Forza Horizon 6 hands-on preview: Japan awaits

No forthcoming game has us more excited than Forza Horizon 6. Having now watched it in action, we expect an incessant, high-pitched hum to remain in our heads until we can finally play it. Fortunately, the wait is not especially long: Playground Games has confirmed that the next entry in its outstanding open-world driving series will launch on Xbox and PC on 19 May. Make whatever arrangements you must with work and loved ones before then.

Forza Horizon 6 brings Japan to life

The screenshots and trailer make it clear that Horizon’s much-anticipated visit to Japan is both breathtaking and remarkably authentic. The developers have even recreated fallen cherry blossom petals on the roads with physical accuracy. That is not a sentence we ever expected to type.

The playable map will be a carefully condensed interpretation of the entire country. Its version of Tokyo is set to be the largest city environment in the series so far, featuring several recognisable districts. “Having the opportunity to finally deliver on that promise of going to Japan - not just having Japanese cars in our games which we've had in many iterations of the game - was something that you only get to do once right, and I don't think we were able to do it before now,” design director Torben Ellert told us.

“It's that combination of us really wanting to do it but also holding ourselves to account on whether we could do it justice; whether we would be able to make a Tokyo city that felt like the experience of driving around Tokyo city, whether we could build a map of Japan that was big enough.”

Yet, much like our underwhelming GCSE grades, geography is not the only consideration. Horizon 6 also needs to represent Japan’s distinctive and individual car culture – the aspect fans have spent more than a decade asking for. Forza Horizon 6 will introduce two features central to that culture: online multiplayer car-meet venues, including the renowned Daikoku car park, and a dedicated Togue mode designed to recreate Initial D drift battles in the mountains. Yes, there will also be a tofu delivery mission.

Custom garages and collaborative creation

Every home you buy comes with its own customisable garage, letting you wander among and admire your vehicle collection, chosen from a 550-strong launch-day roster. For the first time, you will also own a sizeable estate where you can construct buildings, roads and circuits to your own – perhaps unhinged – design. As its layout stays persistent in your own world, you will be able to invite your mates to your personal automotive playground.

Players after still greater creative depth will find the fully customisable EventLab returning. Its new Co-Lab feature enables several players to create a bespoke circuit or stunt course together. Be grateful that Forza’s world has no Health and Safety Executive when you decide to add a second loop-the-loop.

Toyota GR GT leads the Horizon festival

The game’s cover car has also been revealed with this first substantial gameplay showing: the suitably fitting Toyota GR GT. You start out as an ordinary tourist trailing the Horizon festival across Japan in the hope of earning a wristband, but the opening 10 minutes will reportedly offer a dreamlike preview of the future as you pursue a Shinkansen bullet train in the 640hp GR GT.

Toyota’s association with driving games has fluctuated over the past decade – Forza Horizon 4 did not include a single road-going Toyota – but the manufacturer plainly now understands videogames’ value in attracting new enthusiasts. “Just like the GR GT and the GR brand itself, we want to make sure that as many people as possible can drive and enjoy our brand and vehicles,” GR GT project manager Takashi Doi explained. “Also people without driver's licenses, we want to have them feel that excitement.”

There is certainly no shortage of excitement surrounding Forza Horizon 6. Japan has overwhelmingly been the location Horizon fans have requested most, and, if these initial previews are any indication, the game looks ready to fulfil that long-standing wish. If you will excuse us, after watching the gameplay trailer for the fourth consecutive time, we need a cold shower to settle ourselves down...