Cool game. Picked it up a week ago and having a blast with the racing. Runs great, looks fantastic. I'm new to this series, although I bought FH4 for my son/X Box. He played it a little, and that paid off with a free McLaren Senna for returning players, how nice. The driving has a wonderful feel to it. It's an arcade racer I'd guess you'd say, but it feels nice and the road racing is a lot of fun. All of the different disciplines are, including the dirt and offroad racing. I've put a lot of time in to it already, as I just love blasting through the countryside. I'm a massive mid-engine Ferrari fan, a car and racing guy really, but for me the mid-engine V8 Ferraris are the pinnacle. This is isn't hypercar territory -- and there are plenty of those in FH5 -- but just beautiful cars with a glorious exhaust note and just what I want in a game like this.

Forza sort of throws cars at you. After years of games like Elite and GTAO I am sort of conditioned to work for my goals, securing my assets. Forza says screw that sh!t and here's a hundred free cars. have a good time! Five hours in I had arguably the best car in the game, the Lambo Sesto Elemento FE, which I won in a wheelspin, of which you get a million. It's a sick hypercar and just free. It feels strangely foreign and part of me wants to see everything more precious, and if I have a 458 Italia it should feel special, well-earned. But that's just not a thing in this game. Aside from free wheelspins popping supercars and daily drivers, more are given as rewards for the various activities and events. And still you could opt to just buy from the auto show or at auction. Money's not tight exactly, depending on how freely you spend it I guess, but those wheelspins are full of cash too.I've gotten so many free cars so quickly I've been buying the player houses mostly. There are seven of these and each grant bonuses and garage locations around the map.

Still, some money is needed to fill a stable full of Ferraris. I have about 16 so far, some I found in barns, some from wheelspins, one from a seasonal event. But some holes need to be filled, after all there are a lot of Ferraris! There's a very active player auction mechanic where you can pick up some really good deals, well below sticker and often upgraded and with some cool liveries. The LaFerrari is a reward for owning them all, but that would cost more than I'll ever make. But I'll keep trying haha.

So if you love mid-engined Ferraris and have a bunch of them, how do you choose the one? Drive 'em a lot, yeah. Racing events in the game are broken down by class, with most Ferraris classed as S1 stock. You can mod any car and take it right on up the class ladder, but I find the faster the cars, the harder to race, so the S1 class is the top of my comfort level. Class A is the best, and so I've modded a 360 Challenge Stradale to 800 to keep it in class and it's a great road racer against other top A's. But I've had good results with a lot of A class cars, including the Merc-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe. Cars like this are fast and heavy and do well when there's a little banging in the corners. By the way, what the hell is a 4-door coupe? Whatever it is, it has great acceleration and speed for the class.

The S1 class Ferraris are far harder to sort through. I've bought several at auction, including two 458s and two 488's. The V-12s are mean cars, but just not my style really. The Ferrari I've been driving most is the 458 Speciale, modded to 900 to keep it in class. I have 140 cars, but I want to have "the one" ya know? So far this is it. But there are just so. many. cars.

2013 Ferrari 458 Speciale (728bhp)








Forza gives me the road driving experience I was looking for in GTAO, but which just isn't good enough. The physics too rudimentary, the racing fun but somehow unsatisfying. Not so in Forza. I've had a blast, drag racing other players at the Festival sites, playing follow the leader through the twisting roads. The hundreds of events, which can be done solo against fun AI. The community bashes the AI, but I think it's great. It has the magic variability I so often say is needed. with the AI capable of both really good and really bad driving. Not sure how this whole drivatars system works, whether it attempts to somehow mimic the player-driver it is based on, but I've had some thrilling racing. I especially like the street racing, road courses with traffic. I'm playing with the AI set to 'highly skilled' which gives a good account, I win some I lose some. I started playing with all driving aids off, but after a few days I set ABS on. It's painful without it and I'll take the XP hit. But traction control has to be off right? To get that sweet high speed drift that makes the road racing so much fun. Well maybe not but I'm keeping it off.

