As a millennial who grew up in the deepest trenches of the console wars, booting up this version of Forza Horizon 5 and watching the “Xbox Game Studios” logo splash across the screen while holding a PlayStation 5 controller is a bit of a trip. Like seeing Coca-Cola being poured out of a Pepsi can, iOS run on a Samsung, or Lewis Hamilton drive a Ferrari, the corporate cognitive dissonance of seeing what was once one of Microsoft’s crown gaming jewels get ported to the box made by archrival Sony is a bit of a watershed moment for anyone who once-upon-a-time carved out entire days to watch something called “E3.”
No, it’s not the first Xbox exclusive to make the jump to PS, but it is easily the biggest so far—and it’s a racing game. One of the best racing games, actually, and if you’d like a more traditional review of what it’s like to play it, here’s what I had to say back when it first came out for Xbox almost four years ago. This review will instead focus on the nuances, both familiar and novel, of racing back into a virtual Mexico on PS5.
Once I got past the novelty of seeing Xbox logos on a PlayStation, I was quickly reminded why Microsoft, based purely on its product, remains my least favorite big tech corp out of all the big tech corps. In the state I tested it at least, FH5 is one of those video games that forces you to link to or create a dedicated Microsoft account, which is always a bummer. The game shows you a QR code to scan, taking you to the website to do this (you have to use an external device, i.e., your phone). And, par for the Microsoft course, this website refused to work properly and wouldn’t let me type when I tapped one of the input fields. (Hot tip: Use Safari, not Chrome, if you’re doing this on an iPhone.)
Despite this mandatory login process, you can’t use or transfer existing game saves if you’ve already played Horizon 5 on Xbox or PC. You’ve gotta start your music festival journey fresh. (To be fair, even if it did have that sort of functionality, I can’t even begin to imagine the technical Excel hoops, unfixable SharePoint glitches, and exhausting PowerPoint presentations you’d have to get through to have that shit work properly, and it may actually be quicker if you just replayed the entire game over again.)
Once that’s over with, though, this is functionally the same game that came out in 2021. When I reviewed it on Xbox then, I called it beyond “the best arcade racing game of all time,” but also “the greatest, most fun piece of software published by the Microsoft Corporation.” The base, enjoyable gameplay loop remains the same. Participate in races and other driving-based missions while exploring a gorgeously varied, digital interpretation of Mexico.
Back at launch, the quoted car count was 500-plus but today, according to the game’s Wiki, that number is approaching 900 thanks to continual DLC drops and updates throughout the years. Granted, many cars are only available as gameplay rewards and finds of varying rarity, but regardless, developers Playground Games (and whoever handles licensing over there) deserve their flowers for keeping Horizon 5‘s vehicular stable expanding and up-to-date.
We’d be remiss to talk about Forza coming to PlayStation without mentioning PlayStation’s own in-house car game. Forza‘s vehicle models aren’t quite as high quality when it comes to literal polygons and material precision versus those found in Gran Turismo 7. But the overall presentation of Forza, particularly in the open-world Horizon spinoffs, has always been way less sterile. More lived in. Mud, water, dust, grime, rain, snow, and sunlight all behave with a level of curated beauty and believability that somehow isn’t there in GT, and to me the games feel more lifelike to behold, or at least lively, as a result.
Unlike GT‘s cars, you can pop the hoods and open the doors to many of these vehicles. Forza’s roster is arguably better, too, with more up-to-date machines like the Ferrari 296 and BMW M5 CS populating the car list. There’s also new event and location content since I played this last. Defying gravity, blasting through Hot Wheels loops in a rally-prepped F-150 Lightning is unquestionably cool, as is trouncing around the new Rally expansion in Colin McRae’s No. 4 Focus RS that crackles off-throttle like there’s no tomorrow.
There’s one question video game nerds have been wondering since Forza‘s foray to PlayStation was first announced: How will it run? The answer? Pretty well, actually.
