The Rally upgrade is a shining light to the otherwise lackluster Forza Horizon. The game-within-a-game plays more like an arcade title (which is consistent with the rest of Horizon) but it’s a fairly untapped genre on the Xbox360. I tend NOT to count the Dirt series as real rally games because it’s more like an extreme motorsport series. Here in the US, the Rally genre is relatively non-existant for the current consoles. Back in the PS1/PS2 days, Rally games were all over the place and one can argue that these games boosted (pun intended) the popularity of the legendary WRX/Evo rivalry which may have helped get those cars released for sale in our country.
In related news, I picked up a copy of WRC2 for the PS3 as, thankfully, PS3 titles are NOT region locked! I’ll post a full review once I’m deeper into what seems like a long career mode. Until then, the Horizon Rally upgrade fits the bill for a quick blast in a rally car with a better overall experience than say Sega Rally. In fact, I think Horizon could have worked entirely as a Rally game if they ditched the car meet “story” in favor of an amateur US Rally series.
Pedal to the Plastic 