Forza Horizon 5's First Update Is Now Live, 20GB For Xbox Series X|S

Preloaded the day it was available. No update for me yet though.

Maybe they can update it to unlock early, lol. I suppose this update is for getting the game in review shape. Opencritic, says reviews go up at 12:01 am on the 4th. People are probably reviewing now.

Previews went out early this month too. See yah in MEXICO!

Friday can't come soon enough 😁

The install was 103gb pre update. Before saying it's increasing anything, it would be good to check.

Thai game better not end up like COW Modern Warfare! I can do without another 200 odd gig single game install.

Im not even done with the first 112GB yet on Xbox 1 smh

And this is why I'll wait until I'll actually be ready to play the game sometime next year. There's already too many really large games on Xbox in comparison to PS5 due to lack of good compression and physical copies sometimes being useless in comparison. Updates tend to my huge because of that too, so waiting instead of probably downloading 200 GB worth of the game and updates over time makes more sense. Hard drive space is finally becoming a bit of an issue because of that, and I've already had to download an insane amount recently because of bloated file sizes (Halo 5, Master Chief Collection, now onto Quantum Break's insane 159 GB for the forum's Game Club).

Not trying to start an argument. Just stating a fact about how much bigger some games and updates are on Xbox because of them not implementing really good compression into the Series X's SSD. Also, I was way late to the Forza Horizon 4 party, so I still have some stuff I want to do in it before I'd even consider playing 5. I'm sure it will be great though.

Can someone just clarify for me...I want to play this on 5th November through GamePass. Do I buy the “premium add-ons bundle”, and then (pre)download the standard version of the game?

@Nightcrawler71 that’s the way to do it, yes.

@jongred thanks. Also, a notification came up on my Xbox today asking me to make sure my billing info is correct as I have a preorder - the only game I have preordered is FH5 but I’m playing that through GP (I never went through a payment screen when I started downloading it) is this normal?

Got the patch downloaded last night. I'm still fully expecting FH5 & Halo Infinite to take up 300GB of space post a few updates.

@Krzzystuff Yeah I'm planning on deleting something big like Borderlands 3 or COD CW to make room for Halo Infinite.

@KilloWertz

"Just stating a fact about how much bigger some games and updates are on Xbox because of them not implementing really good compression into the Series X's SSD. "

Actually it seems they did implement good compression, see COD Vanguard game file size (you even observed it). I find it very odd that a MS first party studio would not properly implement it....

MS really needs to sort out their compression. I generally like the xsx platform over PS5, but file sizes like this are embarrassing. If I didn't have gig fiber, I wouldn't even bother. It's a first party game. Use your freaking compression!

@S1ayeR74 I'm pretty sure most Thai games will end up like COW.

@KilloWertz better get used to games being big. As for the difference in file size.. it has less to do with a difference in compression and more to do with the consoles use of completely different API's from one another along with often times higher resolution textures and shader effects along with additional shader data like the shader cache used for instant resume as part of direct storage (PS5 has no shader cache) but it's OS and reserved space for the OS takes over 200 more gigs than the Xbox.

Quite honestly it's up to the developers and how they optimize (or don't optimize) the structure of their games. An optimized game for both consoles is usually within 2-5 gigs of each other.

A game that's been better optimized for PS5 will usually be 20-30% smaller. Usually this happens because they just take the PC version and port it to Xbox since they share the same API (dx12u) which can lead to them leaving duplicate files in the install package even though they aren't needed. That's lazy and unacceptable but what can you do?

That same game on PS5 uses a completely different API for literally everything. So they have to spend more time on the PS5 version and since the internal drive has less space Sony likely mandated the removal of any unnecessary files or the developers just did it anyways because they had to completely redo the folder and file structure.

Sony is also a couple revisions ahead in their SDK due to it being an extension of the PS4 SDK. Microsoft being a couple revisions behind could also be a reason for some size and performance differences. By the end of 2022 the Xbox should be quite dominant in multi platform games but file sizes will still be larger due to the assets used. Although hopefully not much larger. With a new SDK Microsoft could also change the compression methods they use. It's likely they will and also likely they started off playing it safe until they could see just how fast the PS5 custom SSD controller would be compared to a regular SSD combined with Direct Storage aka Velocity architecture...which is also part of Win11.

The Xbox has dedicated decompression hardware that's just as fast as the PS5's. Yes Sony uses Kraken for their compression but technically Microsoft could too since it's part of RAD Game Tools. It's likely Microsoft uses zlib because of game suspension compatibility and is a hold over from the x1x. Again this will likely change with SDK revisions. Having 5 games in quick resume is no easy task so if you know zlib works you would use it while working on something a little more custom that also has better compression or you would license kraken compression and try to make that work with suspension of multiple titles.

