“My arm hairs raise like a million tiny power windows”
Nodding along to the music in Forza Horizon 3
’ve driven a car before, and I’ve listened to Thus Spoke Zarathustra before, but not at the same time, and never at 250mph. So as I’m staring down the barrel of an airstrip in a Hennessey Venom, twinkling runway lights stretching to infinity, the hairs on my arms raise like a million tiny power windows. It’s the perfect music for going somewhere very quickly, and when the sun rises majestically behind a mountain, it’s an almost Kubrickian moment—the ascent of man on fastforward. It’s just one of many brilliant uses of music in this Australia-set racer.
There are eight radio stations, and as boss of the fictional Horizon festival, l can sign them by winning events and gaining exposure. My favorite is hip-hop station Horizon Block Party, which at one point powers a mad jungle sprint to the furious barks of DMX’s X Gon’ Give It
Isinging a song”, which speaks to all my karaoke experiences. Also the car is called “Maloo”. The music always fits the time and place. You can create your own events with custom soundtracks. I make a sunny coastline course for Lamborghinis set to Runaway by Galantis. If you’ve never heard Runaway by Galantis, YouTube it and then try to tell me you don’t want to race a Lamborghini. I do wish I could pick more than one song for a race, though, blending them to complement the dynamic weather and day/night cycle. Imagine driving through a dramatic lightning storm to Beethoven’s Allegro con Brio, then White Lies’ Come