Forza Horizon 5

Ah yes, good cars, cringy voice lines: the game. The worst thing about Forza is when any character talks. You are my superstar, amigo. My wife’s boyfriend says it’s a game to enjoy cars and drive them freely on an open map with beatiful landscapes. I on the other hand play it to "drive" all my favorite cars that I'll never be able to afford like a complete lunatic across the country. You can actually FEEL yourself riding over the Horizon. The cars sound better than FH4 and FH6. ‘Nough said. I mean, what else can I say? To my autistic mind, the cars going vroom just make me happy. It’s a game that will finally be loved now that FH6 is out. It’s literally THE BEST open world racing game ever made. Every single second of Forza Horizon 5 feels like an episode of Top Gear. It's an absolute dream for anyone with even a passing interest in vehicles, and the closest thing to heaven for any and all gearheads. Forza Horizon is a very "vibe" kind of game. The whole goal of the game is to drive your favorite cars in a beautiful sandbox type world. If you just want a game to play and have fun without thinking about mechanics, progression, story or anything really, you can always just launch the game and have fun. I think the Forza Horizon games have always had that perfect balance between simulation and arcade lunacy. And damn, does the game look gorgeous. Seriously, the graphic's are more realistic than my eyes! There aren't many other driving games that have the same variety and scope, and hit a great balance between casual and more competitive play. Tbh as I’ve gotten older I’ve stopped caring for track racing or chasing times, so I just enjoy cruising around in these types of games. And for me, no other open world game touches the physics and overall driving feel of FH. I’ve tried the crew and the newer NFS games, and while they do some things well, the actual feel of the driving is still so lackluster in comparison. The way it feels to drive cars is just absolutely dialed in to the finest degree. It's insanely hard to go to another racer after being spoiled by how nice Horizon has become. Some car games will do graphics a bit sharper, or sounds a bit better here or there, but as an overall package Horizon 5 is absolutely unmatched. ESPECIALLY on controller. There is no legit comparison to how crisp the quality of control the game has when you put it up against ALL of its peers. I like everything about it! I can adjust the difficulty so my disabled child can play and not get frustrated. The representation in character design makes me happy. There are so many different things to do. The driving feels fantastic. The cars feel great to drive in that arcadey but still weighty feel. Cars have an identity to them so you can really choose what you think fits best for a certain type of track. I loved collecting new cars and finding my next favourite. The tracks were mostly good and fun to drive through. The attention to detail in the cars and their look is above others in the genre, by a mile. I've been playing The Crew 2 recently and there's just no competition in the way cars handle, sound and look. The game is meant to be a celebration of all things cars through the guise of a festival. You start at the main hub, central festival location and build your way through more Festival Outposts. Each Outpost is colored towards one of the before mentioned race event types. Doing the races associated with that Outpost will unlock another small story that usually concludes with a large, set piece race themed towards those events. It allows you to customize and earn rewards for almost every action you do in game. The money earned in game is then spent on cosmetic items for your character, cars, or upgrades on those vehicles. The upgrade system lets you go as deep as you really want to go for improving your performance. Build your own dream machine, tune it to really dial in the performance, or download someone else's tune for the car. All in all, Forza Horizon is just pure fun for those who hold a love of all things cars. If you have ever watched Top Gear, this is essentially the type of tone the game sets for how it treats all its 815 unique cars in the game. If you appreciate racing games and being able to drive and do the things you want to do, this is a game for you. I mean, for real, what's not to like? It's got every darn thing you could want: variety of races, open world, challenges between real players, group events, map editor, custom races, weekly and monthly challenges, story mode, hot wheels world, off road world, customizing cars, cars galore, fine tuned difficulty settings, multiple points of view, and on and on. It gives you an overall freedom of doing whatever your heart desires. Seriously, the only limits there are your creativity and skills. I highly recommend it. 9/10

At first, I didn’t intend to finish this racing game because I’m not very good at racing games. However over time, I found myself enjoying it more than I expected including the DLC content. I know the game is far from perfect since the map can feel a bit bland at times, but despite that I’m still proud to have completed all of its achievements. It turned out to be a fun and rewarding experience overall, even for someone like me who isn’t usually into racing games.

Forza Horizon 5 is easily the best racing game I’ve played. I originally picked it up as something casual to play between bigger, story-driven games, but it quickly became one of the games I spent the most time with. What surprised me the most was the sheer amount of content. There’s always something to do, whether it’s racing, exploring, collecting cars, or just driving around. More importantly, the content feels varied and well-made rather than being there just for the sake of quantity. My only real criticism is the progression and reward system. The game is extremely generous, to the point where you’ll end up with a huge collection of cars almost immediately. Before you have time to appreciate one car, you’ve already unlocked several more. While it’s fun at first, it made the cars feel less special and took away some of the sense of progression that I usually enjoy in racing games. Even with that flaw, Forza Horizon 5 is an incredible experience and a game I kept coming back to for hundreds of hours.