Like the Xbox versions, Horizon 5 on PS5 has two graphics modes to choose from. We don’t have the facilities or frankly the expertise to do a Digital Foundry-style technical analysis of PS5’s first Forza game, but I highly suspect the resolution and framerates in both graphics modes here mirror that of the Xbox Series X version: 30-frame-per-second Quality mode runs at a locked, native 2160p (full 4K) with high visual detail, while 60-fps Performance mode has less detail and targets 2160p, dynamically reducing res down to 1600p in worst-case scenarios, per DF.
For what it’s worth, the difference in fidelity between Quality and Performance was marginal at best on my monitor, and I would highly recommend just sticking with the latter for that vastly superior framerate. If you’re accustomed to 60-plus fps video games, seeing one run at 30 feels like looking at a slideshow and can even feel borderline uncomfortable on the eyes.
That Performance mode smoothness isn’t perfect, however. Stress testing the game with a rally race with lots of cars on-screen, all of them billowing dust behind them, frames took a noticeable dip. I have a feeling this was inherent to the Xbox versions of the game, too, but some pre-rendered transitional “cutscenes” (videos of which there are a few in the game’s opening minutes) run at a noticeably lower resolution and frame rate than actual, rendered gameplay, which breaks the immersion. Listening to people stand around and talk is something the game clearly isn’t made for, and thankfully, it doesn’t make you do it very often.
According to developers, running this game on PS5 Pro allows for ray-traced car reflections while driving in Quality mode and “higher fidelity graphics” in Performance mode. I took it upon myself to play on both a base PlayStation 5 and a PS5 Pro, and there are indeed subtle differences, but only if you know what to look for and can do a side-by-side comparison.
Base console Quality mode does feel slightly higher-res than Performance, while the Pro’s Performance mode seems to match base-PS5 Quality mode fidelity while running at 60 fps. Pro console Quality mode, meanwhile, saw the moving shadow of a dancing spectator recreated very accurately in real-time on the side of my Tacoma TRD Pro, showcasing those traced rays at work. This is all, admittedly, deep nerd stuff, and I suspect the vast majority of players won’t notice or care.
As similar as they are, there are some differences between the Xbox controller and the PS5’s DualSense gamepad, and devs have translated the experience of playing FH5 over to the latter pretty well. Xbox’s controller features impulse vibrating triggers that went off in Forza games to give tactility to hard braking, nuances in the throttle, etc., whereas the DualSense’s adaptive triggers don’t rumble per se but instead vary in travel and stiffness to simulate similar things. This game does not magically add rumbling triggers to the PS5 controller, but it does take advantage of the adaptive triggers to give brake “pedals” a small light section at the top of the proverbial travel before becoming meaty, while accelerators have a more consistent resistance throughout, just like a real car. This game’s adaptive trigger implementation isn’t quite as nuanced as, say, GT7‘s but expecting it to be is probably expecting too much.
Overall, Forza Horizon 5 remains an objectively gorgeous, solid-playing racing game and is still a visual and tactile treat even four years after it first came on the scene. Sharp and smooth, it looks, runs, and plays about as well as any modern AAA racing title worth its salt on current-gen consoles. The fact that it takes advantage of PS5-specific features like adaptive triggers and enhanced graphics on the Pro console is a pleasant surprise.
If you’re a PlayStation loyalist who’s never touched a Forza game before, this PS5 version of Horizon 5 is a solid port of what is the series’ most complete, most joyful entry, and honestly, probably worth the $59.99 Sony is asking for the Standard Version—$20 less than what Nintendo is gonna charge for the upcoming Switch 2 Mario Kart game. If the last Forza game you played was, like, Horizon 3 or you’ve only played 5 on a Series S, wait ’til this PS5 version is on sale to revisit over a lazy long weekend.
If you’re a Forza diehard who’s already collected hundreds of cars in a Premium Edition copy of FH5 on Xbox Series X, you can feel free to skip this one, although you probably already knew that.
Anyhow, Forza Horizon 5 is out on PlayStation 5 starting April 29, starting at $59.99. Early access for those who pre-order the $99.99 Premium Edition, however, starts April 25.
Facebook Conversations