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Forza Horizon rolls out free 1000 Club DLC tomorrow
Forza Horizon will get a free infusion of new content tomorrow. Entitled the 1000 Club, the DLC adds over 1000 challenges to complete, along with some new Achievements. The DLC will automatically suggest challenges based on whatever cars a player owns. Based on the trailer, the challenges offer more than racing, tasking players with everything from making huge jumps to just crashing into things. The 1000 Club will also include two new cars, the 1956 Ford F100 and the 1995 RUF CTR2.Microsoft tells Joystiq that the pack will feature unique challenges for every single car in the game, including the cars from the standard game and those that have been released as DLC.
Forza Horizon's Top Gear car pack DLC hits April 2
Six new cars will arrive in Tuesday's DLC pack for Forza Horizon, as selected by Top Gear Magazine and Turn 10 Studios. Players will get the opportunity to cruise in the 2011 Ford Transit SuperSportVan, the 1998 Mercedes-Benz AMG Mercedes CLK GTR, the 2012 Aston Martin Vanquish, a 2012 Bowler EXR S, a 2011 Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale Zagato and a 2002 BMW M3-GTR.The BMW M3-GTR is free for all Forza Horizon players, while the entire car pack can be bought for 400 MSP. Season Pass holders will be able to download the car pack for free. %Gallery-184404%
Forza Horizon 'February Jalopnik car pack' DLC hits the open road Feb. 5
Six rides are being added to Forza Horizon on Tuesday: the 2013 Subaru BRZ, '91 Ferrari 512 TR, 2012 Toyota FJ Cruiser, '70 Nissan Datsun 510, and '73 Mazda RX-3. The pass is included with the game's Season Pass or separately for 400MS Points ($5). As a special bonus, the '66 Ford Country Squire will be free for all speed demons.
Forza Horizon Rally expansion drifts onto XBL next week
As Vin Diesel and Bow Wow taught us in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, drifting is the coolest possible way to travel from Point A to Point B, regardless of situation, circumstance or the amount of neon lights underneath your car.We bring this up because Forza Horizon's latest bundle of DLC is a rally racing expansion pack, available next Tuesday, December 18, for 1,600 MS Points. The "Rally" expansion includes five new rally-purposed cars, new stages, new online multiplayer events and even co-driver announcements, so you can keep your damn eyes on the road you lunatic.Anyone who purchased Horizon's $50 Season Pass will get the Rally expansion for free, along with an exclusive 2003 Ford Focus SVT. Under any other circumstances, a 10-year-old Ford Focus isn't really what we'd call a "motivating incentive."
Groupon: 4GB Xbox 360 bundle with Forza 4, Alan Wake for $200
Groupon has posted the rare gaming-centric deal. For the next two days, you can purchase a 4GB Xbox 360 S console with included copies of Forza Motorsport 4 and Alan Wake for $200. If you feel it's a good enough deal to buy in bulk, you can purchase up to three through this promotion.This exact bundle was introduced during the holidays last year, albeit with a 250GB console. Also of note is the included copy of Alan Wake, which is not a physical disc but rather a download code. Consider it the tutorial puzzle preamble to Wake's nightly meandering through the Pacific Northwest.
Forza Horizon December Car Pack has a Halo Edition Raptor, 5 more
Forza Horizon's December IGN Car Pack includes six vehicles spanning "the spectrum of automotive excitement," set to drop for 400 MS Points on December 4.The pack features a 2011 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Halo Edition, 2008 Aston Martin DBS, 2012 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, 2006 Ford GTX1, 2006 Hummer H1 Alpha Open Top, 1993 McLaren F1 and a 1971 AMC Javelin-AMX. The December Car Pack is part of the Forza Horizon Season Pass, which grants access to all monthly DLC packs through March 2013, including December 18's Rally Expansion Pack. The Season Pass runs 4,000 MS Points through XBLM.
Forza Horizon 'Bondurant Car Pack' DLC coming Nov. 6
Though we suspect you'll be busy doing donuts in Master Chief's Warthog on November 6, the date also marks the release of the "Bondurant Car Pack" for Microsoft's other first-party fall release, Forza Horizon.Priced at 400 Microsoft Points on the Xbox Live Marketplace, the November DLC includes a six-pack of new vehicles to augment the moments our review called "incredibly beautiful." But who needs to stop and smell the roses when you can inhale the sweet fumes of a 1965 Shelby Cobra or that 2012 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon? (Okay, we probably should have used the new Lamborghini Gallardo as our second example.)Full list and details on the new rides can be seen after the break.
