FH6, Series 4, Week 1

I’d seen the location of the treasure on Facebook. Fast travel to the Shimanoyama Circuit icon, and the treasure is in the garages to the left.

The weekly challenge was in the weak and weedy Toyota JPN Taxi. I’m sure it’s iconic. I drove it without wasting any money or effort on it. For the picture at the station, park on one of the roads outside.

The location for the photo of the Wuling Sunshine is the field south of the start of Sunflower Charge.

The Nissan Be-1 seemed to be a good choice for Small but Mighty, although probably absolutely anything eligible was. It was a bit of a pain to take the lead round Shimanoyama. Edamame is a silly karting track, continuing the tradition of terrible stadium circuits started in FH5. And what was the reward? A Honda S800. I’m sure that it, too, is iconic.

For Dango Dashes, the choice was modern or retro supercars, which they could’ve stated directly rather than some vague, meaningless category. I picked the 2-23 Audi R8 Coupé. Still can’t take that first awkward turn round Highway Circuit for toffee, and my driving round Electric Town was ropey at times. All this for an Isetta.

I managed to do Edamame TA cricuit first go in the Nissan Be-1 in under 48 seconds. I also did all right Rivals events when we got the update, although anything after B class is a pain to control.

I managed to one-shot all the PR stunts, although the SZ was difficult because of all the traffic impeding the approach. In spite of my car (that new old Skyline) not really being fit for drifting, I somehow managed to PB Kawazu Nanadaru. Wheel spins. 1. A horn. Thanks, game, you utter arse. 2. Rubbish. 3. Worse rubbish. Sodding game. 4. A Honda Prelude, which I sold for rubbish money.

I managed to three-star all the Raku Raku events, but two of them were identical. That got me CR80,000 as a collection reward.

Rivals week again, this time in some dull little car round that ruddy karting track. Terrible to drive stock as it wobbled all over the place, but I managed to get round the circuit in under a minute.

The Trial. Another vague car category, which made me think this was an off-road series when it was, in fact, a dirt series. There were three of us in my first two attempts, and two in the third (and then just me). Takashiro didn’t go well as there’s a right turn which I slid through a bit too much and missed the following checkpoint on a left turn. Quit, restarted, and got pushed out of a checkpoint by another player, which was, I thought, a racing incident. Quit and restarted. Two of us. I managed a 2nd in Takashiro and we got the win, but I was clearly better than my teammate. I also came 2nd in Sunflower Scramble, but we lost as the other player ended up second-to-last. I managed a 3rd round Bamboo Forest, which was enough to get us … me the win (my teammate had quit at some point). The Ariel Nomad wasn’t really the best for this sort of thing because much of Bamboo Forest is tarmac, and I never quite had the grip to effectively catch the first two drivatars.

“I wish to make a complaint!” (YouTubers, ad naus.)

This series doesn’t seem to have been greeted with open arms except by people who like clown cars. This has also opened the way for more general complaints about the game not really addressing issues such as FOMO, its carmudgeonly approach to rewards, the lack of new cars, and another round of vanished cars returning as exclusives when I can go back to FH4 or 5 and drive said car without let or hindrance.

Today I got the FE F-450 from a wheel spin, and a few days ago, the Speedtail. There are still a number of cars I’ve never seen, and the total I’ve had from wheel spins is minuscule. The total of duplicates from wheel spins currently stands at three, all recent. I will eventually get the other wheel spin cars (I assume), but how long is that going to take? I’ve not even seen the Apollo IE or the 599XX Evo in passing.

I expected the Horizon formula to remain the same, but the tweaks haven’t made things better. If reducing the number of wheel spins was supposed to have me playing more, it hasn’t worked because it makes the game feel like a grind. I’m still not really running a great variety of races since I’m more concerned with credits than, say, a whole bunch of unrewarding sprint races (even though I need the practice; Takashiro was a bit of a mess because I don’t really know it).

I don’t think the grind helps even though the game may be around for years before FH7 appears. I assume we’ll get all the content whether it’s from wheel spins or from some task on the Festival playlist, but having paid for the whole game, I expect to have a decent chance of getting everything. Wheel spins are not a decent chance of getting everything and the amount of effort required to get them far exceeds most of the rewards from them.