Hit me up if you want to join up. In game as smokeless6. Let me know here or via PM as I won't add strangers too often

Tough crowd, playing hard to get, are you? Be seduced....

My best drag racer, '68 Dart




Boss 302




430 Scuderia




458 Speciale, there are laptimes to beat you know




The dashes are fantastic, all accurate, and all gauges and displays work. Ferrari 430. I play in first person. Note rev lights in top of steering wheel





488 Pista. Love Ferraris!




There are all sorts of disciplines, here's some dirt track racing in a modified Bronco




As I said in the OP, the game throws cars at you. This is your starter car! No banging about in a Ford Fiesta for a few days. Straight to the 2020 C8



'57 Bel Air





My S2 class assassin, the Ferarri FXX K. Dropped $1.4 million at auction for her. Sublime




I was headed for the Festival site, so decided to tool along in the '56 Ford. Not much pep, but plenty of style!






And when I get there, the drifters notice the sweet ride and pay homage as only they can

Good briefing DBond.

Tempting to buy .

What controls do you use?
I have a USB MOMO Racing Force Feedback that`s been hiding on a shelf for some years know. Just waiting to be used.
A little suspecious though. Says Windows 98/2000/XP on the label so I don`t know.

I have three red Momo's, but I'm just using an X Box controller. the driving's really nice. It would be even better with my wheel, but the controller is just better from an ergonomic point of view. If I struggled to control the cars I'd hook up the wheel. But it drives nicely this way and I'm fine with that.

I have fun with a lot of the content in the game, but I really like the Rivals sprint racing. point to point dashes where you try to beat other players' laptimes in any class. The courses take anywhere from a minute and half to four minutes, with a few monster 30+ mile tracks on offer too. One race I'll be in a '73 Carrera and the next in a Lambo Huracan, the sheer number of cars to choose from is insane. There's full control over chassis setup, and performance modifications to tune your ride. The paint shop is awesome, but I mostly download nice looking liveries.

This software allows the MOMO to work in Windows 10. I am able to use the MOMO with Dirt Rally 2.0. Not sure if Horizon 5 will support it. You can always get XBOX Game Pass instead of buying the full game. 1$ for the first 3 months. Logitech LINK

XBOX Game Pass for PC

I still prefer the MOMO to newer wheels, I like using the built in shifter as a handbrake.

The throttle and brake feel like they are one axis, at least with the controller. Like brake is anti-throttle, and they are not two separate things. So pure GPL-era trail braking is not really a thing, but the feel of piloting the cars around the roads and circuits is good. A wheel and pedals is a step up, but I think more so for the wheel, because of the way the throttle and braking seems to work. Driving cars like this at these sorts of speeds is done with the feet, but FH5 is leaning more toward arcade than simulation, and the result is really nice, but the mechanics are not like the top sims.

However a wheel setup may be detected and handled differently, with the individual pedals recognized as separate inputs. I dunno.

The sound too is fantastic. These cars really scream. Or putter. Or gurgle or sing like a sewing machine. But man, the exhaust notes of some of these V-8s and V-10s is intoxicating. On those sprint races there are some sections where you just open it up, and the engines as they climb through the gears sound wonderful. I'm a long time sim racer, going back to Papy's Indy Car. GPL, GTR, Assetto, the current Codies F1 sims to name some.

Forza isn't high-fidelity like those sims, but it offers something that none of them do, and that's a free-roam playground covered in fun events you can opt in to at anytime. Solo-MP switching is seamless. You can swap in to a different car anywhere in about four seconds. Other players are all over, but they ghost when they get close, so no one can ruin your good time. There's also a solo mode that is just NPCs, but I prefer the online mode. I can show up at the air strip for some pick-up drag racing, or hook up with a couple players to rocket through the countryside playing follow the leader. No one chatting at me, there are just some tame, polite or funny messages they can choose. The blend of solo and multiplayer is in a great spot.

Looks are super, but unless these games have 1960's Grand Prix racers with period race tracks I'll never buy them.
Graphics wise, if some company made a new version of GPL I'd be all over it. (maybe some day) I can hope!