It's more likely they will use something custom instead of kraken simply because I doubt they will let them see the source code and they would absolutely have to see it in order to make the 2 compatible and do so without breaking older games still using zlib.

@Nightcrawler71 premium add-ons come with the preload install.

@d0x3601 I appreciate the amount of effort you put into your response, but in the end, I will likely continue to gravitate towards PS5 versions of games because it's so much quicker to install them (especially if it's a physical copy). I know it doesn't matter as much for some, but I have DSL internet and I can still have a game installed in an hour at most on the PS5 since a lot of games are either mostly or completely on the disc other than a patch. It's a joke that games like Far Cry 6 or even Gears Tactics basically have nothing on the disc, and obviously the fact that some 1st party titles are gigantic for little reason.

There was a time when there were updates, there were also patchnotes. Would be handy if they would just say WHY there is a 20gb update.

@KilloWertz Oh no worries, but if you're main reason is install times I'd maybe reconsider at some point. Nothing wrong with owning both.

I got a series x at launch and was impressed when it ran AC Valhalla and watch dogs legion better than my PC which had a 2080ti at the time. Plus the dash is so fantastic you can kill hours just going through a games forum and the looking for game section is great... Don't even get me started on gamepass. Fantastic value and If you buy a 3 month sub to you can use rewards (earned by playing stuff) to pay for it. Using rewards I'm paid up for gamepass ultimate until May 2023 and about every month and a half I extend it by another 3.

I also tried to get a ps5 but I didn't try to preorder which was dumb. My main reason was to play God of War and Ghost of Tsushima at 60fps but now that they are hitting PC I'll play them at 120... Well 117 because of gsync.

That post might look like allot of effort but my head is full of useless information and I was killing a few min while my girlfriend was finishing some terrible show lol. I think it's good to know why things may be one way and also to clear up some misinformation or misconceptions.

I know most people won't read 99% of that post but that's fine. I wrote it for people who like deep dives and they will find it via Google.

So that's all I got... Oh one more thing. I understand the pain that is DSL so I hear you on that one. I have gigabit and I'm grateful that it's available because going back might kill me. I downloaded Forza horizon 5 the other day, it was 102 gigs and it took 27min. So I'm constantly uninstalling games and downloading them again a few days later because it doesn't matter but most people.. the majority actually have 30Mbps or less. If your ISP says 30Mbps what they really mean is 15Mbps and every once and a while you will get 25 lol. It's crap. I hope something better is in your area soon.

@Thrussted a 20 gig update doesn't mean the game will be 20 gigs larger. As for an why it's 20 gigs...

I'd imagine between the game going gold and now they finished up a bunch of cars that were close to done but not quite. They probably fixed a ton of bugs, tweaked tons of physics data etc. That stuff adds up but it will also likely replace data that's already there so the game might end up slightly bigger but not 20 gigs bigger unless the majority of the data is cars that weren't there before. Cars take up the most space.

@d0x3601 Oh don't get me wrong. It's more of a curiosity thing than anything. I like to know of they tweaked something, added something, fixed something that I myself have experienced or can check. Mostly updates are positive news, so I don't see why it should be kept in the dark anyway.

@Thrussted I was actually curious too so I checked this morning and the install size is 106 gigs so it went up by roughly 4 gigs.

If I had to guess I'd say the extra data is some cars that were finished up after going gold and the patch itself was 20 gigs because it fixed a bunch of bugs and adjusted a bunch of physics values plus the new cars.

If it were a post launch patch they would post the notes on the Forza site. Also if you download the game now (I uninstalled it to check) it's 106 gigs so whatever changes they made were rolled into the main installation which is nice for anyone who hasn't installed yet.

The 5th can't come soon enough... I don't know if it is just premium edition that gets early access or both non standard editions but the sooner I can jump into this the better. The rest of my year will probably be split between this and Halo infinite. I'll beat the campaign before I jump back into mp to give them time to tune the inevitable launch day issues with mp and then in Jan I'll finally be able to finish god of war. I stopped on PS4 pro because I wanted to play at 60 on PS5 but I don't have one yet and it's coming to PC so I'm happy

@d0x3601 No, installation/file sizes isn't the main reason why I'd go back to the PS5 as my main console. PlayStation has been my main platform for over a decade when I got the PS3 late in that console generation, switching from an Xbox One, and never really looked back. I always end up getting an Xbox too.

