What you need to know
- On Thursday, Playground Games detailed what's coming to Forza Horizon 5 with its next free content update.
- Series 14 "Donut Media" sees the popular automotive brand and YouTube channel, Donut Media, collaborate with Forza Horizon.
- The update includes four new cars, 21 new body kits from Rocket Bunny, a new Horizon Story, and more.
- Playground Games also confirmed that the second Forza Horizon 5 DLC expansion is arriving in early 2023, with more details to come with the new year.
Forza Horizon 5 is nearing its one-year anniversary, and in that time has enjoyed regular content updates and releases through its Series-based Festival Playlist. On Thursday, Playground Games appeared during the Forza Monthly stream to detail what players can expect from the next release: Forza Horizon 5 Series 14 "Donut Media."
As the name suggests, Forza Horizon is collaborating with Donut Media, a popular automotive brand, YouTube channel, merchandise and apparel store, series of podcasts, collectible cars brand, and more. The entire Series 14 lineup of Forza Horizon 5 Festival Playlist events will feature plenty of easter eggs and references, themed Seasonal Championships and Forza LINK rewards, and more.
Forza Horizon 5 Series 14 "Donut Media" includes:
- A collaboration with Donut Media. James and Nolan, two of the hosts from Donut Media, are brought to life in Forza Horizon 5 with full in-game models and voiced lines. The collaboration between the long-running open-world racing franchise and the light-hearted, educational automotive brand spans across the entire Festival Playlist and beyond.
- Playground Games also hinted that Donut Media will work with Forza Horizon again in the future, and that this isn't a one-time collaboration
- A new Horizon Story. Another Horizon Story is joining the rapidly growing collection of unique narrative adventures available in Forza Horizon 5, but this time with Donut Media in tow. The five-chapter Horizon Story will be featured in the Festival Playlist, and is wholly unique over any other Horizon Story in the game.
- The Horizon Story is themed after what would happen if a player just happened to meet James and Nolan from Donut Media and decided to build a car with them
- Players will choose one of three cars — 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, 1993 Nissan 240SX SE, and 2000 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R — and upgrade them over the Horizon Story to become proficient at rally racing and other challenges
- The Horizon Story debuts a new way to upgrade and tune cars, with real-time, in-game upgrading letting players quickly modify their chosen car to best tackle the current challenge
- Playground Games and Donut Media want to introduce players to Forza Horizon 5's upgrading and tuning systems
- The Horizon Story is highly replayable, with players able to return to earlier chapters to choose one of the other donor cars, or alter their upgrades to try for better times and scores
- Playground Games is also working on a test track for Forza Horizon 5, which debuts with this Horizon Story and should eventually become available to the entire Forza Horizon 5 car list
- New cars. Of course, the latest Forza Horizon 5 Festival Playlist will feature brand-new cars for players to earn over the four-weeks long event. The new cars include:
- 1946 Ford Super Deluxe Station Wagon
- 1953 Morris Minor Series II Traveler
- 1965 Morris Mini-Traveller
- 2020 Lynk & Co 03 Cyan Racing #100
- New Festival Playlist. Players can also look forward to a new Festival Playlist themed after Donut Media, including an exclusive Series intro similar to the Forza Horizon 5 10-Year Anniversary. Players can complete new Seasonal Championships and Treasure Hunts, smash a new Donut Media collectible, earn new Forza LINK rewards, and more. There will also be a collection of Donut Media Vanity Items for players to collect and wear.
- Eight new Accolades are arriving with Series 14. Seven are for the Donut Media @ Horizon Horizon Story, while the last is for collecting all Series 14 vehicles
- The return of Rocket Bunny body kits. The Rocket Bunny brand of body kits was among the most popular upgrades in previous Forza Horizon titles, and was notably absent in FH5. Fortunately, that egregious omission is being rectified with Series 14, as Playground Games is adding 21 Rocket Bunny body kits, spread across 20 car models, to Forza Horizon 5 with the update. Players will be able to purchase and apply the Rocket Bunny body kits just like any other upgrade.
- Multiple new features for PC players. Forza Horizon 5 Series 14 is bringing three major new graphics and performance features to PC players, including in-game ray tracing for car reflections, AMD FSR 2.0 support, and NVIDIA DLSS and DLAA support. You can read more about the new features in the linked article above.
- Various fixes and improvements. Like with every Series update, Playground Games is implementing new fixes and quality-of-life improvements with the Series 14 release. Players will have to wait for a full changelog to get all the details, but some of the more interesting fixes include:
- A fix for the Horizon Origins Horizon Story requiring players to set a GPS Route when starting the game or traveling from Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels to Mexico
- A fix for steering wheel input mapping resetting to default settings after a game restart on PC
- Alphabetical sorting for the "Car Types" section in the Garage
- Improvements to voiceover localization in Horizon Stories
- An update on illegitimate leaderboard times. Playground Games is continuing to work on removing and protecting against illegitimate times across leaderboards, including Rivals Events. The studio has already patched multiple exploits, and players should begin seeing illegitimate times disappear from leaderboards. Playground Games is attempting to avoid removing legitimate times, and is committed to this ongoing effort.
- A tease for Forza Horizon 5 Series 15. The holidays are rapidly approaching, and Playground Games granted a sneak peek at what's to come with the next Forza Horizon 5 Festival Playlist, arriving on Dec. 18, 2022.
- The holidays-themed Festival Playlist will see the return of the Ice Rink, new cars, Christmas decorations, and a brand-new collectible
Forza Horizon 5 Series 14 "Donut Media" officially begins on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, but players can begin installing the accompanying update — and enjoying some of the additions — on Tuesday, Nov. 8, across Xbox and PC platforms. Forza Horizon 5 remains one of the very best Xbox racing games, and the next free content update will continue to make it even better.
Playground Games concluded its coverage by confirming that the studio is working on the second Forza Horizon 5 DLC expansion. The expansion, which will follow Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels, remains very much a mystery, but Playground Games revealed that it will arrive for players in early 2023. Forza Horizon 5 fans will have to wait for the new year to learn more about what the exciting DLC expansion will entail.
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