Forza Horizon 3 Xbox One X Enhanced Preview

Forza Horizon 3 is a marvelous game, it's simply a stunning experience and I consider it the best racing game I've ever played. With this Forza Horizon 3 Xbox One X update that amazing game only gets better. There's just a pile of improvements to greatly expand the quality and resolution of the world while losing nothing in the process.

This makes the gorgeous open world of Australia that much more beautiful. While the clouds and light were already touched up with the lovely HDR shine, the jump to a truly native 4k experience is just that much more unreal. With that comes a steady locked 30fps and while I would have also loved to see a 60fps option, it makes perfect sense to just max out the experience as opposed to fiddling with what works.

I'm not going to complain since it's an older title and overall I'm just happy to see that extra shine. Before going over general thoughts it's probably best to go over all the little extra bits that help round out a stellar enhancement. This is probably best done in a quick list with 16X anisotropic filtering; 4X MSAA, improved shadows, better motion blur, further quality rendering distance and higher quality reflections. The loading screens are also somehow quicker which I find impressive and it's amazing that the Xbox One X can run all of this extra quality content without issues.
Forza Horizon 3 Xbox One X Enhanced Screenshot
Forza Horizon 3 is truly a showcase for just how powerful the Xbox One X is and what it can do. This game was already amazing and to take that experience a bit further is fantastic. It's a great excuse to jump in and just drive around. I enjoyed the intensity of heavy rainfall against an Australian sunrise during a cross country race and it was beyond beautiful.

We're getting nothing but benefits with the update and to see it flawlessly pull off vast dynamic skies that cast shadows over a cycling climate is wondrous. With my revisit of this mighty world I went on the full tour. I started out working through the city at night to see the flash of lights that mark the streets and then sped along the coast towards the beach. This area is one of my favorite technical showcases for the game to just amaze others and I raced along the sandy beach seeing splashes or water flopping around in a glorious 4k resolution.

To me, this is sort of magical though not as great as deciding to hop into the Hot Wheels area. The massive orange track pieces practically glow and that island is a perfect mixture of imagination with pure Forza excitement. Heading back I knew I wanted to see it all and went through the forest towards the heated outback. The forests are thick, the light cascades through it casting shadows and while I didn't go offroad there it was a pleasant journey.

Upon arrival at the more desert type zone I just went completely off the road taking out solar panels and taking in the large draw distances. I was mostly blown away with this Forza Horizon 3 enhancement and since this was just an update to an older title I can't even begin to imagine what Forza Horizon 4 might look like being build with the Xbox One X entirely in mind.

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Gamerheadquarters Reviewer Jason Stettner