Forza Horizon games always begin with a showcase introduction, and the fifth installment goes wilder than ever before, with the game literally dropping you into a volcano.

Shown off during the Gamescom Xbox Stream, the game's introduction begins with a 2020 Ford Bronco Badlands reversing out of a plane and parachuting into the game's Gran Caldera volcano during winter, seeing snow and lava meat in columns of steam. It's a confident opening, to say the least.

But it's only a quarter of the introduction – the intro includes three other cars airdropping into the new Mexican map, from the countryside in a dust storm, to a flamingo-filled jungle, to a coastal road that leads you directly into the game's central festival site.

Forza Horizon's introduction events have gained interest throughout the series, and this is the most out-of-the-ordinary yet, acting as a showcase for the Xbox Series X's power, and the game's variety of locations at the same time. Two of the cars involved, the Mercedes-AMG ONE and the Ford Bronco Badlands, are Forza Horizon 5's cover vehicles, too.

Forza Horizon 5 arrives on November 9, and this is just the latest in a series of stunning gameplay reveals we've seen since it was announced at E3 2021. We've also had developer walkthroughs, 14 minutes of Series X gameplay, and we've gotten a look at the game's full map.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Microsoft has announced the Forza Horizon 5 Limited Edition Xbox Controller. Revealed as part of the Xbox Gamescom showcase, the new limited edition controller has a bright, funky scheme to match the vibe of Forza Horizon 5.

The translucent yellow front panel is splattered with a vibrant spray paint-like design. Blue and pink accent colours are used on the face buttons, analogue sticks, and main triggers, while the back and bumper buttons are a white to offset the brightness of the front. Black grips should help keep it in your hands while you fight the wheel.

The controller is available to pre-order now from the Xbox online store.

For more from Xbox, check out the newly announced Forza Horizon 5 cover car, Sea of Thieves' new Borderlands event, and Crusader Kings 3 is coming to console. For everything else, be sure to check our Gamescom 2021 schedule. It's about to be a busy week!

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

Sea of Thieves' latest collaboration is an unexpected one. During Xbox's Gamescom 2021 presentation, Rare announced a special event featuring, of all things, Borderlands.

The event's centerpiece is a special "Mayhem" ship inspired by Borderlands. Basically, it's a pirate ship cast in Borderlands' rusty red and yellow, with the familiar logo on the sails.

It's not the most obvious collaboration given that Borderlands' brand of post-apocalyptic sci-fi is the diametric opposite of Sea of Thieves' pirate fantasy. But they have a similar sense of humor, so the two might not be as far removed as one might suppose.

In any event, Sea of Thieves has found plenty of success with its collaborations of late, particularly its Pirates of Caribbean event featuring Jack Sparrow (but not Johnny Depp). We'll see if it can replicate that success with the Mayhem event, which runs from August 24 to September 7.

This announcement is part of our coverage of Gamescom 2021. For lots more news, check out our Gamescom 2021 hub, which will be continually updated throughout the show.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.

State of Decay 2's free Homecoming update is coming on September 1, and will turn the Heartland expansion's linear, story-driven map into more of an open, explorable world.

Trumbull Valley is the location used in the original State of Decay but, in State of Decay 2 has only been used as a narrative-driven location, with player sunable to move their community of characters there. Homecoming has been "fully remastered" and opened up for the sequel, including brand new areas that weren't previously accessible.

The map will include 6 new bases, new weapons, items that can only be found in Trumbull, and environmental storytelling that expands on the story of the original game, and the Heartland expansion. Homecoming's own story will involve "discovering new characters and storylines and resolving long-running plot threads."

We awarded State of Decay 2 a 7.5/10 review, and the game has now passed 10 million lifetime players.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

For the first time in series history, Crusader Kings 3 will be coming to console, with Xbox Series X/S and PS5 ports announced. No release date has been revealed.

Revealed during the Gamescom Xbox Stream 2021 and expanded on in a press release, Paradox and Lab42 are building controller support for the grand strategy game "from the ground up", and even translating the game's stress mechanics into a DualSense haptic feedback feature on PlayStation. Paradox also says the consoles' fast load times should make for a seamless experience.

The decision to translate the famously complicated game for console seemingly comes from the good reaction to another Paradox title that adopted a controller, Stellaris. After fans reacted well to how the sci-fi grand strategy worked on a pad, it seems Crusader Kings 3 is the next experiment.

If you want to know why this is quite so exciting, we dubbed the PC version of Crusader Kings a masterpiece in our 10/10 review, calling it "a superb strategy game, a great RPG, and a master class in how to take the best parts of existing systems and make them deeper and better."

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Have you ever wondered how a trebuchet works? Well, instead of reading up on the subject in a book or online, you can just play Age of Empires 4, which will feature around an hour of distinct segments about the history of medieval subjects such as, yes, the trebuchet.

During today's Xbox Gamescom showcase, Age of Empires 4 creative director, Adam Isgreen arrived on set to reveal the inclusion of Hands-On Histories in the game. These are a set of deep dives into certain historical subjects from all the different cultures represented in Age of Empires 4, with around an hour of total documentary content appearing in-game.

Aside from the trebuchet, Isgreen mentioned some other topics that would be covered by the documentaries, including medieval surgery, warfare, castle building, flaming arrows, falconing, horse taming, armor creation, and Mongolian musical instruments.

