By now, Forza Horizon 5 has finished its transformation into the ultimate car-collecting fantasy. Sure, Hide 'n' Seek is neat and all, but unlocking and collec??ting awesome rides is the real meat of th?e game for many, and the new Back to the 90s season underlines this notion.

Playground Games isn't about to run out of seasonal content themes anytime soon, by the look of things. We've already had seasons riffing on Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, and... dinosaurs, just to list a few. From October 10 until November 7, though, it's all about classic rides from the 1990s, and this means Forza Horizon 5 is getting four iconic vehicles from the given era. Is that a Mitsubishi F??TO you hear roaring in the distance? Why, yes.

Forza Horizon 5: Back to the 90s season kicks off on October 10

It's been a good long while since we've last seen a "new" Mitsubishi in Forza Horizon 5, but none better to break this streak than the legendary 1998 Mitsubishi FTO. And this isn't even the baseline model, but the delightful GP Version R, with stickers to boot. I'm not? going to dawdle too much, here's the?? full list of Back to the 90s seasonal reward cars and their availability schedules:

• October 10 - 17: Toyota Soarer 2.5 GT-T (1997)
• October 17 - 24: Mitsubishi FTO GP Version R (1998)
• October 24 - 31: Aston Martin Lagonda (1990)
• October 31 - November 7: Subaru SVX (1996)

Remember, though: Forza Horizon 5 is all about that FOMO, and you will miss out on these cars if you don't collect enough seasonal points du??ring their respective weeks of availability. If you're a virtual car collector, such as yours truly, then it'd be a pretty big shame to miss out on some of these vehicles. The Lagonda alone is an unexpected and welcome addition to the roster, for example, and I honestly never saw this one coming.

Playground Games also highlighted that "two of the four cars coming in this update" will feature major customization options and a variety of different parts to fiddle around with. Presumably, this means the Soarer and the FTO, because neither the Lagonda nor the SVX were all that popular from the perspective of aftermarket third-party customization. Great news regardless, there can never be enough customizable goodness in Forza if you ask me.

One last tidbit I'd like to highlight here is that Forza Horizon's '90s season also features the r??eturn of the Horizon Backstage. This unique shop will allow players to vote on which seasonal reward vehicles may return for purc?hase in the next season, thus helping out with FOMO by the tiniest of bits.

The firs??t iteration of Horizon Backstage comes with six previously exclusive cars, to begin with:

• Fiat 131 Abarth (1980)
• BMW M4 Competition Coupe (2021)
• Cadillac XTS Limousine (2013)
• Mercedes-Benz 280 SL (1967)
• Pagani Huayra BC (2016)
• Rivian R1S (2022)

It's an eclectic roster, to be sure, but it's not themed so it doesn't matter, anyway. Note that you'll need to either spend a whopping 1,000 Forzathon points or sc?ore 40 seasonal points to earn a single Backstage Pass which nets you a sing?le vehicle. You can only earn two of them in total per season, too, making this a less-than-ideal "solution" in the grand scheme of things.

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Playground Games has announced a brand new game mode in Forza Horizon 5. Titled Hide and Seek, this mode will pit five "Seekers" against one "Hi?der", who will do their utmost to escape the pursuit.

The trailer marked the beginning of Xbox's Gamescom 2024 livestream. Coming September 10, Hide and Seek will be available as a free update for all. While the core gameplay will be base?d very much o??n the childhood activity we all participated in, there will be a few adaptations.

You'll have to make strategic calls in Forza Horizon 5's Hide and Seek mode

In Hide and Seek, you can't just outrun your Seekers if you become a Hider. A special meter will be available at the bottom of your screen, and as the gauge fills up, you can camouflage yourself. As a res??ult, you can even hide in the open and make a fool out of those pursuing you.

But beware: drive too close, and the hiders can ping your location. This will help them track you down before approaching the Endzone. From what I understood, the Endzone will be visible as a bright-orange location, bu?t it will take time to activate. While hiding might be the right choice in certain situations, be ready t??o run when required.

Forza Horizon 5, released in 2021, continues to get more content in festivals and seasons. I am more than intrigued to try out Hide and Seek when it goes live on September? 10, 2024. The mode will also have its own reward track, which will include XP from the games you? play. Playing continuously will also help you to unlock a play streak and get bonus XP as well.

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Sick and tired of Playground Games locking awesome new Forza Horizon 5 cars behind paid DLC? Good news, then, because the new High-Performance Dailies season is entirely free and earnable by playing the game, and it's loaded with cool new stuff t??o chase (drive?) after.

Playground Games' penchant for adding huge new content updates to Forza Horizon 5 practically every single month continues to surprise me. Between EventLab updates, Jurassic Park events, and Forza Motorsport crossovers, there's no shortage of goodies to work for ??in this game, but the new High-Performance Dailies season is mercilessly trucking ever-onwards. Its biggest boons? Four awesome new cars, four all-new race routes, and a sign of things to come.

Forza Horizon 5 continues its dizzyingly large content updates with the High-Performance Dailies season

First things first, then: we're getti??ng four entirely new Sprint race routes with the High-Performance Dailies season, which is going live on August 15. These are the following:

• Cloverleaf Sprint
• San Juan Sprint
• Rocosa Sprint
• Valle del Rio Sprint

It's always nice to see a racing game's track roster grow, and they will be prominently featured as part of the next couple of weeks' racing events. Now, as for those all-new cars, they are all being added to Forza Horizon 5 as free seasonal unlockables, wit??h no DLC in tow this time around. Nice! Here's the full l?ist:

• August 15: Ford Focus ST (2022)
• August 22: Toyota Camry TRD (2023)
• August 29: Ford Fiesta ST (2023)
• September 5: Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat (2021)

A fine selection of road cars indeed! To be honest, the Forza Horizon series has historically had a penchant ??of overlooking road vehicles in lieu of supersport Lamborghinis and whatnot. That's all nice and good, of course, but stuff like the Camry is where it's really at, especially when they come packing some spicy new body kits for good measure.

Now, here's the really mysterious bit: "Next stop: Hidden Horizons! Join us as we welcome a brand-new game mode, new reward cars, the Stadium Maze, and the return of Pathfinder,?" says?? the final line of Playground's new blog post. Is that a hide-and-seek game mode I'm hearing about? We'll have to wait and see.

All in all, then, Playground Games isn't mucking about, even years after Forza Horizon 5's release. Here's a funny thing to keep in mind, though: whereas Forza Motorsport continuously sunsets its latest set of events whenever a new one drops in, those four aforementioned race routes are staying in Forza Horizon 5 for good. The car FOMO is still present and accounted for, of course, but I'll take what wins I can get. Forza Horizon 5 is going to be one of the biggest racing games of all time when it enters its end-of-life stages, as is happening later this year with Forza Horizon 4. Neat stuff, that.

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If you've already claimed Forza Horizon 4 while you still have the chance to do so, now's the time to circle back around to playing its sequel once again. Notably, not only have we gotten a new update, but also the JDM Jewels DLC, which personifies Gran Turismo itself.

Over the past couple of months, the studio working on Forza Horizon 5, Playground Games, has seen it fit to release relatively small car pack DLCs with each and every seasonal update the game receives. Whether you hate this or not, it's unlikely to change anytime soon, and it does mean that we get to see some cars that otherwise don't necessarily fit into the Horizon festival vibe by default. After genuine touring vehicles seen during Series 33, we now have legendary cars from the Japanese domestic market, the DLC's highlights being the awesome Autozam AZ-1 a??nd the legendary Nissan Stagea RS Four.

Forza Horizon 5 gets its new JDM Jewels DLC alongside the Cars & Coffee update

While the Autozam and the Stagea are basically part-and-parcel for Gran Turismo, which has historically focused mainly on Japanese manufacturers and automotive industry at large, we now get to drive them in Forza Horizon 5 as well. For the low, low??? price of $4.99, that is.

More specifically, the new Forza Horizon 5 JDM Jewels DLC includes four cars that have never before been seen in a Forza game:

• Autozam AZ-1 (1993)
• Nissan Stagea RS Four (1997)
• Mitsubishi Montero Evolution (1997)
• Toyota Sera (1991)

These cars won't mean all too much to those that haven't spent loads of time playing Gran Turismo on PlayStation, but they're absolutely emblematic of the wider JDM niche from the 1990s. Whether they're worth spending five bucks on is another matter entirely, of course, but I? feel that this DLC, in particular, is absolutely going to find its audience, especially since all the featured vehicles come with some snazzy body kit swaps and other bonus upgrades that spice things up further still.

Of course, a huge JDM-themed season would've been preferable to tucking these cars away behind a D??LC, but it is what it is, and for what it's worth, the new Cars & Coffee seasonal offerings are no slouch:

• Lamborghini Aventador LP780-4 Ultimae (2021) - July 18
• Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Coupe (2017) - July 19
• Volkswagen SP-2 (1976) - July 25
• Mazda MX-5 Miata RF (2022) - August 1
• Volkswagen Thing (1973) - August 8

A solid selection, if you ask me, and the 2022 Miata is a modern take on the classic JDM legend, so even those who aren't keen on paying extra get to experience some of that Japanese goodness. Certainly, this whole schtick is a far cry from Forza Motorsport's comparatively slim Update 10, but it is what it is.

The post Forza Horizon 5’s new DLC is Gran Turismo personified appeared first on Destructoid.

Modern Horizons is the next major Forza Horizon 5 festival, and the Jurassic Park jeep is one of the iconic?? vehicles that's now available in the game.

Playground Games has nicknamed this festival's vehicles as the "Decade's Greatest Cars" and there can be few disagreements with that claim. In fact, the Universal?? car pack is one of the my favorite paid DLCs launched by Playground Games. However, there's plenty in it for those who might not be wanting to spend real-life money on the car pack. There's a new car to be unlocked every week while the festival is live.

How to get the Jurassic Park car in Forza Horizon 5

The new cars set to be added as part of Mo??dern Horizons can be broken down into two ?broad groups:

• Premium DLC pack cars
• Grindable cars from earnable from the festival

Unfortunately, the Jurassic Park car is part of the Universal Icons Car Pack. In fact, it's part? of five different cars, can be unlocked by purchasing the DLC. The positive aspect is that you don't have to grind for these vehicles, and start driving them immediately once the pack becomes available.

Both the new content and Universal Icons Car Pack is now available within the game. Here's the complete list of all the vehi??cles included in the DLC:

• 1992 Jeep Wrangler Sahara from Jurassic Park
• Time Machine from Back to the Future
• Time Machine from Back to the Future 2
• Time Machine from Back to the Future 3
• KITT from Knight Rider

How to get the Modern Horizons cars in Forza Horizon 5?

By grinding?? the festival, you'll be able to unlock up to five different cars.

