well, first impressions is that it was a very arcadey Forza. super easy to handle. very easy to drift. hard to get in trouble.
the graphics look simpler and lower res. the speed seemed great even though it was 30 fps. the cockpit was much simpler than Forza Motorsport 4. kind of like back to Gran Turismo level of cockpits.
The races were decent at first. But then I went to a Rivals challenge against a friend with the Mustangs... And man, I kept seeing my friend's ghost outrun me. How did she go so fast??? So I replayed that race over and over like 10 times til I finally beat her. Man, I was on a razor's edge with every turn trying to keep up and then trying to keep her off my tail. Every slight mistake, I had to restart because she had such a great run.
Man, my heart was pumping. Okay, as a single player game, I'm not sure if this is holding up, from early impressions, but the rivals mode is still great as always. Can't wait to try more and get into some real racing.
edit: alright put more time into Forza Horizon. I know they wanted a fun arcadey feeling. but is there no consequence to crashing? maybe because it's a demo and I need to change some settings for more realism. but even head on collisions don't really hurt you. the cars just bounce off you like bumper cars. I can see people getting uber aggressive in racing because damage doesn't matter.
I liked the arcadey driving, and the sensation of speed was great. The GPS Kinect feature was pretty nifty though I wish you could tag the destructible signs with the Kinect which was a missing feature. I just want some consequence for bumper car action. Otherwise, people are going to play demolition derby to jockey for position.