RACING
VIDEO
GAME© XBOX GAME STUDIOSAlong the plains of Mexico
Forza Horizon 5
WERE THE HORIZON FESTIVAL real, we
can imagine the bulk of its profits would
be lost to lawsuits, its standing army of
lawyers larger than the cadre of drivers it
employs. This motor-racing circus turns
up in your country—presumably invited
in by someone in government not averse
to acquiring large amounts of used notes
in brown paper bags—and proceeds to
make the lives of the residents absolute
hell for the next year or so.
We saw this last incarnation when the
festival rocked up in an oddly-shrunken
version of Great Britain, smashed the
place up, destroyed infrastructure that
was hundreds of years old, ran old
ladies off the road, ruined beauty spots
unspoiled since the last ice age, played
obnoxious music late into the night, then
left again. This time it’s Mexico’s turn to
have the dubious honor of hosting it.
It was Sega who first understood the
importance of air power in rally games,
and Forza Horizon seems determined to
follow in those arcade footsteps. DroppingObnoxious music all night as
the Horizon festival hits MexicoAs a custom character introduced as
the superstar attraction of the festival,
which is hard to believe when you see them
posing awkwardly next to a midrange
hatchback they have just won a race in,
you get some pretty nice toys to play with
from the off. The character creator is
fairly well-specced, allowing the usual
purple-haired freaks and geeks to be
designed, with the addition of prosthetic
limbs and pronouns.
The game refers to you by the first
name you’ve set in your account details
(as long as it’s on the list of voiced names)
and all sorts of gender identities are
represented. We’re not sure if it was a
bug, but our outwardly male-presenting
character spoke with a female voice. The
unflappable sat-nav remains a point of
unintentional comic relief, as its deadpan
delivery of ‘please make a U-turn’ is
accompanied by clouds of brake smoke
and the squeal of a highly-tuned piece of
machinery being made to ride the edges
of its performance envelope.supercars out of the back of a cargo
plane then immediately allowing you to
race in them across desert and jungle is
probably the most amazing piece of wish
fulfillment yet committed to videogames,
and it continues throughout. There’s
always something in the air, whether it’s
that plane again (the first race brings it
back) or blimps, hot air balloons, drones.
There’s also a great deal of dust—
the deserts of Mexico often throw up
bright orange dust storms, and you’re
encouraged to drive into them in search
of mysterious statues. There is some
remarkable virtual tourism at work in
these games, which take a compressed
slice of their chosen country then expect
you to explore it at speed.
You can always go back later, of course,
to sit and marvel at a view, or pop up
the photo mode (which insists on putting
a watermark somewhere in your shot,
presumably so your friends won’t think
you’ve taken a vacation south of the border
and bought yourself an Aston Martin).in the lab
90 MAXIMU MPC FEB 2022