Occasional Tales

The weekly in the Toyota Supra was fine, but a drag race? Why? Do I find such things any less pointless for doing one more? No. At least the daily challenge got me CR545,000. The Eventlab tiles were broken again until I restarted the game. Laderas Core was, I thought, a good layout with dull use of props and a really stupid reward. Mexico Island Raceway Club was the opposite with a good use of props, but a low-gear layout where you got to 3rd only have to change to 2nd almost at once. I eventually got the speed zone in the Hoonigan RS200. I find the speed zone under the bridge seems easier from the south side (i.e., with the sharpest turn at the end). In the opposite direction, you end up flying over a crest and trying to negotiate an awkward chicane. Perhaps smashing the fence beforehand would help. The SWS was rubbish. I one-shotted the drift zone (and PB’ed it in practice) in the Hoonigan Mustang (yes, I know, obvious). The SWS was one-third good. I hear that the Jesko, pictured i

I knew Horizon 4 wouldn’t last forever, although it seems to have lasted a good long time. There have been reports of content already disappearing from the game and not being available for download. That looks to affect players who bought the Ultimate version in the first place, whereas I bought the base game and then got the Ultimate bundle on special, which may be why I can still drive all the various DLC cars. (Aside: I’ve been a bit slow in writing this while the posts on the forum about the problems with DLC cars continue to have the stylings of a peevish sense of adolescent entitlement which, frankly, annoys me. I assume that the matter will be resolved. Stop banging on about it. ) And now back to our main feature. I may make a more concerted effort to get to prestige 8, but of late, I’ve been neglecting the game somewhat, with my attention focused on FH5. I think because FH4 was my first Horizon game, I have a preference for it just as if I’d started with FH3, I would’ve preferr

The treasure hunt was a matter of doing danger signs in my Bentley until I randomly hit whatever the target was. 100 FPs reward. I can spend them on, er… Somefink nice for the missus. The weekly in the 2017 Alpine A110 passed without anything of note occurring. I got through a wreckage HA by myself. I feared I might acquire 37 dependents who’d expect me to do all the work for them. I one-shotted all the PR stunts, even the speed trap. The trick there seems to be to use all the road from the top, but not to start booting it until you get to the right-hand curve that head down the hill. One SWS was one-third good, and the other two were rubbish. The photo unlocked the Dark Horse, which I’ve had a brief play with it, but have had enough of FH5 for the moment. Rivals round San Juan was advertising for the Universal Icons Car Pack. It was quite possibly the slowest Rivals event I’ve ever done. Línea Costera was a pain. Fat EV SUV, hopeless handling, several visits to Barry R. Not a fun ex

We start with the 1992 Jeep Wrangler Sahara. Tuning 1/9 and Car masteries actually all right. Nothing great, but nothing that made me regret unlocking them. Sluggish old thing stock. I built it into B class and then decided that I ought to make it the top of the class. Raced it in the Titan. Very manoeuvrable and managed to keep the revs up round curves and corners. A solid performer. I had high-ish hopes for K.I.T.T. Tuning 1/9 (bah!), and car masteries included dirt (really?) and a 150% XP bonus along with drag racing (why bother?) I built it to the middle of S1 class, but it has no aero upgrades, which it needs, or failing that, AWD. I expected that the body kit would add aero tuning. Yes, but only to the front. What?! And this version of the car was understeery, although that was probably because of how I tuned the aero. I succumbed and did an AWD dirt build to see what the car might be like. Again, I ended up in mid S1 class. Again, the lack of aero was felt round the Mangrove Scr

“Four! Five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain! … – in all honesty I don’t know.” Why didn’t we get the Mustang Dark Horse instead of the GT as this was the obvious model to add to FH5 in the first place? Not that I mind the GT, but I have to admit I don’t bother with the (modern) Mustangs in the game because my attention is elsewhere. I hope this is another decent addition to the extensive line-up of Mustangs we already have. I also hope the wait for the GR Yaris was worthwhile and that it’s a good car on dirt. Kia… Er, EV… Eerr, SUV… Eeerrr. No, seriously, no. Marketing. Another Hyundai Ioniq. Still no. Marketing. What the hell’s a Taycan CT? It looks to be an estate car version of the over gifted, unwanted Taycan. No again. Yes, I know the WP Taycan can be a missile, but this looks like another instance of FH5 as a marketing platform. Where’s the latest 911 GT3 RS? As for the Universal Icons Car Pack, I see nothing to actually excite me. Three Deloreans is a bit l

The treasure hunt returns. As my Sagaris, well, one of them, couldn’t hit the required speed, I switched to the Cerbera. Job done and I went and got my treasure. The weekly was in the BMW M1. As others have observed, we had to race it first and then upgrade it. It’s fairly iffy stock. Anyway, there were no major issues with the weekly, but it was annoying to upgrade it after the race. Chance I’ll drive it again? Remote. The sole Eventlab this week was Waterfall GP . It’s the sort of circuit which needs practice beforehand. I thought some of the turns were a little too tight, Again, scaling. Two laps were quite enough. Once again, I did some practice last week for the PR stunts. The BMW M3 GTR was good for the job, although it took me two attempts to take the jump because of the unusual amount of traffic just ahead of the left-hander ahead of the danger sign. A one-third very excellent and one-third very good SWS. I one-shotted both drift zones, but ineptly and got a one-third very good

Another week and no treasure hunt. Will you people show no mercy? How many puppies and kittens must I sacrifice in dark rites? How many widows and orphans must I cast into the snow to appease PGG? The weekly in the Ferrari F355 was a doddle. No problems. Once again, I’d practised the PR stunts and knew that the 1980 Countach could smash both without any issues. I didn’t quite beat my best practice time for the trailblazer, but it wasn’t one of those occasions when I randomly complete the task after 37 horribly disastrous minutes and 370 horribly disastrous tries. Eventlab (1). Aztec My Chances . I opted for the Nissan Fairlady because I thought this might be a dirt track. The main problem was the scale, which felt a little too small. The layout was all right, but the overall track was too compact. Eventlab (2). Le Capitaine . Again, expected dirt, didn’t get dirt. The Renault 5 Turbo did a decent job. The layout wasn’t, I thought, terrible, but scaling in the technical sections felt a