Forza Horizon 'SmartGlass Experience' app now available on Windows 8
If you've ever been playing Forza Horizon and thought "Man, I wish I could look at a tablet to see the map instead of having to hit the pause button like some kind of cave man," Microsoft has solution for your oddly specific wish.Available now on Windows 8 and other platforms "soon," the Forza Horizon "SmartGlass Experience" moves Horizon's map from the game's pause menu to the screen of a Windows 8 tablet. There, the map continues to perform all of the same duties as it does in-game, allowing the player to set GPS destinations, get information on events, etc.Now, however, instead of having to pause the game to look at the map, all the player has to do is put down the controller and pick up a second device to perform the same functions. Whether they pause the game first, or go careening into the side of a mountain, is entirely up to them.%Gallery-170127%
Forza Horizon review: Baby, you can drive my car
There's no dearth of hardcore simulation racing games out there. They cater to die-hard, petrol-drinking motorsport enthusiasts, but what about that other, less intense breed of car enthusiast? Some may dream of being Rubens Barrichello, but many others want nothing more than an open road and a mid-engine anything.Forza Horizon is a game for someone who knows the difference between a Lotus and a TVR, but may not know what PSI is most appropriate for slick tires on a sub-70 degree morning. It's a game for people who DVR Top Gear on BBC America, but not the Monte Carlo Grand Prix or Barret-Jackson auction coverage on Speed TV. In essence, Forza Horizon is a massive toy chest full of hyper-accurate hot wheels. Oh, and dubstep. There's a lot of dubstep.%Gallery-163548%
Forza Horizon demo pulls into Xbox Live October 9
Forza Horizon launches on the Xbox 360 October 23, but a few weeks before then you'll be able to get behind the wheel early with a demo on October 9. Available free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers for the first week and everyone else after, the Forza Horizon demo will feature a few missions, several of which will be Rivals mode-compatible – you'll be able to compare demo deeds with your Xbox Live friends.A section of Forza Horizon's sandbox map will be unlocked in the demo and all those who download then purchase the game on October 23 will get a custom 2013 SRT Viper GTS "designed to highlight Forza Horizon's 'gone-gold' status."
Forza Horizon post-launch plan includes monthly car packs, first 'expansion pack' on Dec. 18
Turn 10 and Playground Games will aim to stock the Forza Horizon virtual garage with monthly car packs, design director Ralph Fulton has revealed. There will also be expansion packs, the first of which will launch on December 18."What we're really excited about is some expansion packs we have coming, the first of which will launch on December 18th and that will really extend the experience you can have in Forza Horizon," Fulton told Gamerzines. He also confirmed a demo would eventually come to Xbox Live, which seems fitting since it's a Microsoft-published game and also cars.
Forza Horizon dev diary races against the world
Forza Horizon takes things off the track into the wilds of Colorado, where for the first time in the series players will have to deal with traffic, sometimes even at night. Just for fun, we like to imagine that every SUV on the road is full of nuns on their way to nun school.
September Pennzoil car pack rolls into Forza 4
The 11 cars now available in September's Pennzoil car pack for Forza Motorsport 4 are all pretty ... slick. For 560 MS Points ($7) you'll get a couple of Vipers, an Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale and a '53 Corvette, just to name a few. The full list of the cars can be seen past the break.Players that picked up a season pass for the game will have to shell out money for this DLC pack, as the last add-on to be included in the pass launched in April. New Community Monthly Rivals Mode events, including one that features the Pennzoil-sponsored Vipers, accompany this new release.%Gallery-164406%
Taking the road less traveled in Forza Horizon
Forza Horizon marks the franchise's first foray into an open-world setting. It's hinged on a fictional racing festival in Colorado, where anyone can show up with their ride and chase the kind of immortality known only to Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. Playground Games, a new outfit composed of former Bizarre Creations and Codemasters folks, is developing the game under supervision of longtime Forza custodian Turn 10 Studios.Turn 10's Dan Greenawalt equates Forza Horizon to Coachella or Bonnaroo, a grassroots festival celebrating the culture and style of its particular scene. The Horizon festival provides the vehicle (sorry!) for gameplay, a smattering of different race types and challenges wrapped in a diverse campaign.%Gallery-163548%
Forza 4 picks up 10 new cars, a pair of suicide doors
