{"id":1855006,"date":"2026-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1855006"},"modified":"2026-03-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T21:00:00","slug":"forza-horizon-6-wants-you-to-replay-a-new-race-event-but-is-that-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1855006","title":{"rendered":"Forza Horizon 6 wants you to replay a new race event, but is that a good thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Look, no one\u2019s saying\u00a0Forza Horizon 6<\/em><\/a> won\u2019t be great. We\u2019re sure it will. It\u00a0always<\/em> is. But there\u2019s something about the upcoming arcade racer\u2019s latest gameplay preview that lands awkwardly with us. Doing the same thing multiple times is, apparently, something to look forward to.<\/p>\n

Speaking to\u00a0IGN<\/a>, developer Playground Games delved into more detail about the new event type, \u2018Rush\u2019. It\u2019s basically somewhere between the traditional \u2018Showcase\u2019 events and a tight and twisty gymkhana run, and that sounds awfully fun. A lot of the racing\u2019s very focused on hitting top speed in\u00a0Forza Horizon<\/em>, so it\u2019s smart to introduce a different flavour of racing which seems more about precise control at lower speed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But while Showcase events have previously been something you drive in just once, the intention this time is to make these Rush races ones that players can enjoy multiple times. The devs are saying it\u2019s a good thing, but we\u2019re not sold on \u2018now play the same content repeatedly\u2019 as a back-of-box feature.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went back and looked at our telemetry data from\u00a0Forza Horizon 5<\/em>, focusing on Showcase events,\u201d says level design director Tom Dillow. \u201cAnd we noticed for the most part Showcases are one and done. The player gets given a showcase as a reward, they go there and have an amazing three minutes, then they drive off and there\u2019s no incentive to return.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Don\u2019t worry, you haven\u2019t accidentally switched to an article about modern dating culture. We\u2019re still talking about Forza Horizon<\/em>. As Dillow points out, Showcases have been re-used in seasonal events, encouraging players to race them again for new rewards.<\/p>\n

But for FH6\u2019s Rush, the team wants to take that replayability further.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cWe wanted to build a Showcase-adjacent event type,\u201d says Dillow, \u201cand if we were going to do that we wanted to maintain that Showcase DNA. We then started to lean into replayability. If we build these amazing events, we want our players to enjoy them over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team used the pillars of \u201cchasing a high score, course mastery and most importantly\u2026 fun\u201d to guide their hand.<\/p>\n

From a developer\u2019s perspective, it makes sense. Showcase events must cost plenty of time and resources, so it\u2019s logical to want the player to spend a lot of time with it.<\/p>\n

But hang on \u2013 what is it, exactly, about replaying an event you\u2019ve already completed that\u2019s fun?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Arguably, Showcase events were such standout, impressive moments in prior\u00a0Horizons<\/em> exactly because they were one and done. You tore through a few minutes of incredible spectacle, and then the game whisked you off into something completely different. That\u2019s what made the events stand out.<\/p>\n

Obviously, if you subsequently revisit that event multiple times, the impact\u2019s going to be lessened. It\u2019s going to feel like the game\u2019s re-using content to pad out your experience. Which is what the seasonal Showcase events in\u00a0Horizon 5<\/em> feel like.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too early to pass judgment on this yet. We\u2019ve yet to see exactly how Rush events will be replayed, and what levers can be pulled to make them feel different each time. But we certainly hope Playground Games is thinking about how to maximise fun, rather than how to maximise assets\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Look, no one\u2019s saying\u00a0Forza Horizon 6 won\u2019t be great. We\u2019re sure it will. It\u00a0always is. But there\u2019s something about the upcoming arcade racer\u2019s latest gameplay preview that lands awkwardly with us. Doing the same thing multiple times is, apparently, something to look forward to. Speaking to\u00a0IGN, developer Playground Games delved into more detail about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1855006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1855006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1855006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1855006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1855006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}