14 DAY TRIAL // Forza Horizon 2 developer Playground Games has confirmed that its new racing title will be set in Southern France and Northern Italy, as the two great environments provide lots of variety in terms of roads and visuals.
Forza Horizon 2 has been rumored for quite some time and, after the first title was set in the U.S., more specifically the state of Colorado, many were thinking that Playground Games would move to another part of the country, towards Louisiana and the Southern U.S.
As we learned earlier this week, that didn't happen, as Playground did go into a Southern direction, but on another continent, as the action is set in Southern Europe.
While talking with IGN, Playground has confirmed that the new racing title is set specifically in Southern France and Northern Italy, as these environments were also possibilities when it came to designing the original Horizon.
"These parts of Europe were on the table for Horizon 1, but we were actually talking about them individually. We could do Northern Italy, or we could do the South of France, around the Côte d'Azur," the studio said. "What we were able to do with Horizon 2 was say, 'You know what? Let’s throw a net over all that. Let’s see what we can get from these areas combined'."
According to Playground, these new locations provide lots of diversity in terms of visuals but also structure, as the road network can change dramatically, from the web-like nature of Tuscany's villages to the wide French highways.
"[It’s] a place of vast landscapes, amazing vistas, beautiful, unspoilt scenery, and incredible diversity. From the foothills of the Alps, right down the Mediterranean Sea. From the rolling hills of Tuscany in Italy, across the border into France and beautiful Provence and the glamorous Côte d'Azur."
"You’ve got some of the denser towns in Tuscany where it feels almost claustrophobic, and then you come down to the Côte d'Azur and you’ve got boulevards that are, like, 80 to 100 metres wide. That’s 250 mile an hour racing, weaving through the traffic as you go. And it’s that sort of variety that we have because of the towns and the cities that we’ve arrived at."
Forza Horizon 2 is set to debut on both the Xbox One and the Xbox 360, and Playground has promised that there will be no difference in terms of features between the two games. However, on the Xbox One it will look better and run at a native 1080p resolution and a 30fps framerate.