Welcome to Rear View Mirror, your weekly racing game news roundup. Get up to speed on all the latest racing game news from the past week. From the Need for Speed Unbound reveal to Forza Horizon 5’s 10-year Anniversary update unveil, there’s a lot to unpack this week so let's get started.
Need for Speed Unbound reveal
This week’s biggest racing game news story was of course the long-awaited Need for Speed Unbound reveal. After we feared it wouldn’t release in time for this year, Criterion Games and EA finally revealed Need for Speed Unbound, the first NFS game in three years.
With the official reveal trailer premiering earlier than expected, we got a first look at Unbound’s unusual art style, blending realistic cars and environments with comic book-style characters and cartoony visual effects. It’s certainly a bold new direction for the series. The trailer also introduces us to the new Lakeshore location and previews the extensive car customisation.
Best of all, the trailer also confirms the Need for Speed Unbound release date. We don’t have long to wait because Need for Speed Unbound is racing onto PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on 2 December (sorry PS4 and Xbox One owners). That’s right, the new NFS game is less than two months away.
Forza Horizon 5 10-year Anniversary Update revealed
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Forza Horizon on Xbox 360. To celebrate, the next series of Forza Horizon 5 is taking you on a trip through memory lane with a new Horizon Story, themed challenges, and special reward cars.
Revealed in October’s Forza Monthly steam, the 10-Year Anniversary Update will include a new Horizon Origins Story plus the return of the Midnight Battle mode, and a new radio station playing music from previous Horizon games as you drive around.
New cars are also coming including the 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS Anniversary Edition as a homage to the original Forza Horizon cover car star and the 2011 Koenigsegg Agera.
F1 Manager 2022 update 1.9
F1 Manager 2022 also received a surprise update this week. While not as substantial as the last update, F1 Manager 2022 update 1.9 makes further improvements to fuel usage and AI behaviour.
You can check out the F1 Manager 2022 update 1.9 patch notes here.
In other news…
While we have a clear idea of what’s coming in the Forza Horizon 5 10-year Anniversary update next month, a future update could add a new team-based battle royale duos mode after a GTPlanet user found dialogue talking about a new Eliminati Series while digging through the audio files.
After delaying the game to November, Kylotonn revealed the full WRC Generations car list. From the latest Rally1 hybrids to fabled historics like the Alpine A110, there's something for all rally fans.
Dakar Desert Rally arrived this week. We’re currently playing through the ambitious off-road racer to bring you our verdict. Unfortunately, several features are missing at launch including the much-anticipated Road Book Editor and Free Roam.
It’s fair to say that EA has struggled to keep Need for Speed Unbound under wraps this week. After the trailer time was announced, official artwork was accidentally posted on EA’s website. And then a Japanese retailer leaked the screenshots the day before the official reveal. Oops.
Hype for Unbounded combined with a significant discount also caused Need for Speed Heat’s player count to spike by over 5,000 per cent on Steam. Need for Speed Heat currently has 95 per cent off on Steam so don't miss out.
Gran Turismo 7 also received a minor hotfix, with update 1.24 fixing a progression issue.
In case you missed it…
Need for Speed Unbound has finally been revealed, but will it put the series back on track?
With Need for Speed Unbound now on track for a December release, should we be worried about CarX Street?