Having played the game I am totally underwhelmed by the graphics. It just looks bland. Nothing like the stylized free cam trailers we've been subjected to prior to release. I was expected better than FH2 graphics and instead I'm looking at just in the same ball-park graphics. With FH2 being true open-world that is even more disappointing as I was expecting to be blown away by this traditional circuit racer.

Also I can't get used to the jittery camera shake when your driving, I think it's suppose to be realistic but it doesn't work for me in gameplay terms.

Unfortunately for DC, coming from FH2, this is rather underwhelming, and to think Sony marketed this as a "Forza Killer". Even the day/night cycle, while looking really good, doesn't look better than FH2 as you can see towns in the darkness of the night from miles away as they a dynamically lit up with 1000 of lights. Here a link to the official FH2 Photo thread to get an idea of what it looks at during the day/night. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=904010

Even more weirdly we have gaming sites like Dualshockers saying that it looks better in motion, seriously!! If I'm not mistaken this sounds like an apologetic stance about the visuals. All games look better in motion, Why do they need to make a point about it.

The reality of the situation is this, brainwashing aside, as it stands on release, FH2 stomps all over this from a great height, in virtually every department save the graphics and even this aspect in my view is up for debate as to which is more beautiful.

@Monsterkillah

Describing FH2 in this way clearly tells us you have no idea what you are talking about. I think the majority review sites and user reviews would strongly disagree with your summation of FH2. I've played many racing games over the last 2 decades, and FH2 is hands down the best open world racer ever created, and one of the best looking games this generation, but that's just my opinion.

@thebeachguy90

Forza Horizon 2 is classed as a sim/arcade racer and uses the Forza 5 physics engines. You can turn off all the assist and it's very close to a full blown sim experience in it's handling. GT offering a better driving experience is a matter of personal opinion, and that's ok. Both Forza and GT series are best in class. As for FH2 comparable to last gen, having played both the X360&XB1 version I can tell you the XB1 is in entirely in another league. You may want to also check DF article that compares the two here http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-forza-horizon-2-face-off to get a better understanding of just some of the differences.

I've invested over 20 hours into the games already, a lot of which is just roaming around looking for barn finds, online free roam, speed traps, bucket list challenges etc.. there is so much to do and admire in this game. All of the above gameplay elements would not be as satisfying if the driving mechanics, rumble effects, physics simulations weren't best in class, which they are. To top it all off you can literally drive anywhere, in FH2 you can at anytime you feel the need to stray of the road and go off into the fields/vineyards/mountain ranges. These fields are the most gorgeous environments ever seen in video games. Moreover, your not alone, as the drivatars are all there doing the same thing and guess what, you can challenge some of the them to a race.

I'm not sure about the reviewers remarks about the perk system, I thought it was another great mechanic to use to incentivise the player to drive with style. No game is ever perfect there are always areas that could do with improving. But FH2 in my view is another instant classic, and will be much admired like the first FH on xbox360 in it's time.

I'm not sure, but does anyone now what spec the PC version is running on?

I thought it would only be a fair comparison if the PC spec cost the same as a XB1. Moreover, taking into account the native 1080p vs. 900p(up-scaled to 1080p) versions in the video, and the fact we have compression, it's not really going to actually reflect any real differences. All I see is that both look extremely close, virtually no difference to talk about.

I recall DF did say back when analysing this game that there was a case to be made for 900p up-scaled with advanced AA solutions such as that employed in Ryse, as the IQ was impressively clean.

BTW: Ryse did win the SIGGRAPH Award for Best Real-Time Graphics this year. Something to be said for a 900p game beating out every other next gen game at 1080p.