Horizon 5’s tapestry of colourful locations and backdrops more closely resembles Horizon 3, but it feels noticeably more extensive than even Playground’s remarkable 2016 riff on Australia. The breadth of Playground’s wonderfully diverse map of Mexico is exceptional, and it comes as an extremely exotic and interesting array of environments to get lost in after three years in Horizon 4’s beautiful but broadly more-uniform Britain.

Read the full Forza Horizon 4 review Mexico Pretty Playground Games hasn’t just upped the ante once again it’s blown the bloody doors off. It combines a beautiful world that’s really four hugely distinct maps in one with a constantly rewarding and self-renewing racing experience and I really can’t tear myself away from it. I’ll always have a massive soft spot for the down under delights of Forza Horizon 3, but open-world racing has never looked as good as it does in Forza Horizon 4. What’s impressive is that Forza Horizon 5 isn’t just all this airlifted to a different part of the world it’s that it’s all this and a remarkable amount more. It's all this and a remarkable amount more. The Super7, where we could participate in custom-built racing, driving, and stunt-based challenges made by others, plus create and share our own. The Eliminator, Horizon’s very clever and effective take on bringing the battle royale format to a racing game. The Festival Playlist, where new activities were available every week. But that was day one Playground then spent another three years cramming in even more things to do. Playground Games had taken the impeccable open-world racing of all the Horizon games to date, then stuffed in simulated seasons, a shared-world multiplayer overhaul, and a shift in how the team told their mini automotive stories.

To understand just how big Forza Horizon 5 is, we have to briefly look back at Forza Horizon 4, which truly ballooned into an absolute colossus of a racing game back in 2018.

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