One of the year's biggest games is Forza Horizon 5, a critically-acclaimed open-world racing title from the talented team at Playground Games. The latest effort from Playground to fix these issues is the newly released Dec. 14, 2021 hotfix update for Forza Horizon 5, which is rolling out now on all platforms. Like previous Forza Horizon 5 updates, this patch is purely focused on fixes and improvements.
Multiplayer issues are a particular focus this time around, but Playground touches on dozens of different bugs across multiple parts of Forza Horizon 5. All these fixes are going to improve the player's experience overall, from the networking issues being fixed to the stability improvements made to the game. The last update also implemented a lot of fixes and improvements to the game. Even though the game has not received any content additions in a while, it is good to see the developers enhancing the game for all players to enjoy. It's been a while since the game was released, but the developers are still actively releasing new content for the game.
A new update has been rolled out today, although this doesn't make any major changes as such. We are getting a plethora of bug fixes and performance improvements in this update, and here are the complete patch notes of the same. 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. Leaderboards – We're aware of bugs that cause erroneous lap times to be posted on Rivals leaderboards and are working on a future update to prevent this from happening. We're also aware of players using game speed modifiers to boost their scores for PR Stunts and are looking to prevent and remove these impossibly high scores.
Cheating, game tampering, and the use of exploits to intentionally gain a competitive advantage ruins the experience for others. Horizon Arcade – These fun, collaborative minigames come to life when experienced with other players, however, we know not many of you have been able to experience them as intended. There is often a much lower than expected player count for Horizon Arcade events and we know that simply isn't fun.
Like Convoys, we're aware of players disappearing when these events start. We want to give you an update on the status of multiplayer issues in Forza Horizon 5. Since launch, we understand it's been frustrating to play online, whether it's with your friends or the wider community, due to numerous issues around matchmaking, connectivity and teaming up in Convoys. We hear you and we understand how you feel especially as socialization in Forza Horizon is an important aspect of the game. The score target now scales depending on the number of participants. Matchmaking within the game now prioritizes putting players in bigger groups.
Requirements needed for completion will now also show improvements for certain events. The patch also fixed prior issues of EventLab props appearing incorrectly. It also improved the issue of convoy members suddenly disappearing. One area that players have been vocal about is the Festival Playlist.
For some, various Festival Playlist challenges have not been unlocking after meeting the requirements or are just simply broken and not working. In a post about the new hotfix, Playground Games has acknowledged the Festival Playlist issue and says it is looking into a fix. "We're aware that a number of players have experienced challenges on the Festival Playlist which they've not been able to complete," the post reads.
"This can be frustrating to miss out on rewards or to not have that 100% completion. We're looking into a solution for players who have experienced the issue." Since launch, players have been running into all manner of issues with Forza Horizon 5. There have been frequent disconnects from the game's online mode, online matchmaking issues, and various crashes. Create your own expressions of fun with the powerful new EventLab gameplay toolset including custom races, challenges, stunts, and entirely new game modes. Customize your cars in more ways than ever before with new options such as the ability open and close convertible tops, paint brake calipers, and more. Use the new Gift Drops feature to share your custom creations with the community.
In our Forza Horizon 5 review, we concluded that FH5 is an obvious choice on our list of best Xbox racing games, even with the online growing pains it has experienced since launch. Playground has been transparent and communicative about its efforts to improve the experience, which sits on top of a mountain of single-player content. If you want to learn more about this open-world racing gem, be sure to check out our ultimate guide to Forza Horizon 5. In case you missed it, Playground recently detailed new features and content coming to Forza Horizon 5 with its Series 2 and 3 updates, which kicks off with a new Festival Playlist on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. The Series 2 and 3 updates will add 24 new cars, a ton of new events and challenges, new decorations to the world, and much more.
This update is relatively minor, but still includes several important fixes targeting the areas players have expressed frustration, including online matchmaking, convoys, and traffic cars. There are also improvements to stability and crashes, which worsened after the Dec. 3, 2021 patch update earlier this month. The Dec. 7, 2021 hotfix did fix the most critical flaw of that larger patch update, but this hotfix aims to resolve even more. We've included a fix for civilian traffic not being present in Horizon Life. These are being worked on and will be addressed in a future update. Among the biggest changes that the patch brought to the game are fixes to convoys.
Prior to the update, there was a bug that could cause an infinite load for players who used the Find a Convoy option. Any Forza Link invites accepted by the leaders of the convoy will now apply to the entire convoy. Also, the convoy icon on the player label within the map is now also more readable.