I have fond memories of my time with the Xbox and Xbox 360 as well. There's also things they do better than Sony, like obviously Game Pass and backwards compatibility. I'm happy to have a Series X as well as I think it's a really good system. Other than the SSD, I think it's actually a better system. At least build wise since it's a simple, but very effective way to combat the heat and keeping noise to a minimum. I also play Assassin's Creed games on Xbox since my brother plays them too and I like to compare achievements with him.

It comes down to games in the end. Xbox has some good ones of course, and potentially plenty of really good ones coming, but Sony has done nothing in that regard for me to move back to Xbox permanently. Xbox has to prove themselves over the next few years, and if they deliver on the massive potential of these acquisitions, then I'll happily reconsider making my Series X my primary console again.

As for internet, we have cable internet, but the builder of the houses in the area really went cheap with some things, including the wiring in the house. I can't have cable internet, and no matter how much I'd love to have it, it's not worth likely spending thousands of dollars to re-wire the house. I'm stuck with "10 Mbps", so it would have taken me roughly 20-25 hours to download Forza Horizon 5 when it took you 27 minutes. I can download roughly 4-4.5 GB per hour.

Lord, file sizes are getting ridiculous. Cloud gaming better hurry up and get better because I don't want to deal with installing and uninstalling any more.

@KilloWertz post 1 of 2 Oh man that's rough! Couldn't you take the wire directly from where it comes into the house and setup the modem there? I don't know if you have a basement but this will assume you do and that's where the cable comes into the house.

So you setup the modem using the main line coming in. Take a splitter and split that main line, one to modem and the other will just connect to the existing wiring. Then drill a small hole somewhere in the ceiling that would allow you to run an Ethernet cable up and to. WiFi 6 based router. WiFi 6 is designed for low latency and high speeds plus it can support more connections and best of all unlike previous generations of wifiz wifi6 won't split the bandwidth in half for every device connected.

This way your wiring won't matter. Also if you want even lower latency (but trust me it's already low enough for gaming but if you wanted lower latency) you could actually use your homes electrical wiring to act like Ethernet wiring. You plug a device into an outlet (same one as your router is easiest) then plug an Ethernet cable from router to device. Then where you want a fully wired connection you plug a 2nd one of these electrical as Ethernet in and then run an Ethernet cable from it to your console or PC etc.

My gaming story is kinda like yours but the opposite. I had a PS1 and PS2 and loved them both. Then the original Xbox came out and I switched pretty quickly. I'd still use my PS2 for exclusives but any multiplatform title was always better on the Xbox. Great example is the splinter cell series. The PS2 a/GameCube versions don't have the same lighting system as the Xbox so shadows aren't as good and 95% of shootable lights were removed. They also had to modify the maps. They made them smaller and simplified the geometry.

Then xbox live launched and it was just so good. When the 360/PS3 came out I ended up getting a 360 at launch and I managed to snag a PS3 right before they removed backwards compatibility. I only used the PS3 for exclusives and even then I didn't like the Uncharted series and a good number of their big 1st party stuff. I usually found the games to be gorgeous but lacking substance. Uncharted for example was fantastic looking but it's gameplay was very basic. Shooting felt meh, the puzzle stuff was ok but much less complex (and easier) than puzzles in Tomb Raider at the time. This was when crystal dynamics took over and made anniversary which was a remake of the original and then the 3 other games before they rebooted the series to what we know today.

Post 1 of 2

@KilloWertz post 2 of 2 Plus Xbox Live was just significantly better than PSN. I also never liked the dual shock design. I prefer offset analog sticks.

Then we get to Xb1 and PS4. I got Xb1 at launch and I may have also gotten a PS4 at launch or very soon after... I can't remember which. Despite (base) PS4 running games better I still bought the Xbox version (usually, not always) or the PC version. If the game had multiplayer that I 2qe interested in I'd buy it on Xbox because again xbl was significantly better than PSN.. well PS+ now.

Then we got the upgraded consoles and the Xbox was now the more powerful console. I still got both day 1. My PS4 Pro was used just for exclusives. I actually really enjoyed TLOU on PS4 despite disliking it on 3 simply because having it run at 60fps made the clunky shooting feel better which allowed me to enjoy the story. I liked Spiderman but at the same time it felt... Lacking. Like every spiderman game before it had incredibly repetitive side missions but a significantly better main story. The web swinging was fun but not as fun as the 360/PS3 Spiderman 2 which is the one where each trigger controlled an arm/web shooter and you could also do all sorts of tricks which I wish had been part of the PS4 version... Beyond the 3ish "tricks" that game has. I Absolutely loved God of War and Ghosts of Tsushima but I stopped playing both because I knew they would run at 60 on PS5.

