Forza Horizon 3

Forza Horizon 3 is huge, varied and constantly entertaining. It treads a fine balance between simulation and arcade—bombastic and silly at times, but also an accomplished populist racing game. I don't like the script, the cast of irritants manning the radio stations, the way playing your own music in-game requires the use of Microsoft Groove, or the fact that one of the nicknames you can choose is ‘Bantersaurus Rex’. More seriously, I worry Microsoft will continue its habit of integrating DLC cars and expansions in overbearing ways (Forza Horizon 2 went as far as playing an in-game trailer for its Storm Island expansion.) But these are annoyances I'm prepared to forgive in a game as good as this.

The high-end PC settings don’t live up to our expectations, but the handling, courses, and community features are all top of their class. Forza Horizon 3 is the type of racing game that just about anyone can pick up and have fun with, but it still includes depth for committed players. Put that together with a beautiful environment that you can explore at your own pace, and Forza Horizon 3 is one of the strongest and most well-rounded open world racers we’ve ever played.

A spectacular arcade racing game with brilliant graphics. The driving feels terrific, the amount of content is staggering and the faux Australia is joy to explore. Need for Speed, take heed.

Forza Horizon offers you a huge world to explore. It gives you as many cars, from supercars to off-road buggies, to race how and when you want. Explore the outback, race along the coast. Forza Horizon 3 is possibly the best racing game in the world, just marred by performance issues on the PC and the dull nature of the create-your-own-race options.

Perfectly distilling the Horizon formula, Playground Games have produced a racer that's varied, exciting and gorgeous to look at - and arguably the best of the generation.

Forza Horizon 3 is a a great driving experience, probably the best in years. The Australian landscape is full of things to discover, and it's so sweet to get lost in such a charming setting. Buy it without any doubt, even if you're a PC gamer.

If the joy of driving were a melody, Forza Horizon 3 would play almost every note perfectly. A milestone for the racing genre, but with some technical problems.

If you can sacrifice an unlocked framerate for the locked 30fps option, Forza Horizon 3 is one of the very best looking racing games on PC to date and quite possibly a glimpse of what console players can expect from Microsoft's next console.

A vast and brilliant racing game with some optimization problems on PC.

Parts of it could be less repetitive and the PC version seems like it probably needs a patch or two to help smooth things out a bit, but those end up being minor complaints peppered into an otherwise delightful experience. Just do yourself a favor and try to cruise around from time to time instead of just banging through one event after another.