Forza Horizon 5’s Rally Adventure map doesn’t seem to feature that much dirt

When Microsoft announced a rally-themed expansion for Forza Horizon 5, we were beside ourselves with excitement, thanks to the propagation of rally fans of late at Traxion.GG.

Take our favourite open-world driving game and throw in a McRae-era Focus rally car and pacenotes – hyped.

But then we realised that the Ford was the only rally car set to be included, the rest are variations of side-by-sides or trucks. Now we’ve seen the map – the orange lines are dirt, white are asphalt roads – and it looks as if the amount of dirt-based rally roads is around, and perhaps even less than, half the total area.

Now, we’re fans of asphalt rallying, no question, and the reveal stream by developers Playground games highlighted both dirt and asphalt – but we weren’t expecting quite as many roads as this.

Throw together the setting that allows you to not even use any of the rally-based features and just road race like the rest of the game, and we’re starting to become more than a little sceptical towards the upcoming paid DLC.

However, if any game can pull it off, it’s this one. During its unveiling, the team was quick to highlight how the roads are narrower, tighter and bumpier than the existing Mexican layout, so while from the map view alone it looks questionable, we’re still very much looking forward to trying it out for ourselves.

Rally Adventure is the second major expansion for Horizon 5, following the Hot Wheels addition in July last year, and will be a premium add-on, unless you already own a number of certain packs or versions. It releases 29th March 2023.