A Battle Royale at 200 MPH: Forza Horizon 4's 72-Player Eliminator Mode Launches Tomorrow in Free Update

Uhh.

This is somehow both the weirdest implementation of a battle royale mode and the one that makes you go, "Yup, that's gaming in 2019 for you."

Eurogamer describes the Eliminator in detail:

Initially, everyone is seated in their own 1965 Mini Cooper, but upgrades can be earned by locating Car Drops around the world or by coming first in a head-to-head race against another challenger. Once an individual race is complete, the loser is disqualified and the winner can either select an upgrade or steal their opponent's car.

All the while, the arena boundaries are closing in and, once they reach their final position, every remaining competitors must race to the finish line in a bid to be crowned the Eliminator.

As a pretty rabid Forza Horizon player, one of the most played multiplayer modes is a gametype called "Freeroam Rush," which basically tasks players to find the straightest straight line between only a single start line and a single finish line. No intermediary checkpoints. The mode encourages players to rocket through forests, over mountains, and through standing water.

On paper, Forza Horizon's new Eliminator mode sounds like a more strucured, high-stakes version of Freeroam Rush, stripping away the chaos of large group races for one-on-one contests.

Regardless of the gameplay loop, I find myself thinking one thing: What a bizarre, bizarre place to find a battle royale.

Seeing a car battle royale just makes me hope for a Twisted Metal BR. That's what the old games were on a small scale, but maybe now the world's ready again.

Burnout is made for this.

@shindig: Right? Holy crap. What a match made in heaven that would've been.

I like roaming around in FH4 anyways so this is great because you are just looking for better cars a lot of the time. I'm not a big Battle Royale fan but this is really fun and I actually have a chance to do okay. Won most of the races so far, placed 3rd. One of my favorite multiplayer modes in a long time.

And just the other day I was wondering if the whole battle royale trend had finally started to wane...

What I like about it is that it falls in line with Forza Horizon's general philosophy: You don't really even need to win to get its best reward. The Porsche at the end of the breadcrumb trail can be earned by just playing.