• 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse - Earn 20 points during week 1 Summer season (June 20-June 27)
• 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N - Earn 20 points during week 2 Autumn season (June 27-July 4)
• 2021 Toyota GR Yaris - Earn 20 points during Week 3 Winter season (July 4- July 11)
• 2023 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo Turbo S - Earn 20 points during Week 4 Spring season (July 11-July 15)
• 2023 Kia EV6 GT - Earn 80 points during Modern Horizons festival playlist

Additionally, players will be able to get new collectibles and outfi??ts as well by grinding the playlists.

The post How to get the Jurassic Park car in Forza?? Horizon 5 Modern Horizons festival appeared first on Destructoid.

After the last season's decidedly Motorsport-tier takeover, Forza Horizon 5 is shifting back into a more fantasy direction once again. This time, it's all about that Retrowave aesthetic, with the slightest dash of Minecraft-themed blockiness thrown in for good meas??ure. The headlining vehicl?e, though? The delightful Hyundai N Vision 74.

This is, of course, just the latest in a long line of FOMO-heavy time-limited events that Forza Horizon 5 has been running from day one. Credit where cr?edit is due, though, the new cars and other assorted goodie?s being added as part of the Retrowave-esque Season 34 are rather neat, even if we might only get a few weeks' worth of time to actually unlock most of them.

Some of the highlights include the N Vision 74 itself, of course, but also the refreshed Lambo Countach, a legendary Citroen, a huge array of neon-e?ncrusted EventLab props, and - unexpectedly - a whole new Horizon Wave radi?o station, featuring 21 all-new songs. Exciting stuff, that.

Join Forza Horizon 5's Retrowave season to score Hyundai N Vision 74

Timed as they are, Forza Horizon 5's themed seasons sure are a delight to participate in. While this isn't the first time the game has received a post-launch radio station, it sure is a welcome sight regardless. Here's just a small portion of the full list of the new songs coming to Forza Horizon 5 with Season 34:

• Alex Lightspeed: Crimson Sunset (ft. The Neon Syndicate)
• Com Truise: Iteration
• Lazerhawk: King of the Streets
• FM Attack: Elevate
• Betamaxx: Guided by Moonlight

These (and many others) are bound to set the stage just right as we leap headfirst into the new season's glowy event schedule. For one, you can only unlock the aw??esome Hyundai headliner by scoring a grand total of 80 seasonal points throughout Season 34's four weekly events. Along the way, you'll also have an opportunity to get a few more exotic vehicles. Here's the new car reward list for the season:

• Week 1, Summer Season: Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 (2021)
• Week 2, Autumn Season: BMW M635CSi (1968)
• Week 3, Winter Season: Lotus Esprit Turbo (1980)
• Week 4, Spring Season: Citroen BX 4TC (1986)

As usual, you'll need to have racked up at least 20 seasonal points every subsequent week to unlock all the seasonal reward vehicles. In other words, if you're looking to just get all the new cars with minimum extra work required, score the 20 needed points each week, and doing so will get you the Hyundai as well. Also as usual, it's impossible to tell whether any of these cars will return to Forza Horizon 5 ?at a future? date, so that's something to keep in mind.

Particularly big fans of Minecraft have got something to look forward to, as well. Playground Games will be adding the Minecraft Overworld and Nether character helmets over the course of the season, celebrating Minecraft's 15th anniversary in an appropriate tone.

There are a lot more goodies coming as part of the Retrowave season, too, such as themed car horns, so be sure to check out the official Steam blog post if you're interested.

The post Forza Horizon 5’s Retrowave season brings us Minecraft cosmetics, a new radio station, and Hyundai N Vision 74 appeared first on Destructoid.

Forza Motorsport has been making some serious strides forward as of late, believe it or not. Between improved progression mechanics, AI, and general content,?? Turn 10?? has been putting in work to make things better, and fixing car models is now on the docket, too, believe it or not.

For those who are not in the know, and not the biggest deal in the grand scheme of things, some of the Forza games' legacy vehicle models are rather inaccurate when compared to their real-world counterparts. Gran Turismo 7, too, is way better in this regard than either of the contemporary Forza titles, and fans have been asking for Turn 10 and Playground Games to fi?x things up f??or quite a while now.

Now, out of the blue, Turn 10 confirmed it is working on updating its vehicle model library, with almost a dozen classics already on the docket for a fix. The downside? These updates aren't coming anytime soon, and they won't be implemented into the current Forza Motorsport, either.

Turn 10 confirms that legacy Forza car models will be fixed... in future games

Turn 10's plans for Forza Motorsport have been to make it a long-lasting live-service game, and though the game is now substantially better than it was on day one, it seems it still won't be getting all of the team's planned tech and content upgrades after all. So far, Turn 10 has confirmed that the future Forza games will receive u?pdated and accurized representations of the following vehicles:

• BMW M3 E30 (1992)
• Dodge Viper GTS ACR (1999)
• Ferrari 575M Maranello (2002)
• Ford Focus RS (2003)
• Mazda RX-7 FD3S (1997)
• Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VI MR (1999)
• Nissan Silvia Spec-R S15 (2000)
• Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 V-Spec (1993)
• Toyota Sprinter Trueno Apex AE86 (1985)

Kudos to Redditor red_fuel for their list! It is, of course, disappointing to hear that the current live-service Forza Motorsport isn't likely to re??ceive up-to-date models of these cars, but Turn 10?'s reasoning is understandable in its own right.

Notably, the team's comment explains how finding a museum-quality car they need to scan is non-trivial by default, and that's without taking into account all the licensing and technical issues that come part and parcel with the job. Heck, even the inevitable Forza Horizon 6?? might not be privy to some of these updates, depending on how hard it is to source some of the faulty vehicle models.

That's not to say that Forza Motorsport hasn't already made improvements in this area, either. Some car models, such as th?e legendary Impreza 22B, have been updated to better reflect their real-world inspirations, and this is bound to have thrilled fellow car a??ficionados when they discovered it:

I have bemoaned Forza's car paint shader before, so it stands to reason that I'm fairly nitpicky when it comes to real-world car representation as well. Certainly, the news that Turn 10's hard work updating all the problematic models isn't likely to be reflected in Forza Motorsport is disappointing, but I myself am happy to hear that the franchise's roster of car models will inevitably be improved and iterated upon. For the? time being, that's good enough!

The post Forza Motorsport’s car models are being fixed, but not for the current game appeared first on Destructoid.

Xbox Game Pass is like walking?? into a candy store. There are so many different options to choose from when it comes to its game selection, and some of the best games on Xbox Game Pass can be hard to spot.

Some need acquired tastes like liquorice (Dordogne), while many others will enjoy a beloved, comfortable chocolate bar (Minecraft). However, there's a good chance you'll find something to sate your palette in M??icrosoft's rolling digital library. Here are the 13 best games on Xbox Game Pass right now.

[Updated: May 2024]

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Those seeking adventure should look towards The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This (take a deep breath) 12-year-old game (breathe out) still has a fervent fanbase, and is still played to this day for good reason. There are many weapons, armor, spells, and even dragon shouts to find across the open world. There are also branching side quests that in an??d of themselves have deep, fascinating stories and characters behind them. You should take an arrow in the knee in this game and explore the grand landscapes of Skyrim with Xbox Game Pass. The Special Edition also comes with all of the DLC.

Halo Infinite

In my opinion, Halo Infinite gets way too much flak. This entry was my first step into the series, and I was floored by this sci-fi experience. Each weapon in Master Chief's arsenal feels powerful, but in the frantic first-person shooter levels, you're scrounging for whatever you can find, adding to the tension of battle. Finding improved weapons from the tough bosses you kill in the open world is gratifying, and the world itself truly grabbed me. The storyline with ?Master Chief saving the UNSC and the world on the brink is also thrilling to experience. The multiplayer, to me, feels dated with tired map design and modes, but the single-player campaign is the main attraction.

Hi-Fi Rush

Hi-Fi Rush is one of the best Xbox exclusives in years. It combines thrilling action combat with engaging music rhythm gameplay to create a unique melee-focused experience. You play as a unique, clumsy protagonist, trying to save the day from Vandelay Technologies' evil leader. The slapstick is on point, and the script is laugh-out-loud hilarious. The action is also fantastic as you switch between the powers of your allies and string together combos on your foes.  You also can't forget the stand-out music selection in Hi-Fi Rush with rock hits from Nine Inch?? Nails, The Prodigy, and The Black Keys.

Minecraft

There's not much else to be said about Minecraft but I'll try my best. It's a worldwide phenomenon for a reason as it allows players to build their own structures, craft their own items, and explore a randomly generated world. Building with your friends is a lot of fun, and many players have created amazing buildings throughout the years like Hogwarts from Harry Potter. Someone even made a working 3D graphing calculator. This game is great for kids, as it lets them show their creative side and figure out how to build materials in the game. Despite existing for over a decade, the game is still getting updates and DLC based on Mega Man X and SpongeBob SquarePants. 

Monster Hunter Rise

After many years of struggling to get into the series, Monster Hunter Rise finall??y got me on the saddle. Alongside your friends, you're taking down monstrous beasts, collecting their materials, fur, etc, and then crafting incredible gear for your player. It's a rewarding game loop that keeps you playing for hours on end.

There's a strategy to each battle, and you need to keep your wits about you to survive in some of these encounters. Ultimately, it's Monster Hunter's new maneuverability of the wirebugs that lets you zip from plac??e to place like Indiana Jones' whip that really made it click for me. You can also mount your pet palamute, letting you get to the battle quicker. It's one of the best games on Xbox Game Pass because of how gratifying collecting resources and physically seeing your character getting stronger is.

Need for Speed: Unbound

Exhaust-ed of Forza Horizon and need another enthralling racing game to play? Need for Speed: Unbound could good detour. The rush of driving through its city streets brought me back to the days of Underground 2, and you can deeply customize your ca?r, go on tough street races, and try to be the best in the city.

Ther??e’s also a unique anime-like art style, and cast members have a unique shader that makes them stand out. There are also vibrant visual effects as you drift around corners and boost. Go check this one out!

Persona 3 Reload

Atlus' Persona 3 Reload is a fantastic way to get into the series or continue your love for the JRPG franchise. It's a complete remake of the PS2 gem that some fans argue is the best Persona game. Expect engaging turn-based combat revolving around collecting shadows, a provoking, dark story, and plenty of wonderful characters to meet along the way. The visual improvements are a stand-out with stunning UI and a complete uplift on the same level as Persona 5 Royal.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has been out fo?r almost five years now, and I'm?? still surprised when anyone tells me that they've finished it.

This game’s absolutely massive, taking place in a stunning Greek-inspired open world. You can tell Ubisoft did its research with the spectacular architecture and intriguing culture to be found in the game. Kassandra (one of the two possible playable characters) is one of the best protagonists in the series; she has spunk, charming humor, and an overall badassery that few other Assassin’s Creed heroes can match. The story also takes twists and turns you??’ll find fascinating. Oh, and the combat’s thrilling with a deep customization system alo?ngside it.

TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge

A gorgeous throwback retro art style? Check. Exceptional beat-em-up action? Check. Yummy pizza slices? Cowabunga, dude! TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge is radical with its high-intensity battling. You can team up with three other?? players (no matter if they’re local, online, or have a different system) to battle Shredder and the Foot Clan.

Each ch??aracter offers a unique battling style, and every boss is challenging to defeat. The levels are also detailed with all sorts of references and have their own gameplay surprises in store.

Dordogne

If you’re fatigued from the intense FPS gameplay of most triple-A games, Dordogne is a fantastic palette cleanser. This game features a beautiful watercolor-like art style and a compelling narrative that tells the story of a woman’s childhood. It’s charming and a?dorable, but there’s an element of drama in the background that continues to grow as the game proceeds.

You’ll also interact with the e??nvironment in ??unique ways. Don’t miss out on this French indie game!

Celeste

It's not often that a game truly moves me, but by the end of Celeste, I wept like a baby. Celeste was completely out of my comfort zone. It's a punishing platformer that tests your skills, and typically I don't have the patience fo?r something like this. However, the challenging gameplay comes hand-in-hand with the storyline. As Madeline, you're trying to overcome your anxiety, and as?? you climb the mountain, she's pushing herself.

With anxiety and depression myself, this game strongly connected with me like no other did. Also, it will help others understand a foundation of what it's like to deal with symptoms like this daily. You also can't forget about Lena Raine's extraordinary soundtrack for Celeste.

Forza Horizon 5

One of the best driving games available on Xbox Game Pass is Forza Horizon 5. Variety is the spice of life and this is what you get with this Forza title. You're exploring volcanoes, the desert, beaches, Mexican towns, and even wintry mountain landscapes within Forza Horizon 5. There are also many cars to unlock as you complete challenges, earn cash, and get the best times around the open world. If you love outstanding graphics to test on your Xbox Series X or PC, Forza Horizon 5 is a gran??d tour-de-force to show off your?? lovely 4K TV.

Guilty Gear Strive

From slick cars to hot combos, Guilty Gear Strive is one of the best fighting games on Xbox Game Pass. It checks ??every box, with stunning combos, flashy special moves, the usual inventive character designs, and some of the best visuals amongst any 2D ?fighter you can play right now. All that rocking music is a bonus, too.

Guilty Gear Strive is the ultimate package, and this Arc System Works game also has a fantastic tutorial system to help let new players enter the chaos. We said as much in our review, noting, "Guilty Gear Strive is [..] what I needed right now: a good, solid, very online-capable fighting game with plenty of big swords, charging dolphins, ?and doctors with questionable credentials to go around."

The post Top 13 best games on Xbox Game Pass right now appeared first on Destructoid.

While Forza Motorsport is trying its best to improve its tech stack, content, performance, and a variety of other aspects, Forza Horizon 5 is speeding by at lightning speed and stealing Motorsport's thunder. Almost literally this time, in fact, as Series 33 is all about motorsport.

As impressive as Forza Motorsport's Update 7 might've been on the technical side of things, it's a simple statement of fact that Forza Horizon 5's Series 33 is far more exciting in comparison. Series 33 is also known as Apex AllStars, focusing mainly on asphalt-based race cars. To support such a motorsport-heavy season, Playground Games is adding 5?? new collectable cars, a race car-themed DLC with 7 exclusive vehicles, and 23 free new props for track builders to have fun with.

Forza Horizon 5's Series 33 injects motorsport into the equation

First things first, then, the most obviously exciting bit is the free unlockable vehicles that'll drop into Forza Horizon 5 th?roughout Apex AllStars. They are the following:

• April 25: Ford #66 Racing GT Le Mans (2016)
• May 2: Hyundai #98 Bryan Herta Autosport Elantra N (2021), Chevrolet Summit Racing Pro Stock Camaro (2013)
• May 9: Mitsubishi #1 Sierra Enterprises Lancer Evolution Time Attack (2005)
• May 16: Porsche #92 GT Team 911 RSR (2017)

As ever, all of the above is tied up in Forza Horizon 5's specific brand of FOMO, so if you're interested in enjoying these cars, you're only going to have a week's worth of time to permanently unlock them. It's not ideal, but I'll be the first to admit that Apex AllStars is positively loaded with some really interesting cars, and it'll be curious to see how they fit into FH5's immense roster.

The dedicated Apex AllStars Car Pack DLC, on the other hand, isn't leaving the game anytime soon, but you do need to purchase it with real money. It's a tad more expensive than most other Car Pack DLCs, too, at 9.99$ / 9.99�/ 7.99£, and it's going live later? today, on April 23. Here's what you get for your trouble (and money):

• BMW #2 M Motorsport M8 GTE (2018)
• Cadillac #3 Racing ATS-V.R (2015)
• Chevrolet #3 Corvette Racing C8.R (2020)
• Mercedes-AMG GT3 (2018)
• Lexus #14 Vasser Sullivan RC F GT3 (2020)
• Ferrari #62 Risi Competizione 488 GTE (2019)
• Porsche 911 GT3R (2018)

So, while it is more expensive, the DLC also nets you a few more cars than is usual for these DLCs, so it's a give-and-take. Don't forget, either, that almost all of these cars are available in Forza Motorsport, which may be of interest to some.

Back to the free side of things, all Forza Horizon 5 players will now be able to purchase the 2024 Corvette E-Ray via the Autoshow for only 181,000 credits. This car was previously exclusive to Forza Motorsport owners, so it's g?ood to?? see it more widely available across the board.

Gameplay-wise, Playground Games is reworking the community events to no longer have to sunset the old ones. To check them out, visit the new version of the PlayGround Editor's Choice tab in Forza Horizon 5's EventLab, which will feature a growing selection of cu?rated events every week.

The post Forz??a Horizon 5 turns? into Forza Motorsport with Series 33 appeared first on Destructoid.

ASUS' ROG Ally was the first big brand Windows portable console following on the heels of Valve's Steam Deck la??unch. All of a sudden, handheld gaming saw a massive resurgence with devices that look like portable consoles but wield the f??ull power of PC gaming.

So, what games make the most of what the ROG Ally has to offer? To start, the Ally is more powerful than the Steam Deck, but that isn't the gadget's real strength. Running Windows means the ROG Ally has access to a whole host of services that the Steam Deck doesn't. So, here's our list of games capitalizing on both the Ally's beefy hardware an??d software.

Starfield

Starfield is among the most demanding games of 2023; it doesn't even run at 60 FPS on Microsoft's most powerful ?Xbox Series X. That came as? quite a surprise since 60 FPS had become an unspoken standard on the Series? X up to now.

You'd be forgiven then for thinking that Starfield is out of reach of handheld devices, but that's not the c??ase. The ROG Ally runs the spacefaring RPG just fine at 30 FPS with the graphics turned down, equivalent to what the latest? Xbox consoles are limited to.

It doesn't look as good as on the Xbox, but on the Ally's much smaller screen, that's less noticeable than you'd think. Another big reason why Starfield tops our list is that the ga??me is available wit?h Xbox Game Pass, which the ROG Ally can access through Windows.

Assassin's Creed Mirage

Assassin's Creed Mirage is, for some fans, a long-awaited return to the roots of the Assassin's Creed franchise. It's a traditional Assassin's Creed game based?? on stealth, pa??rkour, and taking down templars.

It's disappointing then that the game isn't available on Steam. It's currently exclusive to Ubisoft's store, Ubisoft Connect. However, that's not the end of the world for ROG Ally owners. Not only can you install Ubisoft Conn?ect on the Ally, but?? it runs magnificently to boot. I've played at a steady 60 FPS while plugged in on low settings, using 1080p with FSR �mighty impressive for a AAA game on a handheld device.

Mirage is also available as part of Ubisoft's PC subscription service, Ubisoft+, giving gamers access to every new Ubisoft game on day one, as well as a library of 100+ games. If you have the subsc?ription on your desktop PC, you can also use it on your Ally.

Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon 5

Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon 5 share a spot on this list bec?ause the one you choose depends on your driving style. Are you a wannabe Lewis Hamilton who needs to hit every apex perfectly, or do you enjoy cruising around in your favorite car? Whichever one you prefer?, you can't really go wrong.

I tested Forza Motorsport on the ROG Ally and got up to 60 FPS, depending on the track and conditions on medium settings, at 900p with FSR balanced. In dozens of hours of playtime, the game performed as smoothly as you'd hope a racing game would. Forza Horizon 5 is the same story, sporting smooth gameplay as you traverse arou?nd Mexico.

Both games are available on Xbox Game Pass, so you can try them both out to decide which you prefer if you're subscribed. The only downside to the two Forza games is the hefty download sizes that are bigger than you may think. Motorsport comes in at around 124GB, and Horizon 5 at a whopping 140 GB.

EA Sports FC 24

If you're a futbol fan, EA Sports FC 24 is probably already on your radar. As the first "FIFA" game not to bear the name, FC 24 is still the same g?ame that dominates sales and playti?me around the world.

It's also a must-have play for the cross-section of soccer fans and Ally owners. In fact, the only way to play FC 24 on a portable PC is to do so on a Windows one. The game won't run on the Steam Deck due to EA's? anti-cheat software being Windows only.

That's not a problem on the Ally, and once you're up and running, it's easy to forget you're not playing on a PS5 or desktop. FC 24 holds a steady 60 FPS on the Al?ly and feels just as good to play as on beefier hardwa?re.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

If you're downloading the EA app, you might as well check out the best EA game of 2023, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. It's another game that r?eally pushes hardware on PC, so it's no?t the most obvious ROG Ally-friendly.

While you'll have the best time if you're plugged in and using the Ally's 30w Turbo mode, it's perfectly fine unplugged and on the go. In my testing??, I was able to get between 30-40 FPS at 720p, on low settings, and with FSR set to Quality.

You can lock Jedi Survivor to 30 FPS for a consistent framerate, but it is able to hov??er around 37-40 FPS most of the time. If you do want to play in a truly portable (i.e, unplugged) manner, then lock the game at 30 FPS on both 25w and 15w modes for a decent enough experience.

Once you're set up and running, you'll find that playing Jedi: Survivor on the Ally is an absolute blast. The game is available through EA's subscription service, EA Play Pro, and like with Assassin's Creed Mirage, that's plenty of time to finish.

Call of Duty

Call of Duty is a ?game that isn't easily available on the Stea?m Deck due to the Battle.net service being incompatible due to the anti-cheat software it has. You can't play any of the newer titles on anything but Windows on PC.

We should note right off the bat that, at the time of writing, there have been reports of ROG Ally players getting erroneously banned for playing the latest game, Modern Warfare 3. The problem is supposedly being looked into by Asus, but it's not the case for the other recent titles. Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War, Modern Warfare 2, and Warzone can all be played on the Ally without falling afoul of the a??nti-cheat system.