Isgreen went on to explain the team's goals in trying to "humanize history" through a partnership with UK production company Lion TV, who traveled to different countries to meet with subject matter experts and record the documentary segments with as many real, contextual examples as possible.

After a long wait since 2005's Age of Empires 3, the newest game in the civilization-building RTS will finally arrive on October 28 – it'll come to Xbox consoles and PC, and launch into Xbox Game Pass. The game has already announced all its playable factions, and we've had a first hands-on, saying "it's clear a lot of care has gone into preserving the Age of Empires experience while modernizing the experience."

Xbox's Gamescom showcase had more than just Age of Empires 4, with new trailers for Dying Light 2, Wasteland 3, and others. You can follow this and IGN's other Gamescom coverage over the rest of the week right here.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

A competitive racing mode is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator later this fall as part of a partnership with Reno Air Race.

Several high-speed planes will be coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator that you'll be able to pilot head-to-head against your friends. The racing series is based on the Reno Air Races, a multi-day race series that includes races in six different plane classes.

Flight Simulator is a realistic flight sim and for the most part, it's a game for plane enthusiasts looking to take a plane and travel to a distant land. But with the upcoming racing mode, Flight Simulator offers something for more competitive players who are interested in more than just sight-seeing.

Microsoft also gave an update to the Top Gun expansion that was announced at E3 2021. Unfortunately, this collaboration is meant to coincide with the Top Gun: Maverick movie, and since the film is under wraps so too is the DLC.

It will be the first major addition to the game following the release of Flight Simulator on console. We said the Xbox Series X/S edition doesn't quite match the 10/10 PC version but is incredibly impressive nonetheless.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Cloud gaming is coming to Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One this holiday, allowing Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to stream over 100 games on their consoles without needing to download them – including playing next-gen games on last-gen hardware.

Announced during the Gamescom Xbox Stream 2021, the move is a huge step further towards making Xbox games available on almost any device, allowing all compatible Game Pass games to be streamed without downloading or waiting for installs. Xbox points out that this is a useful way to try games before committing to downloading them, or to jump straight into multiplayer games with friends without causing the whole party to wait.

However, perhaps more exciting is the effect this has on last-gen games – with Xbox Cloud Gaming server blades now upgraded to Series X hardware, a solid enough internet connection now theoretically allows you to play Xbox Series exclusives on Xbox One, or Series X-quality games on a less powerful Series S. Of course, playing a game through the cloud is currently less stable than playing it off of a hard drive, but with many new Microsoft Studios games added to Game Pass with cloud functionality, it's a neat way to keep even those who can't get an Xbox Series console invested in the newest releases.

Xbox Cloud Gaming was fully launched in June, and we'd known for some time that streaming games on consoles was part of the plan. The next steps could be even more interesting – Microsoft now wants to build the "Xbox Experience" into TVs and streaming sticks, and Phil Spencer hasn't given up on bringing it to competing consoles too.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

The first footage of Sony's forthcoming Uncharted film starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg is here... sort of.

Initial clips of the Uncharted movie appeared as part of a sizzle reel intended to promote Sony's upcoming movie lineup. As reported by Screenrant and io9, they included scenes that should appeal to fans of Naughty Dog's popular series of games.

According to those who viewed the sizzle reel, the Uncharted scenes began with Sully [Mark Wahlberg] asking Nathan Drake [Tom Holland] if he wants to go on the kind of adventure he has "only read about in books." This fits with earlier reports that the Uncharted film will be an origin story of sorts that focuses on the early part of Drake's career.

It's followed by additional scenes, including a shot of Drake near a pirate ship reminiscent of Uncharted 4. The money shot is reportedly Drake falling out of a plane resembling a similar sequence in Uncharted 3.

The scenes were well-received by the outlets that saw it, particularly given that they seem to feature plenty of nods to the games. Still, it was barely more than a teaser buried in the midst of a longer sizzle reel.

An Uncharted movie has been planned in one way or another for many years now, losing multiple directors along the way. Tom Holland was cast in the role of Uncharted's treasure hunter in 2017.

Sony has so far kept Uncharted heavily under wraps, with just a couple images revealed so far. Expect it to get a much heavier push as Uncharted nears its February 18 release date.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.

Destiny 2 is finally bringing back the fan-favorite rocket launcher Gjallarhorn as part of a special 30th Anniversary Pack releasing this December.

Bungie is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and will host a massive in-game celebration to commemorate the milestone. There will be loads of free events and items players in Destiny 2 can experience, including a new 6-player match-made activity celebrating Bungie's history.

There will also be a special 30th Anniversary Pack available for purchase. This pack includes a new three-player dungeon, exotic weapon, four emotes, exotic ship and sparrow, two universal ornament sets, and a unique helmet ornament.

Hidden in this dungeon is a weapon that players have been begging for to return: Gjallarhorn.

Gjallarhorn has been updated for the Destiny 2 sandbox, so expect it to function up to the specs of Destiny 2 and not the previous game.

Bungie is bringing this fan-favorite weapon to life as well. In a partnership with Nerf a dart-firing version of Gjallarhorn is also coming down the pipeline, though sadly it wasn't shown during the Showcase.

Destiny 2's big showcase finally revealed the new trailer and release date for its upcoming expansion, The Witch Queen. While details leaked ahead of the show, they were all accurate including its February 22, 2022 release date, new Glaive weapon type, weapon crafting, and more.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.