Forza Horizon 6

[jamcg]

Yeah, much as though I'm whinging about the VRAM usage if you want the pretty pretty effects, everything I hear about it is positive, assuming you're OK with the cringe that is the storylines and cutscenes, etc.

All every horizon storyline has been missing is a bald guy looking at the sky, punching his chest, and shouting “family”

[Mito Man]

They’ve spectacularly missed the point with Touge racing. Instead of making an entirely new type of racing they’ve just renamed the head to head races which is a shame as I was looking forward to that. That’s pretty lazy from them as that’s a uniquely Japanese thing and would have been a great new feature.

I like stumbling across random cars for sale but from what I have seen so far the used cars are just new cars with a discount or slightly modified but it’s kinda odd as unlike Gran Turismo they’re not unavailable new from the dealership or have mileage recorded so it’s a half baked idea.

At least the map is enjoyable but at times it feels like you’re driving on an airport runway as the roads are so wide everywhere, and feels like a wasted opportunity that they don’t make more use of the open world nature of the game.

Feels like the garage and track customisation is where most of the effort went into it. Can kind of see why though as it’s a bit like GTA 5 online. That’s what the kids like and will spend all their time and money on online.

7 cherry blossoms out of 10 from me.

[simon_g]

Enjoying so far, surprised how well it runs on my A770.

Annoying though that I let my son play the first half hour or so and found no easy way to reset it. Had to create him his own Windows profile, sign into the store as me and it lets him play on his own xbox account separately now, but for mine it was a faff of deleting save files, disabling internet, playing through the intro/tutorial again until it can save and let it back online to sync again. Just give me a reset button!

[Beany]

Speaking of things you didn't expect to see on PS5:



Yes that's right PS5 owners, you finally have one good game to look forward too!

(it's coming to Xbox later, just not yet)

Apparently banging the tangled mess of LUA scripts and ten years of hotfixes in a vice and squeeeeeezing to make it fit on consoles caused a major performance/efficiency bump, too. Which they theoretically could have done any time for their existing audience but I imagine the idea of lots of new sales on console made the resource use worth it.

Also lots of new things, including massively improved dynamic lighting system, atmospheric better real time shadowing, HDR support, better foilage etc - some people have done A/B comparisons between the (PS5) v0.39 footage and the current v0.38 version on PC with all the knobs turned up, and the PS5 version makes the PC version look like a bit pile of shit in terms of atmosphere.



Honestly it looks like a different game.

https://www.beamng.com/game/news/announ ... e-horizon/

A considerable part of the upcoming v0.39 update is dedicated to a graphics overhaul that’s been in development for quite some time now.

There are way too many technical terms to explain in detail, but here’s a concise list of what we’re cooking:

• Atmosphere and sky: volumetric clouds with shadows, multi-scattering sky, improved atmospheric fog, and a new altitude-based fog

• Rendering tech: a new Direct3D 12 renderer, support for HDR (for compatible modern displays), and a new natural tonemapper that improves both SDR and HDR

• Lighting and shadows: global and local exposure to simulate eye adaptation, improved dynamic reflections, fast screen-space shadows, improved shadow quality and stability

• Surfaces and textures: subsurface scattering and an extended texture detail mapping system

• Night-time rendering: vehicle lights with realistically calibrated intensity, temperature, and light cookies - textures that shape projected light, allowing for realistic patterns and beam effects (based on technology and market region)

.

It looks like this bumped other features down, like rotational blur on wheels (a long standing gripe) and the new tyre physics system based on properly simulated physics, not empirical lookup tables (bringing it in line with the rest of the suspension) but they are still coming. Just not quite yet.



So yeah, all in all, a good time to be someone who likes car games on consoles.

Oh yeah, miultiplayer is coming (soon tm) and it'll be crossplay.

[RobYob]

That does look like fun, BeamNG is up to 14 months on my Steam wishlist. Probably should've spent the money I wasted on C&C remastered getting it.

[Ascender]

This is pretty good fun and some of the scenery is absolutely stunning. I was getting properly into it until the James Bond game landed...