In fact, those games don't just play well on the Ally. They play exceptionally well. I tested Black Ops Cold War on the handheld and was able to get an incredible 75-90 FPS at 1080p, low settings on the 15w performance mode. That's a truly impres??sive feat for such a big game on a ?handheld device.

If you have an ROG Ally and want to get your Call of Duty fix on the go, you're in for a treat. You may have to cough up for a bigger SSD, though. Black Ops Cold War is a whopping 175GB on PC, but if you're happy to only install multiplayer, that's a more ??reasonable 50GB.

Update by Elliott Gatica: Since you've had plenty of time to chew through your picks from our original list of seven, how about three more games to play on the ROG Ally? This rounds our best-of list to a nice, even 10, adding to the Steam Deck's growing competition with more RPGs and multipl?ayer challenges below.

Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3 needs no introduction as to why i??t should be played on more capable devices. Larian's entry to the series easily steals over 100 hours of your time, and if you don't want to be at your desk all day, why not bring that world with you on the go? A little pocket Astarion, portable sass.

Sure, you'll sacrifice some visual fidelity to land a more stable framerate during and out of combat or run it at a stable 30 FPS at 1080p. It's not a game where your best experiences relies heavily o??n a higher framerate. It's up to you whether you want to choose performance over graphics and vice versa.

Palworld

Palworld is another Xbox Game Pass game wo??rt?h at least a look. With its rise in popularity, seemingly out of nowhere, it took PC gamers by surprise as its concurrent users on Steam skyrocketed for weeks.

Personally, since this is an action game, the higher the framerate, the better. Even if you have to sacrifice texture and asset quality a bit to get a stable 45 FPS and up, it'll be worth it. It seems that getting the game around 900p is the sweet spot to get just that. It's certainly got some performance woes, so you'll have to play around w?ith it, but thankfully developer Pocketpair has slowly fixed some of those since launch.

Helldivers 2

Democracy jokes aside, Helldivers 2 is another game that took the world by storm this year and it's a must-play if you like shooter games in general. Even then, it's worth giving it a go just for some of the wild community stories coming out of the online play.

There's a lot that goes on in this game that can easily tank your performance. Despite saying that action games should be at a higher framerate, you should probably sacrifice some performance for better graphical quality. You can get Helldivers 2 running at 45 F?PS at best. Setting your Render Scale at Balanced and putting most other settings like textures and lighting at medium or low will make this a blast in handheld mode.

The post Best 10 games to play on the ROG Ally appeared first on Destructoid.

Transient, temporary video game content ??is the bane of a completionist’s existence, and it just so happens that live-service titles thrive on their players�ability to not access content. In Forza games, in particular, FOMO (fear of missing out) comes part and parcel, though in two meaningfully different flavors.

Banking too heavily on FOMO is, obviously, a serious concern in a video game whose core appeal is, at least to some extent, reliant specifically on one’s growing collection of cars. Making those cars come and go willy-nilly with extremely tight scheduling will, inevitably, lead to some players missing out, all the while creating a system of artificial scarcity. Certainly, one could argue that a “live�game ought to have some type of ??exclusive timed content going in and out of rotation to make it feel genuinely different ?from one season to another, but it doesn’t take a brainiac to dismiss this line of thought: why is all-new content being added to a game just to effectively jank it back out after a week?

Discussing the extremely hypothetical merits of FOMO is not what we’re really interested in, thankfully. Instead, our attention falls upon one of the two ways in which Playground Games�Forza Horizon 5 and Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport tackle this problem. Even though the principle of FOMO is very much the sa?me between the two franchise entries, its execution is not, and that’s the really curious bit. Which of the two ap??proaches to FOMO is better? Or more palatable, as it were? Only one way to find out.

Comparing the FOMO in Forza Horizon 5 and Forza Motorsport

I’ve bemoaned Forza Motorsport’s excessive reliance on FOMO time and again here at Destructoid, but the simple truth is that Forza Horizon 5 is every bit as bad in that regard. Worse, even, if you’re a car aficionado that can’t really keep up with Horizon’s remarkably punishing seasonal format.

Look, I get it: most players won’t see the point in appreciating the practical difference between the 2020 and 2017 versions of Nissan GT-R, as the two cars are extremely similar. Since the 2020 version has only been made available for a single week of Forza Horizon 5’s Series 5 season, however, it is desirable by default, and if you weren’t around at the time, you don’t get ?to unlock, d?rive, and tune it.

The example of the 2020 R35 is emblematic of Forza Horizon 5’s approach to FOMO: Playground Games releases huge, meaningful batches of content at an impressively rapid pace, and then chunks of this content are taken back out for however long Playground sees fit. Every season, there are big new things coming out and a handful of exclusive, time-limited cars to chase after. And, of course, once the season wraps up, you won’t be seeing those new cars for a good long while, as they generally do not get added to the game’s car marketplace.

In comparison, the new Forza Motorsport is less FOMO-laden if you can believe that. Notably, its championships stick around for weeks at a time, and every new season only adds two or three exclusive new vehicles to chase after. Indeed: Motorsport is less punishing than Horizon if you’re a collector, and it gives you more of a shot at ke?eping up with the game.

Dealing with Forza’s reliance on temporary content

The obvious caveat to the claim made above, of course, is that Forza Motorsport’s timed events are way more meaningful than Forza Horizon 5’s timed events. Setting aside the game’s Free Play option for a little bit, Motorsport’s cups genuinely add interesting and exciting solo and multiplayer events with every new update. For example, the mid-January update - the Italian Challengers - was all about racing against Italian vehicles. It was a niche situation that spiced things up if you’re into these things. More importantly, simply sliding this bundle of events over into the game’s permanent campaign roster would’ve massively improved Motorsport’s long-term value proposition.

This, naturally, did not happen. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Turn 10 continues to release batches of themed campaign-ti??er content th??at gets taken back out of the game once a new update rolls out.

Harkening back to the availability of the Free Play mode, you most definitely can race whatever you want wherever you want via this option. I’d like to argue, however, that Turn 10 wouldn’t have lost anything (except for banking on the players�fear of missing out) had it set up a permanent library of past events in Forza Motorsport’s remarkably underserved Builder’s Cu?p campaign?? mode.

Similarly, it’s a known critique of Forza Horizon 5 that the game’s baseline roster of vehicles was made up mostly of cars that weren’t new to Forza at all. The majority of new-to-Forza cars were, instead, added into the game via those aforementioned weekly challenges, so if you weren’t actively staying on top of most of its events, you were missing out on a lot as a car enthusiast.

Things aren’t set to change anytime soon for Forza

It’s a given that I’m hardly the only player annoyed by how Playground Games and Turn 10 are handling their respective Forza offshoots. For years now, players have been complaining about Forza Horizon 5’s extreme FOMO, though this doesn’t get brought up often in the more casual game discussion opportunities. Forza Motorsport, in comparison, has been getting dragged over the coals for this very same - arguably less pronounced ?- problem from day one. How is it possible, t?hen, that the popular discussion surrounding these two games is so wildly different?

My theory is simple: Forza Horizon 5 adds such large quantities of content on a regular basis that the sheer scope of most updates overshadows what’s temporary and transient about it. In comparison, Motorsport is more clinical and dry: you get a new track and a few new ca?rs, with temporary events to fiddle around with, and then you’re done.

So you get to pick between two types of FOMO if you’re a Forza fan: do you prefer oodles of content coming in and out of the game on a weekly basis, or do you prefer a slower approach where “only�the champions?hips get rotated out of existence every so often? Either way, the odds are good that you won’t get to p??lay or unlock everything either of these two games have on offer, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

The post The two types of FOMO present in Forza games appeared first on Destructoid.

While Forza Motorsport fans eagerly anticipate the seemingly game-changing Update 6, Forza Horizon 5 continues its assortment of?? wacky hijinks by introducing dinosaurs into its roster of usable assets. The game's major Eurotri?p update is, therefore, particularly eclectic, and bound to thrill players this way or the other.

Notably, the Horizon Festival is now being overtaken by a fleet of European vehicles, from top-tier Bentleys to classic AMG Hammer wagons, and they're being joined by lovingly recreated dinosaur props. Indeed, players will now be able to use an assortment of dinosaurs for their custom tracks, adding yet another layer of zaniness to the already wild and wacky Horizon franchise.

Forza Horizon 5's Eurotrip season has dinosaurs in tow

Of course, dinosaurs aren't the only major prop being added to Forza Horizon 5's powerful EventLab 2.0 content creation kit. Upon the update's release later this week??, on February 29, players will get access to al?l of the following EventLab items:

• 25 all-new ramps and platforms (asphalt, dirt, grass, ice, and snow platforms)
• 40 unique shapes (cones, cubes, cylinders, etc.) in concrete and plastic variants, in several unique color swatches
• 6 dinosaur props: Ankylosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Pterodactyl, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Velociraptor
• Star Trophy gameplay prop

It's not all wackiness, though. As its title implies, this season's focus a??re European car markers, allowing players to unlock all of the following vehicles over the next couple of weeks:

• February 29 - March 7: Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro (2022), Lancia Fulvia Coupe Rallye (1968)
• March 7 - 14: Citroen DS23 (1975), Volkswagen ID.4 (2021)
• March 14 - 21: Lotus Esprit V8 (2002), Mercedes-AMG SL63 (2021)
• March 21 - 28: Mercedes-Benz 500E (1992), Volkswagen Double Cab Pick-Up (1966)

The bad news, sadly, is that this is yet another in a long run of FOMO-laden content releases that have been the bread and butter of Forza's post-launch content support for years now. You only have a week's worth of time to unlock the aforementioned cars, and there's no telling when (??if ever) they might end up getting re-released in the future.

Another thing that might leave a bad taste in some players' mouths is the release of an all-new vehicle DLC that is not included as part of Forza Horizon 5's "Premium" edition. The new European Automotive Car Pack exists outside of FH5's Car Pass as an entirely separate $4.99 purchase, and it includes the Bentley Continental GT Convertible (2021), the AMG?? Hammer Wagon (1987), Jaguar XE-SV Project 8 (2019), and the Automobili Pininfarina Battista (2020). These will not be unlockable for free in any way, shape, or form, and they are not a part of the time-limited Eurotrip car set.

But hey, the dinosaur props are free and permanent, so you?? can rely on them no matter what!

The post Forza Horizon 5’s European Takeover introducesâ€?dinosaurs appeared first on Destructoid.

While the most topical discussions about the Forza franchise at large usually have something to do with the latest game's many fumbles and stumbles, now's the time to take a look at something different. Did you know that the Forza community maintains a hum??ongous list of real-world car paint specifications?