It is worth noting that originally Forza Horizon 5's hotfix was expected last week, with multiple crashes, wheel, and connection issues being on the table above all else. Since then, the support team updated the list of the game's most common bugs to include plenty of graphical and performance troubles for the PC versions . Such roughness is seemingly non-existent on the console version of Forza. Forza Horizon 5 tries to be that answer, but it doesn't innovate enough. This open-world racing spin-off series lets players drive, drift, and perform stunts in countries around the world.
Starting with the multiplayer fixes, Playground jumps around with updates to Horizon Open, convoys, and Horizon Arcade. Regarding Horizon Arcade, the key notes are that Forza Horizon 5 will start prioritizing "grouping players in larger groups" to start events, and that target scores will now scale based on total participants. The Convoys is one aspect where Playground Games has a lot of work to do. The team's priority is working on a fix for this particular gameplay feature and disappearing players. The latest update addresses one issue that would cause some players to become invisible to other players. However, this is a work in progress, so we expect more improvements to the experience in the coming updates.
You can also look forward to new challenges, events, and cosmetics for your avatar. Most unique will be the gifting challenge, which will reward all players with an exclusive outfit and secret car if enough people give each other goodies. But hey, enough of my preamble, you can check out the full Let's Go! Create your own expressions of fun with the new EventLab gameplay toolset including custom races, challenges, stunts and new game modes. But the bigger item here is specific changes to the convoy system, where errors have been afflicting players since release. FH5's version of a party, or lobby, sometimes joining a friend in a convoy simply wouldn't work, other times cars would randomly disappear.
In the meantime, the Playground Games development team issued a statement with the priority fixes it is working on, this being one of them. Below are the multiplayer issues that we've heard are most prominently affecting you, and what we're doing to either improve or fix them. We are listening to your feedback and reports, and our next update will be the first step in addressing these issues, with more fixes coming in the next few updates. Putting together your car collection is one of the most fun things to do in a racing game, and there are several sources for sweet new rides.
Some cars will be awarded after completing certain races and drives. Others can be purchased, are won from Super Wheelspins, or can be found at one of the hidden barns scattered around the map. If you find yourself near a barn, open your menu and switch your aerial drone.
This parks your car and lets you fly your camera around to easily find what you are looking for. Prior to the announcement, Xbox boss Phil Spencer also recently revealed that the game had experienced the largest launch day of any Xbox Game Studios game ever. The open-world racing game amassed over 4.5 million players in its launch week where it also featured peak concurrent player count heights over three times the size of its predecessor Forza Horizon 4. Forza Horizon 5 is regarded to be one of the most polished AAA games that launched this year. However, its online modes continue to have a slew of bugs and issues. Fortunately, Playground Games is continually improving the game over time with new updates.
It brought a variety of improvements to the overall multiplayer racing experience, as well as mouse and video improvements and bug fixes. This means these issues will most likely be fixed in the upcoming patch for the game, currently scheduled to arrive later this week. Playground also note that there are of course other issues they're working on, though these are currently the priority. In the meantime, the developer will be granting all Forza Horizon 5 players a 1000 Forzathon Point bonus alongside the next content update.
Players can spend these on cars, horns, clothing and other items in the in-game Forzathon Shop. Issues mentioned include players disappearing from convoys and not being pulled into Horizon Life servers with their convoy. They're also fixing issues causing convoy players to matchmake by themselves. Elsewhere, the studio has also pledged to squish bugs causing erroneous lap times to be posted to the game's leaderboards. Cheaters should also beware, as the team say that's another area they intend to improve on detection and removing. When it comes to gameplay, Forza Horizon 5 feels less groundbreaking.
As the superstar of the Horizon event, you'll go around and participate in various races, challenges, and substories to earn accolade points that unlock new events and eventually get you in the Hall of Fame. The race types and vehicles play mostly the same as the map is the real differentiator. One of the issues listed is the Convoys, a feature that allows Forza Horizon 5 players to group up with their friends. However, an issue causes players to vanish from the team when switching between areas.
Players are sometimes disappearing when an event starts, leading to low player counts. Some leaderboard issues have been fixed, and bugs causing EventLab props to appear incorrectly have also been taken care of. A new Forza Horizon 5 update went live today with a range of improvements to multiplayer racing, mouse and video improvements on PC, and a range of stability and bug fixes. However, Playground Games notes it's continuing to work on fixes for these, and players should keep an eye out for further updates. In the meantime, all players will also receive 1,000 Forzathon Points by way of apology for the issues. The content of the linked blog post hasn't actually changed from the last update release, so there's no further clues on what precisely this fix will entail.
