Open-world racing, when done right, is some of the most fun you can have in any game. The feeling of getting behind the wheel of your favorite supercar, overtaking opponents, and zipping through beautiful landscapes is like no other. Currently, few games flawlessly capture that feeling quite like Forza Horizon 5 and The Crew Motorfest.
Forza Horizon 5 was launched back in 2021, and it did not fail to meet the fans’ expectations, setting a gold standard for open-world racing. Two years later, The Crew Motorfest was released by Ubisoft, showcasing the festival spirit of Hawaii.
However, while both of these games are different, they come from racing series that are now quite mature. One pulls you in with its boundless exploration, and the other with its curated mayhem. But which one is the better game?
Hawaii Vs Mexico
Start your journey in The Crew Motorfest, and O’ahu will hit you like a tropical cocktail. It isn’t a vast continent, but a delicately crafted 10-square-kilometer area, hiding stunt ramps launching you over rainforests and azure bays. The island truly feels alive thanks to the rainbow-painted buses, DJ booths booming reggae remixes, and live concerts that draw NPC crowds.
In addition to feeling alive, every aspect of the island gives the feeling that the developer paid attention. Sand deforms under your tires, puddles ripple when it rains, and vegetation bends according to how your vehicle powerslides over them. What’s crucial is how activities, like photo ops, drift zones, and hidden collectibles, are placed so effectively. The island may feel small, but it is perfectly engineered to ensure players never traverse empty space.
Compared to O’ahu, Forza Horizon 5’s Mexico spans over 100 square kilometers of distinct biomes that shift from misty jungles to deserts and street markets. In Forza Horizon 5, highways are carved through canyons, volcanoes emerge on the horizon, and the weather stays dynamic, from scorching heat to a monsoon. It does not ignore the beauty in imperfection: potholed rural paths, shaky bridges, and muddy roads.
The more you adventure, the better the rewards you will get. Aerial tours unveil hidden barns with classic rides, and expeditions unlock outposts in the wild. However, as the map is so vast, it can feel empty at times and become boring. While Forza’s Mexico is an unforgettable journey, rewarding deep discovery, The Crew Motorfest feels more alive.
Progression
Players usually have a love-hate relationship with Forza’s progression system, as you can expand your garage faster than most other open-world racing games. From the start, races award you with an abundance of credits and wheelspins, allowing you to purchase hypercars like the Koenigsegg Jesko by hour five.
The way your House levels climb is through accolades, which are unlocked by completing simple challenges like smashing boards or taking horizon photos. One thing critics complain about most is the super wheelspins, saying that grinding in a game where a lucky spin hands you the meta machine is useless. Sure, it gives a dopamine rush, but long-term players eventually hit a plateau.
In contrast, The Crew Motorfest has a structured grind that gives its players a purpose to play. It channels your efforts through 60+ themed playlists like “Hypercar Heaven” or “Muscle Car Mania.” Each of these playlists contains around 15 races or drifts, unlocking story beats, Bucks(in-game currency), and loot crates filled with performance parts.
The Crew Motorfest has an RPG-esque twist to it: dismantle duplicates to buy upgrades, and participate in weekly Summits where your best lap is displayed on a global leaderboard for a chance to win exclusive vans and parts. To increase replayability, Revisit XP makes players replay old playlists for blue-glowing bonuses. With that said, there are many who love the freedom and sandbox nature of FH5, so this is purely personal preference.
Driving Feel And Physics
The Crew Motorfest leans towards an arcade style with a twist: vehicles feel light on throttle, specializing in powerslides. The physics shine better in chaos, when your vehicle smashes fences, and the ground gets deformed under the chassis. The rain droplets hit surfaces smoothly, and the wipers streak the windshield just like in real life.
The handling feels more fun than precise, with bikes leaning intuitively for trail carving. Although stock vehicles require few upgrades for true competitiveness. The sound design is top-notch, especially when you hear those crip exhaust cracks.
When you move on to Forza Horizon 5, the physics wrap around you like a bucket seat. Driving feels weighty, yet predictable, all while being infinitely tunable. The cars grip tarmac with simcade precision: AWD machines carve apexes with planted assurance, while rear-wheel-drive need throttle finess to avoid oversteer.
If we talk about the suspension, it perfectly compresses over curbs and tires deform realistically. The drive is for everyone; it can be forgiving or extremely competitive when you want it to be. Forza still comes out on top in this regard.
Variety
Where The Crew Motorfest truly excels is the amount and variety of distinct vehicles it has. Beyond 600+ cars, bikes, boats, planes, and whatever you can think of, the game has it for you to enjoy. Not only the machines, but the playlists are also unique to themselves: “Made in Japan” represents JDM drifts, and “Demolition Derby” unleashes destruction derbies.
The Grand Races allow up to 28 players across land/sea/air, and Demolition Royale transforms battle royale into a vehicular mode. To prevent the players from getting bored, modes are rotated weekly and kept fresh.
On the flip side, Forza specializes in the different kinds of races it has to offer. Street scene showdowns in Guanajuato’s alleys, dirt rallies surrounding volcano trails, drag strips measuring perfect launches, PR stunts chaining jumps for multipliers, and Rivals ghosting global ghosts.
To increase the thrill even more, EventLab empowers custom track-building, custom circuits, obstacle courses, and even space races. Motorfest obsesses over different kinds of machines the world has to offer, while Forza focuses on a single element and tunes it to perfection.
The Bottom Line
Both of these games are great, but both are from from perfect. The Crew Motorfest gets repetitive at times with its checkpoint-based races, while Forza Horizon 5’s progression isn’t exactly the strongest. Both also have their upsides; one has better driving, while the other has more vehicle variety, for example. The one you choose ultimately comes down to what you’re looking for. Alternatively, you might want to wait for Forza Horizon 6 instead, which is going to fix a lot of gripes we have with the current installment.
