Sucker Punch Productions took many by surprise when it dropped a new trailer for Ghost of Yōtei and announced a release date. As Atsu, players embark on a revenge tour to slay the Yōtei Six, who slaughtered her family and left her for dead. Interestingly, the overall structure differs from its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima. Atsu will pursue leads in Ezo and choose which member to slay first, with the region promising more complex locales. Speaking to Variety, creative directors Jason Connell and Nate Fox discussed how the Edo period influenced world design. “This is the most open game we’ve ever made,” said Fox. “One of the greatest joys is just getting lost. You let your curiosity guide you through the landscape. We view that as this holy moment that we want to uplift players so they can feel very present inside Hokkaido or Ezo, as it was called back when our game takes place. Ezo is a character in and of itself, filled with hidden secrets and an anthology of stories.” Connell added, “It’s just so wild and nature-filled. There’s an opportunity to tell a slightly more wild and rural version of this story than if it was in a major city. There are so many biomes to bring to life and so many majestic and beautiful locations to take inspiration from. There’s no way we could take it all, so we get to cherry-pick some of the most beautiful locations and bring them alive to our players.” That “wild” approach is also evident in the gameplay, as players seemingly have a wolf companion to fight alongside them. Though there’s still a lot to unravel, Atsu can also unwind with some non-combat activities returning from Tsushima. Ghost of Yōtei launches on October 2nd for PS5 and supports PS5 Pro on day one. Pre-orders start on May 2nd. Head here for details on the Digital Deluxe Edition.

Google Is Training a New A.I. Model to Decode Dolphin Chatter—and Potentially Talk Back The company says its new model, called DolphinGemma, will be made open source this summer. Researchers are also trying to train dolphins to mimic made-up names for certain objects A newly developed A.I. model is based on 40 years of vocalizations from a community of Atlantic spotted dolphins. Google Dolphins are clever communicators. The animals use complex clicks, squawks and whistles to call out to each other, fight and attract a mate. Now, Google says it is developing a large language model (LLM) that can make better sense of those vocalizations—and, maybe, allow humans to talk back. Over the last 40 years, researchers at the Wild Dolphin Project (WDP) have collected audio and video of a community of Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) in the Bahamas. The new artificial intelligence model, called DolphinGemma, is trained on that database. It listens to the dolphins’ vocalizations, identifies patterns and predicts what comes next, just as LLMs do with human language. Using A.I. “could give us the opportunity to see patterns that, from a human perspective, we may not look at,” says Thea Taylor, who manages the Sussex Dolphin Project in England and is not involved with Google’s work, to Melissa Hobson at Scientific American. Relying on the LLM can also speed up the data analysis process, which would take a human more than 100 years by hand. DolphinGemma: How Google AI is helping decode dolphin communication Watch on Researchers with Google, the WDP and Georgia Tech are also working on a device called CHAT, or Cetacean Hearing Augmentation Telemetry. The wearable technology will allow researchers to generate dolphin-like sounds made up by A.I. to refer to specific items that dolphins enjoy, like seagrass or sargassum. A pair of divers wearing the CHAT device will swim alongside a dolphin, “asking for” an object with the made-up sound and passing it back and forth. Then, if a dolphin mimics the sound that corresponds to seagrass, for example, a researcher will reward them by handing it over. “By demonstrating the system between humans, researchers hope the naturally curious dolphins will learn to mimic the whistles to request these items,” notes a statement from Google. “Eventually, as more of the dolphins’ natural sounds are understood, they can also be added to the system.” Taylor tells Scientific American that the researchers will need to make sure they aren’t unintentionally training the dolphins. Even if the animals repeat the sound, she says, “we have to think whether that’s actually an understanding of language—or whether it’s the same as teaching a dog to sit because they get a reward.” Exploring Wild Dolphin Communication with C.H.A.T. (Cetacean Hearing Augmented Telemetry) Watch on In separate efforts, A.I. is also being used to decode other animals’ vocalizations. Scientists with Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), for instance, are using artificial intelligence to understand sperm whales. The Earth Species Project aims to use its model, NatureLM, to process sounds from animals across various species. DeepSqueak, meanwhile, is a software that analyzes rodent squeaks to