Have you been playing Forza Motorsport 4 and thinking to yourself, "Man, I like Forza, but there just aren't enough cars in it." This news is for you then, because the August Playseat Car Pack has just been released. This baby comes packing 10 new cars, ranging from Chevy to Ford to Peugeot to Scion. There's also a 60s era Lincoln Continental with suicide doors, which you might recognize as the ride Morpheus picked up Neo in before The Matrix went sour. The movie, not the Toyota Matrix (which isn't in Forza 4, incidentally).You can pick up the whole pack for $7, or individual cars for $3.%Gallery-161910%
Forza Horizon collector's edition, pre-order goodies revealed
Forza Horizon hooks up early adopters with a code for a free whip, instantly available in Forza Motorsport 4: the 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT8 392. If you pre-order Forza Horizon at a participating US retailer and don't own Forza Motorsport 4, you can also select from one of four exclusive cars to download and use in Forza Horizon on launch day, October 23: a 2012 Aston Martin Virage, 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia, or a 2010 Nissan 350Z.Should you decide to pre-order, you'll have the option of Forza Horizon's standard package (stick shift, cloth seats, AM/FM radio) or you can opt into the more limited edition package. Forza Horizon's collector's edition includes a steelbook case, and VIP membership branding you as a special player in the community and granting access to exclusive DLC and in-game events. VIPs will be able to download a special five-car DLC pack on day one, additional liveries and a progress token that instantly unlocks more advanced cars in career mode.%Gallery-160186%
PSA: Forza 4 July Car Pack now available
The latest round of fuel-injected and/or naturally aspirated DLC has hit Forza 4, bringing with it a swatch of blacktop devouring beasts from modern times and days gone by.The aptly named July Car Pack, available today for 560 MS Points, features the following sick whips (in chronological order): The 1952 Hudson Hornet, 1954 Jaguar XK120, 1956 Lotus Eleven, 1973 AMC Gremlin X, 1995 RUF CTR2, 1998 Aston Martin V8 Vantage V600, 2011 McLaren 59 GT MP4-12C GT3, 2012 Spyker C8 Aileron, 2012 Ascari KZ1R and 2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG, all of which can be seen in the trailer above and gallery below.%Gallery-159677%
2013 SRT Viper GTS rolls into Forza 4 as free DLC
The common man can't afford an ultra-sexy car like the 2013 SRT Viper GTS, now available for download in Forza Motorsport 4. A vehicle like the Viper is the equivalent of car porn on wheels, loaded with elegant curves and 640 horsepower under the hood.Still, anyone can play Forza 4 and download this DLC pack for the Viper free of charge, but will have to dole out in-game credits or car tokens to obtain this beast in career mode.
Fame is always just over the Forza Horizon
Ralph Fulton of Playground Games was very insistent that Forza Horizon is not, in fact, an arcade racing game. It may take place in an open-world version of Colorado, may be free from traditional Forza career modes and may feature a youth-focused licensed soundtrack (read: dubstep), but the actual driving is built on Forza's physics engine.The problem with arcade-style racing games, according to Fulton, is that the appeal of racing different vehicles is lost due to the fact that all cars have to handle roughly the same in order to preserve an "arcade" feel. By using Forza's existing physics engine, Playground Games hopes to circumnavigate this problem and preserve the series' pedigree for for automotive accuracy.That being said, the only car featured in the demonstration I saw was the 2013 SRT Viper, and as it was a hands-off demonstration, I was unable to compare its handling with my experience driving similar cars in previous Forza games. What I can say, is that the Viper did more than its fair share of drifting around Colorado's mountain roads, and that it racked up wicked popularity points doing so. See, in Forza Horizon, you're not just driving around for the hell of it. You're driving to get famous.%Gallery-157065%
Forza Horizon to feature voice-activated Kinect GPS
Forza Horizon's take on Kinect integration will be a bit more utilitarian than the dynamic head tracking seen in Forza 4, allowing players to use voice commands to activate the game's GPS system and find their way through Horizon's open-world version of Colorado."We received two recurring feedback points while we were looking at this game," Playground Games' design director Ralph Fulton told us during E3. "The first one is really simple, people said 'This world so big, I found it really easy to get lost.' The second is kind of related to that, people said 'Sometimes I forget where I'm going, or what I want to do next.'"Forza Horizon's solution to this problem is a voice-activated GPS system that the player can use to find specific locations, such as the game's eponymous Horizon Festival ("GPS, Festival, Autoshow"), as well as ask more generic questions ("Where's my next race? Where's my nearest event?"). Once the Kinect registers the player's request, Forza's familiar line of green arrows extends from the underbelly of the vehicle, guiding the player to their destination.
