Forza Horizon 2 (May 4, 2014 Prototype)

Forza Horizon 2 (May 4, 2014 Prototype)
Build date May 4, 2014 Build name AnthemX360_58542 Dump status Released Dumped by Heavy Smoker Released by Chr0m3 x MoDz, Heavy Smoker File dump date November 20, 2025 File release date November 24, 2025 Origin Xbox 360 XDK HDD Game Forza Horizon 2 System Xbox 360 Genre Racing Release date September 30, 2014

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An early debug prototype of Forza Horizon 2 for the Xbox 360.

This build is early enough that it still uses many assets from Forza Horizon 1, including sounds, radio, textures, and more. It is very unfinished, you will encounter incomplete terrain, heaps of placeholders and notice numerous differences compared to the final release.

Platform Specifics

Xenia is the best way to play unless you have an XDK.

Xenia

• default.xex requires the "Force insecure=true parameter" patch, which can be found at the game-patches GitHub repository.
• Forza2.xex, Forza2_DBG.xex and Forza2_PRF.xex require the Xenia-Canary [e588a772d Dec 3, 2025] or later.

RGH / XDK

• Highly recommend playing the game through an XDK with 1GB memory. RGH with 512mb is pretty choppy.

• Forza_PRF will get you slightly better performance but hitches are still frequent.

Gameplay

• The map is accessible for the most part, some areas are very tricky if not impossible to traverse.
• 1v1 Races with NPCs works.
• Tried one race and appeared to have crashed on Xenia Canary.

Some Details

Some vehicles from the Xbox One version are present when unlocking all cars.

The lower dock that got cut is accessible. (Was made accessible again however in the FF spinoff)

Hidden null car id is 1215

Issues

• You may randomly clip into the ground.
  • FIX: In the Debug Menu, MENU/PLACE CAR will reset your position.
• When entering the garage to change cars and exiting, your screen will go black. To fix this, drive just far enough from the garage to Fast Travel back to it on the Map.
  • Fast Traveling will then remove this black screen.

• You will occasionally get black error screen asking you how you want to proceed. Selecting B to ignore future warnings of that type will stop them for the most part.
  • On one occurrence, the screen went black while falling, spamming A and X happened to bring the error screen up to get out of it.

Notes

XEX Information

The default.xex does not progress past the main menu. This is usually due to file compatibility issues or failing file security checks, as the SHA256 hashes in the xex do not match the files, a common occurrence in development builds. To work around this, we launch the xex using the insecure argument (via cmdline.txt), which bypasses these checks. However, since this is essentially a retail xex, it does not accept command-line arguments. While this could be patched, it seems unnecessary, as Forza2.xex runs without issues.

Executable	Description
default.xex	No debug menu available, equivalent of retail xex, no debug prints or anything.
Forza2.xex	Debug menu enabled with a stable frame rate, can also skip start intros.
Forza2_DBG.xex	Debug menu enabled; designed for debugging purposes, very unstable frame rate / extra long loading times.
Forza2_PRF.xex	Debug menu enabled; optimized for profiling, pretty stable frame rate, experience frame drops now and then.

Controller Shortcuts and Tips

Shortcut	Action / Description
RS (Right Stick)	Opens the debug menu.
Back button (while in debug menu)	Adds the menu or option you are hovering over to favorites in the debug menu.
Left Stick (LS) + X	Toggles debug camera on/off.
Left Stick (LS) + Y	Change camera to next car.
Left Stick (LS) + B	Pause / unpause physics.
Hold LS, push up + Y	Changes time to 16:00.
LB + Dpad up	Buy all cars.
LB + Dpad down	Add a lot of XP.
LB + Dpad right	Set money to 30,000,000.
LB + Dpad left	?????

Free Camera Controls

Control	Action / Description
RS	Adjust yaw / pitch of camera (Left/Right & Forward/Backward).
LS	Move camera X/Z axis (Forward/Back).
LT/RT	Move camera on Y axis (Up/Down).
Dpad Left/Right	Adjust roll of camera.
Dpad Up/Down	Adjust FOV of camera.
Left Stick (LS) + LB	Save camera position.
Left Stick (LS) + RB	Load camera position.
A	Increase camera velocity/speed.

NOTE: This build performs significantly better on a 1GB XDK. While it can and will run on a 512MB XDK, you will encounter noticeably more texture issues and reduced overall performance..

Screenshots

Unfinished terrain in Forza Horizon 2 Xbox 360 prototype

Unfished terrain in Forza Horizon 2 Xbox 360 prototype

Early prototype map for Forza Horizon 2 on Xbox 360

Unfinished building textures in Forza Horizon 2 Xbox 360 prototype

Early and unfinished airport screenshot from Forza Horizon 2 Xbox 360 prototype

Unfinish city in Forza Horizon 2 Xbox 360 prototype

Debug menu open in Forza Horizon 2 on Xbox 360

Acknowledgments

A big thank you to Heavy Smoker for recovering this build off one of his XDK's and being kind enough to share it with everyone! Thanks to Chr0m3 x MoDz for helping with data recovery, fixing the build and getting it to run and writing this wiki page.