Forza Horizon 3 was one of the most welcomed announcements at E3, and soon after its global unveiling we caught up with both Turn 10 and Playground Games' creative directors (Dan Greenawalt and Ralph Fulton, respectively) at Xbox Showcase event to learn about the new, 'Australian' Forza for both Xbox One and Windows 10.

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"The thing we were going for here is, even though the world is twice the size of Forza Horizon 2's, the really important thing is it's twice as diverse", points out Fulton. "Everywhere you go you find new environment types, new driving experiences, new eco-types: there's twice as many eco-types in Horizon 3 as there were in Horizon 2".

Given the new terrain types, we asked about simulation engine improvements. "We're always evolving the fidelity of our physics simulation across the game," Fulton told us.

"You'll see an enormous emphasis in off-road driving. You're going to be crushing through rain forests, you'll be driving in the sea, actually driving through rivers, so we've done a lot of work in suspension, a lot of work on tyre compounds to make sure that we're reflecting exactly how all these 350+ cars react to those different scenarios"

The interview touches on other aspects such as Turn 10 and Playground Games' collaboration for the two branches of the franchise ("one vision, two expressions of car culture"), vehicle variety, the new four player campaign co-op (including exhibition events and showcases), and cross-play with Windows 10.

Regarding Drivatars, after "11 million plus unique players on Xbox", the AI is still learning and smarter than ever, so you can expect not only Drivatars finding new paths just like with FH2, but also AI-player cooperation (with Lineup "you can hire of fire your friend's Drivatars to work at your festival") or real-time Convoys.

And finally we of course wanted to ask about the graphics and the new HDR lighting possibilities with the Xbox One S. This was Grenawalt's answer:

"When you see the skies in Horizon in particular in HDR, the skies are amazing. (...) We're not currently showing that right here [at E3], but as gamers get their hands on the Xbox One S and on Forza Horizon 3, they're going to see an amazing showcase of what HDR can do".