Playground Games has revealed what activities it has planned for Forza Horizon 5 across the next lunar month, with a special “Let’s Go” stream showing off the Series 26 Playlist — including the arrival of the Forza community’s most-requested vehicle.
This Series is officially known as “Dia de Muertos”, and marks the annual celebration of the same name (“Day of the Dead”) held in Mexico around this time each year. However it’s far from a moribund time, with new cars, new collectibles, new Achievements, a new camera angle, and a world makeover to entertain for the next four weeks.
Forza Horizon 5 Series 26 New Reward Cars
Four new cars join the festival this week, one of which is the most-requested vehicle for the title: the Nissan Tsuru.
Considering the speed and mayhem elsewhere in the festival, the Tsuru — an entry level Nissan sedan — is somewhat understated, but it’s requested for good reason: it’s one of Mexico’s most popular cars. However it turned out that PG had a devil of a time sourcing an unmolested one for scanning.
Indeed it’s such a common sight that the Tsuru replaced the Beetle as the country’s taxi of choice, and it’ll do something similar in FH5 too. As of S26, you’ll be able to select the Tsuru as a starter car in The Eliminator.
Probably a little more expectedly, we also get another version of the game’s Ford Bronco cover car, this time in Raptor form. It shares its three-liter V6 with the second-generation Ranger Raptor, but pumped up to 418hp, and rides on monstrous 37-inch offroad tires.
Slipping in under the radar somewhat is a new EV inspired by a classic dune buggy. The Meyers Manx 2.0 is the first new car made by the brand in over 60 years, and delivers 202hp to the rear wheels.
Finally there’s a return to Horizon for the Porsche 356 SL Gmund Coupe. This semi-streamliner might only pack a 1.1-liter, 46hp flat-four, but with a lightweight aluminum body and some race-car tweaks it was Porsche’s first ever class-winning Le Mans racer, back in 1951.
Forza Horizon 5 Series 26 New Items
There’ll be a world makeover to celebrate Dia de Muertos, largely centered on the town of Mulege in the southern half of the map. That will feature traditional alebrijes (colorful wood carvings of animals) and calaveritas (brightly decorated skulls), as well as piles of marigolds and marigold stalls — with the flower being the symbol of the holiday.
These will also appear in EventLab as new props, along with specially decorated barriers and a new Tank inflatable as the game’s mascot dresses up in mariachi garb. That’ll be a collectible during the Playlist too.
PG will gift three new outfits to players during the event too. There’ll be the Dia de Muertos Suit and & Dia de Muertos Dress, along with the Forza Motorsport Outfit to mark the latest game’s launch.
Finally there’ll be a drone show in the sky above Mulege during the night time periods, decorating the area with a Dia de Muertos-themed light display.
Forza Horizon 5 Series 26 New Achievements
The update will also add 12 new Xbox Achievements, although there’s a good chance you’ll have completed many of the tasks already — so it’s free GamerScore!
You might notice that the Achievements for completing tasks that have been included as part of recent updates, including the new stories and new photomode controls. In total they’re worth 235GS and the full list is as follows:
- Get My Good Side – Take a photo of your character outside a car (10)
- Juuuuust Right – Take a photo using any guidelines 3 times (10)
- Maxing Out – Maintain a speed of 200mph (321.8km/h) for 10 seconds at the Horizon Test Track (10)
- On the Road Again – Complete the first chapter of the Donut Media HiLow Story (10)
- Timeless – Take a photo at every time setting (15)
- A New Era – Complete all chapters in the Icons of Speed Story (20)
- Back To School – Complete the first chapter in the Icons of Speed Story (20)
- Give Me Five! – Apply and purchase an upgrade to 5 cars at the Horizon Test Track (20)
- Hi Five – Complete all chapters of the Donut Media Hi Story (20)
- Low Five – Complete all chapters of the Donut Media Low Story (20)
- Leaving Tracks – Drive 50 miles (80.5km) at the Horizon Test Track (20)
- A True Icon – Earn 3 Stars in all chapters of the Icons of Speed Story (30)
- Give it the Beans! – Earn 3 Stars on all chapters of both Hi and Low stories (30)
Forza Horizon 5 Series 26 New Car Pack
Although technically not part of the Day of the Dead fun, a new paid add-on car pack will come along featuring four cars you wouldn’t be surprised to see on a track day.
That starts with the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf R, the 320hp, all-wheel drive hot hatch that’s more likely to be wearing 4D plates and a crackle map, and driven at Warp 6 between speed bumps in a European town center of a weekend.
Slightly further up the range is the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS, which takes the “normal” Cayman GT4 and puts the naturally aspirated flat six from the 911 GT3 right in the middle where it should be.
One of myriad British-built track day specials, the Elemental RP1 ties together a Mountune-modified, 370hp Ford Focus RS engine with a lightweight, rear-wheel drive chassis that doesn’t even bother the scales at 1300lb.
Finally there’s a GT2 race car from Austria, in the shape of the KTM X-Bow GT2. It’s barely recognisable as a X-Bow, with its long, enclosed, and highly aerodynamic body, but this is the ultimate plaything for the most gentlemanly of gentleman racing drivers.
Forza Horizon 5 Series 26 New Features
Finally there’s a new feature which will bring joy to all the drifters out there with a Drift Camera setting.
In essence this adds an effect similar to holding the right stick to rotate the camera angle, while drifting, changing the focus from the car’s orientation to its direction of travel.
That will allow players to see where they’re going better while drifting, and it’s possible to adjust how far the camera goes, how much it changes at maximum drift angle, and how smooth the movement is.
The Series gets underway on Thursday October 12 and runs through to Thursday November 9 — which is, as it happens, FH5’s second birthday — with the update containing S26 set to arrive on Tuesday October 10.
