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‘Forza Horizon 6’ may be a positive, happy arcade racing experience, but it has a horrible trick up its sleeve to shock players.<\/span><\/p>\n Playground Games<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n As a latecoming fan of truly scary games, the last 12 months have given me some genuinely enjoyable brown-trouser escapades like Resident Evil Requiem<\/em>, Silent Hill f<\/em>, Hollowbody<\/em>, and Crisol: Theater of Idols<\/em>. I never thought that Forza Horizon 6<\/em>, of all things, would give me the single biggest fright. <\/p>\n My day job is working for a university in England, and it\u2019s the busiest time of year: exams, major research projects, loads of events, and everything else that happens on a campus that\u2019s the size of a small town. On top of that, I\u2019ve just come back from holiday, so the work has stacked up, and I only just got the chance to play FH6<\/em> this month.<\/p>\n An unwritten rule in my job (and, I hope, yours) is that you never video-call people unless you\u2019ve agreed to do so in advance. If someone rings you out of the blue, there\u2019s a small chance they\u2019re new to the company, or just impatient or rude. The most likely scenario in my line of work is that something serious <\/em>has happened. <\/p>\n After I clocked off from work after a stressful week, I booted up Forza Horizon 6<\/em> to get my last few speed zones and roads. At 6:30pm, there\u2019s an incoming Teams call on my PC. I paused the game and scrambled to my computer, nearly accidentally punting my dog down the stairs in the process, and sat in my desk chair, but\u2026 nothing. No call. No notification. No drama. But then, I was called again.<\/p>\n I looked at my TV. Another player\u2019s ghost was on screen \u2014 an Autozam AZ-1<\/a>, the cheekiest of all the cars \u2014 had its horn set to \u201cMicrosoft Teams Meeting\u201d. It blurted out the first two notes a couple more times before doing a donut around my car, then driving off towards Tokyo City. Its job and, by extension, me, had been completely done.<\/p>\n