determine when the creatures are stressed. Still, whether animal communication amounts to true language remains a matter of debate. Another team of scientists concluded this month that bonobo calls share a key trait with human speech. But Simon Townsend, senior author of that study, said “language is specific to humans,” to NBC News’ Evan Bush. In 2023, Simon Kirby, a cognitive scientist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, told the New York Times’ Sonia Shah “Language is infinitely complex,” says Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist at Girton College in England who is not involved in Google’s project, to Scientific American. “If you have a separate word for every object in your environment, that’s not a language.” Dolphins have variations in their vocalizations, but that doesn’t necessarily correlate to a difference in meaning. “It’s not immediately clear that dolphins have words,” adds Kershenbaum. Google says it will release DolphinGemma as an open source model this summer, which will allow researchers to use it with other dolphin species. “We hope to give researchers worldwide the tools to mine their own acoustic datasets, accelerate the search for patterns and collectively deepen our understanding of these intelligent marine mammals,” writes the company in the statement. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

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Meta lays off unknown number of staff in Reality Labs division Teams within Oculus Labs affected, including fitness VR game Supernatural Image credit: Meta News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on April 25, 2025 Meta has cut an unspecified number of jobs in its Reality Labs division, affecting teams at Oculus Studios. As reported by The Verge, Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said the decision was made to "help Oculus Studios work more efficiently". Sources told Bloomberg that more than 100 people may have been affected by the layoffs. "Some teams within Oculus Studios are undergoing shifts in structure and roles that have impacted team size," said Clayton. "These changes are meant to help Oculus Studios work more efficiently on future mixed reality experiences for our growing audience, will still delivering great content for people today. "We remain committed to investing in mixed reality experiences, including fitness and games, and our drive to deliver the best experiences possible for the Quest and Supernatural communities remains unchanged." Sources told The Verge that staff working in hardware were affected, while Bloomberg reported that roles in "operations" were also cut. Meta declined to comment on these reports. Titles impacted by the layoffs include VR fitness game Supernatural. In a post on Facebook, the team said the changes "are meant to help [it] work more efficiently." "We've had the privilege of being a tight-knit team for a long time, and it's difficult to lose such a wonderful group of people who have helped build Supernatural and our community." As spotted by UploadVR, a round of layoffs also took place at Sanzaru Games in February 2025. The Asgard's Wrath developer was acquired by Meta as part of Oculus Studios in 2020. Posting to LinkedIn, former employee Carlos Guiterrez said "a number of" employees had been laid off. At the start of 2025, Meta announced it would lay off 5% of its staff as part of "performance-based cuts" with an estimated 3,600 jobs at risk. Those affected by these cuts in the US were notified on February 10, with workers situated elsewhere notified at a later date. In March 2023, Meta cut 10,000 jobs and retired 5,000 open roles in an effort to improve its financial health.

I may be slightly obsessed with Blue Prince, developer Dogubomb's recently released adventure/puzzle/mystery game that sees players drafting rooms in a massive, surreal manor, teasing out clues with each action and each day. It offers a potent blend of escape room-style puzzles (with math, logic, spatial reasoning, and other flavors), strategic room-drafting action straight out of the tabletop sensation Betrayal at House on the Hill, and a personal favorite game paradigm: the player and player character attain knowledge and ply it at close to a 1:1 ratio. It's ostensibly a single player game, but I think it has even longer legs as an unofficial "co-op" experience.Like Outer Wilds, Return of the Obra Dinn, or Asemblance: Oversight, more emphasis is placed on the knowledge you gain by playing and exploring (access to secrets, methods, and rules about the way the world works) more so than an in-fiction leveling system (like XP in an RPG) or similar. While there are more standard elements (a general roguelike run-based structure, some permanent upgrades to your kit and abilities, rng), what feels most important is what you, the player are absorbing, experimenting with, and putting to the test in your actions.What's even more important? When two people—or even more—absorb that information.Related:Putting together a good run sometimes feels like