Forza Horizon 5 is fun as hell, but I think the main reason it seems so much more popular than the last entry is how it looks. Not in terms of the number of polygons on the screen, but just the vibe of it.
Mexico is a beautiful country, but the parts of it shown in this game, and the way they’re shown, really make driving fast cars through the countryside feel like a fantasy holiday. Sometimes, when combined with the game’s writing and overall tone, this can get a bit much, veering uncomfortably close to Far Cry levels of tropical voyeurism. But on the whole, it’s just a wonderful thing to sit back and look at, whether you’re driving 200 mph, or sitting perfectly still on the asphalt.
We can thank Playground Games and the artists who worked on the game for that, so tonight we’re looking at a bunch of art that went into the game’s creation.
Below, you’ll see a selection of works from some of the artists responsible for FH5's look. It’s not everyone who worked on everything, but it’s enough to give us all a good feel for the kind of stuff that formed the building blocks of the game’s world.
You’ll find links to each artist’s portfolio in their names below, and even more pieces over at ArtStation’s FH5 Art Blast.
NICK ELLIOTT
MICHAEL RICHARDS
NICK FOREMAN
VAIGINTAS PAKENIS
ALEX LOGAN
JENNY BREWER
RYAN VARDY
SCOTT COLIER
ALEX KILLPACK
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Forza 5 Horizon: the Kotaku review
The implicit promise of Forza Horizon is in the name. You see something on the horizon, you can drive to it. Skyrim with cars. Far Cry with more cars and no guns. Forza Horizon 5, the latest game in the venerable Xbox racing series, is no more and no less than that promise—just bigger, brighter, and so, so much more beautiful than its predecessors.
Forza Horizon 5 Is Finally Stealing The Show For Microsoft
The latest game in the open world spin-off series, and the 13th Forza game over all, Forza Horizon 5 is a mostly known quantity. But nearly a decade after the Horizon series started, it feels like many are encountering it for the first time. And they’re loving it, in a way that’s sucking up all the oxygen in the room in a way that racing games rarely do.