Today's Xbox Game Pass roundup has delivered some lovely upcoming additions - which we're very grateful to see given that the post-Black Ops 7 XGP lineup was looking a little thin. One game that's really standing out to us here is The Crew Motorfest; Ubisoft's 2023 racer set in open-world Hawaii. At the time of its release, we said that a true Forza Horizon competitor had come to market, and today, we're doubling down on that. Motorfest is a really good open world racing game, and one that's absolutely worth your time on Xbox Game Pass.
If you've played any of the more recent Forza Horizon titles you'll pretty much know what to expect here. Rather than The Crew 1 & 2 which focused on incredible scale and more RPG-like sensibilities, Motorfest strips things back towards something that more closely resembles the Playground Games series. In fact, this The Crew experience even revolves around its own in-game festival (the clue's in the name), and yeah, even the overall vibe is very Forza Horizon.
Having said that, Motorfest does have a few issues. We'd argue that the game's progression isn't as satisfying as it is in Horizon - Playground just has that gameplay loop nailed down. The Crew focuses largely on 'playlists' that are quite similar to Horizon Stories in Forza, and when you have plenty of them dotted around on the map, they're fantastic fun. Down the road though, the amount you can hop into dries up (DLC aside), and then the game becomes a bit more laborious progression-wise. Thankfully just driving around the open world is good fun, and the game is gorgeous too.
Xbox Series X players can experience Ivory Tower's open-world rendition of Hawaii at up to 60FPS, while Series S players are stuck at just 30FPS. However you play though, this is one very good looking racer - it maybe even beats Horizon 5 in the looks department if you ask me. Speaking of Horizon 5, if Xbox's most recent Horizon game feels a bit long in the tooth now, The Crew Motorfest is simply a great alternative, especially before FH6 rolls around in 2026.
So, yeah, The Crew Motorfest is a really good addition to Game Pass Ultimate, we reckon. It's not exactly original as an open-world racer, but it's the closest you'll get to a proper Forza Horizon alternative right now, and its addition to the library later this week (November 20th) will be well worth exploring. For everything else included in today's fresh Xbox Game Pass roundup, check out our coverage on that down below - and we'll chuck our original The Crew Motorfest review underneath that as well.