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 . 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. 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.
Create your own expressions of fun with the powerful new EventLab gameplay toolset including custom races, challenges, stunts, and entirely new game modes. 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. Fans of racing games will get everything they want and more from Forza Horizon 5's stunningly realistic open world. Players are treated to unlimited gameplay opportunities thanks to the intricately detailed user customization and accessibility options. Despite this, Forza Horizon 5 has pushed the capabilities of the new Xbox consoles to its limits, offering the most stunning and varied racing experience yet.
In order to replicate the Xbox Series X quality graphics mode on PC, gamers should at least have an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super. But in order to enjoy the PC's biggest advantage, higher frame rates, a more powerful gaming PC is required. With reduced settings equivalent to the Xbox Series X performance mode, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super was not entirely able to hold a steady 60 fps at 4k resolution.
PC gamers who would like to play Forza Horizon 5 on these settings should have at least anRTX 2080. Additional technical details, including further explanations of the hardware requirements and recommended settings of Forza Horizon 5 on PC are included in the video embedded below. IGN has already rated the game 10/10, calling it a 'Masterpiece'. Forza Horizon 5 is a Play Anywhere title, so if you buy it on PC via the Xbox app, you also play it on Xbox with no additional cost.
Microsoft's unified video game platform means that the racer features crossplay between PC and console. A Steam version is available for people who prefer to leverage Valve's game store and launcher. In a nice touch, Forza Horizon 5 features many accessibility options. On Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, the framerate is capped at 30fps at the highest graphical fidelity, but whether you choose graphics or performance mode the experience is equally spectacular. Whether you're driving, photographing, or customizing them, they look pure perfection from every angle. Each vehicle reacts differently and realistically to the environment, and they also provide a contrasting driving experience dependent on the weather.
The controller rumbles dynamically to match the different styles of track, immersing you in the experience of being on the road. Forza Horizon 5 seeks to differentiate itself from the competition by how it plans to evolve. This is due in part to Playground Games' commitment to the Festival Playlist, which will provide monthly updates with more content and new cars. Create your own expressions of fun with the new EventLab gameplay toolset including custom races, challenges, stunts and new game modes.
Considering the game is still built around the Xbox One consoles, it stands to reason then that the game doesn't use the CPU as heavily. Memory usage also rarely exceeded over 12GB, being well under spec for the Xbox One X console, which runs the game at 30fps at a maximum resolution of 4K. Playground Games has confirmed that the game will get a patch for increasing the resolution to 1440p on the Xbox Series S at launch, which currently renders the game at 1080p. By the time the game launches, the Xbox Series S version of the game will run offer a 1440p/30fps 'Quality' mode and a 1080p/60fps performance mode. In my testing the game can easily run at 60fps at 1440p on my RTX 2060 Super, and that's at native resolution with higher graphical settings. At 4K, I have to turn a few settings down to get 60fps but even then a native 4K 60fps performance is quite possible.
If you're an arcade racing game purist, Burnout Paradise has a lot to answer for. Ever since, virtually all big-budget arcade racing games have been made in the shadow of Paradise, with most tracks consisting of lines drawn across vast, explorable maps. While you're playing Forza Horizon 5, you can also expect flawless performance. I noted in my initial preview how smooth it played in both Quality and Performance modes, and this experience has more than held up. I mostly played in Quality mode due to my propensity to take pictures and enjoy the scenery, but I never felt my experience suffered playing at 30 FPS. Performance mode makes smart cuts to texture pop-in, shadows and reflections, and other graphical settings to deliver a stable 60 PFS without compromising graphical fidelity.
Loading times were also nearly instantaneous in both modes, including starting the game . Increase your with the new EventLab gameplay set of tools, including custom races, challenges, stunts, and new game modes. 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. The game still gets its graphical intent across, but the LOD scaling really shows this console's age. As you race through jungles, you'll notice that the tree foliage stays in its blobby low level of detail until you're almost right up against it, at which point you will have whizzed on by.
At times it feels like the game engine shouldn't bother trying to pull in those higher detail assets. The gameplay still holds up though, and a steady frame rate in this situation is going to be the most important aspect. 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. There's no news on PC-exclusive settings or features to help boost fps, such as Nvidia DLSS or AMD's FSR, but Forza Horizon 5 does includeray tracing. However, the intensive graphical setting will only be used in the game's 'Forzavista' model viewer and requires a compatible graphics card.
Some could even find it a little unoriginal, as the racing elements feel more an extension of the last game than something new, but considering it's already the best feeling experience out there, we think it's essential. The game just plays beautifully, especially across the multiple track types and biomes. Even just haring around the slice of Mexico outside of set races is a joy, with spectacular views and scenery to take in.
Plus, with an extended career campaign that includes new expedition story missions and more characterisation, there's more than enough new to make Horizon 5 an upgrade. Forza Horizon 5 is also an impressive test case for Microsoft's cross-generational hardware strategy. I played the game for several hours on my Xbox One X, and it doesn't feel compromised compared to anything else on the console. It's still a better-looking game than 3 and 4, and it looks more or less the same as the Series X version's 60fps mode — just running at half the frame rate. The One X is generally a machine designed for 4K/30fps games, and that's what you get here with Forza Horizon 5. Would the Series X game have looked even better if it didn't have to run on Xbox One consoles?
