Forza Horizon 5 is a truly superb game. This racer packs an enormous amount of content into stunning open-world environments, spanning regions of Mexico and a Hot Wheels paradise in the sky. It’s a top-notch effort from Playground that’s only been available on Xbox and PC, but porting powerhouse Panic Button has just delivered a version of the game for PS5 and PS5 Pro, even sporting RT boosts for Pro users. Is this the definitive Forza Horizon experience on console?
The broad strokes of Forza Horizon 5’s presentation remain unchanged in the move from Series X to PS5, with a 60fps performance mode and a 30fps quality mode. Flipping back and forth between Series X and PS5, there’s virtually no visual distinction, with identical foliage placement, matching terrain and very similar image quality. I’d really struggle to tell the difference between the two platforms in almost any circumstance. That error-free rendition of Forza Horizon 5 is actually a pretty great accomplishment, given that this engine has never run on PlayStation before.
Pixel counts aren’t especially important here, as both consoles typically reach and hold a full 4K. I did notice more evidence of DRS on PS5 in some shots in performance mode, with one example indicating an 1872p internal resolution on PS5 and the full 2160p on Series X, though I don’t expect this difference would be noticeable in actual gameplay. In quality mode, both consoles are locked to a full 4K throughout.
While there are few changes from Series X to PS5, your choice of mode is fairly impactful with more substantial visual differences between quality and performance than we typically see in current-gen releases. The quality mode packs a greater density of assets, stuffing a lot more foliage into every frame. Textures have more layers, and often have high-quality parallax occlusion maps to add additional detail. Pop-in also tends to be much less of a concern, as high-detail versions of the game’s assets stretch far into the distance. Mexico’s sprawling views look quite a bit better in quality mode, especially in the shrubby desert that typifies much of the game’s landmass.