Format: Xbox Series X
Genre: Racing
Developer: Playground Games
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

This latest Horizon release takes place in Mexico. Picture rolling cactus-filled hills glittering in the sunlight, or lush jungles with rutted mud paths. The game's "quality" mode sees all of the graphics options maxed out, and the sheer pixel count, texture resolution, reflection quality, and just about everything else is extremely impressive. At the same time no one will mistake this title for real life, as it has a very "gamey" appearance. The menu system and map are filled with garishly colorful icons. Car cockpits are fully modeled. Racing against other cars at night, seeing their realistically glowing tail lights, is something to behold.

The core aural experience of this game-- the fully-recorded car engine noises, the braking sounds, the tire effects-- is fantastic. Unfortunately everything around this nucleus is positively terrible. The game is filled with perfectly "diverse" NPCs talking in the same tone of voice used in television shows for toddlers, where the script will throw random Spanish words into the middle of an otherwise English sentence: "Amigo! You should come check out my casa!" The infantile voice intonations and "Barney the Dinosaur" writing is just too much. The game has "Grand Theft Auto"-esque radio stations, and if this is the state of modern-day pop music, we're all doomed. Thankfully, the radio stations can be muted-- but the NPCs can not.

Imagine Forza Motorsport, except that the player drives on public roads-- or off of the public roads-- between the events in a giant open world setting. Set to fully-sim mode, from the cockpit view, the game is probably eighty to ninety percent of Motorsport's realism. It even has the series' superb "clutch button" feature! Unfortunately, the game exploits "skinner box" psychology in a major way, shuffling the almost helpless player from icon-to-icon. There is an auction hall, the full Motorsports "upgrade and tweak" experience, the full livery editor, and more. This release certainly isn't lacking for features.

The most fun this reviewer had playing this title involved taking his real-life 2003 Nissan 350z, painting it blue like his actual specimen, then accelerating full-throttle down a freeway. The experience was very authentic, especially the engine sound! And indeed, this title does make a competent poor man's 3DO "The Need for Speed" imitator-- but why not just play the real deal? As for the rest of this game's contents, the racing physics are good, but absent Motorsports's real tracks, a lot of the luster comes off. And the slot machine-like psychology manipulation-- "just one more icon, just one more icon"-- is pretty slimy. The title's over-the-top "dudebro" sense of style is also a huge turn off: it starts right from the game's ridiculous opening sequence, and never lets up.