Forza Horizon 5 update adds PvP progression system and custom races
Keeping up that pace.
Forza Horizon 5 receives a major update on March 29, which makes a bunch of improvements to multiplayer, including a new progression system and custom racing option, and naturally adds a few metric tonnes' worth of highly desirable rides.
- Horizon Open has been updated with a new progression system including Badges which can be unlocked through gameplay
- Added Custom Racing to Horizon Open, which will allow players to find races for their chosen race discipline and PI class
- Fixed some scenarios where the player could be left waiting longer than necessary in the post-race flow
The notes outside of the PvP changes say that the focus for Series 6 is player customisation, so many of the tweaks revolve around this side of the game, and making it more visible to others:
- New collectible paint barrels and miniature t-rex dinosaurs scattered all over the world
- Two EventLab Events featured every week
- One Seasonal Championship featuring a custom photo taken by a community member
- Seasonal PR Stunts will now provide Super Wheelspins instead of regular Wheelspins
- Tons of new cosmetics and cars
Series 6 also adds a brand-new Horizon Story about the 'infamous' Drift Club, which has multiple chapters across the game world. This is unlocked through playing the Series 6 Festival Playlist and apparently includes "several multi-mile-long drifts, including real-world inspirations from infamous drifting videos"—so expect some impressive player clips.
Rewards, appropriately enough, include a 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E 1400, a "one-off prototype race drift car." As ever there's also a bevy of new cosmetics and rewards: vanity items, car horns, icons, and so on. You can see them all in the full patch notes here.
Forza Horizon 5 was our open-world game of the year in 2021, a richly deserved gong for such a dense, intricate, and outright joyous place to be. As the whole 'Series 6' thing might suggest, Playground has kept a consistent pace of free updates that add new ways to play and trinkets: it also teased that, during this presentation, the game's first expansion will be revealed soon.
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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."