In 2012,
Forza Horizon was released
as the first open-world game
in the Forza series.
A decade later
and we have Forza Horizon 5,
which is an absolute gamechanger.
For anybody who loves racing games,
this is a dream come true.
It has the largest map of any Horizon game
and stunning graphics with an unprecedented level of detail.
Let’s go back to the start of Forza Horizon
and see how the series has evolved
since its release.
This is the evolution of Forza Horizon!
Before the Forza Horizon series,
Turn 10 Studios had already established the Forza franchise
as a name synonymous with excellent racing.
The Forza Motorsport series accurately
represents real-life production cars
with astonishing levels of detail.
Since its release in 2005,
Forza Motorsport was instantly loved
by people from all around the world.
It even received a score of 92 on Metacritic,
making it one of the highest-rated racing games of all time.
Over the years,
many Forza Motorsport games were released.
The 8th game in the series was announced in 2020
and is currently in the making.
While the Forza Motorsport series
with its professional racetracks are praised by fans,
something that was lacking
was an open-world racing game with casual street racing.
And this is where the Forza Horizon series came in.
With its open worlds, players are free to go wherever they please.
Now you could drive in different environments,
from jungles to deserts, or
even race through a bustling city.
This was something that was completely new to Forza.
Throughout the years,
the Forza Horizon series continues to evolve to improve visuals
as well as the audio of the game.
You can hear the engines roar,
tires screech,
and every car move and behave exactly the way it should be.
So without further ado,
let’s get straight into the different
Forza Horizon games that have been released to date.
The first installment in the Forza Horizon series
was released in 2012,
and it was developed by Playground Games.
This game was released exclusively for the Xbox 360.
It became the first Forza game
with an open world,
making it an entirely different game
than the original Forza Motorsport series
with its fixed racing tracks.
Now players could progress via winning races,
increase the popularity level
by performing stunts or
wreck their cars by driving off-road.
Furthermore, the game features multiple types of races,
from drift to rally and
point-to-point races.
Players can also challenge other racers
they encounter in a one-on-one race
or go online and mess around with other people.
During the development phase,
the studio researched 30 real-world locations.
Eventually, there was one clear winner;
Colorado in the USA.
Over 50,000 still images
were taken as a reference for the game.
The game takes place during the Horizon Festival,
a street racing event
and an important focus of the game.
Creative director, Dan Greenawalt,
stated that the game was developed
in close relation to real music festivals,
including Coachella.
Unlike the Forza Motorsport games,
he envisioned a more relaxed game-play experience.
The game was praised by most people
and scored an 85 on Metacritic.
Fun Fact
While the Forza Motorsport games
were developed by Turn 10 Studios,
Forza Horizon was developed by Playground Games,
which at the time was an upcoming game studio.
This made it a very risky endeavor for the Forza series.
Luckily the risk paid off,
and the Forza Horizon series became incredibly successful.
In 2014,
Playground Games created a sequel to Forza Horizon.
It was developed for the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One.
The next-generation Xbox One allowed for improved graphics.
Playground Games used the graphics engine from Forza Motorsport 5 as their starting point.
However, improving the graphics wasn’t easy
since it has a large open world
that takes a lot of processing power.
In fact, the game has approximately three times more drivable area than its predecessor.
According to creative director Ralph Fulton,
New features were added to the game,
including a dynamic weather system
and “Bucket Lists,” which are timed challenges.
Developers investigated over 30 locations around the world
for choosing the location for Forza Horizon 2.
Eventually, Southern Europe was chosen.
Fulton explained that Southern Europe has
Fulton also noted that
most open-world driving games
were set in North America
and that Southern Europe
Needless to say, this new installation also added new cars.
In December 2014, an expansion pack
called “Storm Island” was released.
As the name suggests,
it takes place on an island with heavy weather conditions.
It was focused on off-road and rally cars.
In 2015, Presents Fast & Furious was launched.
It features cars and a storyline based on the Fast & Furious franchise.
Forza Horizon 2 was very well received.
IGN said about the game quote,
Forza Horizon 2 scored slightly better than its predecessor,
with a score of 86.
Fun Fact
Porsche had an exclusive deal
with Electronic Arts or EA for their cars.
This meant that EA had to allow the assets of Porsche vehicles
to appear in Forza Horizon 2.
Luckily in June 2015,
Forza made a deal with EA,
which allowed for a Porsche Expansion.
Forza Horizon 3 was released in 2016
for the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.
The game takes place in Australia,
which was chosen because of its largely diverse environment.
This time around,
the map even got two times bigger than
that of Forza Horizon 2!
And players are now the director of the Horizon Festival.
To make Horizon 3 feel more open-world,
the game developers give the players a level of freedom
and customization not found in previous games.
As the director of the festival,
your goal is to expand the festival throughout Australia
by completing different races.
This will unlock new areas
which come with new challenges
and racing courses.
Forza Horizon 3 features driving AI called Drivatars,
which learns and mimics the driving abilities of Forza players.
