Having played for a fair few hours now, I can't help but feel reviewers completely lost the plot when awarding this game near perfect and perfect scores. There are areas where the game is almost overwhelmingly impressive - but its failings are readily apparent and get in the way of what is in many ways a really god game.
The Checkpoint System
Why? I can see that this game has a fundamental need for some mechanic to prevent people just driving in a straight line from one place to another in races, but the checkpoint system is such a bore. The checkpoints are too narrow, and when racing nearby others its easy to end up being pushed or simply hit into a position where you miss the checkpoint. The worst thing is that the checkpoints will even punish you for taking the slower line. Slightly screw up a corner and end up a metre on the outside of a checkpoint? Well prepare for even more punishment.
Why are they -so- punishing? Missing a checkpoint can be utterly lethal to your chances. It takes a couple of seconds for it to start counting down, three more for it to reset you, and then you end up way further back and starting at 0 mph. Online, where people will happily and purposefully push you out of the way, this is absolute nonsense and totally game breaking. It's all very well to advertise the importance of racing clean but it's pretty obvious the game has no idea if you are racing cleanly or not and even more clear that nobody cares one way or another.
I don't think checkpoints are a terrible idea, but there are too many and they are too punishing when you miss them (or are forced to miss them). It would also be nice to see more variety in race types. I loved Burnout Paradise's races where you'd be given a reasonably small number of checkpoints and allowed to take your own route. Forza Horizon's, comparatively, is a tedious constraint to fix the issues created by having a game where there is little bonus to driving on tarmac, and it's not a remotely worthwhile tradeoff.
The random immovable trees
There's nothing quite like driving through things in this game. It's a significant scoring mechanic and it just feels right. That's with the exception of the 10% of trees that are as hard as bricks and will stop your car dead regardless of how fast you travel into it. It's absolutely horrible and completely inconsistent, and makes it feel like the game both wants, and doesn't want you to take shortcuts across the environment. It's fine to have the trees slowing you down when you smash them, as happens with many of the heavier objects in the game, and if I'm moving slowly it's fine to have the object stop me entirely, but when two pretty similar looking trees effect you completely differently it just feels bad.
The Online Adventure XP Championship
Lol. Who thought this was a good idea? All of last night I was watching as the people racing lost out to a moron who didn't give a damn and just drifted left, right, left, right down the straight ending up doubling or tripling the score of the winner. The game tells you to race fast, clean, and skillfully but seems to put the most weight on 'skillful' driving, which is total nonsense anyway, and the least on speed and placing. What kind of racing game is this, in all honesty? It's also eminently clear that people are doing this, not so much to win, but to boost their stats. Unbelievably lame, but when you design a game mode this thoughtlessly, what do you expect?
The Online Is 50% Waiting
How long does one spend staring at their car as the camera whizzes around it? How long does one spend staring at the leaderboard or a menu, or their damned rewards that the game takes ages to give out every damned time? I want to drive, I want to race, I want to drift and jump and buy cars and upgrade them and tune them. Instead, the presentation seems set up so you spend as much time waiting without any interaction as you do anything actually fun.
Confused Direction
This is the second Forza Horizon game I've played and I still don't feel like Playground, Turn10 and Microsoft know what they're trying to create, which is weird for the third game in a roundly successful franchise. The whole festival thing feels half baked and more of an annoyance than anything engaging, little more than arbitrary points on the map where you go to get a new car or upgrade an old one.
As impressive as the game is in many ways, I find it a little hard to reconcile the idea that this is some great marvel when it is bettered in so, so many ways by the much older Burnout Paradise. The game feels constantly at odds with itself, and tries to do too much. It simultaneously rewards you and pats you on the head for everything you do, amazed at the way you side-swiped that road-sign, but it's also a game which will reward you for tweaking your front wheel camber. Please, Playground, choose one or the other. Stop trying to be everything to everyone, you're not pulling it off.