science: you start formulating theories as you observe, and test them out as best you can. Even when those theories are disproven (or you were looking at the wrong variables), you learned something that day, and you take that lesson with you. Seeing those theories proven and disproven may explain why the game is doing so well.Co-op play in Blue PrinceI'm enjoying the game a great deal on my own, but here's a second (and perhaps just as powerful) factor at work here: like a great escape room, it's even more fun with another person. The way my partner and I are tearing through, you wouldn't know it was a single player game: we'll pass the controller back and forth (sometimes for puzzles one of us is naturally better at, sometimes because it's simply dinner time), the non-player grasping my graphing notebook (yes, graphing paper, we are that serious), taking down notes, drawing charts, and offering suggestions and solutions as we draft and puzzle through. The first notes were kind of a mess, but we have that aspect down to a science now, about 30 hours into the mystery.It doesn't hurt that we happen to have complementary puzzle preferences—she's easily ten times better and faster at the parlor rooms, while I've been playing 3D games longer and have spatial reasoning tasks more front of mind—so we very rarely get stuck and generally have a good flow going. We're certainly not the only ones playing this way, of the approximately 12k players on Steam right now (plus players on the Xbox consoles and PS5). A cursory glance at Twitch reveals plenty of streamers playing with their communities (some without explicit "backseating," albeit with various degrees of clue acceptance from chat.)Related:We've had several "holy crap!" moments in our time with the game so far—when a wanton observation about room decorations was "confirmed" in a more definitive clue (and led us to break out the graph paper). Once we figured out the sequence required to take full advantage of the garage, we just about leapt off the couch in excitement. And lets not forget this little nugget: I've been so obsessed with solving one series of puzzles (in the gallery room, IYKYK) that last night, from a bus, I started texting my partner possible solutions (and full justifications for them) to try while I was out of the house.Dogubomb may not have explicitly designed the game for this kind of social play, but it suits Blue Prince's style like a perfect little key to a mysterious lock.Related:Designers wanting to play with this magic, take heed: some element of this comes with the territory whenever you construct so many different types of puzzles. Without giving too much away here, Blue Prince offers many flavors of puzzle and strategy that it naturally lends itself to the escape room logic of "many brains make light work:" just like my partner and I, certain types of players are attracted to (or repelled by) certain kinds of problem solving. It's wildly satisfying (for us and players like us) to collaborate and play this as a team sport and essentially share in the glory.You can support this as a developer by offering that variety, at a high standard of quality. Serve up a tasty buffet of puzzle types, and players like us will team up and happily scour every imaginable inch of the game.

YKK’s self-propelled zipper prototype is chunky and currently being tested for more industrial applications. | Screenshot: YouTube Japan’s YKK, the world’s largest zipper manufacturer (go ahead, grab the nearest zipper, it probably says YKK on the pull), has announced a prototype self-propelled zipper with a built-in motor and gear mechanism it can use to zip itself up at the push of a button on a wired remote. The days of being embarrassed when you forget to zip up could soon be behind us, if it’s ever miniaturized from its current form, which is several inches long and a lot chunkier than the zipper pulls currently used on clothing. Although some recent zipper innovations, such as Under Armour’s one-handed MagZip upgrade, are designed to improve accessibility and make zippers easier to use for those with limited mobility, YKK envisions more industrial use cases for its prototype. As demonstrated in a video recently shared on the company’s YouTube channel, the self-propelled zipper is seen connecting a pair of 16-foot-tall membranes in about 40 seconds. Zipping them together manually would require the use of a ladder or other machinery. In another video, the prototype is used to quickly connect a pair of 13-foot-wide temporary shelters standing over eight feet tall, taking about 50 seconds to progress from one side to the other. The prototype uses a spinning worm gear that winds its way through the teeth on either side and pulls the zipper along behind it. In the videos, a power cable is seen attached to the prototype as it self-zips. In addition to miniaturizing the tech and adding a battery, YKK would also need to develop some safety mechanisms before its self-propelled zipper could ever reach consumers’ clothing, ensuring there’s nothing that might get stuck.

