Parents' Guide to Forza Horizon 4

While this open-world racing game adds some interesting new mechanics, it's the difference in difficulty that makes it slightly more challenging than previous models. Like its predecessors, Forza Horizon 4 is a deep and detailed racing game that boasts a wide variety of race events on the curvy roads and dirt trails of Britain. You even do some stunts for a movie being filmed nearby, and do one-off races like one where your competition is a giant hovercraft. All of this is playable the way you like to drive, thanks to heavily adaptable controls and handling. That can make this feel like an authentic driving simulator, a more forgiving arcade-esque racing game, and numerous points in between. One thing to note: When you steer badly and take a wrong turn, the game has a handy rewind function.

What this sequel adds, along with all the requisite new events and cars, is the four seasons, which gives even more variety to the races. More importantly, it changes how you drive, since snow-covered roads are slicker than those bathing in the summer sun. The world's now also open to other players (or, if you prefer, just your friends, or no one), which means the competition can be real people as well as computer-controlled drivers. But the most noteworthy change is that those competitors are more skilled than they were in earlier games, and drive faster cars. As a result, even if you adjust the difficulty, the game is still notably harder than Forza Horizon 3, or older games. Which doesn't ruin Forza Horizon 4 -- this is still a solid and addictive racing game -- but it does make this a little more frustrating than earlier games in the series.