Indeed, there's a small, but extremely dedicated community of Forza players that's spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours meticulously recreating real-world car paint swatches for virtual use. It's widely accepted that Gran Turismo generally offers a more pleasing and accurate car paint shader, and the fact of the matter is that some of the default manufacturer paints simply don't match up to their real-world inspiration. These issues have been around since Forza Horizon 4, at least, which is when this community of car paint enthusiasts kicked off their long-lasting project.

The massive car manufacturer color spreadsheet for Forza games

Setting aside the incredibly impressive car paint recreation of Gran Turismo 7, it's a given that many - if not most - players simply won't care enough about the difference between Ferrari Red and generic red glossy paint. Yet, the issue of correctly replicating the complexity of car paint is a problem for high-tier racing games, and the Forza community decided enough was enough by? the time Forza Horizon 4 came out. The problem, at the time, was twofold:

• Video games struggle to accurately replicate real-world car paint
• Forza games, in particular, don't always do the finest job of recreating certain paint swatches

Obviously, there was nothing that players themselves could do about the first part of the problem. As for the second, though... that's where the incredibly impressive Forza Colour Sheet document comes into the picture.

Featuring a grand total of 10,902 unique real-world paint swatches (as of February 12, 2024) taken from manufacturer librar?ies, third-party vehicle modders, and various other companies, this document is a testament to one dedicated community's plight against car paint inaccuracy.

If, for example, you decided that you wanted an almost pixel-perfect British Racing Green Aston Martin in Forza Motorsport, and felt that the developers' official rendition of it was ever-so-slightly off, simply look it up in the document and follow the recreation directions. Every little important bit of information is listed here, from the type of color you should apply (normal, glossy, flake, etc.) to the exact slider values you should input. It's all in there, kept safe and sound and, perhaps most importantly, still being worked on.

That's right: even though the community that kicked the project off began their work years ago, when Forza Horizon 4 was mucking about, GTPlanet ??members such as MadaraxUchiha are still actively updating the sheet for future reference. And don't forget, since all the modern Forza games share the underlying paint appl?ication system, the swatch customization is essentially unified from the ground up.

Obviously, there are still downsides to the system. For example, no matter how much you tweak your car paint values, it's entirely possible that Forza games' respective car paint shaders simply cannot display all the nuance of a given swatch. This, sadly, is unlikely to be on the developer Turn 10's docket of things to fix about Forza Motorsport, but at least you now know where to look if you want to get your Forza car paints as accurate as humanly possible.

The post The Forza community maintains a massive car manufacturer col??or spreadshee??????????????????????????t appeared first on Destructoid.

While much has been said about the Forza franchise's peculia?r approach to fear of ?missing out, Forza Horizon 5 is not about to let go of its entire seasonal content model. It's good, then, that the new season is here to stave FOMO off, even if only?? by a bit.

More specifically, Playground Games held a poll among Forza Horizon 5 players a few months back, allowing them to vote on which timed exclusive vehic?les ought to return in early 2024. With the votes counted and accounted for, Playground has now announced the full suite of returning exotics, such as the highly coveted Porsche 911 Reimagined by Singer from 1990. There's a grand total of 10 returning vehicles, as well as 8 new Community Ch?oice cars, giving players lots to grind for.

Forza Horizon 5's 2024 Community Choice cars

Forza Horizon 5 players will have a lot to grind for over the next couple of weeks, from the looks of it.? With two rosters of exciting new (or "new," as it were) cars to purchase and unlock, there should be no shortage of stuff to be excited about.

The first rost??er - the returning cars from seasons prior - will be available as regular, purchasable vehicles as part of the unique Autoshow selection starting January 30. The full list of cars includes all of the following:

• Porsche 911 Reimagined by Singer (1990)
• Aston Martin One-77 (2010)
• Lamborghini Sian Roadster (2021)
• Rimac Nevera (2021)
• Ferrari 599XX (2010)
• Porsche #23 917/20 (1971)
• Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso (1962)
• Ferrari #24 Spa 330 P4 (1967)
• Italdesign Zerouno (2018)
• Peel Trident (1965)

The prices for these cars are yet to be revealed, of course, but it's a fairly safe bet that it'll take a pretty penny for players to purchase all of them outright. For those who just cannot scrounge up the case, as well as those who have kept up with Forza Horizon 5's ti??med seasonal releases??, there's an extra roster of eight all-new cars being added to the game as well:

• January 4: McLaren 12C Coupe (2011), Aston Martin DBS (2008)
• January 11: Koenigsegg CCX (2006), W Motors Lykan HyperSport (2016)
• January 18: Mercedes-Benz 280 SL (1967), Pagani Huayra (2012)
• January 25: Fiat Dino 2.4 Coupe (1969), Spania GTA Spano (2016)

The only way to earn these vehicles will be to grind seasonal activities (40 and 80 points, respectively), but the good news is that doing so also earns you lots of Credits along the way. In other words, it shouldn't be too big of a deal to grind for both of these car rosters at the sam??e time, depending on which pieces your collection may or may not be missing.

It's a good start to 2024 for Forza Horizon 5 players, then. Of course?, the slight downer is that the new Community Choice vehicles won't be staying around all that long in the ?first place, perpetuating the FOMO further. Ah well, small victories!

The post Stave off Forza Horizon 5 FOMO in th??e latest seasonal release appeared first on Destructoid.

Even though Turn10's new Forza Motorsport is already on the horizon with its October 10 release date, that's not stopping the Forza Horizon 5 developer Playground Games from pumping all-new content into its flagship open-world racer. Indeed, Forza Horizon 5 will receive a substantial new content creation update via EventLab 2.0, giving players even more features and functionality to use in custom events and races. While there's a bunch of other ?content also making its way into the game, like new aftermarket body kits, EventLab 2.0 is the biggest draw here.

Playground Games announced EventLab 2.0 mere days ahead of its release on September 14 as part of the Horizon Creatives update. While the fact that almost two dozen new Vorsteiner rims are being added to the mix sure is neat, EventLab 2.0 ?is the single biggest upgrade the game's about to g??et. In short, EventLab 2.0 will empower players more than ever before with a new selector tool, the ability to share prefab items and set up custom flyers, leaning even more heavily towards bespoke player creations than ever before.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRdxjafYSAo

Forza Horizon 5's EventLab 2.0 content update

The majority of content updates Playground Games releases for Forza Horizon 5 are on the scale of the game's prior Barbie vehicle update: new cars, seasonal events, and - yes - rims. EventLab 2.0, however, is a wholly different beast. Starting on September 14, all players will be provided access to an all-new customization area by the name of EventLab Island. This is an entirely separate world location that may ring a bell or two for Garry's Mod fans. More specifically, it's a flat 2km by 2km slab of concrete surrounded by the ocean on all sides. Its purpose? Purely to let players go ham with whatever creations they wish to set up for themselves. Even those who aren't keen on sharing EventLab tracks and whatnot may find EventLab Island interesting, as they'll ??be able to set up custom sandbox tracks and vehicle testing platforms f??or their own personal use.

Playground Games is spicing things up further still with an assortment of new props, of course, and veteran fans have gotten a wealth of new vehicles to look forward to, as well. Some examples include two exotic Rivian vehicles, as well as four new BMWs. Players who purchase and play Forza Motorsport on October 10 will be able to add the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray to their Horizon garage as an extra boon.

The post Forza Horizon 5 reveals?? free EventLab 2.0 and massive ??community update appeared first on Destructoid.

Barbie and Ken's cars are now waiting at your Forza Horizon 5 garage

We'd previously covered reports from eagle-eyed fans who claimed Barbie's cars would be making their way into Forza Horizon 5. His assessment was correct. Microsoft has just added both the Chevrolet Corvette that Barbie drives in the movie, as well as Ken's GMC HUMMER EV Pickup to Forza Horizon 5's drivable roster.

Microsoft has said that to get them both, all players have to do is check their Forza Horizon 5 message center. Everything for f??ree, no paid DLC. Just get the cars and let's go party.

//twitter.com/Xbox/status/1673360575706066945

Some could have jumped at the opportunity to complain that th?ey wanted *insert name of edgy, bat-themed vehicle ??here* and not this. But the Chevrolet is no slouch.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_RsVstmcls

And it looks pretty damn good in photo mode.

//twitter.?com/J??ewelsVEVO/status/1673361123352129536?s=20

Anyone who's not into giving Barbie's preferred ride a chance can go with the much more?? aggressive HUMMER Pickup.

//youtu.be/wN7qCE4uI_s

As the unexpectedly great box-office war of Barbie vs Oppenheimer draws ever nearer, Barbie reveals she has no trouble fighting on the most unexpected of fronts. Is this how Greta Gerwig's live-action take on the popular doll will take down Christopher Nolan's three-hour-long wartime drama? Will Fortnite soon host an event showing the horrendous effects of nuclear weapons as Nolan tries to win the gamer populace back? Only time will tell. Oppenheimer opens in theatres on July 20. Barbie catches up to him in her Chevy ?ju??st one day later, on July 21.

As for the Forza Horizon 5 cars, you can download those right now.

The post It’s a Barbie world in Forza Horizon 5 with new car update appeared first on Destructoid.

As well as a Hummer for all you fabulous gas-guzzlers*

It looks like two vehicles driven by the most famous doll in the world are preparing to hit the garages of dazzling arcade racer Forza Horizon 5 �The Corvette and Hummer driven by Margot Robbie in upcoming movie, Barbie, will be arriving in??-??game at some point in the near future.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_RsVstmcls

The two vehicles were noted by Forza fan IdleSloth, who spotted placeholders in the game's Promo menu. The two cars featured are the "1956 Barbie Movie Corvette EV", (featured in the Chevrolet section), and the "2022 Barbie Movie Hummer EV Pickup", (featured under GMC). Videos of the vehicles in Showcase Mode were later uploaded by another Forza devotee, Aziial.

No dates for the drop have been announced, so it is assumed the two *electric vehicles will arrive as free downloads or in-game rewards to cross-promote the movie it??self, which premieres July 21.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7qCE4uI_s

Directed by Greta Gerwig, Barbie follows the adventures of the titular doll, as she and her long-time pal Ken (R??yan Gosling) leave Barbieland to visit the "real world" and get a ta?ste of reality. A huge ensemble cast includes Simu Liu, Kate McKinnon, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, America Ferrara, Issa Rae, and Helen Mirren. Response to recent trailers has been extremely positive, and all that's left is the waiting game before we find out with the talent both in front of and behind the lens can live up to the hype.

Forza Horizon 5 is available now on?? PC and Xbox platforms. Barbie premieres in U.S. theaters July 21.

The post Barbie’s curvy Corvette is coming to Forza Horizon 5 appeared first on Destructoid.

Double-stuffed with cosmetics

A new crossover is bringing some Oreos flavor to g?ames. Xbox and Oreos are teaming up for a special-edition cookie ?design, with both a change in the cookie and some in-game cosmetics for several Xbox games.