Latest   Machine Learning Principles for Building Model-Agnostic AI Systems 1 like April 25, 2025 Share this post Author(s): Justin Trugman Originally published on Towards AI. While individual AI models dominate headlines, the spotlight often misses where true progress happens: the systems that put those models to work. Each new release promises more nuanced understanding, deeper reasoning, richer comprehension — but capabilities alone don’t move industries. It’s the architecture that wraps around them, the orchestration layer that knows when and how to use them, that turns raw potential into applied intelligence. “I think in the long term, the most value will not come from the foundation models themselves, but from the systems that can intelligently call foundation models.” — Andrew Ng The next wave of AI breakthroughs won’t come from betting on the right model. They’ll come from building systems that can continuously integrate the best model for the job — whatever that model is, and whenever it arrives. Understanding the Building Blocks of AI Models Before designing any model-agnostic system, it’s important to understand what actually goes into a model. AI models aren’t just standalone entities — they’re built in layers, each contributing a different dimension of capability. You typically start with a base architecture. Most models today — especially those that handle text, tool use, or autonomous agent behavior — are based on transformers. These are the underlying neural network designs that make modern language models possible. If you’re working with visual generation, like images or video, you’re more likely dealing with diffusion models, which are optimized for high-fidelity synthesis through noise and denoising processes. On top of the architecture, you then define the scale and scope. A Large Language Model (LLM) refers to a model with dozens of billions (sometimes hundreds of billions) of parameters, enabling broad, generalized capabilities across tasks. A Small Language Model (SLM) is a scaled-down version — lighter, faster, and often used for edge deployments or specific roles where compute efficiency matters more than versatility. Once you have your base model, you can tailor it to specific domains or behaviors through post-training, commonly referred to as fine-tuning. Fine-tuning allows a model trained on general data to specialize in law, healthcare, finance, or any other area where nuanced understanding is critical. It’s also how instruction-following and tool-use behaviors are often reinforced. From there, models can be extended with architectural practices or runtime techniques. A model might adopt a Mixture of Experts (MoE) approach, dynamically routing queries to different subnetworks based on the task. Or it might feature enhanced reasoning capabilities, such as chain-of-thought prompting, multi-step logic execution, or even structured planning frameworks. These capabilities allow the model to go beyond surface-level outputs and begin engaging in more deliberate, process-driven problem-solving. Finally, you have specialized capabilities layered on top. A model might be multimodal, meaning it processes and generates across text, image, and audio inputs. It might combine different generative architectures — like transformers for text and diffusion for visuals — to handle diverse output modalities. These layers don’t exist in isolation — they compound. And understanding how they stack is foundational to building systems that know what kind of model to use, where, and why. Blueprints for Building Adaptable, Model-Agnostic Architectures Designing a model-agnostic system means building for constant evolution. Models will change. Capabilities will shift. Your infrastructure needs to keep up without requiring a rebuild every time something new comes along. The first principle is decoupling logic from inference. This means separating the definition of a task from the model that executes it. Your system should understand the task that needs to be done — without baking in assumptions about how it gets done. That choice — what model to use for that task — should be abstracted out so that it’s easy to switch between models without rewriting the system’s logic. Many modern inference providers have aligned on the OpenAI-compatible API standard (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, HuggingFace and others), which makes it easier to build systems that can flexibly switch models without changing the surrounding infrastructure. Designing around this standard helps ensure your system remains portable and compatible as the ecosystem grows. It’s this layer of abstraction that enables true model-agnostic design — giving your system the ability to evolve, adapt, and scale without being anchored to any single provider or model lineage. The next principle is treating models as specialists, not generalists. Every model has its own strengths — some are better at planning, others at creativity, some excel in reasoning, and others in speed or low-cost inference. Your system should be designed to route tasks to the model that’s best suited to handle it. This may mean assigning specific models to specific functions, or designing agents with models optimized for their assigned roles in a multi-agent system. For example, a