Accessibility Review: Forza Horizon 6 – Xbox Series X
Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift
Hello, dear readers! My name is Victor, and I am a totally blind gaming, technology, and entertainment journalist. I am also an ambassador for universal design, an accessibility consultant, advocate, tester, and public speaker.
Forza Horizon 6 is the latest open-world racing game from Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios, launching on Xbox and PC via Game Pass on May 19, and later this year on PS5. Thanks to Xbox Nordic, we received early access to the Xbox version and managed to spend quite some time with it on the Series X.
This will mainly be an accessibility review from a blind perspective. But before we get there, let me tell you a little about the game itself and share some general impressions from my wife, Alina.
In Forza Horizon 6, we explore a vast and breathtaking version of Japan in over 550 real-world cars, with a campaign playable solo or in co-op. We begin as a tourist and must prove that we have what it takes to join the Horizon Festival as a rookie driver, all while discovering Japan and completing our Collection Journal. First, we qualify for the Festival in the Horizon Invitational, then rise through the ranks in faster cars and earn new Wristbands on our way to becoming a Horizon Legend.
Japan is a place where the stunning contrast between rural and urban environments comes together beautifully, as we discover the secrets hidden within Horizon’s largest map yet. The world is full of verticality, diverse environments and spectacular driving opportunities. As we cruise through the suburbs, iconic downtown streets, docks, and industrial districts of Tokyo City, it quickly becomes clear that FH6 features the largest urban area ever seen in a Forza Horizon game.
Although I’m totally blind, I love fast cars and racing games, and I’ve always been a huge fan of the Forza franchise, both Motorsport and Horizon. Recently, I even purchased the entire The Fast and the Furious collection from Apple TV.
Alina tells me that FH6 looks absolutely stunning on the Xbox Series X connected to an LG G5 OLED TV, and she had a lot of fun playing it. Whether you are returning to Forza Horizon or trying the series for the first time, chances are you are going to have a great time with this game.
Now, let’s move to the reason you are here: the accessibility part of the review
Forza Horizon 6 is advertised as the most approachable Horizon game yet, and that is true, although some things are still missing for totally blind players like us. There are many accessibility and customization options available, including Granular High Contrast Mode, Car Proximity Radar, American and British Sign Language support, and AutoDrive. These settings should allow more people than ever before to experience the beautiful cars, great music, and spectacular locations of the Horizon Festival.
Although there is no sign of the fantastic Blind Driving Assist features from the latest Forza Motorsport, FH6 is still more accessible to totally blind players than FH5. The issue with the map is still there, but if we zoom out using the right stick, it becomes much easier to locate races and events. A sound plays every time we move over an icon on the map, and we are given the option to set a marker or fast travel.
Thankfully, we only need to use the map a few times at the beginning, until we are introduced to Anna, the Automatic Natural Navigation Assistant, or at least I think that is how it presented itself.
Anna is extremely useful. We can enable it by pressing down on the D-pad, and after that we get access to several options, although you really only need to remember two of them. Pressing left on the D-pad enables AutoDrive to a destination or, during a race, activates Race Mode, which basically takes control of the car and drives or races it toward the objective.
This feature is awesome. Not only because it can help players who simply want assistance or prefer to enjoy the picturesque views, but because I can easily see this technology being implemented in many other games, such as Grand Theft Auto or any title that requires traveling from point A to point B.
This feature, combined with the What’s Next function, which can be enabled by pressing right on the D-pad after calling Anna, makes FH6 the most accessible Forza Horizon game yet for players like us.
To illustrate, the What’s Next feature suggests a list of events that we need to complete in order to progress to the next phase of the festival. We press right on the D-pad, choose an event, Anna automatically places a marker on it, and then we can simply start driving if we have the steering and driving assists enabled, or just press left on the D-pad to activate AutoDrive.
When AutoDrive is enabled, we can activate a cinematic camera by pressing LB, while RB changes camera angles during driving. The same left D-pad command enables Race Mode during races. One thing worth mentioning is that there are no controller haptics when AutoDrive is active. I really hope the developers will eventually give us an option to keep vibrations enabled.
Just like in FH5, FH6 allows us to enable full driving assists, which lets us cruise around Japan by simply pressing RT. At least this way we still get controller vibrations.
Low-vision players can customize a huge number of settings and tailor the experience to their liking. Almost every interface element, color, and outline can be adjusted.
I’m also glad to see that ASL and BSL support are back for our deaf and hard-of-hearing friends, although I was a little disappointed that we did not receive audio descriptions like the ones available in Forza Motorsport.
I truly hope that, in the future, the development team will figure out how to bring Blind Driving Assists to Horizon as well, and maybe even add audio descriptions through a future update. A man can dream, right?
The narrator works reasonably well, but there are still some areas that are not fully voiced. The biggest issue appears when trying to use the Create menu, which allows players to build tracks. The narration simply stops working there, and I had to reboot the game to recover from it. So, for now, I would recommend avoiding the Create menu through Anna.
All that being said, Forza Horizon 6 is without a doubt the best-looking and most fun game in the series. It is colorful, packed with an enormous collection of cars, allows players to purchase mansions, features a diverse soundtrack, and offers a campaign filled with exciting events. I am sure most players will have an absolute blast with it, and hopefully many disabled and impaired gamers will also get the chance to escape into the festive atmosphere of Japan.
Forza Horizon 6 launches on Xbox Series X|S and PC through the Microsoft Store and Steam on May 19, 2026, with Early Access for Premium Edition owners beginning four days earlier on May 15. FH6 is also coming to PS5 later this year.
Review copy provided by Xbox Nordic.
Victor Dima
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