The promotion is taking place in 22 countries, which Xbox specifies as Europe only. Sorry to any North American fans or oth??er regions looking to get the special cookies.

These specific cookies will feature the Xbox logo and the A, B, X, Y button layout, as well as a directional arrow. By scanning the cookies and cracking the combination, players can unlock prizes for games. Entering the symbols in the correct sequence will unlock special, exclusive Oreo-themed content for games like Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, and Sea of Thieves.

[caption id="attachment_357256" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via Xbox[/caption]

The codes are meant to be inspired by cheat codes hidden in games throughout history. That does make me curious if a Konami code input is hiding somewhere in all those Oreo cookies.

The special cookies are expected to be available in participating regions this month, and available while stocks last. If you want to participate, you can visit the Oreo site and check here to see ?if your country is taking p??art. (Reminder, this is a Europe-only event.)

Funnily enough, Oreos have tied into video games before now in some fun ways. The Pokemon limited edition Oreos bore the likenesses of some of the series' most well-remembered Pokemon. But this one, letting you ?discern special cheat codes from the cookies themselves? Well, that's pretty neat. At least until you eat the cookies before remembering to check the symbols.

The post Spec?ial Xbox Oreos are on the way, with prizes for various Xbox games appeared first on Destructoid.

Gotta go fast

Forza is one of the most beloved racing games of all time, and the release of Forza 5 last year cemented its place in the gaming canon even further. Just when you think a good thing can't get better, it was announced during the Xbox Games Showcase today that Forza 5 is officially getting a Hot Wheel collab expansion, which was leaked earlier this week. The series has crossed over with Hot Wheels for every game in the series now since Forza 3, making it one ??of the most fun racing game traditions ou?t there.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idg18QJCbXU

The gameplay looks awesome, with huge looping orange tracks suspended over the beautiful landscapes that have become synonymous with Forza. The Hot Wheels expansion will be available on July 19 on Xbox, PC, C??loud, and Xbox Game Pass.

The post Forza 5 get??s its own Hot Wheels crossover expansion appeared first on Destructoid.

Wherever Xbox Design Lab is available

Last year, the people at Xbox whet the appetites of LGBTQ+ gamers and allies with their won??derfull?y colorful and inclusive Xbox Pride controller. I know some people consider the sheer multitude of different multicolored flags that decorate the queer community to be excessive, but nerts to them. All these flags are delightful, and when you ??put them all together, they can become outstanding pieces of art. Last year's Pride controller is a work of art. Unfortunately, it's a rare piece of art as those beauties were only sent out to a few choice influencers and media members. I didn't make the cut to get one last year (as I am not an influencer, barely a part of the media, and an all-around terrible gay man), but that won't be a problem this year.

Xbox announced today that its design fo?r the 2022 Xbox Pride controller will be made available i??n the Xbox Design Lab starting on June 9. The unique faceplate for the controller features 34 interwoven community flags. As with all other Xbox Design Lab controllers, players will be able to customize the rest of the device to their liking.

Outside of that fabulous controller, Xbox is also dropping new Pride merchandise for the month of June and is once again giving away the Dontnod �er, Don't Nod �adventure game Tell Me Why for free. There are also new profile themes to download, nameplates and emblems from 343 Industries, and owners of Forza Horizon 5, Forza Horizon 4, and Forza Motorsport 7 will be gifted a 20??09 Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster with rainbow livery later this month. That's a whole lot of Pride coming your way.

As it did last year, Xbox is also donating to a wide variety of LGBTQ+ charities this month, including African Rainbow Family, National Center for Transgender Equality, and Fulcrum UA, to name a few. The Xbox blog has a complete listing of everything it's doing for Pride this year, as well as details on how players can help support organizations that assist LGBTQ+ c??ommunities by donating Microsoft Rewards points.

The post You can actually buy this year’s Xbox Pride controller appeared first on Destructoid.

Both ASL and BSL on-screen support are part of the update

Playground Games is adding an interesting new accessibility option to its racing sandbox. On-screen sign language, both ASL and BSL, arrives in an update to Forza Horizon 5 tomorrow.

The previously announced update was shown off ahead of Forza Horizon 5's launch. Alongside a bevy of accessibility options that came packed in with Forza, the Horizon entry will have sign language for cinematics. Thes??e will be in?? both American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign language (BSL).

Playground and several others a?t Microsof??t and in the accessibility community break down the update in a new video.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-LqVe2PArM

It's a cool feature to see, and one that adds more accessibility to the driving experience. Subtitles might seem like a workable solution at first. Cameron Akitt, a teacher of deaf and hard-of-hearing children in London who suggested the update to Playground in a workshop, tells IGN in an interview that isn't always the case. Sign language is its own language, and including this option allows some players to experience Forza Horizon 5 in their first language, rather ?than second or third.

Playground Games won the trophy for Innovation in Accessibility at last year's Game Awards. It's nice to see that part of their post-launch update cadence has included building on that. It's both a really intriguing concept with cool tech behind it, and a great option for more people to feel at home and comfortable in the world of Horizon.

The ASL and BSL support update rolls into Forza Horizon 5 on March 1.

The post Forza Horizon 5 gets sign la?nguage support on March 1 appeared first on Destructoid.

It Takes Two (trophies)

This past weekend saw The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hold the 2022 iteration of its annual DICE Awards, which recognizes technical, design, and narrative excellence in our wonderful world of video gaming. This year's event saw awards handed out t?o some of 2021's biggest hitters, helping to bolster the trophy cases of several releases that have already bagged themselves multiple industry gongs.

Among the biggest winners of the night were EA's co-op adventure It Takes Two, which took home the coveted Game of the Year award �a trophy that will no doubt sit snugly next to its previous GOTY award, won during December's Game Awards 2021 ceremony. It Takes Two also picked up the Outstanding Achievement in Game Design award, beating out deserved nominees including Deathloop, Inscryption, and Loop Hero.

Insomniac Games' excellent adventure Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was another of the night's big winners, taking home a hefty four trophies in the field of animation, art direction, technical achievement, and family gaming. On the audio front, Housemarque's sci-fi epic Returnal won awards for both its music and evocative and immersive sound design. Also around to make a scene, Resident Evil Village's undeniable Lady Dimitrescu won the award ??for?? Outstanding Achievement in Character.

You can ch??eck out the full list ?of Dice Awards 2022 nominees and winners below.

Game of the Year

• Deathloop
• Inscryption
• It Takes Two
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Returnal

Outstanding Achievement in Animation

• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Deathloop
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Resident Evil Village

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction

• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Deathloop
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Resident Evil Village

Outstanding Achievement in Character

• Deathloop â€?Colt Vahn
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits â€?Kena
• Life is Strange: True Colors â€?Alex Chen
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart â€?Rivet
• Resident Evil Village â€?Lady Dimitrescu

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition

• Deathloop
• It Takes Two
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Psychonauts 2
• Returnal

Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design

• Forza Horizon 5
• Halo Infinite
• It Takes Two
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Returnal

Outstanding Achievement in Story

• Before Your Eyes
• Inscryption
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Psychonauts 2
• The Forgotten City

Outstanding Technical Achievement

• Battlefield 2042
• Forza Horizon 5
• Moncage
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Returnal

Action Game of the Year

• Deathloop
• Halo Infinite
• Metroid Dread
• Returnal
• The Ascent

Adventure Game of the Year

• Death's Door
• It Takes Two
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Psychonauts 2
• Resident Evil Village

Family Game of the Year

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Happy Home Paradise
• Cozy Grove
• Mario Party Superstars
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Warioware: Get it Together

Fighting Game of the Year

• Guilty Gear Strive
• Melty Blood: Type Lumina
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

Racing Game of the Year

• F1 2021
• Forza Horizon 5
• Hot Wheels Unleashed

Role-Playing Game of the Year

• Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
• Shin Megami Tensei V
• Tales of Arise
• Wildermyth

Sports Game of the Year

• FIFA 22
• Mario Golf: Super Rush
• NBA 2k22
• Riders Republic
• The Climb 2

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year

• Age of Empires IV
• Gloomhaven
• Griftlands
• Inscryption
• Loop Hero

Immersive Reality Technical Achievement

• Lone Echo II
• Puzzling Places
• Resident Evil 4 VR
• Song in the Smoke
• Yuki

Immersive Reality Game of the Year

• Demeo
• I Expect You To Die 2
• Lone Echo II
• Resident Evil 4 VR
• Song in the Smoke

Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game

• Death's Door
• Inscryption
• Loop Hero
• Sable
• Unpacking

Mobile Game of the Year

• Behind the Frame
• Fantasian
• League of Legends: Wild Rift
• Moncage
• Pokémon Unite

Online Game of the Year

• Back 4 Blood
• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
• Halo Infinite
• Knockout City

Outstanding Achievement in Game Design

• Deathloop
• Inscryption
• It Takes Two
• Loop Hero
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction

• Deathloop
• Inscryption
• It Takes Two
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• The Artful Escape

The post It Takes Two and Ratchet & Clank win big at DICE Awards 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

Deathloop tallies up the most nominations, but others are close behind

The 2022 Game Developers Conference is currently set for March, and so too is the 22nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. Nominees for the show have been reve?aled today, with some close competition at the front of the pac??k.

Deathloop leads the nominations with six, including Design, Audio, Narrative, and Innovation. Just behind is Hazelight's It Takes Two with five nominations, and Forza Horizon 5 drifts in wit??h four. All three are in the Game of the Year category, and competing in several others as well.

Other nominees include some interesting games in the Best Debut category, like Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Wildermyth. Best Narrative features Guardians of the Galaxy and Unpacking alongside some of those previously mentioned frontr??unners, and the Social ?Impact Award has a bunch of excellent games from the last year.

If you're looking for more of the indies, check out the nominees for the IGF 2022 Awards, which features more Unpacking alongside Inscryption and Unsighted.

?Here's the full lineup of nominees for the 2022 Game ?Developers Choice Awards:

Best Audio

• Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)
• Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
• Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos-Montréal / Square Enix)
• Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)

Best Debut

• Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)
• Valheim (Iron Gate Studio / Coffee Stain Publishing)
• Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)
• The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur / Annapurna Interactive)
• Sable (Shedworks / Raw Fury)

Innovation Award

• It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
• Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games / WhisperGames)
• Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)
• Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)
• Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

Best Narrative

• Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos-Montréal / Square Enix)
• Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
• It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
• Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)
• Unpacking (Witch Beam / Humble)

Social Impact Award

• Before Your Eyes (GoodbyeWorld Games / Skybound Games)
• It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)
• Life is Strange: True Colors (Deck Nine / Square Enix)
• Boyfriend Dungeon (Kitfox Games)
• Chicory: A Colorful Tale (The Chicory: A Colorful Tale Team / Finji)

Best Technology

• Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios)
• Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Returnal (Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Hitman 3 (IO Interactive)

Best Visual Art

• Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)
• Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine / Xbox Game Studios)

Game of the Year

• Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games / Devolver Digital)
• Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios)
• Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
• Deathloop (Arkane Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
• It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts)

The post Nomi??nees for the 2022 Game Developers Choice Awards have been revealed appeared first on Destructoid.

