Started playing
Forza Horizons and it's a pretty weak attempt at a Criterion racer (even the billboard crashing is like this little tiny ugly bad photoshop signs instead of AWESOME BIG BILLBOARDS TO SMASH). I know when it and NFS Most Wanted came out around the same time, some people were saying Horizons was the better game, but even though Most Wanted is
seriously flawed, at least the core racing is exciting, feels great and looks fantastic. Horizons is like the most sterile looking world ever in an open world racer. TDU1 was better than this. It's just so drab and boring and the color scheme of dust orange everything looks terrible. On top of that the cars have no weight and it feels like everything is floating around even with all the assists off. I swear Forza 3's "arcade" settings were more arcade racer feeling than this. And then all the stupid stuff like the constant STORY TALKING between every event that you can't skip and the whole paid DLC integration at every turn where the game keeps saying (even vocally) "DON'T YOU WANT ONE OF THOSE SEXY CARS!?!? WHY NOT GO TO THE XBL MARKETPLACE AND BUY SOME CREDITS WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD

" omg, that shit makes me sick to my stomach. Most offensive pay-2-win integration I've seen in a game yet.
But mainly it's just that the world is boring to drive around because the handling is zzz and the graphics/art design are zzz. Might play a few more hours just to give it a little bit more of a chance, but just seems like a boring racer and I generally love arcade racers. Most Wanted had repetitive events, GODAWFUL FRUSTRATING AI RUBBERBANDS, and cars were all too heavy, but it was still a blast for a half-dozen to dozen hours because Criterion knows how to do exciting arcade racers. Horizons feels like an attempt to do an open world Burnout Paradise/NFS Hot Pursuit game with a semi-sim Forza handling model and...does anyone real want that? I have a feeling if GT attempted an open world "arcade" racer it'd probably be just like this and would again be a game no one wants. Arcade fans want fast, exciting arcade racing; Sim fans want semi-realistic/realistic slower and more accurate racing. Going for the middle ground never works.