"Forza Horizon 5" will be set in Mexico and will be released November 9, Microsoft announced during its recent Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase stream.
In addition to a new locale, the trailer showed off some of the cars that will be available in the latest "Forza Horizon" installment. A special Forza Edition of the Mercedes-AMG One hypercar will be in the game, along with many off-road vehicles like the Ford Bronco R and Land Rover Defender, which seems appropriate for the home of the Baja 1000.
"Forza Horizon 5" will also feature a new campaign mode that lets players explore the full environment, and the return of Battle Royale, where players challenge each other to race to a random point on the map. Based on the trailer, that map includes a wide variety of terrain, ranging from rainforests to deserts, and even a volcano—all rendered in 4K.
The trailer also showed off some more cartoonish gameplay, part of the new Event Lab mode, including driving through giant bowling pins and launching off jump pads.
The November 9 release date means "Forza Horizon 5" should arrive before the eighth installment of the main "Forza Motorsport" series, which was announced last year. "Forza Motorsport" (there is no "8" in the title) also gets 4K graphics, and remains a serious racing simulator, as opposed to the more arcade-like "Horizon." An Apollo Intensa Emozione hypercar was the featured car in last year's trailer.
"Forza Horizon 5" will be available on the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming Service, or a PC running Windows 10.