Forza Horizon 4 takes us to Britain with dynamic seasonal weather

With last year's Forza Motorsport 7 in the books, it's time to turn our attention back to the immensely successful Forza Horizon series. As expected, Forza Horizon 4 was announced by Playground Games during Microsoft's E3 2018 press conference today. The latest game in the Forza Horizon series is going to be bringing some interesting new features with it, including a new setting and dynamically shifting seasons.

To give us a closer look at what we can expect from Forza Horizon 4, Playground Games' Ralph Fulton took the stage for a brief time this afternoon. He announced that Forza Horizon 4 will take place in "beautiful, historic Britain," and that the seasons will change dynamically for the entire Forza Horizon 4 community.

Forza Horizon veterans will know that dynamic weather plays a big role in these games, but having the seasons shift entirely offers a fresh spin on that. As you can imagine, these seasonal changes will have a big effect on Forza Horizon 4's world. In spring, for instance, the weather will be more rainy than usual, while in winter, the lakes will freeze and unlock areas that are inaccessible in other seasons.

Fulton also said that Forza Horizon 4 will run at 60 frames per second on Xbox One X, which is a fairly big deal for racing games like this. We were given a look at a brief demo for the game during the press conference, and while we should probably be a bit skeptical of what we see on stage, the footage that was previewed definitely looked great. Here's hoping that Forza Horizon 4 continues to look as beautiful as we get closer to – and eventually move beyond – release.

Speaking of release, Fulton actually provided us with a solid launch date during his presentation. He says that Forza Horizon 4 will be here on October 2, 2019. Like Forza Horizon 3, this new title will be playable on both Xbox One and Windows 10, but Fulton also said that Forza Horizon 4 will be available on Xbox Games Pass from release date. We'll have more information for you soon, so stay tuned.