Forza Horizon 6

I am not a big racing gamer but this game truly hits different.

Back then I played FH4 and I never really got into it. There's just something lacking for me. But now that I tried FH6, even though the game is fundamentally a similar game only with different settings, it really hooked me.

I think one of the biggest part of it is the setting of Japan. I feel they really nailed the feel for the most part. It felt like a pilgrimage for a lot of people who are familiar with Initial D. The map is not overly huge with a lot of nothing as in FH4. It is more jam packed with activities and off-roads. There's almost no wasted space for the most part. This would be a game where the art team should be proud of because it's mostly because of them that the old formula of FH game truly shines in this game world.

Gameplay wise it's mostly the same as previous FH as far as I know, but now that I am playing this game quite extensively I started to understand and appreciate how the driving itself feels. I think FH did a good job on striking a good balance between arcade feel and simulation feel. It's definitely not as arcade as NFS, but definitely not as simulation as Gran Turismo. It can be challenging, it can be fun, and it definitely can be both. You can literally have fun and spend a lot of time just driving around in this amazing world they have built.

My only complain is it's not performing amazingly on AMD GPU and Linux. With AMD GPU I noticed a few frame dips here and there, and it is worse if you use ray tracing. While on Linux there are just some issues such as some audio channels not working, sometimes you can hear music but not conversations and car sound.

I am enjoying it a lot. Probably one of the most enjoyable experience playing a racing game ever since the old Need for Speed era circa 2004. Truly recommended. You should give it a try.