What you need to know
- Forza Horizon 5 is a critically acclaimed open-world racing game from Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios.
- The game is already great at launch, but has been plagued with a variety of issues, especially with online multiplayer.
- On Wednesday, Playground Games began releasing the first hotfix update for Forza Horizon 5 addressing a number of these problems.
- Fixes for crashes, online connection issues, various exploits, and more are included in this first hotfix update.
Forza Horizon 5 launched as one of the best Xbox racing games ever, but it's not entirely without its problems. Players have encountered a myriad of bugs and issues in Forza Horizon 5 since release, especially related to online multiplayer. Playground Games has been transparent about working on these issues, and now the first proper fix is rolling out to players in the form of the Forza Horizon 5 Nov. 17, 2021 hotfix update.
Forza Horizon 5 is a generally excellent open-world racing game, and this hotfix update should go some ways towards resolving many of the more pressing issues players have run into while playing. Highlights of the hotfix update include fixes for various crashes, improvements to online connectivity, patches for exploits like players buying hundreds of Willys Jeeps, and much more.
The Forza Horizon 5 Nov. 17, 2021 hotfix update is now rolling out to FH5 on all platforms, including Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (including Steam). The update should be around ~1GB in size, and it's highly recommended that you install it as soon as possible before continuing to play Forza Horizon 5.
In our Forza Horizon 5 review, we concluded that Playground has delivered the unchallenged champion of open-world racers, even when taking into account the problems the game has had around launch. If you want to learn more about this brilliant racing gem, be sure to read our ultimate guide to Forza Horizon 5.
The full changelog for Forza Horizon 5's Nov. 17, 2021 hotfix update includes:
Bug fixes
Game stability
- Fixed several crashes
- Fixed a potential crash that could happen if an emote was earned whilst offline
- Fixed a potential crash that can happen when starting a Horizon Arcade
- Fixed a potential crash that occurred when spawning traffic cars
- Fixed a crash when loading EventLab events
- Fixed a crash when upgrading cars
Multiplayer
- Improved stability of Horizon Life connections
- Improvements to online traffic
- Fixed issue where player's car would get stopped when losing connection to Horizon Life
- Disabled Convoy voice chat to help track down the long load times in Online events
- Improvements to Horizon Arcade for other player visibility and joining and leaving Arcade events
- Fixed Eliminator Head to Heads not ending when players reached the finish point
Wheel compatibility
- Fixed a disconnect pop up that was preventing Wheels from functioning correctly on PC
Exploits
- Updated the Car Masteries for various cars to address an exploit
- Removed an exploit that could be achieved when creating Challenge Cards
- Removed an exploit when creating specific route configurations in EventLab
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to purchase cars from the Car Collection screen which weren't available in the Autoshow
- Added checks to stop an exploit with driving assists
- Stopped players being able to download tunes before a race starts
DLC
- Fixed VIP Player House not being free for some VIPs
- Fixed VIP House not giving player correct Forzathon Point multiplier
- Fixed issue where some VIP players weren't receiving Super Wheelspins
Rewards
- Fixed players not receiving the loyalty reward for playing Forza Motorsport 5
- Fixed an issue with Car Collection where it was possible that a player could lose pending rewards if they quit the game
- Rebalanced UGC payouts
PC settings
- Fixed Resolution Scaling causing GTAO depth issues on PC
- Fixed issue where distant terrain could appear as low res on PC Ultra settings
Other
- Fixed an issue where it was possible for the player to fall out of world after completing the Trial
- Fixed an issue where input stops working on the Press Start screen
- Cross Country Event difficulty has been tuned slightly easier on Drivatar Difficulty levels below Unbeatable to smooth off some difficulty spikes
- Fixed EventLab notifications persisting in Freeroam
- Fixed some Accolades missing icons on Xbox One and Xbox One S
- Fixed profanity filter not applying correctly on Super7
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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