fast, efficient planner might use a small reasoning model; a writer or content generator might use a highly expressive LLM; a fact-checking agent might use a more literal model with lower variance in output. Whether it’s routing tasks directly to models or delegating them to agents with purpose-built model stacks, this approach acknowledges that no single model can do everything well — and that the highest-performing systems intelligently delegate tasks in ways that respect and leverage each model’s unique strengths. Modularity means building systems where each component can be independently swapped or upgraded. Whether you’re dealing with a workflow, a multi-agent system, or something entirely custom, the principle stays the same: no single component should create friction for the rest of the system. When planning a module — whatever the function or responsibility — it should be consumable in isolation and replaceable without downstream disruption. This allows your system to evolve incrementally as new tools and models emerge, rather than forcing wholesale rewrites just to integrate something better. The final principle is observability. If you can’t measure how well a model is performing in context, you can’t make informed decisions about when to keep it, replace it, or reconfigure how it’s being used. Model performance should be treated as a live signal — not a one-time benchmark. That means tracking metrics like latency, cost, token efficiency, and output quality at the system level, not just during eval runs. Is a cheaper alternative producing comparable results in certain contexts? Are reasoning agents making consistent errors under certain loads? Telemetry is what turns gut checks into data-driven decisions. It’s what gives you confidence to experiment — and evidence to justify when a change actually makes things better. Designing systems this way sets the stage — but actually choosing the right model for each role requires careful evaluation, not guesswork. Evaluating and Testing Models for Fit Building a modular, model-agnostic system only pays off if you have a clear, structured way to evaluate which model belongs where. It’s about finding the right model for each specific function within your system. That requires moving beyond general benchmarks and looking at how models behave in your context, under your constraints. Start by assessing output consistency. A model that performs well in a vacuum but produces unstable or hallucinated results under pressure isn’t viable in production. You’re not just testing for correctness — you’re evaluating whether the model can behave predictably across similar inputs and degrade gracefully in edge cases. Next, evaluate performance in the context of your system through A/B testing. Swap models across real user flows and workflows. Does a new model improve task success rates? Does it reduce fallbacks or speed up completion times? System-level testing is how you reveal performance trade-offs that aren’t visible in isolated prompts or benchmarks. A useful tool for running these kinds of evaluations is PromptFoo, an open-source framework for systematically testing LLM prompts, agents, and RAG workflows. It lets you define test cases, compare model outputs side-by-side, and assert expectations across different providers. It helps turn model evaluation into a repeatable process rather than an ad-hoc exercise. Not every evaluation is universal — some depend on the specific capabilities your AI system is built to support. Two areas that often demand targeted testing are tool use and reasoning performance. If your AI system revolves around tool calling, it’s important to evaluate how well a model handles zero-shot tool use. Can it format calls correctly? Does it respect parameter structures? Can it maintain state across chained calls? Some models are optimized for structured interaction, while others — despite being strong at open-ended generation — struggle in environments that require precision and consistency. For systems that depend on complex decision-making, reasoning performance becomes a critical axis. Can the model follow a chain-of-thought? Break down a problem into substeps? Resolve conflicting information? These evaluations are most useful when they mirror your actual workflows — not when they’re pulled from abstract reasoning benchmarks that don’t reflect real-world demands. Evaluating a model’s capabilities is only half the picture. Once a model looks viable functionally, the next question is: can your system run it efficiently in production? Start with inference latency. Some models are inherently faster than others based on their architecture or generation behavior. But just as important is where and how the model is hosted — different providers, runtimes, and hardware stacks can significantly affect speed and responsiveness. Then consider token usage and cost efficiency. Some models are more verbose by default, or take more tokens to arrive at a meaningful answer. Even if the model performs well, inefficient token usage can accumulate into significant costs at scale. These operational realities don’t determine which model is the most capable — but they often determine which one is actually deployable. The pace of model development isn’t slowing down — it’s accelerating. But chasing the latest release won’t give your organization an edge. The real advantage lies in building systems that can flex, adapt, and integrate whatever comes next. Model-agnostic systems aren’t about hedging bets — they’re about making better ones. They allow you to continuously evaluate and adopt the best tool for each job without rewriting your stack every quarter. They support experimentation, specialization, and modular upgrades — all without breaking what’s already working. In the long run, the intelligence of your system won’t be defined by which model you chose today — it will be defined by its ability to continuously adapt and integrate the right model as new ones emerge. Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming a sponsor. Published via Towards AI Towards AI - Medium Share this post

Even if you enjoyed NieR: Automata and its predecessor, NieR: Replicant, you could be forgiven for not knowing that game actually got a sequel, and a pretty good one too. Unfortunately, that sequel, mobile game NieR: Re[in]carnation, hasn't been available for almost a year after being taken offline in April of 2024.But fortunately, a Square Enix website is dropping some pretty wild in-universe hints that this might be about to change.PlayAs pointed out to us on BlueSky by journalist Willa Rowe, an official NieR website that's currently publishing a NieR special movel to commemorate the series 15th anniversary is teasing something NieR: Re[in]carnation-related via cryptic in-text hints and webpage source code. As a part of today's update to the novel, the just-published chapter 4 ends with some strange text that reads as follows:[WARNING] : Recovery protocol initialized...[ERROR] : Redirecting to backup node: < https://www.jp.square-enix.com/nierreincarnation/ >[INFO] : Analysis comments added to the source code.[FATAL] : Process forcibly halted.What does THAT mean? Who knows? But wait, there's more. If you hit "View Source" on that page, there are even more weird teases in the code comments, as hinted at above. They read, in order:SECURITY NOTICE: Unauthorized transmission detected. Signal disruption logged. Countermeasure protocol active. Redirecting to backup node: https://www.jp.square-enix.com/nierreincarnation/TODO: Optimize rendering efficiency. Contradictions in "Her" emotions may interfere with signal clarity. Ensure transission remains undistorted.FIXME: Visibility settings enabled for crashed observer system. He is watching...Adjust access permissions before deployment. His name is............HACK: Log discrepancy detected. Records indicate previous modification attempts due to excessive interference from The Cage. Cross-check against original transmission before proceeding.Okay, there's a lot here, some of which is inscrutable and some of which makes sense. "The Cage", for instance, is the main location where most of NieR: Re[in]carnation takes place. And "Her" is a key character (yes, that's Her name) in Re[in]carnation as well. Between that and the hyperlink, it's pretty obvious what all this is referencing, but what exactly will become of it remains anyone's guess.The two final chapters of the novel are scheduled to publish on May 2, a week from today, and it's possible it may also pull back the curtain on whatever's happening here. Fans are speculating that it may be leading up to some sort of port or re-release of NieR: Re[in]carnation, which has been completely unplayable anywhere since it went offline last year. They're also pointing out that the chapters of the special novel, which are currently only available in Japanese (but which fans are translating), have some pretty significant tie-ins to all three other NieR games.Screens - NieR ReincarnationIf you're unfamiliar with Re[in]carnation, I highly recommend keeping an eye on this, especially if the end result is another opportunity to play it. Re[in]carnation is a good game in its own right that many slept on due to its being a mobile gacha game, but critically, it's also the direct sequel to NieR: Automata, and effectively is NieR 3, for those who have been waiting for it. Who knows? Maybe a new Re[in]carnation release could include some new content that ties the ongoing stream of loose NieR-related threads together at last.Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Discover Forza Horizon 5's vibrant legacy with its latest update rolling out today: Horizon Realms. Venture into 11 previously limited-time only Evolving Worlds and the brand-new Stadium Track. Unlock new cars, Accolades, and Achievements! In addition to the Horizon Realms update, the Nissan Retro Rides Car Pack is also rolling out today on Xbox consoles, PlayStation 5, and PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam. If you’ve purchased the Premium Edition of Forza Horizon 5 for PlayStation 5, today you’ll be able to jump into Early Access. If you’ve pre-purchased the Forza Horizon 5 Standard Edition or Deluxe Edition from the PlayStation Store can jump into the Horizon Festival starting on April 29! Forza Horizon 5 on PS5 unlocks at 12:01am local time in your country on April 25 for Premium Edition and on April 29 for Standard and Deluxe Editions. *The game will become available to play at 12:01am EST in all U.S. territories. For players located in U.S. western