Forza Horizon 6 (XS) - Review by Stephen LaGioia , posted 16 hours ago / 902 ViewsSince its debut hit the ground running over a decade back — goodness have I gotten old — Playground Games' Forza Horizon series has redefined the racing genre, melding arcade-style speed and thrills with dynamic open-world gameplay and a dash of nuanced racing sim elements. This has resulted in essentially a new subgenre which the studio hasn't just pioneered, but expanded, fine-tuned, and largely perfected with its sixth installment. Everything from its awesome Japanese vistas to the reliable, solid driving mechanics, to its countless entertaining events round out a top-tier sandbox game that's among the best racers I've played in my decades of gaming. While it still falls a touch short of flawless, Forza Horizon 6 leaves most of the genre in the dust in various ways. Fans were largely pleased with the distinct locales in past FH entries, though the latest installment truly excels on this front, edging a bit past my previous favorite setting of the colorful, multi-seasonal UK in FH 4. The various well-crafted elements — among them a plethora of diverse race and off-road tracks, and the changing seasons/conditions which affect your driving mechanics — return stronger than ever here. But the notable major addition has to be the dense, gorgeous Japanese landscapes, which yield a wide range of landmasses, awe-inspiring landmarks and mountains, organic-feeling wildernesses, and (relatively) bustling cityscapes — all crammed into a truly huge, seamless biome that dwarfs even the Mexico setting of the prior game. Whether coasting through the hilly, snowy regions of the north, zipping across coastal highways towards the firework-spouting Horizon festival at night, or swiftly delivering food to customers through vibrant and tight Tokyo streets, there was scarcely a moment I wasn't entranced