These Drivatars can be challenged to a head-to-head race,
and if the player wins,
they will be able to recruit that Drivatar onto their racing team.
Of course,
the cars are the most important factor in the game,
and you've got plenty of them to drive with.
You can even customize these vehicles
to make them look exactly the way you want
before taking them for a spin
through the diverse Australian ecosystem.
Horizon 3 also has three new types of racing modes,
which are Exhibition,
Championship,
and Rivals.
It also offers a cooperative campaign
for up to four players
and supports cross-platform compatibility,
which allows Xbox and PC gamers to play together.
In December 2016, the expansion
Blizzard Mountain was released.
It came with a snow-packed mountain and new cars.
In 2017, another expansion was released
named Hot Wheels.
It features tracks constructed with
real-world scale Hot Wheels stunt track pieces
and iconic cars from the Hot Wheels franchise.
Developers aimed for Horizon 3 to be of better quality than its predecessor
and improved many aspects of the game,
including minimizing loading screen time.
This resulted in a fantastic game that was very well received.
It even scored a 91 on Metacritic,
and in total, over 3.9 million copies of the game were sold.
In 2018,
Forza Horizon 4 was released.
It was developed by Playground Games
and published by Microsoft Studios.
After being announced at Xbox’s E3 conference,
it was released on the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.
This time the game was set
in a fictional representation of areas of Great Britain.
Horizon 4 was noted for a dynamic weather system
that also depicts the change of seasons.
For example, in the winter,
lakes freeze, which allows players to drive on the ice
and reach areas of the game that would be
inaccessible during the other seasons.
Unlike in the real world,
the seasons change every week.
Horizon 4 has a massive number of cars.
In total, the game features over 750 licensed cars!
Just like the previous installment,
you can customize cars to your liking.
Besides offline mode,
players can also go in a synchronized shared world,
with each server supporting up to 72 players.
The game also introduced a
battle royale mode named Eliminator.
Yes, I’m serious;
even Forza Horizon jumped on the bandwagon
to create a battle royale game mode.
In this mode, up to 72 players compete
to become the champion.
Forza Horizon 4 has also had
several content expansions since its release,
the most notable were Fortune Island
and LEGO Speed Champions.
Fortune Island was released in December 2018,
and it includes a new map
along with a treasure hunting campaign
to earn up to 10 million credits.
Lego Speed Champions was released in June 2019,
and as the name suggests,
it features Lego versions of real cars
and maps built with Lego pieces.
It also has its own separate campaign.
In November 2020,
an enhanced version of the game was released
for the Xbox series X and S.
The next-generation consoles allowed to play the game
in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second.
Forza Horizon 4 was a massive success,
and people from all around the world loved the game.
By November 2020,
Microsoft reported that the game had been played
by 24 million players since its launch.
It even won multiple awards,
including “Racing Game of the Year”
by D.I.C.E. Awards
and “Xbox Game of the Year”
by Golden Joystick Awards.
Windows Central said about the game quote,
The game received a very impressive score of 92.
It also became the most sold Xbox One game,
with over 10 million copies sold!
Fun Fact
Similar to Fortnite,
Forza Horizon 4 added dance emotes.
Epic Games filed a lawsuit for two dance emotes,
which were named
Carlton and Floss.
Both were removed almost immediately from the game.
And finally, in 2021,
Forza Horizon 5 was developed by Playground Games
and published by Xbox Game Studios.
It was released for the Xbox One,
Microsoft Windows,
and the Xbox Series X and S.
Forza Horizon 5 takes place in Mexico,
and it has the largest map
in the entire Forza Horizon Series.
In fact, the map is 50% larger than its predecessor.
The map is hugely diverse,
with 11 different biomes.
Creative director Mike Brown described it as
Just like previous Forza Horizon titles,
players can explore the open world freely
and can compete in the campaign mode
and in multiplayer races.
It also adds new multiplayer games
and introduces “EventLab,”
a toolset in which players can create custom games and races.
Playground Games chose Mexico
due to its diverse and varied landscape.
The team worked with Mexican artists
to create in-game murals
and Mexican musicians to create in-game soundtracks.
For the development of the game,
it utilized photogrammetry data extensively
in order to make the game’s environment look as close as possible to real-life,
which allowed for stunning graphics.
Forza Horizon 5 became a huge commercial success.
In the first week,
it launched over 10 million players
and became the biggest-ever launch
for an Xbox Game Studios game.
In a review,
God is a Geek said about the game quote,
Just like its predecessor, it won multiple awards,
including “Best Racing Game”
by The Game Awards 2021
and “Game of the Year” by IGN.
Forza Horizon 5 scored a 92 and became,
together with Forza Horizon 4,
the highest-rated Forza Horizon game.
From the first Forza Horizon game released in 2012
all the way to Forza Horizon 5 released in 2021,
Playground Games keeps improving the series
and releasing what millions of people from all around the world
would consider the best open-world racing games.
Click the playlist to the right
to watch other game evolutions.
Thanks for watching!
Subtitles done by Emir Kahvecioglu