Forza Horizon 5 is a racing video game set in an open world environment based in a fictional representation of Mexico. The game has the largest map in the entire Forza Horizon series, being 50% larger than its predecessor, Forza Horizon 4, while also having the highest point in the Horizon series. The map was described by creative director Mike Brown as one of the most diverse Forza Horizon maps the team has built. The map contains an active caldera volcano, jungles and beaches, ancient Mayan temples, and towns and cities such as Guanajuato. Players can explore the open world freely, though they can also compete in multiplayer races and complete the campaign mode. Both the cars featured in the game and the player character can be extensively customised.
Players are able to create custom liveries and tunes for cars, and perform engine swaps, drivetrain swaps, or install body kits on certain vehicles. The game is the first in the franchise to support ray tracing on cars . Forza Horizon 5 is the latest entry in Playground Games' open-world spin-off series of Turn10 Studios' popular track racing series. Taking a vast selection of cars, trucks, and other vehicles to the Horizon Festival in Mexico this time around, players will find compete in races to improve their reputation across the festival. With all the customization, multiplayer options, and cutting-edge visuals you'd expect from the series, this is one you'll want to check out.
Here's everything you need to know about Forza Horizon 5's preload times, file size, and when you can begin playing. Create your own expressions of fun with the powerful new EventLab gameplay toolset including custom races, challenges, stunts, and entirely new game modes. Customize your cars in more ways than ever before with new options such as the ability open and close convertible tops, paint brake calipers, and more.
Use the new Gift Drops feature to share your custom creations with the community. This is Your Open World - Create your own expressions of fun with the powerful new EventLab gameplay toolset including custom races, challenges, stunts, and entirely new game modes. With these beautifully realized graphics, you can really appreciate the colorful creativity of the custom experiences you and other players can make using the new EventLabs toolset. With a blueprint library full of different props, ramps, platforms, flags, and festival decorations, you can let your creativity run free and make your own unique races, challenges, and unique modes with a ruleset tool to publish and share.
One EventLab blueprint event I try out by another player sees me go through a track that brilliantly pays homage to Jurassic Park, where you need to hit a series of boxes behind the wheel of a Jeep. The tools are very easy to use, and it'll be exciting to see just what else the community can come up with in the future. Forza Horizon 5 already has a tough act to follow with its polished predecessor set in Great Britain, but there's so much on offer in Playground Games' take on Mexico. As the biggest and most expansive map in the series so far, you really are spoilt for choice when it comes to what you want to spend your time doing. There are also some fantastic new additions that really bring renewed life to the experience and strengthen what already makes the series so great.
With the arrival of the Horizon festival in this new Mexican setting, your core Horizon adventure revolves around setting up various outposts throughout the different regions, and unlocking events by earning accolade points. Forza Horizon 5 has finally hit consoles and computers for all users , so racers ready for the latest racing experience can enjoy some truly impressive graphics and customization options. One of the things we love about Forza is how friendly its various Tours and racing matches are, from trying out different competitive modes to joining a team and making your way through a world tour together. Keep in mind thatHorizon 5 also includes Kudos and Gift Drops to share with the community, so teamplay is a core aspect for many gaming modes. Being the fifth instalment in the series, Playground Games has taken huge steps to make the driving experience more immersive. Starting with the map size, which is 50 per cent larger than Forza Horizon 4, the game features countless locations such as an active volcano, jungles, beaches, ancient Mayan temples, and the narrow, colourful streets of Guanajuato.
Besides the standard campaign mode, players can take part in online multiplayer races and explore the open world with no restrictions. Microsoft makes a big deal of accessibility, including in its flagship events, and its Xbox games are continuing in that spirit. Hop on in and pick from over hundreds of world-class cars and begin your horizon adventure today. A new Forza Horizon game always comes with at least a handful of new features and improvements over its predecessor, but Forza Horizon 5 delivers even greater amounts of content to players. The extra year of development Forza Horizon 5 got over previous entries in the series clearly helped things along because there is a lot about which to talk. Not only has Playground Games baked in significantly more content into Forza Horizon 5's base game, but it's also given the community a way to add essentially infinite new events and races to Forza Horizon 5 over time.
FH5's online features have seen significant improvements to more completely connect players all around the world. Even when FH5 players have gotten through the majority of content in the base game, Forza Horizon 5's multiplayer is grander and more accessible than ever before, with a nearly endless amount of content to explore. Forza Horizon 5 is the highly anticipated follow-up to 2018's breakout hit open world driving game Forza Horizon 4, coming this November 9 to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles, and PC on Windows 10 and Steam. Lead breathtaking expeditions across the vibrant and ever-evolving open world landscapes of Mexico with limitless, fun driving action in hundreds of the world's greatest cars.
