FH5, Series 25 reveal’d

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Cue Sergio Leone music.

I’ve just watched JakeXVX’s video review of Series 25. For anyone who uses Eventlab, this is a major update to that, but I myself am there to race, not play with the in-game Lego set. On the basis of the latest two Eventlab events, it’d be nice to have creations that a proper, clear circuits or sprints or trail races and not muddly, mini-map messes. There, I alliterated. See what this kind of novelty map creation makes me do.

The BMW 850CSi is back from FH4 as the first series reward car. I tried it again (probably for the second time ever) just recently with updated tuning. It was still rubbish. The Gunther Werks 911, the second series car, is all right, but another repeat screening when it ought to have been the ghastly pig Porsche (the 917/20).

There are several repeat exclusives which have been missing from my garage since I reset Horizon 5 and got a save game that dated from the Renaissance. These are cars that have almost entirely fallen off the radar such as the Porsche 550 and the Emory 356. And there’s the BMW M3 E92. Yet again. I like the car, but it’s appeared in FH4 and 5 so many times that it’s no longer anything special.

The (actually) new exclusives are a mixed bag. The 2021 BMW M3 and the 2023 BMW M2 are potentially welcome additions. I like the existing M2 in FH4 and 5. The BMW iX is hideous and by the looks of it, an EV. Puke! The BMW i4… Oh gods, another EV. But wait! It gets worse. As I’m watching Jake go through the various events, I’m pausing the video to see what the rewards for various events are when I spot that the reward for an Eventlab event is a Rivian R1T. A what?! I have to look this up online and find an ugly, ugly, ugly EV pickup truck alongside which we’re also getting the ugly, ugly, ugly SUV, the R1S.

This sounds like blatant product placement (and the BMW iX and i4?) since, I’ll guess, knowledge of Rivian is a minority sport. Jake specifically mentioned these cars at the end of his video, but it feels as if PGG were smuggling them into the game as a “nice” surprise – the EVs you’ve never heard of and never wanted. I think both of them are rivals cars because there’s nothing like driving a stock, overweight barge from A to B.

We’re also getting a bunch of Vorsteiner rims, but again, where are the wings and splitters? Do we need more rims? No.

Overall, Eventlab creators will like that aspect of the update, and while there are some good new cars, there’s also some utter rubbish waiting for me to ignore it.