I have to admit that, even though I appreciate what Forza is and how important the franchise is to Xbox, I?ve never fully played a single game. One of the reasons is that my smaller friends list is rarely populated by Forza players but, more importantly, I?ve never been patient enough to get good at any of the games and see them through to the end. That's not a knock on Forza so much as it is a testament to my laziness when it comes to digging into games outside of my comfort zone, and Forza is outside of my comfort zone. Perhaps that's why Forza Horizon 3 is the perfect racing game for me.

Having played bits and pieces of a few different Forza games, most recently the Fast and the Furious mod that stemmed off of Forza Horizon 2, I know exactly what I?m getting into when I fire up Playground Games' latest racing title. I expect gorgeous and exotic cars and variable terrain with a gated liberty in how I shape some big racing event that is going on around me. While Forza Horizon 3 is exactly that, it's also so much more.