Assetto Corsa has mods that pretty much turn it into a modern GPL.

Yeah, AC is what you want, if GPL isn't what you want

We had a GPL thread a while back, and Frank posted this video of the '66 cars in AC. Scratches that GPL itch and then some.

https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads....d-prix-legends-were-you-fast#Post4541605

A lap around the classic Spa

The gameplay is fun and varied. There are 'outposts' you unlock as you play which open up the various events around the map. Drifting, road racing, drag, circuit racing, jumps, time trials and lots more. I'm not much for the drifting, but I do plenty of it, intentionally and otherwise, and I don't do much PvP racing, as the proper spirit is lacking in many, isn't it? Haha, but that leaves a lot to do. I really like the two sprint racing disciplines, road racing and street racing, which are essentially the same thing, but street racing has traffic and is run at night. These are point to point races in a field of 12 cars. There are six classes, from D through X (D,C,B,A,S1,S2,X). A big part of the appeal isn't running the obvious heavy hitters, but finding a good ride for the lower classes, and then tuning it to be competitive.

D class for example. I was running mid to late 60's Mustangs. I have a thing for them, having owned Mustangs for a long time, and those 60's 'Stangs are really cool cars. But in D class you can't do much to upgrade them. If you do too much, like put slicks on it, or drop a V-10 in it, then they go up class and are no longer D class. So maybe a cold air kit and wider rear tires and she's ready to race! There aren't gobs of torque and grip in these cars, so the driving in finely balanced and you have to be precise to turn competitive laptimes, without the horsepower and grip to cover mistakes. A few days ago I was looking to see if I could make a better D class car, as these Stangs just didn't have the acceleration I wanted. One of the lowest rated cars I had was a '53 Vette, but it was so low rated that it left a lot more room to upgrade it and stay in class. And that's what I did and it easily beat my previous PBs.

Then the next race it's maybe it S1 class and a Ferrari or Lambo. Dirt track, dirt point to points. In freeroam, once you've unlocked the outposts, the map will be covered in various activities that are fun to do. One is the speed trap, and you earn either one, two or three stars depending on whether you hit the three speed targets. The speed zone, with two traps, and it tracks your average speed between the two points to hit the targets. Insane jumps off mountains and ramps. Drift zones are everywhere, and just cruising along you come across them and just shift your mindset, boom, sideways and smoking.

Over the top of this are the ever-present seasonal events, various challenges and rewards that change each week. Like racing championships with a specific restriction, such as class C from the 1970s, or one from the Hot Rods and Customs class. So while it's really fun to be collecting the worlds greatest hypercars, all those less heralded rides you're stuffing in your garage become potential tools to complete the activites and events. Beat this 800-foot jump target in a 1950s sedan, ya know? Or another seasonal activity might be to own a specific car, and drive it, fast. This week it's the Lexus LFA. Own it, drive it, go 200 MPH and win two road circuit races and you gain points toward the seasonal reward, a 488 GTB this week. This sort of stuff keeps it fresh, and I like how my entire fleet is potentially useful.

As an old-school hotlapper I've spent a lot of time in the Rivals mode. Here you attempt to beat the laptime of the next player on the ladder by running against his ghost. There are road, street, dirt and off road categories and all classes, so it's nearly endless combinations and fun to keep putting together better hammers to nail the times. This pays handsomely in XP, and the levels fly right by, even if you fail to beat the rival. But if you are so inclined you can game the game a bit since if you've never set a laptime on that particular track, your first rival is the slowest laptime recorded by a player. And of course there's always a player who took 2 hours to complete the 2 minute track haha. So you could for example start out in a slower car in the class, then keep beating your times with better and better cars, while cashing in on all that XP. Anyway, hotlapping in FH5 is challenging, fun and rewarding.

