Forza Horizon 3 gameplay screenshot

[Update]: Forza Horizon 3 will be going away for good this September 27, 2020.

Forza Horizon 3 released a little while back to some pretty damn good reviews, but as is standard with AAA games these days it also came with a whole slew of performance issues. There were continuous crashes on certain PC configurations, the FPS was inconsistent across the board, some of the textures had a strange flickering issue, and overall the whole thing was a bit of a mess.

Thankfully, the developers released numerous patches over the past few weeks and have already managed to address the majority of these issues, with the most recent patch serving as a breakthrough for those that still had to deal with drastic FPS drops and seemingly random crashes. If you're interested in all of the specifics, as well as some of the XP changes that came along with this update, here are the patch notes:

Stability

 Fixed an issue where having a microphone enabled in the game but no speech pack installed would cause the title to crash on Windows 10

 Fixed an issue that would cause a game crash for some Windows 10 players when entering Maroondah Road Bucket List event

 Fixed an issue that would cause a game crash for some Windows 10 and Xbox One players when joining online Bucket List Blueprint challenges with mismatched DLC

 Fixed an issue that would cause a game crash for some Xbox One players when pausing the game

 Fixed an issue that would cause a game crash for some players when collecting Loyalty Rewards while in a Convoy

 Fixed an issue that would cause a game crash for some players when using the AMD R9 Fury X graphics card on Windows 10

 Fixed a TDR for Windows 10 players

Performance

 Players running four-core setups on Windows 10 should see CPU improvements

· Improved thread layout changes for eight-core setups on Windows 10, resulting in improved performance

 Improvement to performance in upgrades and tuning screens on Windows 10

 Fixed a stall when driving in Byron Bay on Windows 10

 Stall fixed when applying Drivatar liveries while driving on Windows 10

 Stall fixed when driving in free roam on Xbox One

Wheel Support

• Improvements to force feedback dead zone and FFB performance when driving on tarmac on both Xbox One and Windows 10

 Fixed a bug so that wheel button prompts now match the in-game bindings on Windows 10

 Actions that must be mapped are now identified in the UI and number of actions that must be mapped has been reduced on Windows 10

General Improvements

 Fix for photo mode being blurry for some Windows 10 players

 Groove music playback improvements on Xbox One

 Upgrade basket UI now supports mouse input for Windows 10

 Fix for bug that prevented Windows 10 players from progressing past the Start screen with no internet connection

 Added Master Volume option for Windows 10 players

 Fix to Advanced Camera functionality in left and top views in Paintshop (Xbox One and Windows)

 Fix to enable Rewind when returning from Co-Op to Solo (Xbox One and Windows)

 Added option to mute microphones in-game (Xbox One and Windows)

 Player can now continue driving when fuel runs out (Xbox One and Windows)

Gameplay Changes

 Horizon Edition cars that boost either Skills or XP no longer provide a benefit in Online Adventure

 Fixed an issue where the Perk “The XP Bump” worked in Online Adventure. Now it provides no benefit outside of single player racing

 Added a 30-second cooldown to the Drift Tap Skill

 Reduced the amount of XP awarded for banking Skill Chains

 Reduced 3-Star score target on the following Drift Zones: Mountain Scramble, Mountain Foot, Reservoir, and Gold Mine

 Previous Horizon Edition cars removed from Wheelspins; new Horizon Edition cars added. The new HE cars are the BAC Mono Horizon Edition , Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Horizon Edition, Lamborghini Countach LP5000 QV Horizon Edition, Mercedes C 63 AMG Coupé Black Series Horizon Edition, MG Metro 6R4 Horizon Edition, MINI Cooper S Horizon Edition, and the Subaru Impreza 22B STi Horizon Edition

 Added the name of the current Championship to Car Select in Online Adventure to help players choose a suitable car

 Horizon Edition cars display the correct bonus for Wheelspins

 Fixed an issue where the Landmarks stat was incorrectly listed as 21 instead of 19, stopping players reaching 100 percent complete

This update is live on both the Xbox One and PC, so if you were previously having issues with Forza Horizon 3, give it a look and see if things have improved. If you're still suffering from problems, worry not as the developers have already announced another series of performance orientated updates in order to weed out the remaining bugs and issues. When exactly these patches will come, that I unfortunately don't know, but here's to hoping its as soon as possible!