Parents' Guide to Forza Horizon 5

If there's a racing game meant for everyone, this is it. Forza Horizon 5 is wonderfully welcoming, featuring instantly intuitive controls and a collection of cinematic events and activities bound to drop the jaws of both racing rookies and seasoned gearheads. Whether you're drifting around dirt tracks in the jungle, hitting ludicrous speeds on the drag strip, or engaging in wild one-off events racing against airplanes and people in wingsuits, it seems like there's always something new to do that takes full advantage of the game's lush setting and extraordinary driving physics, which can be made as realistic or as arcade-like as the player prefers. Indeed, with a bit of tweaking in the settings menu, even first-time racers should be able to handle some of the game's fastest and wildest vehicles. Hard-core racing fans, meanwhile, can adjust these same settings to create a deeply realistic simulation-style experience, fine-tuning each of their cars exactly how they like.

What really makes Forza Horizon 5 special, though, is that there's never a wasted second. No matter what you're doing -- working through a series of story races, exploring the countryside looking for a barn containing a rare car, or just driving across the map from one event to the next -- you're constantly being rewarded for every drift, near miss, and smashed street sign, earning experience, skill points, and chances to spin the game's prize wheel to obtain new cars and more credits. It's a powerfully satisfying feedback loop that (for better or worse) makes it very hard to put down the controller. Add in gorgeous graphics -- this may be the prettiest Xbox Series X/S game yet -- and an enormous array of social multiplayer opportunities, including team-based arcade challenges that see groups of players working together toward a single goal, and you've got a game that players are bound to keep playing for months, if not longer. This has been further extended thanks to the Hot Wheels expansion pack, bringing the sprints, drifts, and other activities high into the clouds in a fantasy environment built out of Hot Wheels tracks. It's awesome to tear around volcanoes, soar through giant racing loops, and get your vehicle accelerated thanks to boost pads scattered across the track. But even cooler, there's so much lore and history provided about the toys and cars that even if you weren't a fan of them before, you will become one shortly after tearing across each course. What's better is the fact that you also have the EventLab where you can build your own challenges with stunt pieces and tracks, which feels like it was borrowed from the racing kits themselves. You may not think you're a racing game fan, but spend a little time with Forza Horizon 5, and you might surprise yourself.