I have this and the new Need for Speed Most Wanted, got them both on Black Friday deals. For pure racing and the feel of the cars, Horizon definitely wins. In Most Wanted, each of the cars definitely has a different feel that them but still much easier to drive and more forgiving. Graphics I give the edge to Horizon as well as there's not much going on other than the cars so it can devote more processing to the cars. Most Wanted still looks pretty good though. As an "open world" Most Wanted wins by a huge margin. The world in Forza Horizon doesn't even feel like an open world at all. Sure you can drive wherever you want but you have to basically stay within the roads with almost no real places to go. Most Wanted feels like a much more alive world with tons of cars everywhere and off the path spots for hidden areas. To fast travel to spots in Horizon it costs $10,000 which is a lot. Driving to each of the races in Horizon really isn't that fun since you're driving on nearly empty roads everywhere and you'll be doing tons of driving to each individual race. The pure racing aspect of Horizon is definitely better than Most Wanted but in the 4 or so hours I've played, Most Wanted has been more fun than the nearly 3 hours I've played Horizon. The races with more traffic on the road, shortcuts, jumps, cops etc, had made the races more fun IMO. This is my first Need for Speed game I've ever owned and have owned every Gran Turismo, Forza 2, and 3, so I definitely prefer the more realistic driving to arcade. The horrible open world in Forza just kills it for me though. If they didn't have the open world with all the boring/tedious driving everywhere, I'd definitely like it better. Right now, I think I'll be playing Need for Speed more even though reviews say it's really short and doesn't have a large selection of cars.