FORZA HORIZON 5

E3 specialises in dangling flashy trailers in front of us, before cruelly revealing that we won’t actually be playing those games for several long years. But this is never the case with the Forza Horizon.

When Playground Games unveils a new entry in its great open-world racing series, it usually looks very nearly ready to send out of the door… and it’s the same story with Forza Horizon 5. Out in November and looking predictably stunning in 4K @ 60fps with ray-tracing on the Xbox Series X, this title takes the series to Mexico in what its maker is calling its biggest game to date.

The diverse racing locales range from deserts and jungles to modern cities, crumbling ruins and even a snow-capped volcano, while dust fills your windscreen and tropical storms rage as Mexico’s dynamic seasons test your car-handling skills. There’ll be a bigger focus on story than before, with a host of characters to assign you missions, plus a huge selection of vehicles to take on and off the roads.

Forza Horizon 5 will undoubtedly be a riot for strictly solo players, but this will once again be an online open world that lets you seamlessly enter challenges and events with both friends and strangers as you play – and if its predecessor is anything to go by, new content will keep coming until the inevitable arrival of FH6.

Also new is Events Lab, which lets players create mini-games within the game, while cars can once again be given custom paint jobs that you can share with other players online. The only negative we can find is that November still feels like quite a while away. Sigh.