Microsoft has officially announced Forza Horizon 5, and at the same time confirmed both its setting and launch date. As expected, the Horizon Festival will move across the Atlantic to Mexico, and arrive this November on Xbox One, Xbox Series, PC through Windows and Steam, and Xbox Game Pass.
FH5 featured in a large segment of near the end of Microsoft/Bethesda presentation for E3 today. Naturally, the scenery — and the Xbox Series consoles — formed a crucial part of the trailer, with the Mexican landscape taking in rainforests, deserts, beaches, cities, and ruins, along with the Gran Caldera volcano. The map is the largest and most diverse open world ever in an FH game, and the volcano also provides the highest point ever in the series.
Guanajuato provides a hub for FH5, with the 500-year old settlement forming a major part of Mexico’s automotive industry. Although original founded on silver and gold deposits, the city — which sits nearly 7,000ft above sea level — produces some million cars a year for companies like Toyota.
Playground Games used photogrammetry to recreate the landscape of Mexico, as well as capturing the skies in 12K resolution over 24-hour periods with a full HDR camera rig. A new volumetric lighting system, including god rays (on Xbox Series), provides realistic lighting, and the Forza Vista mode will include ray tracing.
As with Forza Horizon 4, we’ll see dynamic seasons which change your environment each week. Given Mexico’s varied climates and the large elevation changes, we’re not entirely sure what to expect from them, but Microsoft promises that no two seasons will ever be the same — with dust storms and tropical storms sweeping in to mix things up.
The game’s new Expedition campaign mode will see players searching across Mexico for new locations for the Festival, though there’s plenty of focus on multiplayer. A new AI assistant called Forza LINC will track the status of you and players around you to help you connect and play together.
Also featured in the presentation is a new mode called Event Lab. This allows players to produce minigames all of their own, in which they can customize everything down to fundamental game basics — like Super 7, but taken to the next level.
Of course you’d also expect a massive car list, and the featurette covered a wide range of vehicles, including some familiar faces from Forza Horizon 4. Making its debut though, and star of the clip, is the Mercedes-AMG Project ONE, a 220mph supercar based around a Mercedes-AMG F1 power unit.
When the game becomes available in November, there’ll be Standard, Deluxe, and Premium versions, with the Standard version available on Xbox Game Pass and separate purchasable Premium Add-Ons content. Early Access will start on November 5, and we’ll expect more information on the cars and features of Forza Horizon 5 in due course.
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