Forza Horizon 3 - Great Ocean Road1:46
Matt Dunn checks out how the new Forza Horizon 3 game compares the real deal, driving on Australia's Great Ocean Road.
I drove supercars down the Great Ocean Road to see if Forza Horizon 3 could make art match reality
I AM undoubtedly a massive advocate for cycling and forward thinking infrastructure.
However, I also really like video games and the concept of supercars — purely because of a lifetime spent listening to gangsta rap.
So when Microsoft announced the next iteration of its landmark open-road racing game was going to be set entirely in Australia, I was interested.
Spanning across eight different environment types, Forza Horizon 3 includes locations from the Yarra Valley, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Coober Pedy, White Haven and Ormiston Gorge.
Playground Gamesart director Benjamin Penrose said the game had been two years in the making, with relentless attention to detail to ensure the game offered an authentic feel for the named locations.
“When we first started, people from the studio were sent out on a road trip with GoPros and cameras to document and photograph the environments we wanted. We used hundreds of those images back in the studio to make a fully 3D environment, which looked lifelike,” he told news.com.au.
“We also took a custom-built 360-degree 12K HD camera rig to record the unique Australian skyscape. A couple of team members camped out in the outback taking pictures of the sky every couple of seconds, which we condensed into a HDR time lapse for our engine.”
While the concept of a video game set in Australia was promising, I was interested to see how well the developers were able to make art imitate life.
This comparison was made much easier when I was invited to travel down to Victoria and drive the Great Ocean Road in real-life supercars, before playing the same drive in the game.
With an offer like that, I figured I could forgo my bicycle advocacy for a day.
When I arrived at the carpark, I greeted the others who would be joining me for the iconic drive.
We made our way to a car park where a fleet of 10 supercars were lined up.
We were informed of the cars we would be driving and I was told I would be behind the wheel of a Jaguar F Type, a Lamborghini Huracan and a Ford XR8 Sprint.
It was at this moment I realised I was out of my depth when compared to the others taking part in the drive.
As genuine car enthusiasts they talked about the explicit details of each ride, while I stood nervously trying to figure out which cars I would be driving.
When I hopped into my first ride, I was given the rundown by the instructor who was showing me the ins and outs of the car.
As he spoke about the technical side of the vehicle, I nodded and pretended to be more of a manly man than I actually am.
I even considered letting out my best Tim ‘The Toolman’ Taylor grunt to express the feeling such a powerful vehicle would muster in a car lover.
It did take all of my power to resist the urge to ask the driving instructor where the horses that pulled the car came from, instead I just pretended like I knew what we were talking about.
The first leg of the drive stopped at Lorne, which you see shortly after starting the video game.
It was here we swapped cars and I made my way into the Lamborghini Huracan.
While I admit to knowing next to nothing about cars, the chance to drive a lambo was always going to excite.
I was nervous driving a Jaguar, but the lambo made me even more queasy.
Even though I had an instructor beside me in the car, it was a lot of responsibility and power to be in control of.
This was made even worse when the instructor suggested I should keep more than two seconds of distance because “the only thing worse than crashing a Lamborghini, is crashing a Lamborghini into the back of a Ferrari”.
Despite a few dubious scratching sounds while driving over some roadwork, the Lamborghini leg of the journey went smoothly.
I even found time to ask the instructor if he got many girls for owning a lambo. He quickly responded telling me most chicks think he is a wanker for owning such an expensive car.
This made me feel better about only owning a pushbike.
After another stop, it was time to get into the most Aussie car in the fleet — the Ford XR8 Sprint.
As Ford will cease local manufacturing from this year, the chance to drive one its last local models down one of Australia’s iconic roads was pretty special — imagine how much better it would have been if I actually was a car guy?
The Ford was also fun to drive because my instructor lost his hat out of the car and we doubled back to get it. This meant we got to play catch up to reach the rest of the fleet.
After doing the speed limit to catch up *cough*, we reached the 12 Apostles, which is a landmark featured predominantly in the game.
Forza Horizon 3 Real Life Experience - Trailer1:44
Take a look at Forza Horizon 3 Real Life Experience and Game Comparison Video.
I had made it to the destination, driving three supercars and experiencing the beautiful and diverse landscapes along the Great Ocean Road, now I was excited to play the game.
When I got to play, I was surprised at how well the developers had been able to make mimic real life.
It obviously wasn’t perfect, but as far as video games go I was pretty impressed.
I was also happy I drove the cars much better in real life than I did in the game otherwise I would be up for a pretty solid insurance premium.
Saying that, I will admit driving overly expensive and powerful vehicles was ridiculous amounts of fun, but the pressure associated with keeping them safe would be too much to handle long-term.
With the game offering an authentic portrayal of Australia, it’s probably just as fun to live out my supercar dreams in a fake environment where it doesn’t matter if I crash.
After I ride to work on my bicycle, I will be very excited to explore more of the open world to see what other landmarks I can pinpoint.
In terms of my recommendation, I would say if you are an Aussie car enthusiast who likes gaming, you should obviously secure a copy Forza Horizon 3.
Even if you’re not that into cars, driving around well-known Australian landmarks is too much fun to pass up on.
I expect to sink some serious hours into the title, although I am secretly hoping for Forza Horizon 4: Tour de France.
Continue the conversation on Twitter @mattydunn11
Matthew Dunn travelled to Victoria as a guest of Microsoft.
Originally published as How well does art imitate life?