Forza Horizon 5 Xbox One X

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 predeccesor, 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 . 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. Hop on in and pick from over hundreds of world-class cars and begin your horizon adventure today.

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. 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. 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.

Customise your cars in more ways than ever before and 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. Take on awe-inspiring weather events like towering dust storms and intense tropical storms as Mexico's unique, dynamic seasons change the world every week. Keep coming back for new events, challenges, collectibles and rewards, and new areas to explore.

Team up with other players and enter the Horizon Arcade for a continuing series of fun, over-the-top challenges that keep you and your friends in the action and having fun with no menus, loading screens or lobbies. Meet new friends in Horizon Open and Tours and share your creations with new community gift sharing. 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. 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.

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. 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. This is an Evolving Open World - Take on awe-inspiring weather events such as towering dust storms and intense tropical storms as Mexico's unique, dynamic seasons change the world every week. Keep coming back for new events, challenges, collectibles, and rewards, and new areas to explore. Being the fifth instalment in the series, Playground Games has taken huge steps to make the driving experience more immersive.

Besides the standard campaign mode, players can take part in online multiplayer races and explore the open world with no restrictions. Take on awe-inspiring weather events such as towering dust storms and intense tropical storms as Mexico's unique, dynamic seasons change the world every week. 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. Create your own expressions of fun with the new EventLab gameplay toolset including custom races, challenges, stunts and new game modes.

Use the Gift Drops feature to share your custom creations. Microsoft's game development teams are having a banner year. The company's gaming head Phil Spencer has revealed that Forza Horizon 5 had the best launch day of any Xbox Game Studios title. There have been over 4.5 million people playing the arcade racer across all platforms to date, and its peak concurrent players were three times those of its predecessor. Driving around and viewing the scenery is brilliant, the day to night changes and seasonal changes make the game always feel fresh.

On the first circuit of the game, I didn't realize I had passed lap 1 until I looked and was on lap 3. Somehow, the game stays fresh during repetitions of the same race. There are 5 subcategories of offline activities in Forza Horizon 5. Basic circuit races, PR stunts, Expeditions, cross-country sprints, and storylines that add so much depth to the game. This is basically GTA without the ability to get out of the car, and without the gruesome subject matter.

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.

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).

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. Increase your with the new EventLab gameplay set of tools, including custom races, challenges, stunts, and new game modes. Use the Gift Drops feature to share your own creations.

Experience incredible weather conditions like towering dust storms and intense tropical storms as Mexico's unique, dynamic seasons change the world every week. Keep coming back for new events, challenges, collectibles, rewards, and new areas to explore. I'm playing a disc-based copy of the game, on a Xbox Series X. The graphics are gorgeous, smooth and the gameplay is basically identical to previous Horizon games. Forza Horizon 5 also introduces a brand new Horizon Arcade. 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. 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. 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.

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. Evolutionary rather than revolutionary, then, is the best way to describe Forza Horizon 5.

But that is not a bad thing, because I adored Forza Horizon 4. The same addictive racing gameplay feels even more refined than ever, and with fewer drawbacks. Forza Horizon 5 is one of the best games for anyone who likes cars and driving. The Xbox Series S version of the game offers two graphical modes – a performance mode that runs the game in 1080p at 60FPS and a quality mode at 1440p and 30FPS. It's hard to explain, but it does feel free, however, once you already have that subscription rolling.

And given what Game Pass offers, it seems kind of hard to have an Xbox and not also more or less automatically sign up for Game Pass as well. So it creates a situation where you have the weigh the pros and cons of a Sony $70 exclusive every time one comes out, or with Xbox, you simply…already have the game. Again, this is not "new," and yet I do think this upcoming era of much higher profile day one releases on Game Pass is really going to change the narrative here, and I do wonder how long Xbox's competition can ignore this format. 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.

Sometimes, I like a game just because it's fun to vibe with. 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. 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".