Playground Games officially revealed Forza Horizon 5 last week during the Xbox and Bethesda E3 showcase - unveiling a slew of details about the upcoming open-world racers’ Mexican debut both during the show and after, with various press tidbits and keen-eyed fans analyzing the new footage.

One week on since the reveal, here’s everything we know about Forza Horizon 5 so far, which is launching later this year on November 9th, 2021 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC via Steam and Microsoft Store, and Day One on Xbox Game Pass:

Unique and Diverse Mexico

As rumoured, Forza Horizon 5 takes the Horizon Festival to the vibrant locale of Mexico for the first time in series history, with what Playground Games are calling their “largest and most vertical Horizon map to date”.

Mexico has been designed with eleven distinct and diverse biomes spread across its huge open world, including: Living Desert, Sand Desert, Volcano, Jungle, Swamp, Urban, Tropical Coast, Rocky Coast, Farmland, Arid Hills and Canyon. New wildlife will be present in these biomes, including flamingos, donkeys, parrots, goats and wild dogs.

Playground Games have collaborated with local artists and musicians to help create a fully-realized and authentic vision of Mexico, with various graffti art scattered across the world as collectibles and original Mexican songs on the in-game radio.

As for verticality, Playground Games have revealed that this active, snow-capped volcano, will be the highest point in any Forza Horizon map ever. (Not counting when you build a really tall ramp in Super 7, of course.)

Playground Games revealed in a post-show livestream new map details including that like Forza Horizon 3 there will be multiple festivals across the map, with a racetrack for players to drive on at the main Horizon Festival Hub. There will also be an Airstrip and a long highway that stretches from one end of the map to the other.

Dynamic Seasons Return

First introduced in Forza Horizon 4, Dynamic Seasons will return in Forza Horizon 5 though in a much different and more appropriate manner for the world of Mexico.

With Seasons in Forza Horizon 4, each week would differentiate between the common four seasons: Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring, with each season changing the game world to reflect these seasons whether it be snow-filled winter roads of bright, blooming summer skies.

In Forza Horizon 5, exploring any of the eleven different biomes Mexico has to offer will feature unique effects each season, including extreme tropical rain or dust storms, with Playground saying new events challenges and rewards will be available with new areas to explore, making no two seasons feel the same.

New Horizon Modes

Forza Horizon 5 features three distinct new ways to play: Horizon Open, Horizon Tour and Horizon Arcade.

Horizon Open refines the traditional Horizon PvP experience with an emphasis on lower friction and fun, by unifying everything under one banner: Racing, Minigames, Drift, The Eliminator (Forza Horizon 4’s battle royale inspired mode) and more.

Horizon Tour lets players jump into races anywhere across the game world, meeting up with other players to race Average difficulty Drivatars in a mode that aims to capture the essence of real-world car meets. Horizon Tour lets players meet up in the world to race, park up and tour together to the next Tour location.

Horizon Arcade invites players to journey to Arcade markers across the map to engage in various challenges and mini-games, which can be accessed directly from the map. Horizon Arcade features 130 challenges spanning across 11 total game themes.

Forza LINC - a new AI assistant - will help track the status of you and the players you meet in these modes which will help “Link Up” and keep playing together in the future, essentially an evolved version of Recent Players and LFG combined together.

Overhauled Vehicle and Character Customization

Vehicle Customization has seen a complete overhaul in Forza Horizon 5, with the Livery Editor getting a major overhaul to become more inline with designing on modern software programs like Photoshop. Existing liveries and tunes from Forza Horizon 4 can also be imported over to Forza Horizon 5.

There are also over 100 new rim options for vehicles, with hundreds of new visual upgrades including bodykits and performance upgrades. Playground Games also confirmed that players will be able to paint their brake calibers, a hugely-requested feature from the community.

One of new bodykit brands comes from YouTuber TJ Hunt’s ‘StreetHunter’ brand, with the reveal trailer showcasing the ‘20 Corvette C8 featuring TJ’s StreetHunter kit. TJ has also alluded to other cars in the game featuring their StreetHunter kit, mainly the A90 Toyota Supra, which has yet to be confirmed.

Character Customization has also been improved featuring a more diverse cast of selectable characters with different voices to choose from. You can now purchase clothing with credits, as well as customize your characters hairstyle and colour, prosthetic limbs and choose their pronouns.

