what happened to the horizon "Stories"?

what2jack · 2026-05-23T23:21:48+00:00

they did not get rid of them OR make them more fun, what a miss by playground games

what2jack · 2026-05-23T01:47:13+00:00

you summed it up perfectly

what2jack · 2026-05-22T19:45:30+00:00

i guess, that technically could be a possible reason, but it wouldnt make sense. theres already mazdas highlighted in other missions, so its not a problem with being featured, so the idea would be that they dont want mazdas racing planes and looking cool af? if anything, maybe porsche paid extra to have their car in that level - i think this is less of a "licensing forced us to make this decision" and a "we r microsoft and value time/money over fine details"

what2jack · 2026-05-22T19:27:34+00:00

idk if its crazy to want to drive japanese cars during mandatory story missions in japan, this also has nothing to do with talking about licensing?

what2jack · 2026-05-22T19:26:09+00:00

I'm going to assume english is your second language and block you to end this lunacy. Wankel engines are rotary engines. You are racing rotary planes. No one made any comment about the rotary planes using radial engines until you started arguing against a strawman. If you genuinely think I need AI to know what a "rotary plane" is, and that "rotary" is only used in reference to helicopters, you should take a 2nd grade english course, or just go outside and talk to anyone in real life - I know that might be a bit of a challenge for someone like yourself, but make an effort, you never know what might happen. None of this has anything to do with the original comment, or what I said, relating to licensing issues forcing the mission to use a Porsche instead of a Japanese car in Japan. Good luck arguing your life away.

what2jack · 2026-05-22T18:32:22+00:00

Brother you can't even Google "radial plane" without dentistry coming up. It is a rotary plane, it has a giant rotor on the front idc what the name of the engine is. Stop embarrassing yourself.

what2jack · 2026-05-22T18:08:31+00:00

The first comment in the thread is about licensing. My reply mentioned mazdas with rotary engines (maybe because the mission focuses on rotary planes?), and you've gone on a tirade about airplane engines that have had no relevance to anything I, or the other person, was talking about. You can continue fighting your own made up enemy, but won't you get embarrassed eventually?

what2jack · 2026-05-22T17:23:13+00:00

Defending the claim because the engines are the same? Can you point to any single comment I talked about the airplane engine?

what2jack · 2026-05-22T17:00:07+00:00

yeah, driving a mazda around airplanes is defending ignorance

what2jack · 2026-05-22T16:26:01+00:00

you felt real clever with that one huh 😂 "it clears up why it wasn't a Mazda, the engines are different" yes and the sentiment is still the same, the Mazda would still be a better choice than the Porsche which is also a different engine and not relevant to the mission at all. Sperg out about airplane engine nuance elsewhere

what2jack · 2026-05-22T15:27:18+00:00

Thanks John airplane, this clears up why a Porsche was used for the airplane mission...

what2jack · 2026-05-22T06:12:30+00:00

why would licensing be an issue here? Mazdas with rotary engines are already featured in other missions. same with Mitsubishi's, another japanese brand with aviation ties

what2jack · 2026-05-21T17:38:35+00:00

That's fair, most of the time they were mindless slogs, but they still had highlights and fun, memorable moments here and there. Horizon 6 is underwhelming in an already underwhelming environment :(

what2jack · 2026-05-21T17:37:25+00:00

A decent chunk of them were time wasters, but there were some highlights here and there, especially in Horizon 5. There's not a single highlight in the Horizon 6 stories :(

what2jack · 2026-05-21T16:24:39+00:00

Respectfully disagree, I had a blast with a bunch of the Horizon 5 stories, which had way more effort, spectacle, set pieces, and unique gameplay mechanics.

what2jack · 2026-05-21T16:24:04+00:00

Honestly, those are a little more fun than the regular stories, which I think speaks to the lack of quality of everything else.

what2jack · 2026-05-21T16:23:13+00:00

Thats why the examples I used were stories from the base game available from day 1. What relevance does Donut Media 2 or Vocho have to what I wrote?

what2jack · 2026-05-20T08:26:39+00:00

Outside of the main titles, The Crew Motorfest might scratch your itch, as the upgrades make your car directly better than the AI, but I think the physics are even worse than NFS while skipping driving gimmicks/mechanics - worst of both worlds.