[Beany]

0.39 has officially dropped.
Lots of other things - new car, updates to paint rendering (now has orange peel), improved aero so drafting works, etc. I particularly like the look of the realistically handled retroreflection (IE road signs)

Full release notes can be found here
https://beamng.com/game/news/blog/beamng-drive-v0-39/

[RobYob]

That is pretty spectacular. Definitely could see myself enjoying that when I've time, and money, and time, and a new GPU.

I was excited to find Targa Florio circuit has been ported into Beamng but it hasn't had any extra polish in the process as far as I could tell.

[Matty]

Never played Beam.ng, but that does look good. I struggle with games that don't really have a goal, though.

That is pretty spectacular. Definitely could see myself enjoying that when I've time, and money, and time, and a new GPU.

Buy one now before the predicted 10-20% price rise over the next 12 months!

[RobYob]

Buy one now before the predicted 10-20% price rise over the next 12 months!

I was looking forward to the Steam Machine but still huffing bulk copium that the Steam frame will be a justifiable price...

Everything crossed my nine* year old rigg holds together a few more years.

*Although the only original parts are the case and the mobo now.

[Matty]

Buy one now before the predicted 10-20% price rise over the next 12 months!

I was looking forward to the Steam Machine but still huffing bulk copium that the Steam frame will be a justifiable price...

Everything crossed my nine* year old rigg holds together a few more years.

*Although the only original parts are the case and the mobo now.

My base rig is now 10 years old My 3080 was bought in 2020, my CPU was a mild upgrade 2 years ago to a 5700x3d. Can't see me justifying for another 2 years....so it'll be *mental* to think my PC will be 12 years old by the time it gets replaced.

Just praying to the electronic gods it'll last a bit longer, because I'm not paying £400 for 32GB of RAM, or £200 for an nVME!

[RobYob]

Buy one now before the predicted 10-20% price rise over the next 12 months!

I was looking forward to the Steam Machine but still huffing bulk copium that the Steam frame will be a justifiable price...

Everything crossed my nine* year old rigg holds together a few more years.

*Although the only original parts are the case and the mobo now.

My base rig is now 10 years old My 3080 was bought in 2020, my CPU was a mild upgrade 2 years ago to a 5700x3d. Can't see me justifying for another 2 years....so it'll be *mental* to think my PC will be 12 years old by the time it gets replaced.

Just praying to the electronic gods it'll last a bit longer, because I'm not paying £400 for 32GB of RAM, or £200 for an nVME!

Quite similar, my 1600X became a 5600X and RX580 a 3070 (a bargain ex crypto one) my RAM has been a problem that I've had fail three times in 9 years now so all the things crossed my 32GB is well bedded in for the long haul.

[integrale_evo]

Chip pricing is nuts, it’s the first generation I can ever remember with incremental increases in console prices.

Every other one has gradually dropped then a cheaper version got released

[Beany]

Keeping it in one place, but PS5 owners, you will have a game worth playing on October 19th

(and PC owners, we're finally getting DLSS/FSR/XeSS upscaling thank fuck)

[DeskJockey]

The boys are desperate to play Forza and we're thinking maybe they get a PS5 for Christmas, but which one to get? I'm totally out of the loop on what is our isn't worth having.

Any recommendations? What about Xbox?

[mik]

The boys are desperate to play Forza and we're thinking maybe they get a PS5 for Christmas, but which one to get? I'm totally out of the loop on what is our isn't worth having.

Any recommendations? What about Xbox?

<shrugs>

I upgraded to a PS5 slim mit disc (albeit a 2nd hand machine) as I didn't want to be limited to download games only. Although I haven't really played any games via the disc. The disc drive can very easily be added to a non-disc machine later, so you're not stuck if you choose non-disc.

I didn't see great value in stepping up to a PS5 Pro.

@scotta tried to convince me to switch to xBox instead, but my wheel would have needed a converter thing (not crazy expensive, but it's just something else to go wrong) so I didn't. Lots of online games offer cross-play now.

[Brannen]

Not sure the latest Forza Horizon game is even out on the PS5 yet, so would be worth checking when it's meant to release before buying a PS5 just for Forza Horizon 6 (especially as they're quite expensive now).

[scotta]

Beam NG drive is launching on PS5 if it's not already out. Other than horizon 6 there isn't really much on xbox racing wise beyond PMR at the moment.

Ive not played the sim racing for a while. The Thursday league I was in sort of died off. We mostly play COD now.