E3 2021 may have been missing their main rival but Microsoft put on a good show nonetheless. You can argue in the comments about how much the show did to soothe concerns over short-term exclusive content for Xbox but there were some gleaming bright spots for brand-fans. One of these was ten minutes or so of Forza Horzizon 5.
Our Forza Horizon 5 content consisted of a two-minute official announcement trailer and an eight-minute gameplay demo. The usual buzzwords made their appearance. Hype-thirsty devs and game contributors gave their rehearsed pitches.
However, there was still plenty of useful information to be gleaned. Those ten minutes offered plenty of hard data to collate and a few tasty teasers to rev the imagination.
More Dynamic Weather
As stated by Forza Horizon 5 devs, Mexico allows for more dynamic weather than the UK. We assume they mean ‘more than driving rain’ and ‘hotter than 20 degree Celsius’ but apparently they are also referring to Mexico’s more varied topography.
Lightning strike 
Snowy peaks with steam 
What you think of when someone says ‘Mexico’ 
What song is this?
The rocky, mountainous regions of Mexico showed snowy conditions. We saw sandstorms and lighting strikes. We also saw plenty of the craggy, sunbaked landscapes we think of when thinking of Mexico.
Coast-to-Coast?
While details of the map are scant beyond knowing Forza Horizon 5 has the largest map of the series so far at 1.5 times the size of Forza Horizon 4‘s UK. FH4‘s UK had around 72 square kilometres or 28 miles sq. of accessible terrain so the Mexico of FH5 should come in around 108 km2 (42 mi2).
Certain locations were specifically mentioned or even shown across the 10 minutes or so dedicated to Playground’s upcoming driving sandbox.
However, we also noticed two vast bodies of water, seemingly stretching in opposite directions. We may be able to drive all the way across the condensed Mexico, from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific in the West. A map straddling the two oceans is definitely possible, seeing as Ubisoft have done coast-to-coast in North America before with The Crew.
Ray Tracing Looks Cool But…
Screen-space reflections aren’t so bad most of the time depending on the vehicle and the context.
However, car mirrors and some flat, angular glass panels can look out of place with ugly, blurry rendering showing the limits of the trusty workaround. As wonderful as the car porn ForzaVista mode is, our trailer and brief presentation showed quite a gap between the realism seen in Vista and that seen elsewhere.
There was one scene where the driver’s vehicle almost looked too realistic for screen-space reflections – the Land Rover Defender looked nigh-on photorealistic at times as it whizzed through the wet jungle. It’s possible that an RT-enabled mode is being worked on or this was simply a tightly scripted event with a bespoke reflection model.
Rolling Rocks, Floating Golf Carts
In one scene we saw a tense dune buggy race joined by rocks rolling down the hills. A nice touch to bring some life to the desert-like hills – especially since much of the trailer showed the aforementioned parched, rocky landscape.
Another background detail is the number of golf carts – the battery-powered hobby carts are everywhere. The keen-eyed may have noticed a floating golf cart, though. When showing off the art of Mexico, this physics-defying buggy drew our eye more than the fancy graffiti.
The Cars of the Show
One brand that stood out to us during the presentation was Porsche. The German marque has only been incorporated as car packs or as DLC for previous Forza Horizon entries so their appearance here has us wondering if the renowned maker be available as standard in Forza Horizon 5. We don’t know for sure but it looks possible.
Of course, we saw dozens of cars, some for just a few frames but never underestimate the power of hobbyists. Here is a list of ALL the cars we saw according to keen-eyed fans and digital petrolheads (compiled by Windows Central).
- Aluminum Craft Class 10
- Apollo IE
- Ariel Nomad
- Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE
- Chevy Colorado ZR2
- Chevy Corvette C8
- Ford Bronco
- Bronco R Baja
- De Luxe Ford Five-Window Coupe
- Ford F-150 Raptor
- Ford Transit Supervan 3
- Funco Motorsports F9
- Hennessey Velociraptor 6X6
- Jaguar XJR-15
- Koenigsegg Jesko
- Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4
- Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4
- Land Rover Defender 110
- Local Motors Rally Fighter
- McLaren 720S
- McLaren 720S Spider
- McL. Senna
- Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe
- Mercedes-AMG Project One
- Mercedes-Benz Unimog U5023
- Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 GSR
- Pagan Huayra BC
- Penhall
- The Cholla
- Polaris RZR XP 1000 EPS
- Porsche 911 Carrera S (992)
- Porsche Taycan
- Rimac C_Two
- Subaru Impreza 22B STI
That was our look at five details you may have missed during the Forza Horizon 5 Announcement Trailer and Gameplay video. Did anything leap out to you? Did anything on our list surprise you? Let us know in the comments below…
