Forza Horizon 4 Includes 450-Plus Cars And Cross-Play Between Xbox One And PC

Forza Horizon 4 developer Playground Games, which was recently acquired by Microsoft, has shared some exciting new details on the Xbox One and PC racing game. During a meeting at E3 2018 this week, Playground's Ben Penrose spoke about how Forza Horizon 4 offers the "biggest paradigm shift" since the Forza Horizon series began back in 2012.

Seasons are one of the biggest new features for Horizon 4. The game, which is set in Britain, represents all four seasons, and each will change how the game looks and plays. For example, in autumn, leaves will cover the road (affecting driving conditions) and bring a golden hue to the game. In winter, you'll hear the wind cut through the trees. Penrose stressed that Playground worked hard to make sure the ambient audio was correct for each season.

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Additionally, the sky-captures from Horizon 3--where Playground records actual day and night skies and puts them in the game--returns for Horizon 4. The team spent an entire year capturing the sky to make it look as authentic as possible across all four seasons.

Horizon 4 is an online-enabled game (but can also be played offline; more on that later), and seasons are baked into this as well. A season lasts one week of real time, and each new season brings fresh content, every time. The in-game seasons change for everyone at the same time.

Like Horizon 3, the new game's world is filled with other human players. Penrose stressed that Horizon 4 is not an online-only game, however. If you want to play solo offline, the world will populate with Drivatars instead of other human players. "For some people, that's a deal-breaker," Penrose said about the always-online requirement that some games have.

If you do play online with other players, you may also be happy to know that you won't get griefed by other players if you don't want to. That's because other players are auto-ghosted. Alternatively, you can choose to play with other players as non-ghosts to grief them to your heart's desire.

Also new for Horizon 4 is the ability to re-wind time in online and pause the game. Additionally, there is quick-chat support via the D-pad for quick, simple things like "Let's go explore" and "follow me."

Here are some other things we learned about Horizon 4 this week:

• It will run at 60 FPS on Xbox One X.
• Each server can have up to 72 players on it.
• There are more than 450 cars in the game.
• Playground's acquisition by Microsoft gives the studio even more opportunities to collaborate with Forza Motorsport studio Turn 10.
• There is cross-play between Xbox One and PC.

Forza Horizon 4 launches on October 2 for Xbox One and PC. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more on the racing game in the days and weeks ahead.