Forza Horizon 4 Review

Forza Horizon 4 (Windows 10 version reviewed)
Developed By: Turn 10/Playground Games
Published by: Microsoft Game Studios
Date of Release: September 25, 2018
Price: $59.99

When it comes to racing games lately, it would seem that Turn 10 studios is leading the charge. The Forza Motorsport series has yet to miss a beat, and with this latest installment in their open world arcade racing franchise, Forza Horizon 4, they show no signs of slowing down any time soon. This time the Land Down Under has been traded in for the United Kingdom, with a brand new seasonal system to boot.



With Forza Horizon 4 on Windows 10 the first thing that stands out is how much nicer it is to play it at a steady 60FPS in 4K. If you play on a standard Xbox One or Xbox One S, you're stuck with 1080p30. On an Xbox One X, you can get 60fps, however you will be limited to 1080p. 4K is locked at 30fps even with the extra horsepower of the X. However on a decent PC (I ran it on an i5 8600k, 16gb ram, and GTX 1070Ti) you'll have no problem hitting 60fps. All the expected accoutrements are present such as impulse trigger rumble on the Xbox One controller, and support for racing wheels. The handling of each car is as always superb, and the variety will keep you from getting bored. The open world gameplay is as amazing as ever, and the story will keep you coming back for more, if you haven't already been hooked by the action.



When it comes right down to it, Forza Horizon 4 takes all the best parts of the previous entries in the series, and just piles a lot more goodness on the top. It's not so much amazingly innovative, just more of an amazingly good thing. The graphical tuning options on the PC version are well thought out, and will let you optimize the game for just about any PC imaginable, as long as you're not rocking a potato. Forza Horizon 4 fills the gap left unfilled lately in the PC racing scene, what with Need For Speed and the like being a mere shadow of their former selves. If you want an epic racing experience with a metric crapton of content, go for Forza Horizon 4.

Ninjin: Clash of Carrots Review

Ninjin: Clash of Carrots (Nintendo Switch)
Developed by: Pocket Trap
Published By: Modus Games
Date of Release: September 4, 2018
Price: $14.99

So to say there has been a resurgence lately of pixel-art beat 'em ups in the indie scene of late would be a gross understatement. If one were to say they were starting to feel a bit stale at this point, I wouldn't blame them. You've got your Double Dragons, your Phantom Breakers, your Radical Heroes, and they all bring the tried and true formula to the table. But there is only so much you can do to make the genre feel fresh again. However against all odds it would seem that Pocket Trap has managed to pull off such a feat, and the resulting game is quite a marvel.



Ninjin: Clash of Carrots bursts onto the scene with a fresh spin on the side-scrolling beat 'em up genre. Instead of going back and forth at your own pace you instead continuously run forward, with the option to speed up or slow down as needed, and you switch between lanes to meet your foes in combat. It's a bit endless runner, a bit bullet hell, slightly confusing at first but extremely easy to get into after a level or two. The action flows naturally, and the controls are tight and intuitive.



The graphics settings gives you the option of crisp pixel art, or smooth HD visuals, and both look amazing, whether docked or in handheld mode. The amount of detail that has gone into the game is impressive. The gameplay is superb, but it can get slightly punishing, some of the bosses you're definitely going to need to grind for. The weapons and accessories that you can buy let you customize nearly every aspect of how you fight however, so coming up with a winning strategy is always within your grasp. Nekonin: Clash of Carrots is definitely a must own for Switch fans.