Limitless EventLab Editor

Introduced late into the lifecycle of Forza Horizon 4 was Super7 — a race creator tool that allowed players to create their own unique races with various tools and in-game props which can then be shared to the community, similar to games like ModNation Racers or DIRT 5’s Playgrounds feature.

EventLab in Forza Horizon 5 however is the next evolution from that, with a new suite of tools that gives you the freedom to create and build not only your own races, but challenges, stunts and even entirely new gamemodes and gameplay experiences players have never seen before (almost like Forge in Halo).

While EventLab hasn’t been fully detailed, we hope for an extensive, easy to use toolset, with Playground Games having dedicated menus to spotlight the most unique and creative races, challenges and game modes players create with EventLab.

Improved Vehicle Sounds and Convertibles

After many complaints and backlash from the community regarding vehicles sounds in Forza Horizon 4, Playground Games have stated that the team has “invested significantly in car sounds in Forza Horizon 5” promising much more authentic vehicles sounds (Courtesy of FullThrottle Media’s Alan Walsh on Twitter)

While its unknown the extent of how significantly these changes will be, Playground Games have promised more info in the future leading up to launch.

As for other vehicle improvements, convertible cars will now feature fully-animated roof animations. Not much is known about this feature besides a small glimpse in the gameplay showcase, however we imagine convertibles will feature a button prompt to remove/put up the roof.

New Social Features

Playground Games have added two new types of Social Features to Forza Horizon 5: Gift Drops and Kudos Points.

Gift Drops let players send and receive gifts from the community. Take one of your cars, apply the upgrades and customization options of your choice, then drop it into the shared world as a gift to another player. However, it is unknown if we can directly share cars with friends or if acquired Gift Drop cars can be sold at the Auction House.

Kudos Points is a form of social currency which is awarded between players for positive acts, which could include clean racing or assisting in challenges. Kudo Points that players earn can be used to unlock visual flairs to attach to your player profile and is visible to other players, however details on this have yet to be revealed.

Raytracing and Performance Modes

Forza Horizon 5 will include raytracing, making it the first title in the franchise to feature it - though not fully. This shiny, new next-generation feature will only be available in Forzavista, meaning vehicles in your garage will look incredible harnessing the power of raytraced visuals, though the open-world will not.

As expected, raytracing in Forzavista mode will only be available for players on Xbox Series X and S, as well as PC’s will compatible Nvidia or AMD hardware.

As for performance, Forza Horizon 5 will run at 4K 30fps on Xbox Series X and 1080p 30fps on Xbox Series S. There will also be a performance mode option with reduced graphical features that runs at 4K 60fps on Xbox Series X and 1080p 60fps on Xbox Series S.

Standard, Deluxe and Premium Editions

Forza Horizon 5 will have a number of purchasing options when the game launches on November 9th, including a standard, deluxe and premium edition. You can find a run-down of each version, pricing and their contents below:

Standard Edition: $59.99, £54.99, €69.99 (Retail and Digital)
Includes Forza Horizon 5 (Full Game)

Deluxe Edition: $79.99, £69.99, €89.99 (Retail and Digital)
Includes Forza Horizon 5 (Full Game) and Car Pass.

Premium Edition: $99.99, £84.99, €99.99 (Retail and Digital)
Includes Forza Horizon 5 (Full Game) with Early Access (Nov. 5), Car Pass, Welcome Pack, VIP Membership and Expansions Bundle.

Premium Add-Ons Bundle: $49.99, £39.99, €49.99 (Digital only)
Includes Car Pass, Welcome Pack, VIP Membership, Expansions Bundle and Early Access from November 5th.

As per the Microsoft Store, the Car Pass will add 50 new cars with 8 Formula Drift cars available at launch and 42 cars coming over the span of 42 weeks, meaning a brand new car will be added to Forza Horizon 5 each week.

Forza Horizon 5 will also be available Day One on Xbox Game Pass, no details yet if Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will have access to the Premium Edition with their subscription.

That’s everything we know about Forza Horizon 5 so far! With just over four months until launch, be sure to stay tuned for all the latest Forza Horizon 5 news, announcements and rumours on here and on BlackPanthaa’s YouTube channel - the best place for all your Forza and racing game related updates.

Forza Horizon 5: Everything Revealed So Far | Map, Improved Car Sounds, Customization and More