There's truly nothing quite like Forza Horizon 5 on the PlayStation 5. While The Crew Motorfest comes close, embracing a festival vibe that echoes the Forza Horizon series more than its predecessors, it's not quite the same. Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, despite its origins as a trendsetter in MMO racing, fell short by requiring an always-online connection without a solo option—a stark contrast to Forza Horizon's seamless transition between offline and online play since Forza Horizon 2. Need for Speed Unbound, with its superior customization, still focuses more on high-speed chases, making it less of a direct comparison.
Forza Horizon 5 stands out as the ultimate open-world racing experience, now available on PlayStation 5 for the first time. Its expansive Mexican map, drift-friendly vehicle dynamics, and an extensive garage boasting over 900 cars, including cult favorites not found in other games, make it a complete package. PlayStation users are diving into this experience, many for the very first time, and the reactions have been a delight to witness.
The influx of new players is something the team at Playground Games eagerly anticipated. Art director Don Arceta expressed his excitement: "Yeah, I’m super excited. Like, brand new people; for many, this will probably be the first Forza Horizon game that they’ve ever played. So it’s super exciting just to think about that, and think about what *our* first Horizon experiences were."
Arceta is particularly interested in the creations PlayStation 5 players will make using Forza Horizon 5's robust Event Lab customization tools. "We have over 800 props now in the Event Lab, and just seeing what the community’s done with that feature and mode – and the creativity of the community – it’s just mind-blowing," he says. "I’m super excited, once we get into the PlayStation 5 users, about what they'll build, and the creativity that will come from that community."
"You’ll actually get some pretty good Halo content too on the PlayStation, with the event lab props!"
The PlayStation 5 port of Forza Horizon 5 has been technically flawless, matching the quality of its Xbox and PC versions despite the game's size and the fact that the engine had never been used on PlayStation before. "As you can imagine, because the series has been based around the Xbox environment and architecture, there’s a lot of code and engineering that’s worked with that," Arceta explains. "So when we brought it to the PS5, it was no small undertaking. It was quite a huge task."
"The PlayStation 5 version was developed by Panic Button, in collaboration with Turn 10 and ourselves, but Panic Button did an amazing job. So you get that amazing, quality experience that you get on Xbox and PC – now you get on the PlayStation, and it’s just amazing work that Panic Button has done."
As a car enthusiast, I've always viewed the Forza series as the ultimate collection of Hot Wheels, featuring a vast array of unique and desirable cars. The idea of new players discovering their favorite vehicles in Forza Horizon 5, which might not be available in other racing games, is thrilling.
Lead game designer David Orton highlights the game's extensive scope as a key attraction for new players. "The breadth of Horizon is quite staggering," he says. "I think what we find is players go in and find what they really enjoy but, because there’s so much freedom, that can really be whatever you want it to be."
"We always pride ourselves on giving the player that kind of agency and freedom to do whatever they want, and the game will reward them and react in that way. I’m really looking forward to players just discovering the breadth of the content. If you just want to do road racing, or if you’re really into Rivals and track racing, you can totally do that. But if you love taking incredible photos, you can totally do that. If you’re into Event Lab, and you want to create content for other people, you can totally do that. Horizon is the space where really everyone is welcome, and there’s something in it for everyone. I think the feeling of people going in and realizing this is more than just a racing game is what’s really exciting for me."
For Arceta, the ultimate goal is to surprise and engage new players. "For me, a victory would be, like, 'I can’t believe I’ve never played this game before,'" he says. "I think the *surprise*."
"That, for me, is a victory, because once they’re surprised, they’re engaged – and they want to learn more. So I’m really looking for that. The delight from players; just hearing their surprise and hearing their stories."
Orton agrees, emphasizing the welcoming nature of the game. "Yeah, I think it’s that," he adds. "Players who’ve never tried Horizon before – whether that’s because it’s on a different platform, or they’ve just never had the time to do it – to actually jump into this world and realize that it’s actually a really warm, welcoming place that’s full of fun, and finding a home at Horizon."
"Players who’ve never played before realizing that, 'Oh my goodness, how have I never played this game before? This is incredible.' That, to me, is a win. We’re about to target a cohort of players who may have never played a Forza title before. There’s a bit of an unknown to how people react to that, but I think when you look at the history of our titles, we’re continually perfecting our craft. We feel so excited to bring this to PlayStation. I think we’re going to bring in a whole load of new players and that’s really exciting."
Car culture and video game console loyalty are famously tribal, but for racing game fans, a significant barrier has been broken with Forza Horizon 5's arrival on PlayStation 5. Let's hope this is just the beginning.