time zones this will be at 9:00pm PST. Diving into Horizon Realms Not only is Horizon Realms reintroducing previously limited time only Evolving World locations, but it also comes with new reward cars to unlock, badges to collect, and achievements (or Trophies on PS5) to earn. Once available, you can access the Horizon Realms feature by going into the “Campaign” tab in the Main Menu or going to the Horizon Realms’ spatial indicator located to the left of the Stadium. If you are new to Forza Horizon 5, you need to unlock the Festival Playlist in order to play in Horizon Realms. The steps needed to do so are detailed in this article. New Accolades, Achievements & Trophies Attention completionists: 17 new achievements and 45 new Accolades are now available to unlock in the Xbox and Steam versions of Forza Horizon 5! The PlayStation 5 release also includes 111 Trophies for you to unlock in the base game (17 of them obtainable in Horizon Realms), and 27 for each of the expansions. Start playing and go for that Platinum Trophy! Horizon Realms Achievements/Trophies Name Description Trophy Gamerscore Enter the Realm Enter any Realm in either Free Mode or Skill Mode Bronze 10 Master of Realms Complete Skill Mode in every Realm Bronze 10 Stunt-tacular Complete Skill Mode in the Stunt Park whilst driving any Hoonigan Bronze 20 You're on Thin Ice Complete Skill Mode in the Ice Rink whilst driving the 2015 Volvo V60 Polestar Bronze 20 Tidy Little Bow Complete Skill Mode in the Oval Track whilst driving the 2013 KTM X-Bow R Bronze 20 Party Like It's 1987 Complete Skill Mode at the Summer Party whilst driving the 1987 Pontiac Firebird Bronze 20 Right at Home Complete Skill Mode at Día de Muertos whilst driving any Nissan Bronze 20 Driving in a... Complete Skill Mode in the Winter Wonderland whilst driving any Lotus Bronze 20 Winging It Complete Skill Mode in the Lunar Drift Arena whilst driving any Aston Martin Bronze 20 As the Clock Strikes Midnight Complete Skill Mode at Midnights at Horizon whilst driving any Lamborghini Aventador Bronze 20 You Might Need a Map Drive a total of 20 miles at the Stadium Maze in Horizon Realms Bronze 10 Time-Wyrm Maintain a speed of 88mph or above for 1 minute at the Lunar Drift Arena in Horizon Realms Bronze 10 Free Bird Earn 100 Speed Skills in Free Mode Bronze 10 Keep that Camera Rolling Take a photo of 25 different cars in Free Mode Bronze 10 Drifting, Drifting, Drifting Earn 150 Drift or E-Drift Skills in Free Mode Bronze 10 Spanning Generations Drive a car from every decade around Free Mode Bronze 10 Demolisher Earn 200 Wreckage Skills in Free Mode Bronze 10 New Accolades Name Description Career Progress Reward Horizon Realms World First World First Enter any Realm in either Free Mode or Skill Mode 100 100 50 #FORZATHON points Master of Worlds Complete Skill Mode in all Realms 1000 2023 Lamborghini Huracán Serrato Starting the Journey Complete Skill Mode in one Realm 100 2022 Hennessey Mammoth Halfway Point Complete Skill Mode in six Realms 100 2018 Lotus Exige Cup 430 Stadium Track Full Laps Drive 10 miles around the Stadium Track 100 50 #FORZATHON points Time Trials Earn 25 Speed Skills of any Grade at the Stadium Track 100 50 #FORZATHON points 3, 2, 1... Go! Maintain a speed of 75mph or above for 10 seconds at the Stadium Track 100 50 #FORZATHON points Top of the Podium Take a photo of your car at the Stadium Track 100 50 #FORZATHON points Horizon Stadium Circuit Rookie Complete the Horizon Stadium Circuit 100 50 #FORZATHON points Horizon Stadium Circuit Pro Win the Horizon Stadium Circuit 100 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto Día de Muertos Eterna-lly Yours Listen to Radio Eterna for 5 minutes at the Día de Muertos decorations 100 50 #FORZATHON points Drifting Delights Earn 50 Drift or E-Drift Skills at the Día de Muertos decorations 100 50 #FORZATHON points Going for Marigold Bank a Skill Chain of 11,000 at the Día de Muertos decorations 100 50 #FORZATHON points Under the Petals Take a photo of your car under the Arch of Mulege at the Día de Muertos decorations 100 50 #FORZATHON points D is for... Reach a speed of 50mph in any D Class Car at the Día de Muertos decorations 100 50 #FORZATHON points Winter Wonderland Dasher and Prancer Reach a speed of 100mph at the Winter Wonderland 100 50 #FORZATHON points Chopping Firewood Earn 30 Wreckage Skills of any Grade at the Winter Wonderland 100 50 #FORZATHON points Chill Skills Bank a Skill Chain of 250,000 at the Winter Wonderland 100 50 #FORZATHON points Biggest Gift of All Take a photo of your car at the Winter Wonderland 100 50 #FORZATHON points Powder Snow Earn 10 Ultimate Drift or E-Drift Skills at the Winter Wonderland 100 50 #FORZATHON points Midnights at Horizon Stars of the Show Take a photo of any Porsche or Lamborghini at the Neon Airstrip 100 50 #FORZATHON points Lights, Camera, Action! Lights, Camera, Action! 