That said, we expect to see the release focused primarily on improving the multiplayer experience. EventLab and Horizon Open, two of the flagship features of this fifth Forza Horizon game, might be the key areas. Bringing you the latest news, reviews, updates, opinions, and insight from the most recognized and respected names from the world of racing games. We are building a positive community of likeminded gamers, sim racers and fans and we want you to be a part of it. Meet new friends in Horizon Open and Tours and share your creations with new community gift sharing. On Tuesday, Playground Games released the Dec. 7, 2021 hotfix update for Forza Horizon 5, which aims to fix this problem and nothing more.
Hopefully, Xbox Series X|S players will be able to return to FH5 and play like normal after installing the update. Additional fixes and improvements are undoubtedly heading to Forza Horizon 5 in the future, but Playground focused on fixing the biggest issue first. In our Forza Horizon 5 review, we concluded that FH5 is already one of the best Xbox racing games you can play, and this will only become more true over time. FH5 hasn't been free of bugs and issues, but Playground Games has been transparent about working on the various problems. If you want to learn more about what this open-world racer entails, be sure to check out our ultimate guide to Forza Horizon 5. The hotfix update is now available for Forza Horizon 5 across Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and PC.
On Xbox Series X, the update came out to ~850Mb, but may vary in size on other platforms. It's recommended that you install this hotfix as soon as possible if you've been experiencing any issues in FH5's online multiplayer. For those who do not know, the Forza Horizon 5 Series updates are basically seasons in the game. These seasons bring about new cars, events, challenges and more and this addition has gone down massively well with the gaming community. As soon as they have been verified, we'll begin rolling out the fixes and improvements we've been working on so you can have a smoother time exploring Mexico.
On top of its base accessibility features that can currently be found within the racing sim, Horizon 5 is also set to add an on-screen sign language interpreter to the game in a future update. Due to most of the employees shifting their full attention over to Forza Horizon 5, seasonal updates will transition to feature remixed sets of past seasons' content. With this feature, you'll journey to Arcade markers across the map to participate in various challenges and mini-games with other players. If and when the developers acknowledge the Forza Horizon 5 issue where players are unable to join friends, we will update this article. This mode features several mini-multiplayer games spread across the map while the EventLab toolkit allows users to create custom games.
Playground Games has offered fans an update on what it's doing to address multiplayer issues in Forza Horizon 5 that have cropped up following the game's launch last month. Fixed an issue where players who flipped cars, or missed checkpoints were not being reset in Ranked Adventure. Showcase RemixesWe've added a twist to two of our most popular Showcase Events! You'll need to complete the regular Showcases first to unlock the remixed versions. Issues are also present in The Eliminator, Horizon Open, and Event Labs modes. There is also an issue with rankings, with wrong lap times being posted on the Rivals leaderboards.
Playground Games is also aware of players using game speed modifiers to increase their scores for PR Stunts and are looking to prevent and remove these impossibly high scores. Playground Games has released a community update post detailing the current multiplayer issues in Forza Horizon 5. Forza Horizon 5 was one of Microsoft's biggest updates at Gamescom 2021, with more information revealed about both gameplay and cars. With details on Mexico's map, biomes, features, and that all-elusive release date, there's lots to get excited about. Playground already rolled out an update and hotfix earlier this month to improve the overall state of multiplayer and online, and now it's released another update.
As for other major issues that have been fixed, the notorious Seasonal PR Stunt bug that told players "1mph/1ft/1m more" is no more. The Eliminator battle royale mode will now actually randomly disperse car drops instead of having static dispersion. An exploit that allowed players to alter the tune of their car just as a race is starting has also been fixed, as well as other more niche exploits.
Forza Horizon 5 players will also be receiving 1,000 Forzathon Points along with the update, which can be used to pick up rare cars, horns, clothing and wheelspins from the in-game shop. A new Forza Horizon 5 update is live on Xbox One, Xbox S, Xbox X, and PC alongside official patch notes that reveal and detail all Playground Games's 3rd update. Unfortunately, the update doesn't come with a new content and no features. In fact, the game is pretty unimportant compared to the two earlier updates. Horizon Open sees a couple of changes to enhance playability and reduce waiting times.
Open racing events now consist of three stages before a car class change, and the lengthy Goliath race is no longer in the rotation to save waiting players from a 20-minute thumb-twiddle. Forza Horizon 5 update 3 patch notes is now available for players on Xbox One and PC. According to the official FH5 patch notes, the latest update added various stability and performance improvements. Unfortunately, the update doesn't come with any new content nor any new features. It's pretty insignificant compared to the previous two updates made to the game.