However, Forza Horizon 5 is on another level on Xbox Series X and it's one of the few games where I prefer the 30fps quality mode to its 60fps equivalent. The increase in fidelity and the more graceful LOD transitions combined with the upgraded visuals elevate it significantly beyond performance mode. True, it's not 60fps but the motion blur is the best I've seen in bridging the gap. Of course, it is possible to play this game at full frame-rate with Series X's mixture of high, ultra and extreme settings - and that's where the PC version comes into play. We'll be reporting back on our testing and experiences there soon. Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards.
Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. Throughout all of the stories, races, expeditions, and every else in between, I'm consistently impressed with just how smooth and responsive all of the controls are. With a wealth of settings and accessibility options to fine-tune your experience and make it suit your requirements or preferred style of play, Playground Games really puts you in the driver's seat in more ways than one.
To top it all off, a slight update to livery customization makes it even easier to add decals and, and with the return of tuning, you can once again make the car of your dreams. Unlike other games though, the latter is achieved by dynamically dropping some of the graphics settings rather than resolution, so you still get a 4K experience, but with fewer terrain elements, shorter draw distances, that sort of thing. Some will prefer the expanded frame rate and see that as a necessary trade-off, but we have to say that the 30fps quality mode still plays very well indeed and you get the maximum visual effect, to boot. Game Informer appreciated the social intreractions in the game, especially the score comparisons, "More times than I could count, I noticed my friend hit a higher top speed, causing me to turn around and try the challenge again". This consists of a series of mini-multiplayer games strewn across the map.
One of these mini-multiplayer games is called "Piñata pop" where the Horizon Festival's cargo plane drops piñatas. The goal is to pop as many piñatas as they can with the help of other players. It also introduces the "EventLab", a toolset in which players can create custom games, races, and more depending on their personal preference.
According to Brown, it is an AI assistant that tracks the current statuses of players, helping them to link with other players online and play together. Forza Link can also link players' GPS systems if they accept the invitation from another player. Like many other Xbox games that span generations, Forza Horizon 5 supports Xbox Smart Delivery. This means you have to buy Forza Horizon 5 only once for Xbox consoles, and Xbox will automatically download the best possible version of the game for the console you're playing on, at no additional cost. This also includes Xbox cloud saves, meaning there's full cross-progression between generations.
Forza Horizon 5 is akin to a "car-lovers sandbox," and lets you play however you want. While there is a story and full-blown campaign with the Horizon Adventure, Expeditions, and smaller Horizon Stories, it's still up to players how they progress and what path they take. All in all, the focus of Forza Horizon 5 is the vast arsenal of cars, the wide variety of races and events, the sheer level of creative freedom available, and the deeply integrated online multiplayer gameplay. The expansive new setting of Mexico really does have so much to offer, and longtime players and newcomers alike are sure to have a blast discovering everything you can get stuck into. I've lost count of the number of races I sped my way through that I immediately wanted to experience all over again. As another fantastic entry in what is already a very strong series, Playground Games delivers impeccably detailed graphics, stellar audio design, and smooth controls that all work together to make Forza Horizon 5 an utter joy to play.
I'm already itching to get right back into the driver's seat. This racing wonderland version of Mexico is charming, thrilling, and fun to explore. With locations that include volcanic mountains, vibrant towns, and glittering oceans, each square mile of this open playground offers amazing sights.
But sometimes a game can be so pretty that it helps you appreciate an experience that you would normally feel mild about. For example, I'm not the biggest racing game fan in the world. When I do enjoy a racer, it's usually a more arcadey experience like Ridge Racer Type 4 or the more recent Cruis'n Blast.
This outstanding masterpiece from Playground Games keeps its charm after hours of playing. Whether you're a car fanatic or not, playing this with your friends will be a well-spent time and there aren't many skills required to understand this game. The studio has undoubtedly succeeded this year again, with frequent post-launch updates and free content likely to come regularly, you will always find a reason to come back and play this game. Forza Horizon 5 also features a brand-new weather system, where players will be able to experience different climates in different parts of the country. Additionally, you are also introduced to the Horizon Arcade, where you can play a series of mini-multiplayer games spread across the map.
Crucially, there are advantages to playing Forza Horizon 5 on Series consoles that aren't just about graphics or frame-rate. Hosting the game on SSD makes for a more streamlined experience on Series consoles - and it's noticeable right from the beginning of the experience. The intro drive is a Playground staple, a spectacular preview of the action to come. It's a glorious, seamless, load-free experience on Xbox Series machines, but Xbox One consoles simply can't deliver the data for each new stage in time, leading to second pauses from one segment to the next. It looks the part, but the loading delays interrupt the flow and don't leave the best impression.