100 50 #FORZATHON points Night Time Funk Listen to Horizon Mixtape for 5 minutes while at the Neon Airstrip 100 50 #FORZATHON points At Midnight... Bank a Skill Chain of 120,000 at the Neon Airstrip 100 50 #FORZATHON points Fashion Highlight Take a photo of the 1969 Dodge Charger R/T with your character outside the car at the Neon Airstrip 100 50 #FORZATHON points Lunar Drift Arena It's in the Name! Earn 10 Drift or E-Drift Skills at the Lunar Drift Arena 100 50 #FORZATHON points Time-Wyrm Maintain a speed of 88mph or above for 1 minute at the Lunar Drift Arena 100 50 #FORZATHON points Shooting Star Reach a speed of 100mph in any Chinese Car at the Lunar Drift Arena 100 50 #FORZATHON points Tap to the Beat Earn 10 Drift Tap Skills at the Lunar Drift Arena 100 50 #FORZATHON points Lucky Fortune Take a photo of any Jaguar at the Lunar Drift Arena 100 50 #FORZATHON points Retrowave Highway Riding the Synth-waves Listen to Horizon Wave for 5 minutes at the Retrowave Highway 100 50 #FORZATHON points Blast from the Past Earn 15 Wreckage Skills of any Grade in any 1980s car at the Retrowave Highway 100 50 #FORZATHON points Atomic Speeds Reach a speed of 170mph in the 2013 Ariel Atom at the Retrowave Highway 100 50 #FORZATHON points Masters of Velocity Earn a total of 50 Speed Skills of any Grade at the Retrowave Highway 100 50 #FORZATHON points And I Would Drive... Drive a cumulative 5 miles at the Retrowave Highway 100 50 #FORZATHON points Stadium Maze A Bit Lost, Are We? Earn 25 Burnout Skills of any Grade in the Stadium Maze 100 50 #FORZATHON points Through the Maze Complete the Stadium Maze 100 50 #FORZATHON points Peel-ka Boo! Take a photo of any Peel in the Stadium Maze 100 50 #FORZATHON points Van's Labyrinth Drive 1.0 mi around the Stadium Maze in any Vans and Utility Vehicle 100 50 #FORZATHON points You Might Need A Map Drive a cumulative 20 miles at the Stadium Maze 100 50 #FORZATHON points Cars & Coffee Shop Lunch Date Drive 1.0 mi around the Cars & Coffee Shop 100 50 #FORZATHON points Burnt Beans Earn 50 Burnout Skills of any Grade at the Cars & Coffee Shop 100 50 #FORZATHON points Brimming with Energy Reach a speed of 100mph in any BMW at the Cars & Coffee Shop 100 50 #FORZATHON points Top Notch Coffee Bank a Skill Score of 50,000 at the Cars & Coffee Shop 100 50 #FORZATHON points Coffee Influencer Take a photo of your car at the Cars & Coffee Shop 100 50 #FORZATHON points Horizon Realms Reward Cars Unlock these four new reward cars by earning Accolades on each of the 12 Realms available in this new update. This collection of rewards comes with amazing power and perhaps more wheels than you expected. 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto The raging bull goes hybrid with the latest addition to its exotic hyper car collection: the 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto. The total power output of this car is the largest of any Lambo ever: 1001 bhp. 814 horsepower comes from the V12 engine set in the middle of the car, and the rest comes from three electric motors (two mounted on the front axles and one in the gearbox). Rear-wheel steering and improved stability make the Revuelto handle corners like a breeze. Plug into the madness of Lamborghini’s ultimate hybrid drive with the Lamborghini Revuelto. 2023 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato Lamborghini takes to the dirt with the 2023 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato! The Italian brand’s icon of the roads gets off-roading modifications to take the dirt roads by storm. The Huracán Sterrato marks a very important moment in time for Lamborghini. It is the last “special edition” of the Huracán; it is the last Lambo to use the iconic V10 engine; and it is the first time Lamborghini put a Rally button on a coupé. The first noticeable changes come with adding a new air intake on the roof of the car and removing the side intakes to prevent the car from breathing too much dirt. Next comes a modified version of the classic V10 engine that puts out 601 horsepower! Flip the off-road switch in the raging bull, available in Horizon Realms! 2018 Lotus Exige Cup 430 The ultimate Lotus experience has arrived at the Horizon Festival with the 2018 Lotus Exige Cup 430, an even stronger and loonier version of the Exige. Hidden in plain sight within the car’s name is its first impressive stat: the horsepower. The Exige Cup 430 produces 430 horsepower dispatched by a 3.5-litre V6 engine. While that number might not sound crazy, when it’s paired up with the car’s extreme lightweight and improved downforce, the 430 reaches 100 kph in about 3.3 seconds. Designed to fulfill your deepest track fantasies, the Exige Cup 430’s gorgeous design and crazy speed will not disappoint racing fans eager to dominate the courses of the Horizon Festival. 2022 Hennessey Mammoth 6x6 See You at Horizon Mexico There’s so much more to discover in Horizon Mexico! Take a look at hard-to-find reward cars now available at the Backstage Shop. Grab your camera and take breathtaking pictures of your favorite cars with Photo Mode. Create your own events and races with EventLab. Grow your adventure with two available expansions: Rally Adventure and Hot Wheels. Join our official Discord server and stay in touch with our community. You’ll be able to interact with more players, find builds and liveries to download, EventLab creations to try, photos taken by our community, and more. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay in the know of all things Forza Horizon 5. Races, challenges, customization, and more are waiting at the Horizon Festival! We hope you enjoy your Forza Horizon 5 adventure.

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