Forza Horizon 5 was one of the larger showcases at the E3 Microsoft conference, and thankfully for Forza fan's we now have some more information to chew on a day after the reveal, which showed the game in Mexico.
The official Forza Horizon page released a very helpful FAQ that goes into a lot of new details from the presentation. The biggest drop of information is definitely a quick rundown of Forza Horizon 5 gameplay modes, all of which were talked about by Playground Games creative director Mike Brown.
Forza Horizon 5 Gameplay Modes
The key modes seem to be Horizon Story, the main campaign of Forza Horizon, where players will participate in a series of missions and take on expeditions all across the world map. Horizon Open offers the standard PvP experience players would expect from the Forza series, with modes such as racing, games, drift, eliminator, and more under this mode. Horizon Arcade is a mode that allows players to engage in various challenges and mini-games across the open-world map. The last big mode is of course Horizon Tour, where players can jump into races from anywhere across the world, joining players to race against AI opponents (drivatars, as they are called!). The FAQ notes that Horizon Tour "captures the experiences of a car-meet, with players meeting up in the world to race and having the option to continue together to the next Tour location in the world."
The three Horizon modes are just the tip of the iceberg. Other features talked about in the presentation include Forza LINC, a new AI assistant that tracks your racing status, players you meet online, and even helps with playing with them again, the EventLab, a new toolset that allows players to create their own races and game modes, and a new social currency called Kudos, which help you unlock flairs that can be attached to a player's label, and Gift Drops, allowing you to send an receive gifts from the community.
Forza Horizon 5 Customization
Forza Horizon 5 features a ton of character, and car customization options as has become series want with more robust options. These include visual upgrades and 100 new rims for vehicles, and hairstyle and color, pronouns, voices, clothing, and even prosthetic limbs for the player avatar.
Game Pass and Available Bundles
Speaking of Game Pass, the Standard Digital Edition will be available with Xbox Game Pass at launch on November 9th, 2021, for $59.99. The game will have Deluxe and Premium Editions, which are going to be Digital Only. The Deluxe Edition, priced at $79.99, includes the base game and the car pass. The Premium Edition, priced at $99.99, includes the Deluxe Editon plus two separate listed Expansions, a Welcome Pack, VIP work, and Early Access to Forza on November 5th.
There is also a Premium Add-Ons bundle, which is sold separately as an upgrade for Game Pass, and the Standard and Deluxe Digital versions, priced at $49.99.
Forza Horizon 5 Expansion Packs
While we know two Expansion Packs are planned for the game, we don't really have much in the way of details at this time. Listings for each on the Microsoft store noted that the expansion will "introduce a new world location, vehicles, and gameplay."
Outside of the Expansion Pack the other content in the special editions will be available starting at launch. The Welcome Pack included in the Premium Edition will include 5 special pre-tuned cars, a player house, three vouchers to purchase common or rare clothing item, and a one-time voucher to purchase any car available from the game's autoshow.
The Forza Horizon 5 Car Pass will give you 50 cars, 8 Formula Drift Cars, and then 1 of 42 new cars each week for 42 weeks.
Where You Can Play Forza Horizon 5
We also get a confirmation of what systems, requirements, languages, and bundles are available for Forza Horizon 5. Systems include all current Xbox machines, from the Xbox One to the Series X|S, and of course the Xbox Game Pass. Forza Horizon 5 will also be available on Steam, Windows 10 PC, and streaming on android phones and tablets with Xbox Cloud Gaming provided they have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
We do have minimum PC requirements, courtesy of Steam. Windows 10 or higher is required, with 8 GB of RAM and 80 GB of storage. The Graphics card includes the likes of an NVidia 650TI or AMD R7 250x, while the Processor requirements are an Intel i3-4170 @ 3.7Ghz, or an Intel i5 750 @ 2.67Ghz.
Forza Horizon Cross-Play and Other Features
Finally, some other odds and ends for Forza Horizon 5 were also discussed. First up is Smart Delivery, which Forza Horizon 5 does support. It also supports cross-play across all of the consoles and the PC versions, with one major exception. Steam will have cross-play support, but cross-save with Xbox is not supported.
We do get some tech specs as well. The Xbox Series X version of the game will of course feature 4K resolution at 30fps, while the Xbox Series S version will be at 1080p at 30fps. Both options will also feature a performance mode that runs at 60fps. Oh, and ray tracing will be utilized, mostly with Forzavistas to make the cars look even more true to life than ever before.
We also get a full list of localized languages, including English, French, German, Spanish (Mexico and Spain), Italian, Japanese, Turkish, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Forza Horizon 5 will also feature full localized voiceover support for English, French, German, Mexican Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.
Hopefully, this quick rundown of what we know about Forza Horizon 5 is helpful for you all. Be sure to check out the rest of our E3 2021 coverage here.
