One of the biggest announcements of the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase at E3 2021 came in the form of Forza Horizon 5. To say that the new racing game's visuals are more impressive than ever would be an understatement. Developer Playground Games described it as the largest Forza game yet, as Forza Horizon 5 travels to Mexico for its newest open world. Racers will be able to experience it for themselves starting November 9 on PC and Xbox consoles, including through Game Pass.
Capturing Forza Horizon 5's impressive visuals in a short description is a challenging task. The game's 4K footage showed off a diverse variety of environments, some of which Playground says were mapped straight from real life. That includes realistic day-night cycles, as well as a new weather system, and the dust storm featured in the trailer is particularly impressive.
That's to say nothing of Forza Horizon 5's vehicles, which are clearly an important part of the game. Playground says to expect "hundreds" of vehicles taken from the real world and introduced to the multiplayer gameplay of Forza Horizon 5. The new trailer can only tease so many of them.
With Forza Horizon 5 being such a major announcement, Xbox dropped two different trailers for the upcoming free-roam racing game. The first trailer is a more typical announcement trailer, while the second is a lengthy gameplay trailer designed to spotlight some of the game's most attractive aspects. That includes a look at Forza Horizon 5's campaign, as well as its more casual and arcade multiplayer content.
The campaign aspect of the Forza Horizon 5 trailer teased an Expedition, which tasked the player to explore an area of the game the player had yet to visit. The player was notably still in multiplayer as they worked on the campaign. The multiplayer portion teased Forza Horizon 5's battle royale mode The Eliminator returning from Forza Horizon 4, as well as a mini-game named Pinata Pop where players drive through pinatas placed throughout a map area.
One last area of Forza Horizon 5 featured is the Events Lab. This is a Forza version of Halo's Forge, allowing players to create their own game modes and races down to their core rules. The example shown featured players driving through bowling pins and up giant treadmills, all while trying to rack up points.
Expect to see more of Forza Horizon 5 in the months to come, as it's lined up to be one of Xbox's two biggest launches this holiday season alongside Halo Infinite.
Forza Horizon 5 releases November 9 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.