Occasional Tales

 Or, Who thought this was a good idea? I opted to do the Trial in my Corvette C8, the one with the livery from way back. The Stadium Oval went about as well as I expected, with the drivatars winning. I might’ve picked up a place just before the finish line, but it wasn’t enough. The Volcán Sprint started well (he said sarcastically) with me at the back of the field. I managed to drive my way to 5th place and incommode one of the drivatars as we were approaching the section near the end of the race where there’s a light dusting of snow. The annoying creature was to my left, and to their left were some rocks. Someone got nudged into the rocks and flew up into to the air, and somehow humanity triumphed over the robots. There was some quitting, which may have helped. And then there was the Horizon Festival Circuit – all one lap of it. Somehow we won that race as well, but who thought that a one-lap circuit race would be the funnest time anyone could have in a racing game? I was thinking

Finally, the F8 Tributo returns. The treasure hunt was a matter of winning a cross country race in a Jag. I chose the F Pace and did the Aerodrome Circuit . CR100,000 in the bank. I suppose all the overexcited 12-year-olds who play the game opted for the least off-road cars. The weekly was to drive the Vūhl. I’ll be honest – I don’t like the car’s handling. It’s ridiculously light at the front and has no turn-in (yes, mine is AWD). I cheated with the barrel roll after being unable to produce the desired effect from the airfield jump. I assume you need to make the car all engine and no handling. The cheat was to go to the bridge across the river and let it tumble over the edge. Job done. The photo was the 1998 Nissan Silvia (wake me up, someone!) with the player standing in front of it. Why? I even completed this pointless task without Casa Bella being in shot. Silly and pointless. (I said “pointless” twice for emphasis.) Neon City Circuit Race was the first Eventlab event. B700 VW, wh

“I say, chaps, I’ve got a frightfully stupid idea.” The stupid ideas started with the weekly, which forced you to do the Vocho Story to unlock the VW Beetle. So, good luck if you had and then thought to sell the car which, I suspect, is rare in the AH. You then had to hope you hadn’t bought every part in sight already because you’d be unable to spend CR25,000 upgrading the car. I used an engine swap because I don’t normally bother with such things. Take a photo at night. Night has been needlessly extended in the game, but, of course, it had to be dawn when I attempted this. Fortunately, the time of day can be changed in the photo settings, which means they have some use. The collectibles were easily sorted. Well, destroyed. Eventlab (1). Self-Sabotage, Vehicular Therapy . A circuit race in the Porsche Macan Rally Raid for an annoying, pointless phrase. Some annoying turns and an irritating narrow section, but not terrible. Eventlab (2). Del Mar City . D500 Lotus Elan (which is my sort

And the Trial. Back to Mexico this afternoon to deal with the latest daily and try out the other new cars from the Super Speed Car Pack. The Elemental RP1 has 6/9 for tuning. Astounding grip and turning to the point where I was taking the more benign corners in Copper Canyon in 6th gear. The main issue is the lack of power stock, but this is, I feel, my new favourite road-legal superlight. It also has a very sexy wing. The KTM X-Bow GT2 is 8/9 for tuning. It’s very similar to the Elemental, but not quite as much grip and turn-in. It could do with a bit more power. In the races I tried, the KTM X-Bow GT2 proved to be a right pest, but mine was tuned. This is, though, a decent car to drive and a worthy addition to the game. I believe that KTM is Austrian. Perhaps someone can explain why such a car has an American dashboard. I wasn’t planning on driving the 2022 VW Golf R, but I thought I’d do the Trial anyway, and since that was B700 VW, I took this rather dubious inclusion to the Super

I did some extra things. Doh! I started with the Mazda RX-7 Spirit, doing rivals in Llanuras to complete the treasure hunt. My rival had a time of 3 hours, which, I knew, was going to be tricky to beat. Off I went, but there was something odd about the car, which had weird gears and a tendency to slide into the corners. When I checked the tuning, I found it was still set up for drifting from the previous time I used it. I retuned it without rebuilding it and managed to complete Llanuras . The weekly forced us into the 1973 Porsche 911, which understeers and slides at the slightest nudge. I managed to do the drift zone event in two goes. Fortunately, the drivatars weren’t being pains in the races. Eventlab (1). 3am Rush . This was Emerald Circuit at midnight with fog. It might’ve been worse such as a race on a custom-built track against annoying drivatars. Eventlab(2) was Scinaty Part 2 . I appreciate the effort that went into this one, but am glad there wasn’t an actual race. The SWS

As is my wont, I checked the forums this morning for info about the update for Series 26 only to find that the Super Speed Car Pack was fast going nowhere. When you go into the shop via the game, the new car pack is there, but the shelves are bare. I now know what Mother Hubbard feels like. I wasn’t able to check out FH5 until lunchtime when I found that I was in the same boat as, it seems, almost everyone else. In fact, unlike some players, I can’t even buy the car pack through the game (but see below). I assume it’s been delisted from the MS shop, where I can’t find it at all, but I’ve heard it’s on Steam. However, in a live update, I’ve just checked the xbox app, where I find the Super Speed Car Pack is listed and can be bought (and I’ve bought it). The new cars are there in Horizon Promo, but my attempt to get them participate one race or another failed. Mind you, because of the issue with the car pack cars, they may not even appear in races. The Tsuru turned up. I’ve not heard of

The good, the bad and the ugh. It’s not all bad. The two missing Ferraris, the 250 GT and the F8 Tributo, will be back in the game at long last as series rewards. That leaves the ghastly pig Porsche and a few of the fat-arsed Extreme E cars before my garage is finally complete again for the first time in well over a year. The Nissan Tsuru is being added to the game. You get what you vote for. It’s meant to be from 2010, but looks more like it’s from 1990. It’s also going to to be the second starter car in the Eliminator. Now if only they’d make all the cars in the Eliminator off-roaders or at least replace the least suitable vehicles. The other summer car is the Nissan Z, returning for the third time, I think. Overweight barge. Did anyone vote for a Meyers Manx EV? And why would anyone want a Subaru WRX as a reward car? Don’t get me wrong – I like the Subaru rally cars, but they’re a bit dated and a bit dull. For dirt racing, depending on the rules and regulations, I tend to opt for th

This week’s theme was impossibly fast drivatars. I started with the weekly in the Renault Mégane and did Mulegé as the circuit race. I’ve done Mulegé lots of times with the drivatars on their usual level of difficulty without any problems. Usually without any problems. But no, one of the drivatars was an absolute missile. I lowered the difficulty setting to Dribbling Idiot, which gave me the expected advantage; but what did I see behind me? One of the drivatars pulling away from the rest of the pack. The Eventlab tiles were working. I think that’s a whole month without a glitch (in spite of all the other problems with the game). ’Scuse me while I check for flying pigs. Stadium Supercross was an unfun, unbalanced novelty circuit. It was another one where you pick a vehicle you like and then find you should’ve picked one of the Extreme E cars instead. I ended up in a close battle with a drivatar in the improbably fast, impossibly grippy FE BMW X5 in White Sands . I chose my Ferrari F40