The Series 5 update arrives on Mar. 1, with the Festival Playlist kicking off on Mar. 3.
What you need to know
- Forza Horizon 5 is a constantly evolving open-world racing game from Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios.
- The Series 5 update is right around the corner, and features dozens of new features, additions, changes, and bug fixes.
- The Horizon Rush Festival Site is taking over the world, with new decorations, 16 new PR Stunts, and more.
- The Series 5 update will release to players on Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2022, with the Festival Playlist beginning on Thursday, Mar. 3.
Forza Horizon 5 refuses to sit still, with a constant stream of updates arriving to add new features and content, fix existing bugs, and improve the experience for players everywhere. With Series 4 and the Horizon World Cup beginning to wind down, Playground Games hosted a stream to detail everything arriving with the upcoming Forza Horizon 5 Series 5 update.
The Forza Horizon 5 Festival Playlist continually evolves over time with new challenges, events, and rewards, and the next chapter is Series 5: Horizon Rush Takeover. The new Festival Playlist will focus almost entirely on PR Stunts, and will include a huge variety of content for players to explore, as well as rewards to collect. The highly requested 2020 Nissan GT-R Nismo (R35) is also here, complete with a body kit and other body modification options.
Some of the highlights of the Forza Horizon 5 Series 5 update include:
- World evolutions. The Horizon Rush Festival Site has been redesigned to celebrate all things PR Stunt, and is more colorful and vibrant than ever. These decorations also extend to every PR Stunt on the Forza Horizon 5 map. The world is changing in numerous ways, including:
- A huge stunt park installed in El Estadio, or Forza Horizon 5’s massive stadium
- 16 brand-new PR Stunts, with four Trailblazers, Danger Signs, Speed Traps, and Speed Zones being added to the map
- Some of these PR Stunts are temporary for Series 5, but others are permanent additions to the map
- Unique Accolades and challenges related to the world changes and the stunt park
- Festival Playlist additions. The Festival Playlist is getting a new series of challenges and events, most of which focus on PR Stunts. Players will be able to participate in new EventLab highlights, PR Stunt challenges, Treasure Hunts, Smashable Challenges, The Trials, and even a new Seasonal Special event that lets players race the ridiculous parade float across the map.
- New cosmetics and rewards. The Festival Playlist also features plenty of new rewards for players, like Vanity Items representing the various PR Stunts, exclusive Piñata Outfits, Car Horns, and more.
- EventLab additions. The EventLab is continuing to improve, with Playground Games adding a ton of new props and items. From now on, any time Playground Games adds new props for the Festival Playlist, they’ll immediately become available within EventLab.
- Festival Playlist cars. Playground Games is adding five new cars to Forza Horizon 5 that can be exclusively earned through the Festival Playlist, including a brand-new Forza Edition vehicle. The cars include:
- 1965 Mini Cooper S Forza Edition
- 2018 KTM X-Bow GTR
- 2019 Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro
- 2010 Noble M600
- 2020 Nissan GT-R Nismo (R35)
- Car Pass cars. Playground Games also revealed the next series of cars coming through the Forza Horizon 5 Car Pass DLC, including:
- 1986 Ford Mustang SVO
- 2020 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro
- 2004 Noble M400
- 2017 Ferrari 488 Challenge #25 Corse Clienti
- Accessibility features. The Series 5 update brings accessibility enhancements, including support for ASL and BSL in Forza Horizon 5.
- Bug fixes. Playground Games is fixing a ton of new bugs, including issues affecting the Photo Mode, Horizon Open, Festival Playlist challenges, the Livery Editor, and more
- Past Festival Playlist challenges that were bugged will be retroactively completed for players
- Players will also receive all the points and rewards for those bugged Festival Playlist challenges
It’s hard to argue that Forza Horizon 5 isn’t one of the best Xbox racing games you can play right now, especially since Playground Games continues to add a seemingly endless stream of fresh content through these updates.
The Forza Horizon 5 Series 5 update arrives to all players across Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming on Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2022. Players will be able to jump into Series 5 and its first wave of events and challenges starting on Thursday, Mar. 3.
