‘Forza Horizon 3’ Surprises With Colorful And Crazy ‘Hot Wheels’ Expansion
Forza Horizon 3 has spiced up the Forza franchise already with music, open-world racing, beautiful sights, and interesting expansions. Turn 10 Studios has taken large leap of faith with its next expansion featuring a Hot Wheels theme complete with orange stunt tracks and over-the-top race cars.
The Hot Wheels expansion for Forza Horizon 3 will launch on May 9 and will be available as a stand-alone purchase for $19.99 or as part of the Expansion Pass. Turn 10 will take players to six new themed islands off the coast of Australia. These islands are connected by a network of Hot Wheels tracks featuring loops, corkscrews, insane turns, drops, and crazy obstacles.
These tracks will also be featured in online multiplayer races. A “Playground Arena” is also being added. No details were shared on what that entails, but it sounds like open-world stunt racing with no finish line to cross other than trying to figure out who can pull off the wildest tricks. Additionally, there will be 28 new Xbox LIVE achievements worth 500 Gamerscore points.
“Forza Horizon 3 Hot Wheels takes players to six new themed islands located off the coast of Australia; all connected by a network of Hot Wheels tracks – positioned hundreds of feet in the air – featuring classic Hot Wheels configurations like loops, corkscrews, and more. This is stunt driving at its most extreme, where you can master tracks by performing brand new Hot Wheels skills that make use of boost pads, high-bank turns, half-pipes, insane jumps, and even giant mechanical dinosaurs,” Turn 10 Studios announced.
The expansion also comes with an all-new campaign with events to complete across all the tracks. The goal is to race through the stunt courses to reach the “epic Grand Finale” on the Hot Wheels Goliath circuit.
There are, of course, new cars with the Forza Horizon 3 expansion. Four of the new rides are Hot Wheels classics – the 1969 Twin Mill, the 2011 Bone Shaker, the 2012 Rip Rod, and 2005 Ford Mustang. They are joined by the following extremely exotic vehicles that have been made in the real world, but you are unlikely ever to see, much less drive.
- 2016 Jeep Trailcat
- 2016 Zenvo ST1
- 2007 Toyota Hilux Arctic Trucks AT38
- 2010 Pagani Zonda R
- 1972 Chrysler VH Valiant Charger R/T E49
To give you an idea of the exotic nature of each of these rides, the Jeep Trailcat was built by Chrysler but never put on sale. Meanwhile, the Zenvo ST1 costs more than $1.5 million, and the Toyota Hilux Arctic Trucks AT38 is only seen as part of scientific expeditions in Iceland and the North and South Poles. The Pagani Zonda R is not sanctioned by any racing series and is too loud to be street legal. Finally, only 149 of the Chrysler VH Valiant Charger R/T E49 were ever made, and that was by Chrysler Australia.
Between the crazy race tracks and exotic, over-the-top vehicles, the Hot Wheels expansion is shaping up to be something truly unique in the Forza Horizon series. Before this, the Blizzard Mountain snow rally racing was the most off-the-wall the franchise had gone. Going into a partnership with a colorful toy line known for outlandish cars and tracks is a bold step.
Turn 10 Studios did add an interesting footnote at the bottom of the Hot Wheels expansion announcement. An update will be released on May 9, the same days the DLC, with major improvements for those playing on Windows 10 PCs. The developer promises improved CPU performance, more graphical options, and “improved new support for numerous popular driving wheels.” Full details on what on all the changes, fixes, and improvements will not arrive until the day of release.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-K_M4i2Bbs
[Featured Image by Turn 10 Studios/Xbox]
