"Storm Island" expansion released for Horizon 2(XOne) !

IGN reports this to be releasing tomorrow, features extreme racing and terrain.....its not clear if included in season pass or not, all they say is VIP members get 50% discount of the 20$ price tag. Looks like a surprise announcement, have not heard of this before today

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/12/15/forza-horizon-2-extreme-racing-around-storm-island

Cool.

Just bought it now through smartglass remote, looks awesome cannot wait to get home ....tropical storms and fog ,on the island, new events,challenges, cars and trucks, achievements , new game modes as well such as rampage

Looks like it could be really good, I am interested in picking this expansion up at some point. Is the new area part of the map or a separate load in to get to?

@Garfield360UK:

I'll let you know in a bit, I'm about to play it in a few moments

@Garfield360UK Edit: Been playing around 15 min.,.....great fun...it is a completely seperate area from the main map, you travel to it by going near a boat near the south area of the main map. Once there you have to do a few races to unlock all the new features, the area has its own seperate online modes, bucket lists, events(looks like at least 12 different championships at first glance). While I was racing there was heavy rain and wind, and I could see this volcano in the far background emitting smoke, which I do not remember this being in the main game. I started out with this huge truck(2014 Ford Ranger T6).....gotta go play more now to unlock the new online modes.

Expansion is 3.07 GB. In order for it to work, you'll need to download an update once you launch the game(around 1.1 GB). It is not part of the season pass, that appears to be just for the car packs....but it only cost me 10$ as I have the VIP.

Game just keeps on giving, really impressive effects going on. Just need the price to drop down to about 10 bucks. Are there any new modes like infected/king of the hill? Really enjoy those modes to break up the normal races.

@BigBadBully: Yes those 2 modes are in there, been playing all night yesterday. Those modes are more fun with the big trucks now I find, I was doing some crazy jumps trying to catch up to people lol.......but now you can equip rally type upgrades to help with the new terrains, for suspension, tires, and transmission.

i have started playing it as well, however i just got through the "road trip" and the first race, i am not a fan of indeterminate off road tracks, but i love rally type of races, so it feels fine at the moment... this expansion feels just the same as the burnout paradise's expansion, which was brilliant as well, however it came out after quite some time the game was released, so this one is much better... :D

Sounds great, got any further impressions for us @Alucard_Prime?

@Garfield360UK:

I've mostly been playing online roadtrips, have not really played single player that much yet. I'm experimenting with different cars and trucks to get a better feel for what works best on the more extreme type of terrains and hills that are in Storm Island. The new Raid trucks are awesome, but if you go too fast on certain jumps, you can flip over. Those are big heavy trucks and they are great fun but can be challenging if you're not careful. I'm also outiftting the Rally type cars(retro and modern I think) with the new rally upgrades, and these perform very well too. They do not flip over as easily and have much tighter handling, and weigh much less than the bigger trucks. So that's the gist of it right now, pretty cool expansion that feel is much better done than the Rally one from the first Horizon.

Sounds great, I may have to pick this up at some point then. I will have to see if the Xbox pre-paid cards get any offers going so I can save on the content.

i have played through until tier 3 races along with the finale, since i had won enough championships to enter it... so far the expansion is very satisfying, however after installing the storm island upgrades the cars end up being in the upper classes, so i changed their drivetrains to 4x4 as well, i guess it is not cheating... :D

the regular rally raid cars without the upgrades tend to "dance" on the road, however you have to drive them without upgrades in gauntlet races, which can be a little stressful... the expansion deserves a solid 8 imho... :)

if you enjoy racing off-road in fh2, this is a must have expansion... :)

@MondasM:

Yeah I ran into similar dilemmas as I was trying to setup a few cars for B/A class. So far I'm finding the suspension rally upgardes are a must on those raid trucks, otherwise you really need to slow down on those huge jumps.

I was in an online race yesterday where most of the racers were driving raid trucks, and at one point a bunch of us were racing neck-to-neck and all jumped together off this huge hill top. It was quite a sight to behold because as I was flying in the air I could see all around me the other trucks missing their landings and just barrel rolling left and right. There must have been at least 5-6 trucks that crashed in front of me and somehow I made the jump and continued on through the pileup, it was was pretty crazy I think the only reason I made it was because I had the rally suspension on lol.

couldn't edit my previous post from phone....but just wanted to clarify actually,I don't think you are able to add the storm upgrades to the new raid trucks, I think they already come with them if I am not mistaken....you can add the new upgrades to all the previous pre expansion cars/trucks though

@Alucard_Prime: i realised that yesterday as well, i used to enter raid races with the bowler, which is a standard car, however when i chose the ford raid car, storm island upgrades were on it... :)

btw, i used only the storm island upgrades on hot hatches, which are only fwd, without messing with the drivetrain and somehow the game seemed to be easier... :)

i haven't tried any online racing yet, but if you brake before the jumps, you jump less and in a more controlled manner, however you lose some speed... additionally i had upgraded a supra with everything i could, it became x 999 class, however there is no way you can control it, when it's airborne there is no way of telling where and how it will land... :D