The full changelog for the Forza Horizon 5 Mar. 1, 2022 content update includes:
Features & bug fixes
General
- Added ability to view followed players when on the Creative Hub tab on the Pause Menu via the button bar
- Updated Map Seasonal PR Stunt UI to be clearer
- Improved Livery Editor UI when using layers to not hide the layer contents
- Fixed Manufacturer rewards for new Series 4 Manufacturers
- Fixed Street Racing perk only working on Road Races
- Improved Car Collection navigation
- Fixed issue where HUD would sometimes not appear in Freeroam
- Fixed issue where player was unable to change their Radio Station
- Updated Logo on Horizon Race Suit to use FH5 rather than FH4
- Fixed issue where screen water droplets effect could persist after it’s stopped raining
- Auto-complete broken Festival Playlist challenges from Series 1 and 2:
- Series 1 Dailies: Crowd-Pleaser, Wash for 20 Seconds, Explorer, Riveting, Zoomies, Triple Drop, Go Wild
- Series 1 Weeklies: A True Super GT, I Wanna Be a Rock Star
- Series 1 Collectable: Gotta Smash ‘Em All
- Series 2 Treasure Hunt (Season 1)
- The prompt informing players of an incoming Season change will now appear in Horizon Life
- Fixed an issue that could cause the sky to not update after a Street Race, leaving future races at night (but without headlights)
- Fixed incorrect player name voice over in Spanish
- Final Checkpoint flares now appear in Street Race Rival events
- Time of Day is now paused in Photo Mode
- Fixed an issue where some players could lose credits after getting bid failed error message in the Auction House
Accessibility
- Added ASL and BSL option for Cinematics
- Added new difficulty preset “All Assists”
- Fixed Tritanopia setting on upgrade screens
- Colorblind options now change the mini-map route colour
- Various improvements to Screen Narration across the title
Multiplayer
- Fixed issue whilst joining events when already in a Convoy
- Fixed minor notification not always displaying the correct car restrictions in Horizon Tour
- Fixed issue where Horizon Tour would appear as already completed in a series, and cause players to lose their Tour points on historic Series
- Fixed issue where expired Horizon Arcade events from appearing on the map
- Fixed issue where Horizon Arcade HUD could display incorrect time in Mini Missions
- Fixed scoreboard not updating in Team King when in collapsed state
- Fixed some bad Eliminator car drop locations
- Added more responses to LINK Phrases
- Fixed an issue that could cause the “Finding a session” message to persist on screen
- Fixed an issue that could result in a leader-less convoy
- Improvements to civillian traffic synchronisation
- Fixed an issue that could cause civillian traffic to not appear after an online event
- Fixed an issue that could prevent civillian traffic cars appearing in street races
- Fixed connection issues that could occur after resuming from a suspended state
- Players are now offered the choice of whether to stay in a convoy created by Link after the event is completed
EventLab & Super7
- When editing routes, added ability to start editing from the start line rather than the first placed checkpoint
- Added ability to view Creator Hub from the Challenge Browser in Super7
- Fixed “No Music” not working correctly in Super7
- Updated Jump Pad prop to have more predictable behavior. This was previously using the car’s orientation, which could vary a lot but will now use the Jump Pad’s orientation
- Fixed an issue where EventLab creations at a PG Games location (such as the Arena), would ignore collision settings
- Added icon to show EventLab flyers to indicate whether it has props or not
- Fixed issue where some events weren’t showing the specific car restriction on the flyer
- Fixed issue where Car Theme would update to player’s current car, when editing an existing Blueprint
- Fixed issue where car would continue to drive whilst editing checkpoints in certain circumstances
- Fixed an issue that caused the EventLab titles to be incorrect after the Festival Playlist feature Event
Accolades
- Fixed “Most Iconic Trio”
- Fixed El Camino Accolade “Statues Beneath Blue Water”
- Fixed typo on “Cover Cars” Accolade
- Fixed issue where Vocho was missing associated Accolades on the map details
- Improved linked Accolade logic when entering the screen from the map
- Fixed a bug in the tracking of the Bonus Board Accolades
Cars
- Fixed Nissan Dakar car part visibility issue
- Fixed BMW 1 Series gauge lighting bug
- Fixed GMC Jimmy not showing visual Rollcage upgrade part
- Corrected Car Name from Zenvo TS1 to ST1
- Fixed an issue affecting the bumpstop physics when a car is running extremely short suspension travel
- Fixed an issue where the Ferrari 575 and 599GTO sounded the wrong way round
The unchallenged champion
Forza Horizon 5
$60 at Xbox (Xbox & PC)
$60 at Amazon (Xbox & PC)
$60 at GameStop (Xbox physical)
$60 at Steam (PC)
The best open-world racer
Playground Games has delivered their latest masterpiece with Forza Horizon 5, which features the series’ most diverse map and largest car list yet. Forza Horizon 5 somehow fulfills its ambitious promises to be the best open-world racer right now, and one of the best racing games in general.
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