Forza Horizon 3 review: Going Top Gear

The best segments of Top Gear were always the ones where the hosts flew out to some beautiful country with a fleet of cars and were pretty much set loose to make their own fun. Set across a backdrop of stunning vistas, wide roads and sprawling cities, these segments are so successful because they seem so natural. The three hosts honestly look like they're just having a great time. If you want to know what it's like to play Forza Horizon 3, just watch a few episodes of Top Gear, and you'll understand soon enough.

Forza Horizon 3 is the newest entry in Forza Motorsport's more newcomer-friendly racing series, one that offers an open-world adventure as opposed to the more hardcore simulation experience offered by the mainline Forza Motorsport series. Each of the games centers around the Horizon festival, a fever dream version of Coachella where, after a set, everyone hops into a multimillion-dollar hypercar to race around the city. The difference with Forza Horizon 3 is that, this time, you have to do the hard work of setting the festival up. You're not a guest; you're the organizer. This means that the goal of the game is to make the Horizon festival popular enough that it dominates the entire map, and that's done, of course, by racing the locals.

If you've played a Forza Horizon game before, you won't be surprised to hear that the game knows the weird ways in which car lovers think. The car selection in the game is gigantic and includes cult cars like the BMW Isetta and the Subaru Brat. It even has a few Datsuns thrown in for good measure. The great thing is that you can spend pretty much your entire game racing these cars if you want to. Upgrading your cars is easy, and there are always interesting race classes to compete in no matter what car you choose to race. And even if there isn't, one of Forza Horizon 3's best additions means you can make your own.

Yes, new to Forza Horizon 3 is Forza Blueprint, a system that allows players to easily set up custom races, championships and events. These events then can be shared online, assuming you have the skill to beat the objective you set. It's an amazing feature, not just because it's so fun and easy to create your own races, but because it's even more fun to beat your friends' custom events. And speaking of friends, Forza Horizon 3 really hit the nail on the head with the social driving aspect of the game.

The Drivatar AI system returns from previous games, sure, but the ability to drive in a convoy either while you're playing solo or while you're playing online really pushes home that Top Gear feeling of cruising around the countryside with friends. In addition, you can play the entire single-player campaign online with friends in co-op mode. Perhaps the best part to all of this is that unlike in many other racing games (looking at you, The Crew), Forza Horizon 3 doesn't beat you over the head with its online capabilities — it's all seamlessly integrated into the game.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you about the scenery. Forza Horizon 2 took place in southern France and Italy, one of the most beautiful locations in the world. They have somehow outdone themselves this time by changing locations to Australia. Beaches, dunes, wide-open outback, sprawling cities and even an honest-to-god rain forest provide the backdrop to all of your racing adventures. It is, by far, the most beautiful locale in the series to date and is honestly one of the most beautiful and varied maps I have ever seen in a video game.

Forza Horizon 3 begins with a sequence where you, in a dune buggy, race a Jeep that is hanging from an Apache helicopter from chains. You blast through the rain forest to the end, through set pieces that see your buggy almost colliding with the Jeep on certain jumps. The game is full of these jaw-dropping moments, whether it's a nail-biting finish to a race or simply finding an amazing hidden view of the landscape. It's enough to mask the game's flaws, most notably an odd difficulty curve and progression system that makes tight city courses a lot harder than sprint races and necessitates that players complete them all to progress. It's a small price to pay.

I can unequivocally recommend this game, both for the Forza faithful, and for folks who haven't played a racing game since the '90s, when they played Cruis'n USA at a movie theater. It brings the car-fantasy experience to life in a way that no other game before it has. And on that bombshell, it's time to end the review.