Get the acetone ready

This is one of those collaborations I wouldn't have seen coming a few years ago, but it's 2022 now, and companies are learning more than ever that gamers do indeed enjoy traditionally feminine products. Look at the ubiquity of pink gaming accessories, or the success of ColourPop's Animal Crossing collection. I remember always seeing OPI's newest collection out on display when I went to the nail salon as a kid (they're kind of known for their collaborations), so it's cool now to see one of my favorite brands crossing over with Xbox. The best part is, you get some pretty sweet in-game skins for Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 on top of your already pretty cool purchase.

[caption id="attachment_302830" align="alignnone" width="1000"] [Image Source: Xbox/OPI][/caption]OPI is releasing 12 brand new shades for the collection that are inspired by Xbox, which range from a peachy pink to a warm violet. Each color has a gaming-themed name, like pastel blue called "Can't CTRL Me," the lavender called "Achievement Unlocked," or the shimmery red called "Heart and Con-soul." Each of the 12 shades is available in Infinite Shine ($13.00 USD each) and Nail Lacquer ($10.50 USD each) formulations, and are currently on sale at ULTA, with plans to expand to othe?r retailers in February.

But now, the information you've all been waiting for: each qualifying purchase in the U.S. can unlock "hue-matched, in-game content for Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite starting February 1." And that's not all! Fans also have the opportunity to win a custom Xbox controller matching the hues Achievement Unlocked, Racing for Pinks, and Can't CTRL Me �just follow @OPI on Instagram and TikTok for details.

[caption id="attachment_302828" align="alignnone" width="1000"] [Image Source: Xbox/OPI][/caption]Maybe it's just because I really love having my nails done, but I haven't been this excited about a gaming collaboration in a while. There's just something about seeing Master Chief in a sparkly purple set of armor that fe?els right to me.

The post Xbox’s collab with OPI nail polish comes with Halo and Forza skins appeared first on Destructoid.

Burnin' Rubber

Microsoft is celebrating the launch of its excellent racing sequel Forza Horizon 5, calling its November 9 release date the biggest launch day in Xbox Game Studios' hi?story. Xbox's VP of Gaming, Phil Spencer, took to Twitter to r?elay his joy.

"We've invested for years in Xbox so more people can play," wrote Spencer. "With 4.5+ million players so far across PC, cloud & console, Forza Horizon 5 shows that promise coming to life. Largest launch day for XGS game, peak concurrent 3x [Forza Horizon 4] high. Thank you players & congrats to [Playground Games].

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv7xLt5yNsM

Spencer's reference to "4.5+ million players" will refer to those who purchased a launch day copy of the racing sequel, those who picked up $100 Premium Edition for November 5 early access, and those playing via the online subscription service Xbox Game Pass. Given Spencer's comments that Forza Horizon 5 has peaked at three times the high of its predecessor, it?? can be assumed that staggering revenue has already been earned by the title mere days into its launch.

Forza Horizon 5 is inarguably one of 2021's most visually stunning releases, featuring dazzling environments and near photo-realistic vehicles. Praise has also been directed at the title by critics and fans for its huge array of customization features, as well as its strong implementation of inclusivity and accessibility options �such as deep driver bio choices, and smart initiatives including an on-screen sign language interpreter. Scoring high across the board, Forza Horizon 5 is considered a nigh-on essential purc?hase for racing fans.

Forza Horizon 5 is wi??dely available now on PC and Xbox platforms.

The post Forza Horizon 5 saw Xbox Games’ ‘biggest launch day ever’ appeared first on Destructoid.

You better bend before I go in the first car to Mexico

Last month I had the pleasure of previewing Forza Horizon 5, the latest in the Forza spin-off series from developer Playground Games. It was my first time playing anything related to the Forza franchise, so when I referred to it as a "racing sim," many people were quick to point out how wrong that description was. Not wanting to make that mistake again should I be called on to review the full game, I spent the last month playing Forza Horizon 4 to better familiarize?? myself with how others see the ??series.

And yeah, I get it now. While I would argue the unique handling of each vehicle, realistic road conditions, and fine-tuning options of Horizon 4 sets it apart from pure arcade racers like, say, Cruis'n Blast, the sheer number of jumps I went off and hovercrafts I raced would certainly make me refrain ??from referring to it simply as a sim. It's more than that. It's a playground for anyone who loves to get behind the wheel and drive.

Playing around two dozen hours of Forza Horizon 4 certainly prepared me for what Playground Games had in store for the sequel, but it also put a spotlight on just how similar the two games are. Jumping from the UK to Mexico felt like nothing more than a palette swap at first, with the same activities I completed on the snowy hillsides outside Edinburgh showing their face here. But those feelings of been there/done that dissipated when I discovered Forza Horizon 5's secret weapon: the weather.

Forza Horizon 5 (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S [reviewed], Xbox Series X)
Developer: Playground Games
Publisher: Xbox Games Studios
Released: Nov. 5, 2021 (Early Access), Nov. 9, 2021
MSRP: $59.99

Forza Horizon 4 is most notable for its introduction of the season system to the open-world franchise. Every week, the look and feel of its English countryside would change from winter to spring to summer to fall. It was a stunning effect as the trees and forests of the U.K. would absolutely glow ??with yellow autumn leaves and shine with a fresh pack of cold winter snow. Arguably, the season system in Horizon 4 was more of an aesthetic advanceme??nt rather than somet?hing that changed how you played the game. With Forza Horizon 5, the seasons are less visual?ly stunning ?than the last game, but the weather effects have been pumped up to the extreme.

Playground Games has been hyping up its new local weather mechanic, and with good reason. It is, in a word, stunning and possibly a game-changer for those who've been following the series since 2012. The gist of how it works is th??at the weather can change on different parts of the map at different times. So while it might be bright and sunny on the sands of the Baja, over in the beautifully rendered city of Guanajuato, it could be overcast or raining in the Riviera Maya. As storms move in and out, the conditions on the road can go from dry to rain-slicked while dirt paths will moisten with mud that'll cake your tires and send cars sliding if they don't adjust to the weather conditions.

My review period was limited to just the summer wet season, giving m?e a good glimpse at how storms can slowly move across the map and how cloud coverage and overcast skies alter the colors and light of the landscape. I live in the American Southwest, so much of what I see in my area is similar to what is found in several locations throughout the map. The skies I see in this game are pretty much the same skies I see every day, which is why my jaw dropped when I saw just how eerily accurate Forza Horizon 5's depiction of changing weather conditions and the day-to-nigh??t?? cycle is. It is astoundingly realistic, even on an Xbox Series S and even when playing in Performance Mode, which prioritizes framerate over graphics.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uMrkp32W2w

But of course, the weather isn't here solely to be admired. Its real purpose is to alter how players attack each race and challenge they find on the map. Rain-slicked and muddy roads will require a different strategy than the bone-dry pavement you'll travel on during the game's hot and dry seasons. While I was stuck with just the slick summer roads, several of the events I took part in g??ave me a proper look at how the other seasons will work a?nd just how extreme the weather can get.

I got to race through a monstrous sandstorm, which is the big draw of the hot season, and escape the soggy jungles of Cascadas de Agua Azul during ??what can only be described as a monsoon. These moments highlighted the impact extreme weather events can have on driving conditions and your field of vision. Both of these storm types, as well as the thick fog you'll encounter in the twilight hours of the wet season, can greatly obfuscate your view, adding even more challenge and opportunities for visual splendor to the task at hand. And as much fun as I had with the events the developers created, I can't wait to see how the community uses these new weather features in their creations.

It is a good thing Playground Games put so much time and effort into implementing this incredibly effective weather system because when you strip that away, there isn't much separating Forza Horizon 5 from its predecessor.

You're still competing in a wide variety of races that are divided into four categories (road, cross-country, dirt, street) and trying to score three stars in all those death-defying PR Stunts like big jumps and speed traps. Th?ere are still seasonal events and story missions to complete, online competitors to drag race, hundreds of cars to collect, several houses to buy, and Horizon Arcade activities you can enjoy. It can be overwhelming when you see just how many different activities are available at any given moment. Thankfully, the game's menus have been streamlined, making it easier to focus on earning the accolades that'll unlock more races and events, including the big Showcase Events.

Those showcase setpieces might actually be the most disappointing part of Forza Horizon 5 as they retread ideas the series has used before. You're going to race a plane, a train, and several types of automobiles, none of which feel all that original or really tap into the Mexican setting. The game's story missions do a better job at implementing this country's culture into the gameplay, even if they do so by limiting the elements of Mexico on display to those that are most easily recognized by us gringos. You'll hear a lot about familia and vochos and lucha libre w?restlers, all of which is delivered with the type of Spanglish your dad would use to show off to the hotel staff while on vacation in Puerto Vallarta.

Even if Forza Horizon 5's storylines and dialogue only reference a small portion of Mexica??n culture, I think you still get a great look at the diversity this country has on offer with its all-encompassing landscape. This rendition of Mexico is huge, with deserts, farmlands, jungles, ruins, mountains, rivers, a city, towns, and brilliant beaches to explore. There is a great deal of variety to be found here, and the many events and races that dot the map do a spectacular job of making sure you see every last inch of it. Also doing a good job of making sure you see as much of the map as you can is the navigation system, which will routinely recommend a slow, winding route to your destination rather than what is the quickest option. I mean, there is a highway that runs east to west through most of the map, yet the nav system seems to think I should always be taking my Apollo Intensa Emozione on the backroads of an agave field.

While I? didn't care to try and operate my Apollo or Bugatti or any of the other vehicles I own that are classified as "Track Toys" on the backroads, the lack of barriers throughout the map—combined with the abundance of dirt and muddy paths—kept me behind the wheel of my off-road vehicles more often than those made for street racing.

In Forza Horizon 4, I felt compelled to stay on the pavement as much as I could?? with all the cobblestone fences that lined the streets, al??most as if they were a visual-mental restraint on how I should be going about exploring the world. Remove most of that fencing, and you have a game that rewards you for breaking off the beaten path. It's freeing to know that I can get behind the wheel of my GMC Jimmy and attempt to drive straight up the side of a mountain, and no matter what happens, I still make some sort of progress, either by gaining XP for myself or unlocking new features for that vehicle.

Any issues I found with Forza Horizon 5 are minimal at best. The game does have a nasty habit of vanishing NPC cars from the road or freezing them in place, and the nav system, as mentioned before, can be pretty lousy. I mean, it once sent me careening through an outdoor dining space like an old man whose family desperately needs? to take away his license.

