Microsoft announced today that racing game Forza Horizon 3 has gone gold, meaning its ready for the physical game to be manufactured. The company is celebrating the news by announcing some key details like a new car from the Halo franchise, the PC specs, and the achievements list.
First, Halo’s famous Warthog will appear in Forza Horizon 3 as one of the game’s 350-plus vehicles. This is the first time in Forza history that a Halo vehicle has been featured among the car lineup.
This car is officially called the 2554 AMG Transport Dynamics M12S Warthog CST. It’s a civilian version of the military-themed truck featured in the Halo games, the M12 Force Application Vehicle. There’s no turret on Forza Horizon 3’s variant, but it does have a 720 BHP twin-turbo V8 engine, which makes it faster than its military counterpart.
“The Warthog CST in Forza Horizon 3 is also ideally suited for the rough and tumble landscape of Australia,” Microsoft said in a blog post. “With the most advanced suspension in Forza Horizon 3 (with more than 70 cm of suspension travel), plus advanced dampening, you won’t find the combination of power and stability like this anywhere else in the Horizon Festival.”
People who played Halo 5: Guardians or Halo: The Master Chief Collection will receive a code to download the car starting the week of September 5. Those who did not play either of those games can acquire the car by earning it in a “Forzathon” Forza Horizon 3 event that will begin in October.
Microsoft will share more details on how the Forza/Halo partnership came to be in future blog posts.
Microsoft also announced Forza Horizon 3’s recommended PC specs, which show that you’ll want to have a Nvidia GTX 970 or GTA 1060 or AMD R9 290X or AMD RX 480. This is to run the game at 1080p; Forza Horizon 3 supports up to 4K resolution, but you’ll need a beefier rig to achieve that. The full recommended specs are below.
Microsoft added that Forza Horizon 3 will offer a “tremendous amount” of options, too, such as things like vertical sync, resolution, motion blue, mirrors, reflection, and static and dynamic geometry. Additionally, the game will support racing wheels, but Microsoft is not yet talking about what devices you can use.
Forza Horizon 3 Recommended PC Specs
- CPU: i7 3820 @ 3.6GHz
- GPU: Nvidia GTX 970 or Nvidia GTX 1060, AMD R9 290X or AMD RX 480
- VRAM: 4 GB
- RAM: 12 GB
- Hard Drive Type: HDD
- Available Space: 55 GB
- Resolution: 1920 X 1080
- Windows Version: Windows Anniversary Edition 64-bit 14393.101
- Misc: Requires DirectX 12
As for the other Forza Horizon 3 news, Microsoft released the full achievement list. Players will be rewarded for ranking up and competing in races. You will earn 20 gamerscore for performing a barrel role in a buggy; this achievement is appropriately titled “Totally meant to do that…”
Forza Horizon 3 Achievement List
| Name | Description | Gamerscore |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome to Your Horizon | Open Festival with the first Showcase | 10 |
| You’re the Boss | Upgrade the Festival for the first time | 10 |
| One of Us | Win your first Exhibition race as Horizon Festival Boss | 10 |
| Stay on Target | Get a gold medal from a Danger Sign | 10 |
| “Do you even… oh, you do” | Get 3 Stars through a Drift Zone | 10 |
| You’re Hired! | Hire a Drivatar into your Drivatar Line-Up | 10 |
| You’re Fired! | Fill your Drivatar Line-Up and fire a Drivatar to make way for another | 20 |
| Racer’s Paradise | Open a Festival in Surfers Paradise | 20 |
| First Time Buyer | Visit the Autoshow and buy your first car | 10 |
| The Architect | Create your first Blueprint | 10 |
| The Player | Complete another player’s Exhibition Blueprint | 10 |
| Champ | Win your first Championship | 10 |
| Tonight We Ride | Win your first Street Race | 10 |
| I’ll Just Take This Now | Win your first Midnight Battle | 10 |
| Street Racing Champion | Win every Street Race and Midnight Battle | 50 |
