Forza Horizon 5 is headed to Mexico this November and lordy it looks nice

Forza Horizon 5 is coming November 9, heading to Mexico this time around. Just announced at Microsoft's Xbox & Bethesda Showcase, Forza Horizon 5 is looking sharp in its debut trailer, where we see some new ray-tracing and photogrammetry tech in action. It's definitely the best Forza has ever looked, with some huge dust storms, lush vegetation, and volcanic scenes.

The campaign sees you with a quippy group of drivers exploring Mexico and searching for places to expand the festival into. Horizon 5 will also feature some fancy new weather events, like tropical storms or the big dust storm on display in the trailer.

A detail only dorks like me will get excited about: the skyboxes are legit 12k 24-hour loops of real Mexican skies captured with a fancy HDR camera rig. Combined with the new ray-tracing lighting tech and super detailed photogrammetry textures, Forza is looking real fine. Like, real fine.

There's a bit in the gameplay demo below (around 4:50) where they're racing through a shallow creek, and you can see the sky and scenery perfectly reflected in the water as the cars distort it, vrooming like they do. Big fan.

As with all Microsoft games, it'll be there day one on Xbox Game Pass.

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.