As a latecoming fan of truly scary games, the last 12 months have given me some genuinely enjoyable brown-trouser escapades like Resident Evil Requiem, Silent Hill f, Hollowbody, and Crisol: Theater of Idols. I never thought that Forza Horizon 6, of all things, would give me the single biggest fright.
My day job is working for a university in England, and it’s the busiest time of year: exams, major research projects, loads of events, and everything else that happens on a campus that’s the size of a small town. On top of that, I’ve just come back from holiday, so the work has stacked up, and I only just got the chance to play FH6 this month.
An unwritten rule in my job (and, I hope, yours) is that you never video-call people unless you’ve agreed to do so in advance. If someone rings you out of the blue, there’s a small chance they’re new to the company, or just impatient or rude. The most likely scenario in my line of work is that something serious has happened.
After I clocked off from work after a stressful week, I booted up Forza Horizon 6 to get my last few speed zones and roads. At 6:30pm, there’s an incoming Teams call on my PC. I paused the game and scrambled to my computer, nearly accidentally punting my dog down the stairs in the process, and sat in my desk chair, but… nothing. No call. No notification. No drama. But then, I was called again.
I looked at my TV. Another player’s ghost was on screen — an Autozam AZ-1, the cheekiest of all the cars — had its horn set to “Microsoft Teams Meeting”. It blurted out the first two notes a couple more times before doing a donut around my car, then driving off towards Tokyo City. Its job and, by extension, me, had been completely done.
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As a basic bitch when it comes to FH car horns, I’m a sucker for Grunt Birthday Party or Windows XP Shutdown. But nearly five years have passed since Forza Horizon 5, and FH6 is clearly keeping up with the times. Most of us are slaves to Teams in our day jobs, and the inclusion of the call tone is a work of sadistic (and entirely on-brand) genius.
What I didn’t realize was that I’d already unlocked the Microsoft Teams Meeting horn, most likely from a Super Wheelspin alongside 5,000 credits and a mk5 Volkswagen Golf, as seems to be the case with every single one of these “rewards”. Naturally, I decided to return the favor. By jingo, it’s the most fun you’ll get from FH6’s freeroam mode.
All you have to do is quietly drive up to someone actively roaming. Even better, wait just behind a player in a menu, until they unpause. Give them the horn, and they’re straight in the menu. They’ll probably figure it out quickly (notably quicker than I did), but will usually result in you getting the most sarcastic phrase in their quick-chat lexicon before driving off. One person followed me for four minutes, honking their standard horn. It was weirdly exciting.
Far be it from me to, say, recommend you visit the Hakone Nanamagari drift zone, A.K.A. the 340K big boy, and find a nice quiet corner to park on, perhaps behind the tree like, before hitting the horn for a passing car. That may be a little harsh. (NB: Don’t bother with Formula Drift cars at all; the Toyota Acty with the 770-ish tune is the only thing you’ll ever need, even though it’s still a challenge, as FH6’s drift zones are still the most brutal in the series.)
Otherwise, Forza Horizon 6 has been, I dunno, broadly fine? I’ve put a good 800 hours into the series so far, but only around 25 into this one, and I don’t see myself playing it loads in the coming weeks. After getting all the mascots, boards, roads, and three-star stunts, I’m happily working through the story mode for posterity.
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the game — aside from the voice acting, which is still as anodyne as ever — but it’s surprisingly safe, and it doesn’t feel like a massive step up, even though it’s the first one I’ve comfortable played in Quality Mode, which looks great with the blurring. Fingers crossed that Forza Horizon 6 scratches an itch in other ways beyond horn-based antics, but I already feel like I’m waiting for the DLC.