Although Series 39 — or "Back to the 90s", disregarding the apostrophe catastrophe — was previously teased in the last stream and of course in-game in the "Coming Soon" tab, it's a first look at what Playground Games has in store for the 90s-themed Series which will run from Thursday October 10 until Thursday November 7 — taking us just past the game's third birthday.
Along with the usual new content, Series 39 will see a feature returning from Forza Horizon 4 to help players fill in blanks on their car rosters. The update that will bring S39 is due at around 1800UTC on Monday October 7.
Forza Horizon 5 Series 39: Horizon Backstage
Eagle-eyed fans will have spotted this popping up in a certain place during S38, but now it's confirmed: Backstage is… well, back.
Horizon Backstage returns from FH4, and it brings with it the chance to collect some previously Playlist-exclusive cars that you may have missed. In essence it's a further storefront, with the currency being collectible Backstage Passes.
Along with a small and seemingly permanent roster of cars, players will be able to vote on a pair of vehicles to be added to Backstage each week. They'll then appear in the area — which you can access through the pause menu or a small location just north of the main Festival site — for purchase at the price of one Pass apiece.
All players will receive one free Backstage Pass, but thereafter you'll need to win or buy them. S39 will make one Pass available each week for hitting 40pt on the season playlist, and there's a second available for 1000FP in the Forzathon Shop. We're not sure how this will play out going forward though.
It's perhaps worth noting that FH4 gained this feature just slightly more than a year before it was replaced, arriving in October 2020 with Series 27. Could this be a sign FH6 is now getting its boots on?
Forza Horizon 5 Series 39 New Free Cars
This month's list of new cars is the smallest to date, with a total of four vehicles available. That's not bolstered by a paid DLC pack or, like S38, a community-wide free reward car either.
You can collect them in the usual way, with one brand-new car available for scoring 20 points within each of the four seasons. Hitting 40 points in each season, as noted above, now awards a Horizon Backstage Pass.
It's a curious selection of some more attainable 90s' icons — the sort of thing that wouldn't look out of place as a Gran Turismo 7 update… — so it's hard to pick out a headliner, but Playground Games has gone with the 1997 Toyota Soarer which you can pick up in summer.
A sibling vehicle to the Chaser added in S38, the larger Soarer uses an updated version of the 2.5-liter straight six 1JZ engine found in that car but with the twin-turbo setup switched to a single turbo in mid-1996 and bolstered with variable valve timing.
If it's big cruisers you're after, the winter season reward is one of the greatest ever. The Aston Martin Lagonda — actually the official name of the company too, since 1975, after acquiring Lagonda the previous year — was a wild redesign of a more classic Aston Martin shape and didn't entirely catch approval when launched in 1976. This 1990 model was the second and last refresh of the Towns-designed wedge, with a CRT-based digital instrument panel (the original being LED-based and the first in any car ever) and a 5.7-liter V12.
That does leave the little Mitsubishi FTO as the odd-one out in this company, but you can pick up the compact coupe during the autumn season. Its two-liter V6, equipped with era-appropriate variable valve timing, is good for almost 200hp delivered to the front wheels only.
Forza Horizon Series 39: New Achievements
Five new Achievements will also be added, all connected to the Hide & Seek mode added in Series 38.
If you've already completed the challenges therein, you'll automatically be awarded the Achievements, so you won't need to start all over again — and they're not entirely unrelated to the in-game Accolades that arrived with the game mode last month.
The full list is as follows:
- Never Back Down: Reach a Streak of 50 in Hide & Seek (50GS)
- Dedicated to the Cause: Reach a Streak of 20 in Hide & Seek (30GS)
- Bounty Hunter: Complete 25 matches of Hide & Seek as a Seeker (20GS)
- The Hidden: Complete 5 matches of Hide & Seek as a Hider (20GS)
- Hider and Seeker: Complete a match of Hide & Seek as both the Hider and the Seeker (10GS)
Forza Horizon 5 Series 39 New Collectibles & Other Changes
There's new clothing items, collectibles, and badges all adding to the 90s' feel this month.
A special 90s' outfit is available to all players who complete the Photo Challenge during the first, Summer season of Series 39. That just requires you to photograph the Impreza 22B.
The penultimate season sees the debut of the new collectible: the Inflatable VHS. This over-sized, pneumatic VHS tape (VHS being an abbreviation for the "Video Home System" technology; the collectible is the video tape cassette) pops up in Autumn and is dotted about the Street Scene outpost for you to punt about for a reward. It's also added to EventLab for your own personal use.
Three new Badges are also available and beware that they are time-limited: you'll need to complete the tasks during this Series only. You'll need to equip the collectible outfit, take a photo of the new Soarer vehicle, and drive 10 miles (16km) in any car from the 1990s — which you should do organically anyway — to earn the three.
A handful of minor changes are also in the update, mainly addressing some bugs with the Hide & Seek mode introduced in S38.
Of course there's also a little teaser for Series 40 too, with the official name of "Horizon Track Day". That's going to bring back the Stadium Oval as well as an unspecified collectible items, along with adding new cars and new EventLab props. We're likely to find out more about this right at the start of November, and as that also brings the game to its third anniversary there may be more besides.
