FH5, Series 59, Week 2

I dealt with the weekly in the Lancia Stratos without any issues.

Eventlab (1). Ramen Autodromo. Spaghetti-like layout, but not annoying, Not the best surface, and the final turn kept causing problems because it was indistinct.

Eventlab (2), Jardín Día. Marks on for props, but marks off for the racing surface and the karting track layout.

For the PR stunts, the Peugeot 205 T16 was an excellent choice. I one-shotted all three PR stunts, in a couple of cases by a resounding margin.

Took a picture of the DS23. Can’t recall what the reward was. Probably a bag of grated cheese from 2016.

The HW PR stunt was the ST after the loop, but the 2003 Audi RS6 took care of it first time.

The RA PR stunt was the colossal pain that I expected it to be. Multiple attempts before miraculously completing the task. How? No idea. The best line seemed to be to run alongside the dirt road, go through the narrowest part of the ford, and then turn across the corner apex. I started with one version of the Lotus Elan and then rebuilt it with a focus on the engine. Didn’t really know what to do with the gears and didn’t know whether the ford was better in second or third.

I used the 458 Speciale for the Trial. Third at the start of Estadio and managed a 5th, which was not helped by my ropey driving (although I was able to save myself without too much bother), a player who probably had an exploiter tune, and drivatars that were uncatchable. Nonetheless, in spite of one laggard, we won. I was in last place round Tierra Próspera, but in spite of a rather aggressive drivatar early in the race, I managed to make my way back to 5th place. The player ahead of me proved to be somewhat incompetent, and I think he let me have 4th. I then started catching the drivatar ahead of me and got past after the final turn to take … 2nd?! I don’t know how, but the player who’d won the first race had been winning this one. I can only guess he’d crashed, but still came 4th; and thus we won the series.

A lot of PGG mini games this week. I can’t recall whether we were swamped with these on the previous occasion, but perhaps this is their last hurrah (see below). No, I haven’t done any of them and have no intention of doing so.

Name that tune

This week it made almost no difference. My B-class build was a smidge better than the promoted build, but barely.

FH6, Q&A with Torben Ellert

Ericship111 did a summary of the questions that were worth asking.

About the only thing I’d like to be able to turn on in the game is headlights because the timing never seems quite right, but if players want indicators and windscreen wipers, they’re playing the wrong game. There’s clearly a market for Boring Car Sim in which you can do all these things, and get out of your car, and interact with other players, boring them with the dull facts about your car from the specs to the RGB, HSL, HSB and HTML values of the desaturated factory paint colour. You can still race them, not like a 45-year-old car from 45 years ago, but a 45-year-old car from today with all original parts.

There’s been some fiddling with traffic density apparently, but it’s a feature, not an option. If you want traffic density, play M25 Simulator in which you have to complete a lap of the M25 in rush hour traffic, accidents, contraflows, roadworks, and all the funnest features of Britain’s funnest ring road.

HAs are being replaced by the hourly Horizon Stunt Park, which seems to be a reversion to FLs from FH4. So long as these are scaled, this could be a good idea. The Forzathon Shop is also out, and there shan’t be any more FPs, which makes sense because FPs were initially a frustrating-to-acquire currency, and then later in the game, a useless currency because there was nothing to spend them on (I’ve now hit 183,000 FPs).

The PGG mini-games will be gone, but may return, possibly in the Horizon Stunt Park. Honestly, these things just don’t work because, say, the features of an FPS can’t be translated effectively into a car game (cf. the Eliminator).

No ranked racing, with Spec Racing being the closest thing to it. There are going to be linked clean racing skills, which sounds a bit hopeful since there’s likely to be contact in races whether it’s intentional or not, and there are also likely to be players who’ll do this sort of racing to ruin it for everyone else.

Legend Island will have some tracks, PR stunts, and be the start of the Goliath. Nothing especially exciting, but I wasn’t expecting it would be. “I’ve unlocked Legend Island!” exclaims some player on the forums (more likely: “I’ve beaten the game!”) “Yes,” replies everyone else, “you and 25,347,986 others.” Actually, I wonder how many players will unlock the island and consider the game done.

There will be five touge battles from B- to S2-class against tougher AI (whatever that means; Expert? Pro? Unbeatable? One step above your usual level of difficulty?)

We’ve already heard about the delivery jobs. A fun diversion or an insufferable pain i’ th’ posterior? I recall one of the delivery stories in Edinburgh being a prize nuisance because the van ended up being all power and no handling.

Apparently, the details about the music in the game will be released soon. Will Don Thompson return to host the classical music station? I predict that we’ll get more random tracks from Naxos. I can immediately think of The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, and then after that Big in Japan by Alphaville or Japan by Landscape or Turning Japanese by The Vapours or Quiet Life by Japan. I’ll bet none of them make an appearance because they’ll offend American sensibilities for other countries.