That's enough about the gameplay, here are a few more shots of the cool whips in FH5


One event today is a trail point to point. From that mountain over there to this mountain right here in pertquick time. Modified Ford Bronco






1931 Bentley 8-Litre. Style, riding in.






The most valuable car in FH5, the 250 GTO. She's a B-class star for me. Like the '53 Vette, the GTO was so far off top of the class that it had the overhead to modify it to be my best B-class car. At one point the 250 GTO was the world's most expensive car, maybe it still holds that record. Beautiful car, and surprisingly good racer.





One of those D-class Stangs, I think a '65, during a street sprint at twilight





Years ago I was watching Top Gear, and they did a bit on the Ariel Atom, a supercool little engine with a seat strapped to it. I really wanted to have one of those! I'll grab the video of Clarkson's Top Gear bit and post it. It was the first I actually bought in FH5, tuned to the top of S2 class and it just rips! Good stuff.

Here's the Top Gear piece on the Atom

Lol, a bird strike without a helmet would do some damage.


Wheels

DBond, love the shot of the #25 Brocky! I have a good tune for that! Favorite car... hmmm. Has to be a Ferrari, I think it is the 458 Italia (?) or possibly the Pista. Both are INSANE to drive from Cockpit view.

Favorite in cockpit engine is probably the Twin Mill... 2X the goodness!

I also have 1 or 2 SimHQ logos if you want to use them.

Gamertag: FN OPERATOR

Post a picture of a Dust Storm, or the Hurricane during a race. Love those environmentals!

Hey Bill, how's things? Glad to know someone is playing this game! I couldn't believe there weren't a half-dozen guys here playing it too. it's a great time.

You can't go wrong with a Ferrari. Same here. I posted earlier about how the LaFerrari was a reward for owning all Ferarris and how I'd never have that much money, but I've already done it! Turns out you don't have to have every Ferrari, just nearly all, probably because some have been added since release and the target would have moved. So at around 25 Ferraris I got it. It's hard to pick a favorite car, there are so many, and more are continually being added to the garage. These are my go-to rides by class. I mostly freeroam and do sprint racing.

X Class -- I've only converted three cars so far to X, the Sesto FE, Jesko and 599XX Evo. I guess the 599 is my favorite, but the Lambo is probably the best car in Forza.

S2 Class -- It has to be the Mosler MT900S. Just a fantastic road racer. There are plenty of tunes with around 1300 HP, but I went with a 850hp setup and this car is just blistering on the twisty bits. Lightweight and super agile. love this car. I also use the FXX K and Laferrari, but the Mosler is just so balanced and composed

S1 class -- Ferrari 458 S is my main runner, but there are so many good S1 cars. 488 GTB, McLaren F1, Lexus LFA, Centenario and on and on. 458 S is listed as my favorite car. That's the one I've driven the most

A class -- I've tested so many As on the track, but nothing has beat the 360 Stradale.My most successful car, with the most wins

B class -- 250 GTO is my best road racer, with honorable mention to the Hoonigan '55 Bel Air, a surprisingly awesome car

C class -- A struggle in this class, I've given run-outs to so many, but right now it's between the '92 Escort RS Cosworth and the '94 Celica GT. I feel like I can get better in this class.

D class -- '53 Vette. Converted to AWD, and down on top end, but the acceleration is great for the class and eats up the other cars I've tried on any track with squiggly bits.


I only have one shot of a dust storm at the mo, this one of the Valhalla just after I got her. It has since been repainted







I'll try to add you as a friend if you don't mind. I'd love to have some friends laptimes to compare. I'll keep an eye out for you and maybe we can hook up?

The Jesko can break all the speed records. It is the fastest car in the game at roughly 308Mph top end
The Sesto Forza Edition car will easily destroy any Speed Zones with its insane turning abilities. Did you see that it is 4-Wheel steering!?!

Drag Car: This car will EAT most anything. As of yet, I am undefeated in casual drag. Even Jeskos. HA! The Ford Mustang S5 RTR with GazTheMan97 tune on it. Prepare to look at everyone using your rear view mirror.