I spent most of my review session playing ?in Graphics Mode on Xbox Series S, which locks the frame rate at ?30fps and features a minimal amount of pop-in when compared to Performance Mode. That mode runs at a nearly silky-smooth 60fps, but the pop-in is abundant, and depending on what you're doing, can be very distracting. I actually had to use the rewind feature in one of my races after the shadow of an evergreen tree suddenly appeared on the road as I was driving over it, completely throwing off my concentration.

It would be foolish of me to say that Forza Horizon 5 is the best game in the series given my very limited knowledge of its history. However, I can say with confidence this is the most fun I've had with a racing game that doesn't involve a plumber and a princess. There is just so much to do and so much to see that I can easily lose hours of my day ex?ploring all it has to offer. And with continued support from the developers and community, I'll have no reason to stop playing anytime soon.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Forza Horizon 5 appeared first on Destructoid.

A neat accessibility option that will arrive after launch

Forza Horizon 5 will be getting an accessibility option you don't often see in video games. Playground Games has announced that a post-launch update to Forza Horizon 5 wil??l add American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language?? (BSL) support for cinematics.

Playground Games showed off the feature in a video, highlighting some of the accessibility features of its soon-to-be-fully-launched racing game. Skip ahead to just about the end of the video, and you'll see how they put a picture-in-pi??cture sign language interpreter alongside the cinematic and subtitles.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=o450zdpHZ7U

It's a really neat addition to see for those who might need it, especially to get across the tone of the conversation at hand, as one ResetEra user pointed out, or in case reading at the speed of the subtitles is a little difficult. Having sign language in Forza Horizon 5 is a neat opti??on for those who might ?want or need it to enjoy the street, track, and dirt racing-centered story a little more.

Playground is also implementing a bunch of other accessibility options, including Game Speed Modification, High Contract and Color Blindness modes, a screen reader narrator, and both text-to-speech an??d speech-to-text options for Voice Chat. There are also font size and style options for subtitles, and menu and gameplay font size adjusters too.

It's a really cool thing to see, as other games have also endeavored to add more accessibility options, both at Xbox and other publishers. At the end of the day, it means more people playing and enjoying a game, and experiencing so??????????????????????????mething cool together.

From the sounds of it, Forza Horizon 5 is pretty cool too. The new installment of the music festival-meets-street racing series heads off to Mexico, and our impressions seemed pretty positive on it. Forza Horizon 5 is out on Nov. 9, 2021 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, th??ough you can hop in early starting today if you pick up the higher-pri?ce version. It will also be on Game Pass at launch.

The post Forza Horizon 5 will get on-screen sign langua?ge for cu?tscenes appeared first on Destructoid.

Viva México

The opening moments of Forza Horizon 5 are like something out of a Fast & Furious heist. Arriving in the sunny stretches of this microcosmic Mexico, vehicles are dropped out of a cargo jet, parachuting down to the ground to make their grand entrance to the big Horizon festival. It’s meant a be a grand spectacle to kick off the festivities, but it’s al??so a showcase of the types of environments and roads you’ll experience in the latest?? from Playground Games.

In just the first eight minutes, I barrel down a snowcapped volcano in the new Ford Bronco, drive straight into a sandstorm in a Corvette Stingray Coupe, navigate a rain-soaked jungle in an off-road Porsche, and fly by the sunny sands of Baja California in a Mercedes AMG-1. All in less time than it takes me to make my morning cup of tea. As somebody trying out the Forza ??series for the first time, it’s a hell of an opening that’s really forcing me t??o look at racing sims in a new light.

Admittedly, I’ve never been one for the genre. I am not a car person, neither in gaming nor in real life. For the longest time, I didn’t particularly enjoy driving. I’ve always owned commuter cars, so the call of the open road never spoke to me. Even when I’d meet people who were really into cars, I’d just mindlessly nod along as they talked about installing new brake systems or valves that do whatever it is valves do for?? a vehicle’s engine. As for racing games, I’ve mostly stuck with the karting variety, occasionall?y dipping my toes into more authentic experiences with Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2, Need for Speed: Most Wanted on the Wii U, and Burnout Paradise on S??witch. They’re all games I can a?ppreciate but not necessarily find myself obsessed with.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY2GX_7wR7Y

Truth be told, it’s too early to tell if this will be the title to do the trick, but I do know the opportunity is there as my attitude toward driving has shifted over the last year or so. I live in an area with a lot of bumpy dirt roads now. They’re the type of roads I’d never take in my old Chevy Cobalt, but with my Subaru Crosstrek, I’ve begun to appreciate the experience of an off-road jaunt. And I think that newly found appreciation of the driving experience carried over to the fake cars I tested during my preview week with Forza Horizon 5.

For the preview, I was given access to just a small slice of the game’s campaign and the entirety of the open world with its 11 different ?biomes. Following the spectacular openin??g, I got to meet some of the people who’d be joining me on my journey. My character is apparently returning from Forza Horizon 4, as my cohorts and I all carry British accents. As for the locals, they speak with that type of Hollywood Spanglish that?? only uses the most common Spanish words and phrases so we gringos don’t get lost. 

After creating my character �allowing me to choose their nickname, style, and pronoun �I set off on my first race against the plane from the opening that dropped me into the festival. Right out the gate, I have three vehicles at my disposal �Ford Bronco, Corvette Stingray Coupe, and a Toyota GR Supra �and I'm awarded a fourth vehicle following this first race. Like the opening, the race is epic and intricate in its execution, reaching dizzy speeds as I wind my way through the streets of a sprawling city chasing after a plane ??and two dirt bike racers. It’s the type of adrenaline-pumping ?action I would experience a lot over the preview week.

For the small sliver of campaign available to me, I got a look at some of the different races and events I’ll be attempting to complete in the final game. There is a nice mix of short, lapped races and long cross-cou??ntry treks. The game is very welcoming of players of all skill levels as it lets me set the difficulty for any race I participate in. I also got a chance to experience two adventure missions that are more character-driven. In one, I help a photographer grab a bitchin�shot of my car in action during a sandstorm. In the other, I help a local locate an old vocho. While neither are all that interesting, they are decent showcases for the types of cars you’ll be able to unlock in the game and just how varied and detailed this recreation of Mexico is.

Like with any open?-world game, the biggest draw for? me in Forza Horizon 5 is the potential for exploration. I love nothing more than setting out on my own and seeing what interesting sights and sounds I can find?. And this map is ripe for exploration. There are old churches to discover, abandoned airports, Mayan ruins that the game respectfully won’t let you drive up and down, and so many more little points of interest. You can just pick a point on the map and the navigation system will show you the way.

It’s quite the trip to go from the white sands of the sunny beaches to the deep jungles of the rainforest in only a matter of minutes, but with this miniaturized version of Mexico, you can do just that. And it truly is drop-dead gorgeous at times. Even something as u??nexceptional as a field of corn or agav??e is just gorgeous to look at. Racing games have arguably always been the best-looking video game genre, and Forza Horizon 5 is just more evidence of that fact. Not only is this world beautifully designed, but it’s jammed with small technological achievements that just make the game shine, like the way it reflects your surroundings on the hood of your car or how the wet season casts a believable dewy sheen over t?he envi??ronment.

The wet summer season was only made available to me in the back half of the week, and it really highlighted the difference in the vehicles�handling when compared to the dryer spring season. I unlocked around 10 cars in total throughout the preview, which was enough to showcase how differently the cars of this game will handle. The Stingray Coupe ended up being my favorite of the bunch, but that’s probably because it was the fastest car I owned that was availa??ble from the start. The �0s Dodge Charger I unlocked on Friday did not handle those wet roads so well. Or, at the very least, I didn’t handle them so well when driving it. But it sure did look beautiful in action.

Like with most AAA titles these days, Forza Horizon 5 will let players choose between a performance mode or graphics mode on the Xbox Series of consoles. For the Series X, both modes output in 4K with the graphics ??mode having a maximum frame rate of 30 while performance mode bumps this up to 60 with some adjustments to the graphics settings. On the Series S, the frame rates for the modes are identical to what’s found on the Series X, but the resolution maxes out at 1080p. If you’re playing on an Xbox One X, you’ll be able to output in 4K but at a max of 30 fps. Weaker last-gen consoles max out at 30 fps and 1080p. With exception to the original model Xbox, all consoles support HDR and raytracing is available in the ForzaVista mode when playing in graphics mode on a Series console.

That’s a lot to get out, but from ?my experience with the Series S, the most noticeable difference for me wasn’t the frame rate, but rather how capable each mode was at rendering the objects on the screen as I shot through each area. As you may be able to predict, the graphics mode handled rendering at this speed with far greater precision than the performance mode. The latter had a lot of very noticeable pop-in of the small shrubs and bushes that line the desert highways. Playing in performance mode ultimately felt like I was playing on last-gen hardware, so after a brief flirtation with it, I went crawling back to the greener pastures of graphics mode.

Obviously, this preview is only a soupçon of what is in store for the final product. A lot of it simply wasn't unlocked and the big open world wasn't connected to any other drivers, so I was testing out the offline version of the game. The much hullabalooed emergent weather system also didn't creep up in my preview outside of the two scripted sandstorms. But outside of that, this was a pretty fantastic preview. Forza Horizon 5 makes? a great first impression, and I can’t wait t??o see what else I’ll see at this festival south of the border.

Forza Horizon 5 releases on November 9 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. It will launch ??day one on? Xbox Game Pass.

The post ?Preview: Forza Horizon 5 might make me a believer in racing sims appeared first on Destructoid.

More see-through faceplates, please

Today, Microsoft hosted an Xbox Gamescom showcase to share some updates on what's ahead for their games. And alongside some news about Forza Horizon 5, they also announced a limited edition Xbox Wireless Controller.

I have to be honest, it looks p?retty sweet. It has textured triggers and bumpers, as well as button mapping and a hybrid D-pad. It's also Bluetooth-capable, being a wireless controller and all. But it's not just the feature set; it's the color scheme.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=k16OvQiLLqU

See-through faceplates are a tricky line to walk for a controller. Do it right, and it looks fantastic. Do it wrong, and it can look a little cheap. And I really think the Forza Horizon 5 controller gets it right.

The yellow sheen on the faceplate gives it a nice hint of color, without being overpowering. It's not clear plastic, so it's got a little more character and "pop," and it meshes well with the splashes of color across the faceplate. It reminds me a little of the special DualShock controller that came with the Death Stranding PlayStation 4, but with some? much-needed splashes of color to liven it up.

I'm not in the market for a new controller at the moment, but dang, this makes a solid case for a good 'Player 2' alternate when it launches alongside Forza. You can pre-order it on the Microsoft store here. Forza Horizon 5, meanwhile, is also still looking gorgeous, and will race onto the scene on Nov. 9 for Xbox and PC.

The post The Forza Horizon 5 limited edition ??Xbox contro??ller looks pretty sweet appeared first on Destructoid.