Unlike the Motorsport games, Horizon is more like Midnight Club. It's a open-world racing game where you are a rookie driver at a fictional racing/music festival in Colorado. The storyline involves you as the rookie driving festival races to move up the divisions and become champion. Each division has a "rival" who you try to beat to the next division. When you do, they challenge you to a race and if you beat them, you get their car they challenged you in. Each rival is kinda a one-dimensional stereotype (a urban street racer, a Jackass-like reality show host, a billionaire [who made in fun of my Audi R8 for some reason, probably jealous since I beat his Lambo] and the champ, Darious Flint.) Don't worry about the story that much, it's not like you're playing racing games for the plot after all.
Along with the festival races, you also get to race in street races, which earn you more money and unlike the festival races, civilian traffic is also a factor. Two random and fun additions are "publicity stunts" and "barn finds." Publicity stunts are races mostly involving you versus a non-car. One race involves a 1970 Mustang vs a P-51 Mustang, you vs. a hot air balloon, a helicopter and some racing involving Minis and Pergeouts.
Being a next-gen racing game, there are tons of cars in the game with tons to buy as DLC. Even though the game is now $30, you can spend $50 to get the season pass and get every DLC car. Personally, I only bought a couple DLC packs (my favorite being the Top Gear pack, which actually has a Ford Transit Van, weird, huh?). They've also added a Rally expansion for $20, which is recommended if you're a rally fan and was disappointed with Dirt Showdown. The 1000 Club was also added, giving you specific tricks, races or challenges for you to do with each car. That DLC is free and gives you stuff to do if you've already won the championship.
Although I'm comparing it to Midnight Club, it's still a Forza game, the driving are realistic and that's what makes the game for fun than Midnight Club or Need for Speed. Playground Games had previously made Blur, an underrated arcade racing game that I loved, and they did a great job here. If they make Forza Horizon 2 on XBox One, I might consider getting it (meaning an XBox One).
My grade: A+
