Video: Forza Horizon 5 trailer and release date

First thing’s first, the fifth entry in the sandbox series welcomes us to Mexico, with breath-taking volcanic vistas, characterful villages, sprawling cities, luscious jungles and much more. It’s claimed this will be the biggest map in the Forza Horizon series though that’s not saying an awful lot. Needless to say, it’s all presented in near picture-perfect detail.

What cars have we seen so far? Well, it seems the Mercedes-AMG Project One is going to be the cover car. Meanwhile, the new Ford Bronco, new Land Rover Defender, Rimac Nevera, Porsche Taycan, Jaguar XJR-15 and many more are featured prominently. There’s a big emphasis on off-road, with a Safari 911 in addition to the Dakar-spec Bronco racer and a number of buggies seen thrashing around dunes and mountain trails. In fact, there’s more off-roading shown than traditional canyon carving and curiously, no mention of the series’ staple ‘Horizon Festival’.

A particularly interesting new feature we’ve also spied while watching the game being presented by its creators is that convertible cars now seem to have working roofs while out driving. So far we’ve only seen this on a McLaren 720S Spider but it’s a worthy addition to the game. Working roofs in open-world games first appeared in 2008 with Midnight Club LA and latterly in 2011, Test Drive Unlimited 2.

A number of mini-games and even a game mode creator system have also been announced showing that Playground Games aren’t afraid to gun for a slice of Rocket League’s pie.

What do you think of the Forza Horizon 5 trailer? Once again, it doesn’t seem one for the serious drivers among us. For that, we await the rumoured soft reboot ‘Forza Motorsport’ teased last year. It also doesn’t look like Nacon Games and KT Racing need to be worried as they prepare to launch the more lifestyle-oriented Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown next year. 

When will Forza Horizon 5 be released?

It’ll be available on Xbox exclusively on 9^th November 2021. For the smash-em-up racers, livery masters and mini gamers Horizon has always served Forza Horizon 5 looks like it’ll be a boon.

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