So I got the series x on launch and planned on getting a ps5 around the March after launch. I couldn't find one although I wasn't looking super hard. Then I heard about God of War coming to PC before the GeForce leak. Once I heard that I decided I'd just wait for a price cut or redesign z whatever came first.

At this point Xbox live is just so far beyond ps+ it's crazy. It is basically it's own social network along with stuff like clan (group) support built into the dash for every game. It also has better online play, matchmaking and higher quality voice chat.

Then there's all the pro consumer moves Microsoft has made since the x1x while at the same time Sony was starting to act like PS2 era Sony again which means some anti consumer things as a well as censorship in games... Sony would censor when Nintendo would not... Which is just weird!

So I'm primarily a PC gamer. I have a 5800x and 3080ti FTW3 Ultra. I usually buy games that I only plan on playing single player on PC and anything MP I'll use my series x because generally there's less latency, better matchmaking and most importantly... No cheating. PC multiplayer is just full of cheaters. Usually every match in any semi popular game will have at least 1 person cheating. Hopefully Windows 11 helps solve that. At the very least 11 has direct storage which is the velocity architecture from the Xbox minus the dedicated decompression hardware... Although a PC is significantly more powerful than any console so not having a decompression chip beyond the CPU isn't a big deal.

If Sony ends up putting all their exclusives on PC then I probably will end up not buying one at all. I did buy the controller to try out the triggers and new haptics and it was cool for a couple hours but then the trigger gimmick got old so I rarely use it but I'll probably use it for any exclusives from PS5 unless it's a fps or 3rd person shooter... Then I'll use an Xbox elite 2 because I have significantly better aim due to the better analog sticks and the offset design of them.

@d0x3601 I never thought to look for that. I have no idea where it comes into the houses, but obviously it has to be somewhere. Thanks for the advice there.

If I want to be technical, it isn't completely different. I had also owned every PlayStation back to the original, so I technically switched from PlayStation to Xbox at first once I bought the original Xbox after Halo 2 came out. I didn't game as often as I started to after experiencing Halo 2 though. Obviously I didn't switch back to PlayStation until Metal Gear Solid 4 game out and was bundled with the PS3. I got one probably a few months after that came out. Also obvious is that my experience with their 1st party titles on the PS3 was significantly more positive for me to basically completely switch over after buying a PS3, with Uncharted possibly being my favorite series of all time (at least close to it) and MGS4 being one of my best gaming experiences I've ever had.

Switching basically killed my desire to play multiplayer games online anymore, which I suppose was expected given that while you could play the same multi-platform games online on PSN, the whole reason for being on the platform is for the single player games.

I'm glad to own both new gen consoles even though I probably could have waited for a Series X until sometime next year since the only true Series X game I've played on it so far is The Medium. They are cross gen, but still, I don't plan on playing either Forza Horizon 5 or Halo Infinite until sometime next year. It's not a huge deal though since I would have gotten one eventually to play all of the RPGs and such that are coming.

Sony is obviously far from perfect as a company, acting more like the beginning of the PS3 generation, but I'm more concerned about the hardware and the games. That's where PlayStation has delivered, minus a bit of power that the Series X has over the PS5. I really like the haptic feedback, but I also turn off the adaptive triggers sometimes. It depends on the game, as a handful actually use them well (A Plague Tale: Innocence), while some use it sparingly enough that I don't worry about it (Miles Morales, Kena, etc.). I could care less about it with FPS games though, as it just makes it harder to play and not more realistic to me.

For me, it boils down to that I don't game online at all anymore, so I go with the platform that gives me the best single player experiences overall imo. Regardless, if Xbox delivers on the potential of all these acquisitions, then things could be very different even for me in a couple of years.

@KilloWertz you can pick whatever consoles you want. I have both of them and while I like most of sonys exclusives I just find the Xbox to be a faster and better machine. I also greatly prefer it's dash. On the base and x1x I didn't like it because it was slow but that was obviously a cpu issue.

I remember having DSL so I feel your pain. I'm up to 2 gigabits which is fantastic but I know how limited it's availability is. I need it for work otherwise I'd probably get gigabit because it's only $70 a month after some negotiation with Comcast retention dept.

Eventually game sizes will be about the same I imagine... At least once they dump crossgen. They seems to be why Xbox games are bigger. That and they don't compress the file as much. They do it that way so the very 2nd the download is finished you start playing... Well a good number of games let you start playing during the dl.