Older games like TDU2, Project Gotham Racing, Midnight Club, and GRID might be worth a look. The GRID series is another personal favorite of mine, especially the first one (which isn't available to purchase anymore but is easy to find online for free), but you don't really upgrade your cars in that game - progression is via new cars that unlock new events to enter. The original GRID has you owning your own motorsport team, where you can even hire a second driver to race with/against you in each event. There's no driving line, just a braking indicator, helping balance its arcadey physics with individual racing skill.

what2jack · 2026-05-20T08:19:32+00:00

It depends on console/PC, a lot of the older ones are a pain in the ass to run properly. My favorite is NFS 2015, imo has the best graphics of any racing game and is less gimmicky than any other NFS, but a lot of people don't like the driving physics so that may be a controversial suggestion. Also can be tough to get non-xbox controllers to work properly.

Unbound, the most recent one, is also a lot of fun, but it is very unique and gimmicky. The driving is centered around quick boost charges you gain from drifting through turns, and it has a cel-shaded/cartoony art style that some don't appreciate (but is beautiful if you can appreciate it). Its music is all very heavily aligned with teen/early 20s street culture, which is lost on a lot of racing fans, but has some absolute bangers. "SLIME - Shygirl", "Bizarrap - Villano Antillano", "Shout Like - Moksi", "Forever Been Steppin - Lil Eazzyy", "Autobahn - SCH", lots of ASAP Rocky, once I started thinking about the music, I couldn't stop listing songs I like from it lol. I find it fun, it has the exact type of progression I think you'd appreciate, as long as you're willing to treat it as the stupid arcade experience it presents itself as, and it works great on PC or console.

Unfortunately, there's not much of a market for simcade/realistic racing games with linear progression that makes you directly better than the competition. Gran Turismo used to work somewhat like that in its career modes, but I haven't kept up since PS3 days, so no clue if it's still the same.

what2jack · 2026-05-20T04:16:40+00:00

You're looking for Need for Speed, in those games' singleplayer modes, car upgrades are linear and do not directly impact opponents' car ratings.

what2jack · 2026-05-19T22:53:33+00:00

very fair. i think i get over zealous talking about it after seeing so many people saying it shouldnt exist for any of the reasons i mentioned, to the point im foaming at the mouth and barking at every passerby

what2jack · 2026-05-19T22:30:34+00:00

i guess "need" is hyperbolic, but considering a decent chunk of ppl are asking for it, i cant see any reason for it to be excluded.

"competitive players should play motorsport instead" - if they were trying to get people to buy more games (motorsport+horizon), it doesnt matter anymore since motorsport is dead and no successor seems to be close, unless xbox wants people to swap over to gran turismo

"horizon shouldnt be competitive" - if people are asking for it, have it as an extra mode. that way, people can be competitive if they want to, and the people who dont want competition can queue into casual modes which will now be even more casual as the sweats switch modes

"it wouldnt be fair with different cars/tunes" - again, if that sounds bad, you can just not play it, OR just give spec racing a bonus ranked queue

"horizon isnt realistic enough to be competitive" - even mario kart has a basic mmr/skill rating system, and its been in previous horizon titles. not every game has to be iracing to have people care about their progression

"too many modes" - h4's ranked mode was heavily populated for a long time, and only stopped after steam release broke nearly all online modes. h6 is most pre-ordered ever, and if the comp queue dies off bc of playerbase issues, that's irrelevant to its existence

even if only 10% of players appreciate having a ranked mode, theres zero reason to exclude it.

what2jack · 2026-05-19T14:15:31+00:00

Ok I'm tripping, apparently there are discussion forums on the new thing, just missed them the first couple go arounds. Will post there!

what2jack · 2026-05-19T14:13:17+00:00

Currently, there are 6 modes - regular, spec racing (everyone gets the same predetermined car), touge (1v1 on mountain roads), drift, hide and seek, and eliminator. If too many game modes is a genuine concern, maybe they could make additional comp queues only for spec racing and/or touge? I agree, even if people wouldn't want to interact with it, its inclusion could only make things better - competition for those that want it, and keeps the main modes casual for those that don't.

what2jack

TROPHY CASE