However, the game always encourages you to relax, calling you ‘friend’ - and even though there are hundreds of events to unlock and beat, festival hubs in various racing disciplines to unlock, as well as the obligatory XP signs to find and smash through… oh and barn finds to unlock (you can even put your own cars in there to gift to other players now too, which is cute), the game never feels like it’s forcing you to do anything. It was a criticism that was levelled at Forza Horizon 3, but had been a little improved for Forza Horizon 4, so it’s a shame to see this one going a little more Need For Speed again. While such universal playability is great for more casual racers, serious racing game fans may lament the miles of shallow turns. Not to win, depending on the difficulty setting, but just to drive, thanks to great controls and excellent accessibility options – and the rewind button makes it all meaningless if you fall for its seductive charms. Sure, you can turn up the Drivatar (AI Driver) difficulty, but the game is a little too easy to play. Why? Because the main game is extremely laid-back. You can vote to like or dislike any such challenge, affecting its likelihood of appearing in other Super 7 games.īut you’ll appreciate the challenge offered by these events.
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These turn up on the map in returning ‘Super7’ events, where a series of seven community-created events must be cleared in order to win a super spin on the gambling-lite prize wheel. There are also new community event creation tools in ‘EventLab’, allowing you to place hazards and create your own rules for custom events - very much like Dirt 5’s Playground Mode.
The game also refers to you by name based on your account data (as long as it’s on the list), without you having to type it in, immediately boosting your emotional connection to the game. Customisation options are deeper for cars and avatars, extending to enhanced bodykits for vehicles and even prosthetic limbs for your driver. So what is genuinely new? Well, there are massive dust storms you can drive into, and an active volcano to explore. Everyone’s a winner when the quality bar is this consistently high. In all honesty, returning fans arguably want more of the same anyway, while newcomers to the series will love the frequent, joyous spectacle. The start of the game showcases the exquisite graphics engine, but we’ve already raced planes and motorbikes before. Sadly there’s not much new it can do to impress, since the series has already been at volume 11 for quite some time when it comes to its set pieces. “Yes, let’s!” you’ll say, reaching for the volume up button. “Let’s have some Foo Fighters!” Says the DJ.
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The marquees, grandstands and confetti guns have now rolled into Mexico and brought with them a delicious, licensed soundtrack to pump through your TV speakers. The festival format at this point feels like a beloved real-life event like Glastonbury or Burning Man. Foliage flattens under your car, seasons change, and water splashes look the best they’ve ever looked in any racing game. It’s an open world racer of humongous scale, dressed up in beautiful, destructible environments that are nothing like the dioramas of old. A festival of driv… OK, yes, you should celebrate by playing it. For this level of quality to successfully cover such a massive and ambitious game world is a monumental achievement and should be celebrated with some kind of festival. Forza Horizon 5 is as close to flawless as any racer has ever come. You could argue Playground Games have just made essentially the same game at least three times in a row with Forza Horizon now, but while every previous edition had a few things you could point at to show how it was imperfect, you can’t do that here. From: Steam, Microsoft Store / Xbox Game Pass.While perhaps overly familiar, everything here is very slick, refreshingly wholesome and easy-going. Not the best racing game ever made, but a contender for best driving game.