Forza Horizon 5 has been officially confirmed at this year's E3 convention and we're so hyped to play it. We're just days away from release now and the Playground Games upcoming racing sandbox looks incredible. The game brings many new features to the series. Which new features have been confirmed, though? We've got everything you need to know right here!
A whole new world
We already know that Forza Horizon 5 is set in Mexico but it's also been confirmed that this will be the largest map in the series. This makes sense given that this will be the first Forza game on the Xbox Series X. It's 50% larger than the Great Britain of Forza Horizon 4. There's a huge range of environments to explore!
Playground have also confirmed that Forza Horizon 5 will run in 4K on the Xbox Series X. Ray tracing is in the game, albeit only in Forzavista mode.
Just like previous games, there are single-player stories in Forza Horizon 5. These will take you around the Mexican map and to locations like ancient Mayan ruins and the city of Guanuajato. We'll be storm chasing and also restoring a Volkswagen Beetle!
There will be art to collect as well, as there are murals painted on buildings that are scattered around the map. These have been created by a range of real-world Mexican street artists.
Multiplayer features
It's no surprise that "The Eliminator" is returning for Horizon 5. Forza's battle royale multiplayer mode is back in Horizon 5. Something that's new to the multiplayer experience though is Forza Link. Forza Link allows players to quickly meet up with friends while exploring the world.
Link is an AI assistant that intelligently tracks a player's status, the people they've met online, and helps them connect to play together. It'll suggest playing games you both enjoy and once each event finishes allow you to continue driving together.
Something else that's new are some of the online minigames. Piñata Pop sees you have to take out pinatas in a certain amount of time. The coolest new feature in multiplayer though, has to be Events Lab. Events Lab lets you create your own custom multiplayer game, not dissimilarly to Dirt 5's Playgrounds. This feature looks like a much expanded Super 7 from the previous Horizon game.
Gameplay overview
We're extremely happy with what we've seen in the presentation from Playground games. There's a lot of new features and improvements already announced and there will be more revealed closer to release date. If you want to check out the full gameplay overview video from this year's E3, we've linked it below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6PKE6-Kuow