Maybe, but it's hard to complain about the performance on either platform. Forza Horizon 5 doesn't change the basic structure, and there's still a huge amount of stuff dotting the Mexican map. But it does do a better job of easing you into its mountain of content. You're able to choose which specific types of events to unlock as you progress, so, for example, I preferred to focus on closed-track road races early on before delving into cross-country rallies. I feel like if I stopped playing the game and came back to it weeks later, I'd have a much better sense of what I'd been doing and where would be best for me to spend the next couple of hours. In turn, that makes me feel better about simply driving around the landscape in search of whatever esoteric quest I might come across.
Unlike with 4, I've never felt like I'm wasting my time in Forza Horizon 5, as I always have more of a sense of what I could be working toward. Despite the name and the hundreds of accurately modeled real-world cars, Forza Horizon has little in common with Turn 10 Studios' Forza Motorsport series, which is more of a serious racing simulator. While Horizon isn't exactly a Ridge Racer-style arcade game, it's certainly on the more accessible side of things.
The physics feel somewhat grounded in reality, and you'll notice big differences in how various cars handle, but the driving model is very forgiving, and it's easy for anyone to pick up and play. You can choose between Performance and Quality graphics settings, both of which are 4K. The former is limited to 30 frames per second, and looks a tad prettier. The 60 fps Performance mode is superior for most racing games, though, including this one.
This audio ray tracing approach transforms the Forza Horizon audio experience almost as much as FH5's revamped visuals do, once again making the game world feel much more alive and 'close'. Particularly during races, where the intensity and tension of the action is massively amplified by the way you can hear your rivals' cars coming at you from all sides. 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. Switch from 30fps to the 60fps 'Performance' mode and you'll immediately feel the difference. Playground state that this is still running at a maximum 4K resolution, but that "additional graphics settings adjusted to maintain target framerate". In practical terms motion blur is reduced significantly giving it a much more gamey feel and pop-in is now noticeable, . However, it's also just that much more responsive feeling when you play the game and, after a short time at 60fps, a switch back to 30fps feels like daggers in your eyes.
Ultimately, Playground has delivered an excellent game for all Xbox systems. The surprise package for me was Xbox One X - level of detail pop-in and longer loading are blemishes but perhaps it's only because these areas of the game are so dramatically improved on Series hardware. Graphically, it's a treat, and the Scorpio Engine continues to surprise in its ability to service a 4K display. Judged on its own merits, it's a good version of the game and a worthy sequel.
The fact that it retains Forza's signature 1080p 4x MSAA image quality and a consistent 30fps helps immensely in mitigating some of the more obvious cuts - it adds immensely to the overall polish. Quality mode looks excellent, performance mode is locked at 60fps and for those still gaming on 1080p displays, I can't foresee any complaints. The racing game doesn't let you play with uncapped frame rates, but you can set the game to run at a locked 20, 30, or 60 frames per second. My gaming desktop, which includes a 3.2GHz Intel i CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage, ran Forza Horizon 5 with ease. The sexy cars and lush environments moved at 60fps, though the game occasionally locked up for a few seconds at a time. Please note that a 20GB patch followed the 100GB game download, so it may take a while before you can first boot Forza Horizon 5.
Beginning with Forza Horizon 2, each sequel in the Playground Games-developed racing series used the previous title as a fun-filled foundation to build upon, and Forza Horizon 5 is no different. Longtime series fans will still sink hours into Forza Horizon 5, as its varied Mexico setting, ridiculously stuffed modes, and new features make it a game worth returning to on a regular basis. Newcomers, on the other hand, will be floored by the PC game's creative riches. In short, Forza Horizon remains the best racing game series, and this Editors' Choice entry is yet another example of why it's so beloved.
Pop-in can also be noticeable, at least when playing on performance mode (and if you're like me and need 60 fps, you'll be playing on performance mode). It's not an obnoxious issue, and it's well within the norm for open-world games, but it does become more noticeable with games like this getting so close to looking like the real thing. But sometimes a game can be so pretty that it helps you appreciate an experience that you would normally feel mild about. 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 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. Don't worry about hyphens, the system takes care of those for you. The animations for first-person driving, for example, don't look amazing, which is unfortunate considering the huge improvements to character creation.
Role-playing gamers will be disappointed by the continued lack of options for turn signals, headlights, and turning the engine on and off, even if the addition of convertibles and race modes is a huge gain. There's also no 900-degree steering in first-person view, something that players have been requesting for years. Despite these missing features, I still had a blast playing Forza Horizon 5 the entire time. Once you get past how bloody gorgeous Forza Horizon 5 is, you sort of have to play the game. For those who have played past Forza Horizon games, this one should be familiar. You're let loose in an expansive open world filled with dozens of events, challenges, races, and more.
It's up to you to figure out where to go, what to do, and what to drive. Forza Horizon 5 feels great to play for those who enjoy that kind of freedom, and it's exactly why it isn't just another racing game. In one of several extensive videos featuring Forza Horizon 5, Digital Foundry concluded that the quality mode on Xbox Series X mostly matches the maxed out settings on PC. But at a native 4k resolution, the Xbox Series X only manages to output 30 fps with these settings.
Therefore it looks like the PC settings in Forza Horizon 5 do not provide a lot of headroom when it comes to visual quality, also because raytracing is only active in photo mode and can't be activated for regular gameplay. 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.