One of THE BEST tuners in the game is Dont Giva Deuce his tunes will win you races

I'm using the '68 Dart shown above as my drag car. Just about every time I'm on I drop by the main festival and do some pick up drag racing, but switch cars each time just to give them all a run out. That Dart is the only car out of the three hundred I've acquired that I've drag tires on actually. It's very good, but there are some times when I get smoked.

I think I just got the RTR yesterday. There are like 20 Mustangs in this game. Nice.

I can see your laptimes now and compared some. You've given me a new S2 target for Goliath Nice lap.

I can set your lap as my ghost and run against it

Oh and happy birthday!

The Ferrari FXX K ... at 999 X it is a monster

Are you sure that doesn't belong to Batman?...

Batman!

This is mine








The Mosler MT900S. My favorite S2 road racer at the mo






Forza is a very vibrant Mexico, a pretty big map with a number of biomes, all quite good looking





It's one of my least capable machines, but it's the third appearance in this thread for the old '56 Ford. here I come back down after completing one of the seasonal objectives, a jump with a class restriction that meant this was the chosen tool. Modded up to class C for a little extra pep. But anyway, a shot to show the terrain in FH5

Hey Bill, if you threw that hotlap at me feel free to send some more. First time a new notification showed up for me under RIvals, so surely you sent it. I gave a it a good go in the 250 GTO. Feel free to send more of these. I have to see how it's done, to issue the challenge like that. I enjoy this sort of stuff. If we had more players we could have a daily SimHQ hotlap, pick a track and a class and see who can manage the fastest clean lap (no collisions, no rewinds).

Your lap around Goliath inspired me to give it another bash and turned a clean 12:04 in the Mosler, but I'm sure I left a few seconds out on the track. Sub-12 is possible but I'd need to drive better.

Anyone besides Bill and I playing Forza at the mo?

I reckon not

I was running some more hotlaps and had a look at the Colossus sprint and saw Bill put up a good A class laptime there, so I set his lap as the ghost and ran against it. Colossus is a 34 mile track that weaves all through the map. A good challenge. Traffic is removed for the rivals mode. It feels like running the Nordschliefe or Solitude or one of the classic road courses. I really enjoy this type of driving/racing.

For my unsolicited matchup with Bill Grant I chose my top A class racer, the Ferrari 360 CS, a car very much like the Modena, but better in every race-related way. Bill ran the Bone Shaker, which is like a Hotwheels hot rod. And what a spectacular race, even though you weren't there haha. But your ghost thoroughly enjoyed it haha.

I got the crisper start, and opened up an early lead, maybe a hundred and fifty yards which I held for the first 20% of the race where you closed the gap and shot past to lead by about the same amount through the 50% point. Then I came back and eased ahead, and for the second half of the race we were separated by just a few car lengths. That Bone Shaker is a rocket out of slow corners let me tell ya! It was a hell of a battle to the line and I nicked it by nine-tenths. In the ranking I saw you had run this lap without ABS and that's a heck of a good run with those brakes. I bet you could crush it with ABS on.

Would like to get a few more folks around here playing to get some more friendly ghosts to run against

DBond, the Bone Shaker is pinnacle of the A800 Class. In FH4, it was banned from online racing. When you want to absolutely crush a time or race, the Bone Shaker will deliver. So if you beat my time, that is beyond awesome!

Yeah I just nicked it by less than a second, clean lap. And after 34 miles that's a mighty tight affair. But I ran ABS on, and that's a lot easier than off. I played the first hundred hours with it off, but it was just too painful. These are some of the best road cars in the world with advanced braking technology. Yeah maybe if I'm tooling around in a '57 Testa Rossa or something that would authenticate the experience haha, but otherwise the game is much better with that on I think, while keeping the other aids off. It's flexible anyway and anyone can find their groove.

I bet you'd smoke my ghost in that Shaker if you ran it again with ABS on.

I now own every Ferrari in FH5. There are 33 of them, and they cover all classes aside from D. So many cool cars. I spend way more time in Ferraris than other cars.

