Before You Begin

If you are a returning racer you likely have some well-defined memories of the first Horizon and the Colorado countryside upon which it was raced. This time around it is a lot different both in the setup of the story and the area in which Horizon is held.

This time around we are introduced to the festival by doing a favor for the organizer and helping drive some of the priceless rides to the festival from the ferry. That first race is not really meant to be a race so much as a fast ride to the festival.

Once you arrive, you unlock your first Achievement: Welcome to Horizon (10G) Arrive at the Horizon Festival. You then get the welcome speech from the organizer, and then you get to choose from three Cars for your starting ride that you will use in the first heat:

• BMW Z4 SDRIVE35IS

• Chevrolet Camaro SS Coupe

• Toyota Supra RZ

You pretty much have to choose one of these Cars, even if you have cars that are already in your garage from pre-order or other bonus sets.

Which you choose is going to depend a lot on your racing style - but be warned that the Camaro is the typical muscle car, which means it is a very fluid ride on the corners. I went with the Zed-Four myself but I am pretty predictable...

Once you have the car and have set the GPS to the destination for the first heat, which you need to finish in the Top 3 in order to obtain your Horizon Wristband and get this party started!

Bear in mind a few things tho mates - you should try NOT to hit and collect any of the bonus signs right now - we will get to that soon. You should also try to not stress too much on perfect runs, just finish in the Top 3. Anywhere in the Top 3 will do!

The first heat seems to be weighted in your favor - the first half was mutt-and-jeff racing, but after that it was relatively easy to slide into first place and stay there - you should not have any trouble getting your wristband in other words.

You should then unlock the Achievement: Yellow Wristband (10G) Obtain the Yellow Wristband - and that nicely wraps up the starting section! So head for the Walkthrough Section now!

FYI unlike the previous game, the colored Wristbands are not awarded for winning the different race Championships, they are actually awarded for hitting specific XP marks. So you could, in theory, obtain a couple new ones just by collecting XP Boards...

Before you can do anything else you have to secure your position as a racer at the event - and that means winning a heat!

Just a Few More Points...

There are just a few more Before You Begin things to point out to you...

Depending upon the version of the game you bought, and whether or not it was a pre-order, you may have some special Cars available to you that ordinarily are not available to the average player. We thought we would address this subject now, in the Before you Begin Section, because that is where it belongs...

So first thing first, game version. There are several versions of the game you can buy - and they include retail boxed versions as well as Digital Download versions - so versions of versions heh. These are:

Day One Edition – $59.99

• Forza Horizon 2 Main Game

• 2012 Dodge Challenger R/T

• 2013 Mercedes Benz A 45 AMG

• 2014 Ford Fiesta ST

Deluxe Edition – $79.99

• Everything in the Day One Edition plus:

• 1949 Mercury Coupe

• 1967 Ferrari 330 P4

• 2012 Lamborghini Urus

• 2014 Tesla Model S

• Donkervoort D8 GTO

• 2x Player Reward Acceleration

• Access to Exclusive Multi-player Events

• In-Game Gifts and Recognition

Ultimate Edition – $99.99

• Everything in the Deluxe Edition plus:

• Six Monthly Car Passes (5 Cars each)

• 2010 Noble M600

Forza Horizon 2 Free Launch Bonus Car Pack

This is a standard Car Pack - that is to say it is a DLC Pack - but it is FREE to all FH2 Players - just consider it Turn 10 and Microsoft's way of saying Thanks Mates! It contains the following rides:

• 1956 Ford F-100

• 1968 Abarth 595 esseesse

• 1987 Buick Regal GNX

• 1993 Clio Williams

• 1997 Land Rover Defender 90

• 2003 Ford Focus RS

• 2012 Cadillac Escalade ESV

• 2015 Ford Mustang GT

As is implied in the name, this Car Pack will be available for download by all as DLC on Launch Day!

VIP Membership Pack

The VIP Membership Pack is just what it sounds like - a DLC Pack that will flag the member as a VIP and which awards the traditional bonuses that SUCH status conveys in the Forza series. If you are a returning racer and you already have VIP Status for the last game in the series - Forza Motorsport 5 - you will be offered the Forza Horizon 2 VIP Digital Membership Pack at HALF PRICE.

That means that you will only need to spend $9.99 for it, as opposed to the regular $19.99 that other players who were not VIPs in FM5 will have to spend. But it also means you can ONLY get that as a Digital offering.

The FH2 VIP Pack includes the following bonuses:

• Special In-game Recognition;

• 2x player in-game reward acceleration;

• Access to exclusive multi-player events;

• In-game gifts from the Forza Community Team;

• 1949 Mercury Coupe;

• 1967 Ferrari 330 P4;

• 2012 Lamborghini Urus;

• 2013 Donkervoort D8 GTO;

• 2014 Tesla Model S.

All of that combined makes the VIP Membership Pack very much worth the trouble and expense even if you don't receive the half-off discount. If you are not a returning racer from previous games in either the main Forza Motorsport series or Forza Horizon, let us just explain what the In-game gifts from the Forza Community Team actually means.

Over the course of the next few years (YEARS) and at least until the next game in the series is released (Forza Horizon 3) the Forza Community Team will gift you with special Cars. Note that this is in addition to the piles of Credits and maybe special cars you can get for free just by signing up for the Forza Rewards Program (please read carefully the Forza Rewards Section of the Guide for details about that incredible program), you can thus anticipate holiday gifts of cars with special livery, or just any old day gifts of cars with special livery because why? Because that's how the Forza Community Team rolls that is why!

Pre-Order Bonus Items

When you pre-order the game, depending on the retailer that you made your order through you will receive some special Cars. At the time that we wrote this, those are:

• Amazon: 2008 Ferrari California.

• Amazon.co.uk: 2013 BMW M6 Coupe.

• Amazon Germany: 2013 Audi RS 4 Avant

• Best Buy: 2013 BMW M6 Coupe.

• EB Games Australia: 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera.

• EB Games NZ: 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera.

• Game: 2008 Ferrari California.

• GameStop: 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera.

• GameStop Germany: 2008 Ferrari California.

• JB HiFi: 2013 BMW M6 Coupe.

• Microsoft Store: 2013 Audi RS 4 Avant + $10 Xbox gift card.

• Tesco: 2013 Audi RS 4 Avant