Forza Horizon 5 | Motor Accessibility Video

Forza Horizon 5 is an open world racing game, available on Xbox One, Xbox Series consoles and PC. It is the latest in Playground games Forza Horizon series, and features an open world to explore, objectives to complete and players can also race against both AI-controlled cars and other players online. Forza Horizon 5 has a range of different settings that are carried over from the previous game in the series, but it also has some new options that could be beneficial for many players. In this video we will be looking at the new accessibility features in this franchise related to the motor accessibility of the game. These include the Offline Game Speed feature, an Auto-Steering assist and a new Tourist Difficulty level option.

The first new feature we will look at is Tourist Mode. This is a new difficulty setting which can be switched on from the main menu, from the menu when pausing the game, or at the start of a race. Tourist Mode cannot be switched on part way through a race and can only be used when playing vs AI. With Tourist mode switched on, if the player crashes mid-race or finds that they are someway behind the AI opponents, the opponents will slow down, allowing the player to catch up. Once they have started to catch the group up, the AI will then begin racing again, and the player is able to compete with them to try and get into first place.

Within Difficulty settings, there is a range of assists that could be helpful. One way to switch these on or off, is by selecting a Driving Assists Preset. There are four presets to choose from, plus you can create a custom preset. The Easy Preset, for example, switches on Assisted Braking, plus several other helpful assists such as Traction Control. It leaves steering as Standard, but in Forza Horizon 5 there is the option to change this to Assisted or Auto-steering, and create a custom preset.

Auto-steering is applied providing you have an onscreen racing line, such as when you are either in a race (or challenge) or have selected a destination on your map. By holding down accelerate, the car will try and stick to the racing line, and will automatically steer for you, meaning that you do not need the Left Stick when driving in most instances and only require it for accessing menus and setting a waypoint. The car will drive into other vehicles and knock them out of the way, so whilst you can choose to manually steer to get around other cars, this is not required. If you are driving at a high speed, the car may come off of the racing line with Auto-steering on, so you either may need to release accelerate or brake manually in some instances.

With the Braking Assist on, you can play just by holding down accelerate to brake and steer automatically, until you reach your destination or complete the race. Releasing accelerate appropriately can increase your control of the vehicle. This is a way to play with a single button, but you can add the left joystick and a button for brake.

The other new steering assist, Assisted Steering can be helpful for players who have access to the Left Stick but feel that they would benefit from some help with steering. The assist tries to keep you close to the racing line, but you do also need to steer to avoid coming off the road and crashing.

Forza Horizon 5 has an accessibility setting that allows players to reduce the offline game speed. By default, the game is set to 100%, which is the standard speed. If players find that this is too fast, and that they would benefit from more time to react, then it is possible to reduce the speed. The car is still able to travel at its maximum speed, but the game is running in slow motion, which may make it easier for some players to enjoy the game and race successfully. To change the speed, pause the game, go to settings and then go to accessibility.

This is the game running at 55% speed. And now, at 40%, which is the lowest speed.  The lower the speed, the more time the player has to react.

In addition to these new features, Forza Horizon 5 features some options that appeared in Forza Horizon 4 , including remapping, and it is also possible to change several settings in the advanced controls menu, such as inverting the vertical camera and changing multiple deadzones. Being able to create a custom control scheme and changing these settings could be helpful for many players, and these settings are similar to those found in Forza Horizon 4.

We hope that this video has been helpful. If you have any questions about motor accessibility in video games, please contact SpecialEffect.