Australian Outback

Lore & Background

The Australian Outback in Forza Horizon 3 is a fictional representation of real Australian locations, including the desert town of Coober Pedy in South Australia and Ormiston Gorge in the Northern Territory. Playground Games sent a team to Australia to take reference photos of plants, rocks, and road details to help create a convincing gameplay world. They also implemented minor details like the colours of Australian phone boxes and garbage bins, as well as including native wildlife. Creative director Ralph Fulton explained that the team desired to help celebrate Australian car culture, noting that "[Australia's] culture of Ford vs Holden, and V8s and Utes isn't immediately familiar to everybody north of the equator, but we did feel it was really interesting and colourful and would add to the game." The world is somewhat geographically inaccurate, with locations existing in different geographic areas in the game to create a better gameplay experience. Mike Brown, a game designer, described Australia's diverse scenery as "perfect" for the game.

In Their Own Story

The Outback is one of the regions where the player, as the director of the Horizon Festival, must expand the festival by completing races, challenges, and stunts to earn fans. The gameplay world is about twice the size of Forza Horizon 2, and the Outback offers a variety of terrain for events. Players can discover breakable "bonus boards" that award experience points or discounts on fast travelling. They can also receive rumours of barn finds to uncover and restore. The region features Drivatars—vehicle AI that learns and mimics the driving abilities of Forza players—which appear as opponents in races and can be challenged to head-to-head races. If the player wins, they can recruit that Drivatar onto their racing team to earn additional experience points, fans, and in-game currency.

Reader's Guide

In the Outback, players can participate in three types of racing modes: Exhibition (a single race at one location), Championship (multiple races dispersed throughout the gameplay world), and Rivals (a time trial against an AI opponent). The newly introduced Horizon Blueprint feature lets players customise races and Bucket List Challenges. Players can also engage in Forzathon competitions, which provide weekly challenges and give awards once completed. Performing stunts with a vehicle awards "skill points" that can be used to purchase perks, including cars, experience points, in-game currency, and driving advantages. The player can upgrade and tune individual parts of their vehicles, with body kits available. A total of 350 vehicles were available at the game's launch. Due to licensing issues, vehicles manufactured by Volkswagen are absent from the game.

Did You Know?

• The Australian Outback region includes locations based on Coober Pedy in South Australia and Ormiston Gorge in the Northern Territory.
• Playground Games sent a team to Australia to take reference photos of plants, rocks, and road details to help design the Outback.
• The game's world is geographically inaccurate on purpose—locations that exist in different real-life areas are placed together to improve gameplay.
• Minor details like the colours of Australian phone boxes and garbage bins were implemented into the Outback region.
• Creative director Ralph Fulton said the team wanted to celebrate Australian car culture, including Ford vs Holden and V8s and Utes.