Bonza Zooming: Forza Horizon 3 Released On Win 10
Open-world racing
Australia's natural car ecosystem was ruined by the arrival of European invaders and the foreign cars which stowed away on their ships. Facing no natural predators, car species like the BMW M3 and Reliant three-wheelers quickly dominated all biomes. Forza Horizon 3 [official site], as I understand it, is a game about subtly stamping out those invasive species by driving them quite quickly and unsafely. 'Racing', the pest controllers call it. Now we can join in, as the Australian open-world racer is out today on Windows 10. Hark, a launch trailer:
So! Forza Horizon 3 is about a big festival as a big excuse to go driving all manner of cars over a pint-sized open-world Australia, from fancy racing ones to no, seriously, the three-wheeled Reliant Supervan. Races take place all over the land, from cities to the rainforests and outback, and if you drive your car quickly - more quickly than other drivers - you'll win. It's not quite super-serious sim racing but it's not an arcade racer.
It's meant to be pretty good! Our chums at Eurogamer really dug it, as did the folks of cheery RPS fanzine PC Gamer. There are a few known issues with the PC version right now, mind, mostly to do with wheels and other driving peripherals.
Forza Horizon 3 is £49.99/$59.99 on the Windows Store for Windows 10. I'd link you to the Windows Store page but the Store app doesn't let me copy links and the browser-based version is throwing error messages at me right now so cool, thanks Microsoft. People who bought a fancy edition were allowed in a few days early, but now it's out for everyone. Horizon 3 is one of those 'Xbox Play Anywhere' games, which means that if you buy it digitally you get to play it on both Xbox One and Windows 10.
While a demo has been out on Xbone for a few weeks, word on PC is that a demo "will be released sometime after launch". Players who wish to try it now are pointed towards a different game, the free Forza Motorsport 6: Apex. Well, it'll give some vague indication of Horizon 3 will run, at least?