Forza Horizon 5 on the Xbox Series X / S is huge right now

Two cars speed down a freeway at night in Forza Horizon 5.

image: Microsoft

The newest game in the open-world spin-off series and the 13th power Game about everything Forza Horizon 5 is a most well-known quantity. But almost a decade after that horizon Once the series has started, it feels like it’s first time coming across for many. And they love it so that all of the oxygen in the room is sucked up, as is seldom the case in racing games.

Forza Horizon 5 would have almost a million players via console and PC on weekends. The game wasn’t even officially released yet, but so many people had chosen to pre-order or pick up the DLC bundle after launch to unlock early access. Since the game started yesterday, over 4.5 million players have got behind the wheel and stirred up dust in the beautiful landscapes of Mexico.

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer called it the biggest start for an Xbox Game Studios release of all time, revealing that there were three times as many concurrent players as there were in 2018 Forza Horizon 4. “We invested in Xbox for years so more people could play …Forza Horizon 5 shows that this promise is brought to life, ”he said wrote on Twitter.

Forza Horizon 5 is fucking great because everyone in the game is perfectly fine if my character is Count Driftula and I can start off a ramp at 200 mph while banging on a car horn which is just the sound of Windows XP shutting down. tweeted.

“Forza Horizon 5” is the nuts, ”tweeted Matt Felsenthal, co-host of Hammeredcast. “It’s a video game that understands that it’s a video game, you don’t have to sit through 75 hours of bullshit to get started, you just have to … Go. You drive. Car go vroom, a legitimate 10/10 can’t recommend enough. “

KotakuAri’s notes similarly praised it in his revieweven though it’s not much different from the last game or the one before it. “Forza Horizon 5 does not reinvent the wheel. It doesn’t have to, ”he wrote. “There are few real thrills in gaming that come without a catch, and power‘s core is still one of them after all these years. “

Elsewhere Players report the Forza Horizon 5 illuminates their Xbox friends list in ways other current games don’t. So far it is best rated game of the year on metacriticism. And there is already no shortage of SEO clickbait to answer questions like “When will Forza Horizon 5 come to PS5? “

Micorosft has released a lot of great games over the past few years, but none of them feel like it has taken over the conversation as suddenly and completely as the latest from Playground Games. After all the trials and tribulations of the Xbox One years and a merger and acquisition frenzy to recharge new studios, Microsoft a certified hit on his hands, one that you can safely recommend. For the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Xbox Series X / S, the new generation consoles finally have their first must-have blockbuster.

It’s much harder to say why now, and why power Horizon 5even though I obviously have my theories. Game Pass is fully equipped and offers console and PC access from day one. It also launched Day-and-Date on Steam. You can even stream it to your phone.

A Ford Bronco pulls off a snowy cliff.

Screenshot: Microsoft / Kotaku

It also seems to reflect the greater success of the Series X and S over the Xbox One. Microsoft called the new hardware its biggest console launch ever again in January, and Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel Ahmad estimated last month that the company sold 8 million units and had 20 million active Game Pass subscribers. Anecdotally, my Series S has become my favorite device for playing anything that isn’t platform exclusive elsewhere, not least because it’s cheap, works great, and blends in well with my living room media setup.

Then there’s the erratic release calendar for Fall 2021. It feels like an especially weird time, partly due to pandemic delays and the usual downtime that occurs when players switch from one console cycle to another. Nintendo’s biggest Christmas release was a free 2.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Sony is basically MIA. And the hype around big third-party blockbusters like Call of Duty: Vanguard and Far Cry 6, regardless of actual merits, feels subdued this year.

A perfect start for a colorful, exuberant shared world racer that looks Splendid in every screenshot shared on social media, and stupid fun in every viral video clip. It probably also helps that Mexico’s diverse biomes and topography have fueled people’s imaginations in ways that the English countryside is different Forza Horizon 4 not. This game felt like going home on vacation. The new feels like embarking on your new infinitely instagramable dream life.

I can’t drive for shit and I’m still having a blast. Obviously I am not alone.

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