The 2012 Forza Horizon runs natively on PC and is playable online again on a public server
The project recompiles the Xbox 360 Forza Horizon to Windows and Linux and replaces the official services, shut down in 2023, with a public server that you can also host yourself. Version 0.3.3 lets you sign in to the website account from the launcher. You need your own copy of the game.
Online again
According to the project, Forza Horizon's official online services closed on August 22, 2023. ForzaHorizon1-ReImagined stands in for them with Forza Live, its own server, which has a public instance you use with no setup and a version anyone can host, with Python 3 or Docker. There are also community servers in other regions, each with its own friends list and leaderboards. You don't need to register or have an Xbox account: the game makes its own online identity the first time it starts with a server picked.
Online you can play Horizon World, a shared free roam for up to 8 players, and the co-op festival, where friends do events together. There are leaderboards for speed traps, speed zones and events, plus Rivals with times, ghosts and bounties, public on a map of Colorado on the website. There are also a friends list, chat and car clubs, and the photo and design gallery where photo mode shots, paint jobs and vinyls are shared. Players on Title Update 4 don't meet players on the base game, and the Auction House has no screens in the game.
Native on Windows and Linux
The original PowerPC executable is statically recompiled to C++ with ReIGlue, a fork of the ReXGlue SDK, the same method RecompiledHaloReach uses. The launcher, which comes as a Windows installer, a Flatpak or a .tar.gz and updates itself, builds the game on your PC from your copy. It includes the whole festival, Title Update 4 and all 23 DLC packages, mods, HD texture packs and a frame rate you set: 30 is the original and you can go up to 240 if the PC holds it.
The repository started on October 10, is GPL-3.0 and has 455 stars.
Version 0.3.3
It came out on November 11 and lets you sign in or create the website account without leaving the launcher. The account card opens the site's page in a window of its own, you sign in with Discord, GitHub or an emailed code, press Link and confirm in the launcher. That makes the launcher download about 90 to 100 MB bigger and the install about 240 MB bigger, because it now ships its own web view. To link the account on the public server you first have to drive through a speed trap in the game.
What you need
Your own copy of the game, as a disc image, a Games on Demand package or an extracted folder. The repository contains no game code or data, and the project says it never publishes prebuilt game files: a download claiming to be one doesn't come from the project. Its official sources are its GitHub organization and its website.
