'Forza' videogame absolutely mangles Australian geography
Forza Horizon 3 may be a great video game, but it will definitely be no geography lesson.
The new title, which was officially announced Monday at the gaming trade show E3 in Los Angeles, is set for the first time in Australia. In what appears to be leaked footage, the game map seems a bit... off.
Players will be able to drive through desert, beaches and rainforests, all legitimate Australian terrain, but just so we're clear: In no world is Byron Bay below the Twelve Apostles.
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Similarly, the Yarra Valley is definitely not just southwest of Surfer's Paradise. If we're going to be pedantic, there's no region called "rainforest" to the west of the Twelve Apostles, and there isn't any rainforest there either.
To be fair, it takes almost 20 hours to drive from Byron Bay to the Twelve Apostles, so it makes sense Forza decided to condense the country a little bit. Still, you have to question the need to have a "dry reservoir" as big as a legitimate region like the Kiewa Valley.
Xbox, for its part, doesn't see the big deal. "The map is not supposed to be representative of the actual map of Australia, but rather to enable Forza Horizon players to navigate through the incredible destinations within the game in a format that makes sense within the gameplay," a company spokesperson told Mashable Australia.
Fine, but any Forza-playing tourists are going to be very confused when they realise Byron Bay is not just one beach away from the Twelve Apostles.
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Ariel Bogle was an associate editor with Mashable in Australia covering technology. Previously, Ariel was associate editor at Future Tense in Washington DC, an editorial initiative between Slate and New America.
