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Having had a little taste of Forza Horizon 6 I'm quite literally counting the days until it launches next month. It's one of my favorite franchises of all time, but as we wait for the latest and greatest, why not take a look back at where we began?
That, of course, was the original Forza Horizon, released exclusively on the Xbox 360 in October 2012. That makes it 14 years old in this, the 25th anniversary of Xbox. I have to tell you, it still holds up today.
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This is about as comprehensive a look back at the beginnings of the franchise as you'll find, splicing gameplay with background on how it came to be.
Forza Horizon was born when the then newly formed Playground Games teamed up with Turn 10 to expand the Forza franchise beyond the Motorsport titles that had been produced to that point.
Gavin Raeburn, formerly of Codemasters and responsible for some of my all-time favorite racing games, was at the helm. In a recent interview with Forbes, he recalled how Forza Horizon ultimately came to be.
"So those games that were being delivered every two years, like Forza Motorsport, were now told, right, well, you have to release every year. There’s no way the Forza Motorsport team could do that. So that was the reason they were looking for a second team. That said, at the time, they didn’t quite know what they wanted for that second project. That was down to us to decide and pitch for."
The rest, as they say, is history. For many years Forza Horizon was the tok to the Forza Motorsport tik. Yearly releases alternating between the two. That eventually came to an end, with the latter being rebooted and, for now, sidelined.
Forza Horizon 6 arrives after the longest wait between entries in the franchise to date. While the original was spun out in a couple of years, we're approaching five since Forza Horizon 5 launched. But the scale is now significantly increased.
The first game took us to Colorado in the United States, and while it looks limited in scope compared to the epic, which we're waiting on, the DNA of Forza Horizon has never changed. A sprawling open world, poster-worthy cars, wild races, and a bunch of side-quests to complete.
Despite its age, though, it's still such a fun game to play. It looks absolutely stunning, too. Seriously, it's a reminder of how impressive both sides of the Forza franchise have always been with their attention to detail.
Unfortunately, if you don't already own Forza Horizon, your only way to get a copy now is to find a used disc. It is playable with backwards compatibility on the current Xbox Series consoles, but thanks to the wonderful world of licensing, it's no longer available to purchase digitally.
Which is a shame, because there will be a lot of current players who never got to experience it. While the original has been far surpassed now in almost every way, it's important to remember its long-term impact.
Every following game built on this formula in some way, but the core experience that makes the franchise so good has prevailed over the years.
If you've got your own Forza Horizon memories to share, be they from the original or any other in the franchise, be sure to share them with me in the comments below!
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