Measly Game Review Archive

8/10 – 12 hours at time of writing on 5/9/2025

30 hrs to enter Hall of Fame

Addendum 2/27/2026

More of a 7.5/10 for me now. Still a game I like, but I think I was just too excited to play a racing game that wasn’t Gran Turismo 7. It’s like comparing drinking a 2 day old Coke to sipping the piss of a person who hasn’t drunken water in 3 days. Of course the former would feel miles better at first.

It’s still a good game don’t get me wrong, but it still has a lot of needless problems that bring the experience down. Cautiously excited for Horizon 6.

• Essentially no meaningful progression at all. The cars you buy barely matter since most races adapt the opponents to match your car.
  • On top of this, you are absolutely inundated with cars after so few hours. From the story, achievements, roulette spins, gifts, Backstage passes, etc.
• The economy is meaningless too. The auction house cracks the economy wide open. Just sell a rare-ish car from the Backstage and you’ll have tens of millions in no time. Buy whatever car you want lmao
• There is almost no reason to keep playing after a while. Nothing to aspire too, and not much to discover that is interesting in the world, both from a rewards standpoint and a visually appealing standpoint. You see everything pretty quickly.
• Stupid FOMO mechanics
• Auctions being the only way to sell cars.
• Car gifting mechanic being pretty much useless. Nobody actually gives away nice cars, only the infamous blue Taycan that everyone gets.
• Unlocking Barn finds being weird and inconsistent sometimes.
• Jank animations and models. Pulling away from your garage in a car whose wheels aren’t even moving :/

Original Review:

To Gran Turismo 7:

Initial thoughts: FH5 is no bullshit, just plain fun. A good balance of arcade-y and good handling, even if the car models, details, handling, and sounds are leagues better in GT7. This is a different game trying to achieve a different kind of fun, and I wish I had played this earlier (alas I no have Xbox). When the game is well designed and thoughtfully crafted, I don’t even care if the models sometimes look straight out of a mobile game. I will say I’m peeved with the AI rubber banding, roulette tickets (RELEASE ME!!) and the weird dirt physics, but I have had more competitive and fun races in 10 hrs of FH5 than 400+ hrs of GT7 AI, even including Sophy AI (latter is not bad tho), and that speaks volumes. It almost makes me think a huge effort into realism is for naught if the quality of the gameplay is sacrificed.

FH5’s car roster is so much more inclusive and interesting than GT7’s, and it’s fun to see the cars in the game even if they look worse. They don’t even look bad, and they all have modeled interiors. Imagine Forza Horizon gameplay with GT7 handling, models, and sound. That is driving nirvana right there. I hope FH5 on PS5 is a wakeup call for Sony and Polyphony (probably won’t be). They no longer have an exclusivity excuse, Forza has encroached onto GT’s territory.

Thoughts after “beating” the campaign: Yeah, this game is still super fun, though the honeymoon period has definitely worn off. There’s a lot of content and races to use your cars in, but most of the time I just feel like driving around. Especially with all the cars in the game, it’s fun to drive around in models i’ve been looking to drive for a long time (BMW Z4M, Lamborghini Revuelto, etc), There isn’t much to incentivize doing the races except for their appearance in weekly playlists, much like GT7’s attempt, so FH5 doesn’t really slam dunk there. The game is still a lot more rewarding though, between accolades, Horizon Festival, and roulettes being more numerous. Even if they suck, they don’t waste your time as much as the tickets in GT7, where you have to sink more time and can only earn so many tickets, just to get nothing. I wish I could sell cars in a way besides auctioning. I like the other options the game gives you (auctioning, gifting) which make the game feel alive and connected, but it is very saturated with people inundating auctions and inboxes with the same entry level cars that the game throws at you.

All in all, I just have more of a reason to play FH5 as it satisfies my car needs more. Sure, GT7 has much better handling and models (a lot of cars have no business handling as well as they do in Forza), but you’re confined to the lack of interesting content in the game. I can’t just replay Clubman Cup+ races or drive the Nurburgring over and over even if the handling is better. I end up feeling like I’m going insane with the repetition. Instead, I love the larger selection of cars and the ability to drive on an open road in FH5. Plus the handling is still pretty good and engaging, and it needs to be less realistic in order for it to achieve its more arcade-y goals. GT7 also blatantly doesn’t care much about what its players want, making whatever deals they feel like and adding cars that do have real world significance, but aren’t added into a game where their presence actually matters / can be taken advantage of.