FH5, Series 18, Week 1

This week in Mexico.

An auspicious start to the new series as I was initially unable to access any of the MS gaming services (and OneDrive was also inaccessible). Third time this has happened in about the past week. It comes right, but I don’t know why it’s been happening in the first place. Perhaps the Oriental Balloon Jockey Club has been having a tantrum. Who knows.

The weekly challenge car was the Hoonigan Escort Cosworth (1991, I believe). The Hoonigan lineup looks to be the business, but most of them are clown cars, and this one was no exception. In spite of modifying the tuning, I couldn’t take a corner without it sliding to excess.

I didn’t manage to do the Horizon Arcade until this morning because as usual, the game kept telling me I’d been disconnected. My drifting skills may not be up to much, but I ended up with a group of players who largely seemed to make me look like a master of the trade.

On my first visit to Mexico, neither of the Eventlab tiles were live, and I had to restart the game to make them come to life. Great. The first circuit was twisty and annoying, and needed something at the top of S1 class. The second event was actually a dirt race, but I opted for the Hoonigan Porsche which in spite of not being set up for dirt racing, was not a bad choice.

The danger sign took a couple of goes to get right because of the trees. Otherwise, the Rimac did a good job. The speed zone took several attempts in the Hoonigan RS200. The Trailblazer ignited incandescent rage because it was so frustrating. I know what to do, but trying to knock a few extra seconds off was not worth the reward. I PB’ed the task, but barely managed to get through the finish.

I started Instant Classic (C600; classic rally) with the Renault Gordini and instantly switched to the 1965 Mini Cooper. Irony moment: in the first race, the lead drivatar was in the Gordini. The final race was frustrating with one of the drivatars being a rocket on rails. Other than that, the Mini proved to be a sound choice.

No. 43 had me in the 1994 Hoonigan Escort Cosworth which put in a sound performance. I deliberately kept the PI low.

I stuck with the car for the custom Horizon Open race in which there was – you won’t believe it – a prestige 10 player with a specially gingered-up Lotus Elise GT1. What an honest chap.

The two Rivals races were actually straightforward. The new Sierra 700R appears to be a shopping trolley powered by a lawnmower engine.

Meanwhile, in the Hot Wheels theme park I PB’ed the speed trap. Some players seemed to be having problems completing this PR stunt, which I find baffling.

The HW seasonal was more hazard races, but this time in Super GT cars. I opted for the SLS AMG which proved to be the right choice even on the ice hazard circuit.

That was the cars of the season unlocked.

Second expansion map

I got onto the forums this morning to find that the map has been revealed. It’s one enormous drift zone, with the roads all being corners. And as this is the case, I’m sure all the road racing will be in S1- and S2-class cars because that would make so much sense in the least appropriate environment for such cars.

A number of people noticed the label “Bike Track”, but they’re probably the people who thought that every barn in FH4 had to be the location of a barn find. Why is that label in English instead of saying “Tracquo de la Bicycla”? [What authentic Spanish. –ed.] I’m now waiting for people to claim that Horizon 5 is going to include rideable motorbikes. My current prediction is that there will be some sort of PR stunt there (drift zone?)

I feel that this is going to be the HW theme park Pt. II – done after two or three days of grinding, and then only visited to complete playlist events.