| Like a Needle in The Outback | Find your first Barn Find | 10 |
| Relic Hunter | Restore all Barn Finds | 20 |
| Throwdown | Create and complete your first Bucket List Blueprint. | 10 |
| Community Crusher | Play 10 player created Bucket List Blueprints | 20 |
| Drive to the Music You Love | Sign 4 Radio Stations to your Festival | 10 |
| Screaming through the Valley | Open a Festival in Yara Valley | 20 |
| Bushcraft | Open a Festival in The Outback | 20 |
| Maxed Out | Fully upgrade a Festival site | 20 |
| YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS | Perform 10 Festival Upgrades | 20 |
| Like a Boss | Fully upgrade all Festival sites | 20 |
| Best. Horizon. Ever. | Complete the Final Showcase | 50 |
| Exhibition Expert | Complete an Exhibition at every race route in the game | 20 |
| Horizon Hardcore | Complete a Championship at every race route in the game | 30 |
| Starstruck | Get at least 1 star on any 50 PR Stunts | 10 |
| PR Superstar | Get 3 stars on all PR Stunts | 20 |
| Eat My Dust | Complete 10 races in a convoy | 10 |
| Got Ourselves a Convoy | Convoy for a total of 100 miles | 10 |
| Life Complete | Complete every Horizon Bucket List challenge | 20 |
| Drop in the Bucket | Complete 5 Bucket List challenges | 10 |
| Who’s Hiding These? | Smash all 150 reward boards | 20 |
| Backpacker | Discover every beauty spot in the game | 20 |
| I Know These Roads | Drive down every road in the game | 20 |
| This My Jam | Take part in 5 Skill Songs | 10 |
| Perks of the Job | Obtain a car from the Skill Shop | 10 |
| I Want It All | Complete every page in the Skill Shop (excluding temporary perks) | 25 |
| Spoiler Alert | Fit parts from Rocket Bunny and Liberty Walk | 10 |
| 5 Star Seller – A+++++ | Sell 5 cars via the Auction House | 10 |
| Sniper | Win a car in the Auction House by bidding on it | 10 |
| Welcome to Horizon Online | Complete 5 online events across Adventure and Freeroam | 10 |
| Online Adventurer | Complete 25 online events across Adventure and Freeroam | 30 |
| Bring a Friend | Complete an event in Co-op | 10 |
| Road Buddy | Complete 10 events in Co-op | 20 |
| Forzatographer | Take a photo of 300 cars for Horizon Promo | 20 |
| Aussie Rules! | Create and complete a Championship featuring only Australian cars | 10 |
| High Roller | Spend 1 million Credits on a car | 10 |
| Fly Like A Regal | Get 300ft on the airport Danger Sign using the Relaint Regal | 10 |
| Life’s a Drag | Complete a drag race at the Airstrip in every Car Class | 10 |
| Endurance Hero | Create an exhibition with 25 laps, dynamic time and weather, and complete it on Hard Drivatar Difficulty | 20 |
| This. Is. FORZA! | Create and complete a Championship with 100+ miles of racing over 10 events | 20 |
| Ooh, Shiny! | Obtain your first Horizon Edition car | 20 |
| Mini Boss | Reach Level 20 | 10 |
| Final Boss | Reach Level 150 | 25 |
| Staying Connected | Visit the Forza Hub from the Pause Menu | 10 |
| Art Director | Create a paint, setup a tune, and start your Horizon Promo career | 10 |
| Throw Your Weight Around | Get a Gold Medal on a Drift Zone in a car weighing at least 2500kg | 10 |
| Forza First | Win a race in the Lamborghini Centanario | 20 |
| Clever Girl! | Get a 3 Stars on a Danger Sign, Drift Zone, Speed Trap and Speed Zone in the 2017 Ford Raptor. | 10 |
| Totally meant to do that… | Perform a Barrel Roll in any Buggy | 10 |
| Underdog | Get a Gold Medal in a C Class car | 10 |
Additionally, Microsoft confirmed today that Forza Horizon 3 will be localized (voice and text) for English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, and German. There will be text-only localization for Polish, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
Forza Horizon 3 launches on September 27 for Xbox One and PC as an Xbox Play Anywhere title, meaning you can buy it digitally on one platform and get the other version free. People who buy the $100 Ultimate Edition can start playing four days early, beginning on September 23.