While these transitions are indeed instant on the new consoles, there is still loading in the main game but it's much faster than last-gen console equivalents - around 3x to the better in my tests. In my tests I found that - generally speaking - there are three tiers of graphics fidelity on the consoles. Xbox One is at the base of the pile, as you may expect, but still gets the job done. Xbox One X's graphics profile at dynamic 4K is broadly equivalent to the Series machines in their 60fps modes - but each version has its own plus and minus points.
In some areas, Series X's performance mode seemed to deliver improved ground detail over Xbox One X. Elsewhere, Series S's textures didn't look as detailed as Xbox One X's (and resolution is lower at a dynamic 810p-1080p). Series X performance mode matches One X's 1600p-2160p DRS Plus profile - however, I do want to stress again that resolution changes are difficult to track by eye. It's also nigh-on impossible to find any drops from the target 60fps in the Series console performance modes.
A key aspect of Forza Horizon 5's visual appeal is its sheer density and its massive vistas, something Xbox One cannot hope to deliver to the same level of fidelity as its Series counterparts. Far-off detail is still rendered to an impressive degree, and as it's a persistent aspect of the scene's visual make-up, it has to be - it sells the scale of the open world. Closer to the player, that's where the cuts are more evident. The ground has far fewer layers to it compared to the other consoles, looking rather flat at slow speeds (it's far less noticeable in the thick of gameplay, however). It's not so much of an issue in closed-circuit racing but it's in the open world that the limitations of the console start to bite.
That brings us to the campaign (playable solo or co-op, as before), where most Forza Horizon 5 players will spend their time naturally. The biggest introduction is the new story-driven Expeditions mode — it's a bit of a guided adventure as someone will either be driving beside you, flying above you, or sitting next to you in your vehicle. Expeditions usually involves driving to a place, like say an active volcano or Aztec ruins. Once you're there, you can unlock a bunch of optional accolades by finding objects of interest, if you're willing to spend the time in the area.
Then you reunite with the non-player character partner who takes you on a wild journey, be it sprinting through a tropical storm or running down the side of an active volcano. It's meant to be the highlight of a region — and unlocks a new festival site in turn. The next time I jump in, I get a reply thanking me for the gift, and it's not long before I receive a new car of my own from another generous player.
Your kindness is rewarded in Kudos, which is a way of recognizing when you've done something that another player appreciated. Kudos is shown in your My Horizon menu, so you can always be reminded of your good deeds. Other online features that also encourage a sense of community include the Forza Link which allows you to ask nearby players if they know the location of a barn you're trying to hunt down.
Gift drops are such a great way to brighten someone's day with a shiny new car, and I can already see how Forza Link will bring players together and encourage teamwork. Players can race against their friends in various courses and mini-games. The Events Lab enables players to build creative, wacky game modes from scratch with handpicked rules.
Cars bulldozed bowling pins through a colorful arcade-themed course in one of the example custom modes. The Deluxe Edition comes with the Car Pass, which adds 42 cars for the player to enjoy. Cars change the way players experience the game in terms of driving mechanics and cosmetic appeal. So, if you want the added substance and style, it costs $20 more than the Standard. The Car Pass drops 8 extra Formula Drift cars upfront and the other 34 cars deliver weekly one by one. Forza Horizon 5 is the next installment in the Forza Horizon racing video game series.
Is Forza Horizon 5 Going To Be On Xbox One S The game is developed by Playground Games and published by Xbox Game Studios, and it is scheduled to release this November 9. Forza Horizon 5 will be on Xbox Game Pass on day one of its release next week for players who use the service. It is stunning to look at, with 4K 60fps racing available, and has the biggest open-world map of the series so far.
It can feel more an extension of Horizon 4 at times, but that's nothing to be sniffed at as that game was already at the pinnacle for arcade racers. If the Xbox Series X was demanding a game to hang its hat on, this is surely it. Those playing the game on Xbox One X will be interested to learn that the game only offers a quality mode that runs the game in 4K resolution and 30FPS, matching the visuals of the game running on the Series X|S in performance mode. Developer Playground Games has quite the track record when it comes to optimizing its games, and the latest Forza Horizon installment is no exception. As expected, there are graphical and performance differences between the platforms with the PC version running the game on maximum settings on an NVIDIA RTX 3080.
Interestingly, however, is that the Xbox Series X matches the highest PC settings in the game's quality mode (4K@30FPS). The Series X also supports a performance mode that runs the game in 4K resolution at 60FPS – this mode decreases the quality of reflections, ambient occlusion, shadows texturing, and vegetation in order to maintain a steady framerate. As you play the game, you'll earn experience points through skillful driving.
Level up to unlock cars and outfits at home bases you acquire as you uncover the map. In these first few hours, I tested cars like the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe, Ford Bronco, and Toyota GR Supra. The driving itself still sits at a nice sweet spot between mainline Forza's stodgy driving simulation and a more accessible, forgiving arcade racing game like Need for Speed—especially if you activate the assists.
