Winner: Forza Horizon 3
There’s nothing quite like hitting the open road and putting your foot down. Except for when it’s not illegal, you’re sat on your sofa comfy, and you’re speeding through the Australian outback in Lamborghini’s latest masterpiece. That’s how Forza Horizon 3 opens up to you, and from that point, you’re sucked into a world teeming with activities, collectibles, tuning options, and an endless collection of cars.
Rather than having you just compete in the festival, Forza Horizon 3 makes you the boss. It’ll be up to you what events take place where, what cars are allowed, and where you expand your festival. Most importantly, however, you’ll need to attract fans to join the party. All of this leaves you with an extensive docket of tasks to complete and in a short time, your map will be filled with markers and waypoints for you to venture out to.
Of course, none of this would be important if Forza Horizon 3 didn’t nail the driving. Fortunately, it does exquisitely. Sitting behind the wheel of a Nissan GT-R is a drastically different experience to hopping into a dirt buggy, or even just a Ford Focus ST. Every car has its traits and quirks which make them wholly enjoyable and unique to drive. The cars really come into their own when you take them for a spin on the varied terrain of the Australian outback. That Ferrari may stick to the road’s surface like glue, but offroad you’ll have serious problems driving in a straight line. This makes you experiment with your car choices in Forza Horizon 3, providing a more varied and interesting journey to making the biggest driving festival in the world.
Forza Horizon 3 isn’t just the best Xbox One exclusive of 2016, it’s one of the best games of the year. It trumps the efforts of previous open-world racers by a mile thanks to its engaging and stunning world, and, as expected from the Forza franchise, the driving is nothing short of perfect. If you’ve been looking for a racing game to whittle away a couple hundred hours, this is most definitely it. An Xbox One title for the ages.
Congratulations to Forza Horizon 3, the winner of our Best Xbox One Game category for 2016! Be sure to visit back this week more award announcements including the big one, our game of the year for 2016! For the full list of award categories for 2016, visit our nomination page here.
