The Forza Horizon franchise changed driving games with its open-world platform and less serious attitude. The joking narrator of Forza Horizon 4, along with its extensive world and car lineup that would make Jay Leno jealous, makes for an undeniably pleasant driving game. Forza Horizon 5 seems to have that same spirit of fun and friendliness. 

Even though many of us fancy ourselves racing drivers, the Forza Horizon games help to tamp down the pretension of the car world and pile good times and muddy hypercars on top. 

Forza Horizon 5 moves to Mexico

As noted by The Drive, Playground Games, the studio responsible for Forza Horizon 5, released the trailer for the new driving game this past Sunday at the gaming convention, E3. The last installment of what might be the best car game ever, Forza Horizon 4, has been out since 2018. However, even though the game is getting pretty old at this point, players have hardly ceased to roam its vast environment. 

For Horizon 4 players, the excitement of having a new landscape as their automotive playground is enough to make them do a backflip. However, that is not the coolest part of this new game. Sure, Mexico will be an extremely fun backdrop for the open-world driving game; the detail and graphics of the Xbox Series X are going to take the spotlight. 

The detail is what brings Forza into the best car game territory 

Along with the trailer for Forza Horizon 5, Playground Games also released a 5-minute video of real gameplay, and it was stunning. From the Mercedes AMG One Hero car to the Ford Bronco, we see that Playground Games has yet again gone all-in on detail. 

Even more than the cars, the creators seem particularly proud of their work on the vibrant rendering of the landscape of Mexico. The driveable landscape covers desert, rainforest, Maya Highlands, and even an active volcano. 

Every one of these striking landscapes is rendered at what feels like impossible detail. Well, if it weren’t for the Xbox series X processing power, the true 4K resolution wouldn’t be possible. This true 4K resolution is capable of running at a stunning 60 frames per second. 

Forza Horizon 5’s Creative Director, Mike Brown, claims players can pick out individual needles from the desert’s many cactuses. That level of rendering ability has never been seen in a console game. Unlike many games, the majority of the landscape is filler that is a repeating pattern. Forza 5 will have unique aspects to every biome that players will ravage with their stable of cars. 

The best car game ever can’t just look good 

Playground Games insists that Forza Horizon 5 isn’t just pretty; it is also a bucket of fun to play. Forza Horizon 4 had a bunch of mini-games that helped to break up the monotony of just racing. However, Forza Horizon 5 added piles of new game modes and mini-games. 

There is a new system at work called Forza Link that learns a player’s preferred gameplay and suggests more mini-games and racing styles that it thinks that player will enjoy. 

As all technology gets more advanced, the gaming world becomes more exciting, dynamic, and open to new types of gamers. For example, Forza Horizon 5 is likely to be one of the best car games ever, not because the cars are cooler, the graphics are better, or driving mechanics are more sensitive, but because games are getting more inclusive and welcoming a wider scope of players.