FH5, Series 44, Week 2

May the farce be with you.

I wasn’t surprised to find that the patch that was supposed to fix the problem with playlist points not being awarded last week was waiting to be installed. I launched the game, made some adjustments to my 2015 Corvette for the weekly, and left my house. I was about to check my messages when the game went CTD. I didn’t think much about it because the game does this from time to time, but when I started the game again, it crashed a second time as it went through the prefatory waffle. I went to the forums to see whether this was An Issue™, and found that the matter had already got 101 votes.

By lunchtime my time, a second patch had been dispatched, reversing the deleterious effects of the first one, and I was able to play the game, albeit with the same glitch as last week. In my case, it doesn’t matter, but it’ll be annoying for a lot of other players.

I assume that the game got confused if players had already done this season previously because some flag needed resetting so that in essence, we’d all being playing the series anew. What I wish is that the first repeat had been from series 5 to 10 because they’re the ones that the game thinks I’ve not done because my progress was not actually saved for several months (another good reason to let players save the game themselves when they exit and to use the local save, not something from a remote server). Would everything in one of those series have been working normally for me as if I was a wholly new player?

The news was that the treasure hunt would take longer to fix, but it now seems that everything’s taking longer to fix.

The other thing I notice about series progress is that the game thinks I have over 100% completion for the ones that the game knows I’ve done. But this is a game that also counts occasional PR stunts without adding them to the overall total.

And now week 2.

I started with the weekly in the 2015 Corvette, which is a car I’ve always quite liked. I wanted to like the 2019 model, but never liked the handling.

The photo has to be taken right next to the ruins of San Juan to count.

I saw one complaint on the forums about how difficult it was to find the collectibles, but I merely followed the Horizon Festival Circuit to complete this task.

I one-shotted all three PR stunts this week, but no PBs. The SWSs were their usual thirds, but one included a Porsche Taycan, a vehicle I despise not because it’s an EV (a black mark enough), but because it’s over-gifted. It shouldn’t be included in wheel spins.

I then went and did the HW PR stunt, which I would’ve one-shotted had it not been for the sodding trees buggering things up. Awful SWS to add insult to injury.

I also one-shotted the RA PR stunt and got a one-third excellent SWS. As usual I started my run-up along the riverbed.

Eventlab (1) was the return of Egypt Part 1: Cairo. As before, plaudits for the use of props. The layout isn’t actually that bad, but the surface of the circuit lacks grip, and there need to be walls and arrows for clarification.

Eventlab (2), Level Speedway, was different in that this is the first time in ages (since forever?) that we’ve not had to go through the tiresome rigmarole of travelling to Eventlab Island. Again, another track with good props, strongly evoking a motor racing circuit. As for the layout, how American. I don’t find such circuits at all interesting. I did manage to lap some of the drivatars. Rubbish SWS as well.

I went with the 1999 Lotus Elise 190 for the Trial mainly because I like the car. My one’s light at 915kg and the one I picked has a PWR of 0.383. I was on the front row of Panorámica and came 4th. There was a runaway drivatar in 1st, but humanity won. Plaza Circuit, which is an otherwise familiar course, was a nuisance for a couple of reasons. One was the nuisance in a Syclone who was not a terrible driver, but not especially competent either. The other was the lampposts that other players kept hitting, which would then seriously slow me down. I’ve never run into this in a race before. The third bother was Katya, who kept passing me, and I kept passing her, and she kept passing me. Looked like I was on for a 4th place, but finished in 3rd. Lag? Could’ve been. Humanity won the race and that was the end of the Trial. I thought this was my second TVR Griffith. No, it’s my fourth. Where the hell did the other three come from? (Also, I find I have four Zenvo TSR-Ss.)

Prestige 8. Finally.

I felt a bit rusty in the Trial because I’ve been doing the Goliath a lot as I tried to reach prestige 8 a bit more quickly. I wish I could report that I achieved this goal in a race, but I ended up on prestige 7, level 899, and knowing that I needed to do one more race, I got my Lamborghini SC20 out. I was racing cars with the 200% XP perk, but hadn’t unlocked the perks on this car. I unlocked the SWS (yes, I know I don’t actually need to do so) and was informed that I had two others, which meant that I’d reached prestige 8 from unlocking perks. Oh the shame! It felt so cheap. Anyway, I’ve achieved in FH5 what is too far away in FH4 to make the effort worthwhile. (As I’ve said before, I ought to have finished FH4 on prestige 9, but the Great Reset buggered that up.)