FH5, Series 20, Week 1

“You have been disconnected. No Horizon Arcade for you.”

I started with the treasure hunt, which seems to have been near miss skills of some sort. Easy money.

The weekly challenge was in the Ariel Atom, which is a car I like albeit one that tends to be a little floaty. More easy money.

Horizon promo was also easy money (natch), which reminds me that in spite of my best efforts, I still haven’t seen the new Audi.

Eventlab (1), Windy City, was dark, wet and had boost pads where they ought not to have been. Ugh.

Eventlab (2), Mulegé Outskirts, was all right in the FE 911 GT3 RS, but the wriggly boarded bits were a pain in the arse.

New rivals. Dunas Blancas in the STO. The car seemed fairly planted, but slid a bit. I thought it was AWD, but discovered afterwards that it was RWD. Decent handling, but I haven’t given it a proper go yet. A lot of whining about it being yet another Huracán, which is not, I admit, without some justification considering this update was the perfect opportunity for the much-requested AMG GT Black Series to be added to the game.

Chihuahua Circuit in the Mission R was all right (c. 57 secs.), but I’ve lost the knack of driving in automatic, which is what EVs force you to do.

I PB’ed the speed trap and got a decent super wheel spin. The danger sign went off without a hitch. The speed zone was an exercise in prolonged pain until I rebuilt my MB CLK GTR which is quite possibly the only car which can turn without losing vast amounts of speed. The trick ended up being fast coasting round corners. Hated every wasted minute of it and to add insult to injury, the super wheel spin was rubbish.

I was Mr Obvious, opting for the FE 911 GT3 RS for Hiding in Plain Fright, an odd and meaningless name for the seasonal. It was, however, easy money after the stress and bother of the speed zone, although how a 2012 BMW M5 is a reward, I don’t know.

In Ahead of the Corvette, I crushed the drivatars around the Horizon Festival Circuit before struggling to stay ahead of them in the Reservorio Sprint, which I loathe in daylight, and loathe even more at night. At least the prize was the 2019 Porsche Carrera.

I may have cheesed the Horizon Open Challenge by getting some or all of the speed skills while I was waiting for the last race, Las Granjas, to start. I won said race probably because everyone else was trying to get the ten speed skills by driving like idiots. But here is an irony moment because in spite of me constantly being informed that I’d been disconnected, I had no problems getting into Horizon Open.

I then went to Sierra Nueva where I absolutely PB’ed the speed trap by blasting up hill through the trees (after clear a path down through them). And as a reward, I got another crappy super wheel spin.

The seasonal, Subaru Boogaloo, was all night races in the Impreza 22B STi. Didn’t we do those last week? The chopper was annoying because of the glare from the light on dirt sections of the races, but it’s also hard to tell whether the light is from in or some annoyingly close drivatar. I can’t describe my racing as clean because I dive-bombed the drivatars on corners to get myself up to a podium spot before taking the lead. The prize was clothing because that makes so much sense in a racing game. I’m sure Max Verstappen would by giddy with delight to be given a white T-shirt at the end of a race as his reward.

Last of all, it was off to the Hot Wheel theme park where other players were live and kicking. As you might guess, dear reader, I had no such luck when I went back to the main map.

I PB’ed the HW drift zone in the Shelby Cobra and was rewarded once again with the most rubbish super wheel spin. Oh, FFS.

For Hyper-formance I chose the Zenvo TSR-S. The races had to include the Ram’s Head Sprint which includes that utterly awful corner which I made an utterly awful mess of and managed to take the lead. One of the other races was the Nexus Speed Sprint, which felt predictable. I’m sure everyone was delighted to get another Huracán Performante, although I should observe that not everyone has most of the cars in the game.

The one thing I’ve been unable to do is a Horizon Arcade because of the miserable connectivity. I may be able to complete that task before next Thursday when the game decides that I can be online in free roam.

As for the bugs which have been affecting players, I mostly find myself in reverse after races where the start and finish lines are in separate places in the map. I’ve had one instance of the car being in reverse when I’ve left my home, but that was when I returned from the HW theme park. The Huracán STO gave me the double gear shift bug in free roam, but I’ve otherwise dodged that one. I’m waiting for a hotfix to drop, but not, I predict, until next week.