Forza Horizon 2 Review and why Forza Horizon is way better

Forza Horizon 2 Review and my thoughts on Forza Horizon, and both Need for Speed Most Wanteds 

Forza Horizon 2 is a cool game that takes place in southern Italy and France. It's been 2 years since the Colorado Horizon festival. Horizon has a car and music festival in Italy and France now. You play as a different silent white male protagonist with brown hair. In the the first game you played as a silent white male protagonist with black hair. There isn't much backstory on the protagonist. He just wants to race cars and be a champion. For all we know, he could have killed over thousands of people in a linear set piece combat tour.

On the 360 version progression is finishing at least 3rd place and above in 4 races in an area. After that a next section opens up where there is 4 more races in a area. You repeat this process 12 times to get to the Horizon championship. After that you win the game. What makes the game a mega grindfest for 100% is each race has 10 different race divisions, which means 480 races to complete. 
Forza Horizon did a better job of complete 3 to 4 races, race 1 to 1 against a champion opponent. Do it 6 times and beat the champion Darius Flynt. Forza Horizon 2 you play as a car racing against other cars instead of a human in a car racing against humans in cars. Forza Horizon did a way better job of the human element. Forza Horizon 2 feels dead. There was no people at the festival were tired of 3rd time in a row winner of DoucheChills Racer.

The soundtrack on 360 is significantly reduced compared to the Xbox One version. Instead of 7 radio stations and over 150 songs, it is only 3 stations and about 60 songs.
The soundtrack was way better in Forza Horizon. Starting the game hearing Porter Robinson's Language was amazing, because I heard that song a couple times before playing it and I was like "Oh shit Language is in this game awesome!" Mord Fustang Lick the Rainbow was awesome. I still think Mord Fustang is to seperate the low proletariat who quick glance and say they love Ford Mustang. 2012 had a better lineup. It was like hey man its 2012, weed is gonna be legal in Colorado man. We got cool music and cool cars.

Forza Horizon 2 soundtrack I can definitely say I ain't with it. The majority of the songs do not complement cruising down the southern France and Italy. The songs aren't catchy, and will not be ahead of the curve like the first game. After playing the first game, 6 months to a year later I started hearing Miike Snows Paddling Out on Coors light commericals, Santigold Disparate Youth beginning bassline when Youtube was doing commericals for the Week of Geek.
I really loved listening to Tesla Boy Spirit of the Night, Empire of the Sun Walking on a Dream, and Electric Guest Awake, just exploring Colorado at night. 

Am I too hard on Horizon 2? Am I experiencing ludo driving audio scenery dissonance. If I was European would I like it more? How come there isn't people in hoodies doing parkour on buildings in the Italian side? 

Forza Horizon 2 is a solid game, but Horizon was so much better.
The parallels of Forza Horizon 1 and 2 reminds me of Need For Speed Most Wanted 2005 and 2012.
I loved Need for Speed Most Wanted. It was a solid racing game. The pursuit system was great. The crashbreakers was a nice mechanic to get police off your tail. While bullet time in the game sounded silly, it was great for avoiding spike strips last second. The story and characters was a cheesy but didn't overstay its welcome. The main thing was getting from #15 to #1 and advancing to the next racer. It was a racer against racer. The first 15 minutes of the game set up the plot for the entire game. Get your BMW M3 car back.

Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012 I had high hopes for since it was made by Criterion. However the game was very minimal on content. It was just do 2 to 3 races per car to get upgrades, and grind for specific skills to get a 2nd tier higher upgrade. For progression it was just getting enough pursuit points to race against the next car while the police are chasing you. Do this 10 more times. Most Wanted 2012 became a post car apocalypse like Burnout where all humans are dead and cars roam the earth.