A surprisingly good side to this game is the tuning. The class structure and extensive modification options are a lot of fun to experiment with. There are a ton of easily applied player tunes. A couple clicks, sort through a bunch, pick one and boom a fully modified class car. I did this for a while, because it's the express route to solid setups and optimal performance modifications. All wheel drive is king in this game, and virtually any top car will be converted if it didn't roll out of the factory that way. But after that, there is a lot of flexibility to round out the build, and make a good race car, or drag, or drift or whatever you're after.

But two things nagged at me. One, wheels are part of the tune, since they have performance properties (like weight). And since player-shared tunes are locked in Forza, you get the wheel they chose. Is there a way to change only the wheels?

And two, different drivers like different handling balance. Chassis setup is part of the tune too. So if you don't care for the balance it cannot be tweaked. This locked setup is pretty restrictive, and basically if you download another player's tune, as good as they are, you're locked in to that car's balance. I actually really like the way it works here, a player gets more recognition for being good at this stuff, the way it's locked. But personally I need more control over it, so I'm doing my own, at least for my main cars. I was finding -- especially in the AWD tunes -- that I was often getting too much entry understeer, need more lift oversteer, and you need to be able to change things like springs, roll bars and differentials to fine tune cornering balance to your liking I think.

Anyway, it's super easy, and very effective to ignore this whole side of the game. there are a ton of amazing player shared ones to install. But on the other hand, for some more personal tweaking to taste the setup options are at least as extensive as what you get in sims like F1 2021. And add on top of that all the performance stuff, like blowers, alternate engines, lightweighting, brakes, transmissions, aero and on and on and it's a lot of fun to do this and hunting better lap times.

And I get the wheels I want

Some more Ferrari porn. Yes, there are other marques in FH5


1957 250 California





2013 Laferrari





2013 458 S. This is my main whip. It now has red calipers, but this shot was taken beforehand. These wheels add 26 pounds, but style is the main thing

My Brother from another Mother! The Ferraris are the FIRST car group that I wanted to fill out. The 250 California is a dream driver, the 250 GTO is a Race horse, and the 458 bodies are my favorite in seat drivers. Love to whip them around the mountains in the 170mph range.

Troodat.

I do that all the time, just jump in the 458 and rocket along the roads. Every now and then another player or two catches on and it's catch as catch can. Good fun. Did you get all Ferraris Bill? Yeah that was what I wanted to do too and got the last few a couple days ago at auction. Needed the 250 Cali, F50GT and Enzo to cap the lot of them. My son said "that's not what I would have done with my money Dad". Ha! Kids. He seemed entirely unimpressed.

That 458 S might be my S1 class weapon of choice, but the 360 Stradale continues to ward off all challengers in class A. I've hit it with every top A class car I acquire, but none can beat it for me. Here she is in action on the Riviera sprint I think it is. At the top of A class you race cars like 911s, Lotus Elise, Ferrari F50 and that sort.

I thought perhaps the '87 Porsche 959 would give the 360 a run for its money. It too, fell short. But it's a beauty!





Ferrari 599 Evo




Lambo Centenario




Storm Runner




One of this week's challenges is a speed zone with a Classic Rally class restriction. I chose this '67 Racing Escort to complete it

New season kicked off Thursday, and a new thing called the World Cup. I decided to support the good ol' US of A and drove a Mustang Shelby GT350R. I saw that the requirements included road and off road stuff, and for whatever reason the Mustang has pretty good off road capability. It's only a blue rarity car, but it's fast and I like Mustangs.

I hadn't logged on in a couple weeks while playing Hitman, and got the Car Pass cars released since then. That included the Ferrari FXX K Evo, which is sick. Without even modifying it at all I set a new PB in one of the speed zones. It starts at 998 and it's even still in RWD. I only played about an hour and still I got like eight new cars. It's insane how it works in this game, and I now have about 390 unique cars. I give so many away as gifts. Got notified of an incoming gift, saw the barn was really close, and then completely forgot about it so who knows what it would have been. Usually it's crap, but every now and then you're gifted a top car from another player.

There's a Chinese car theme going on, including a pretty good electric that's used for the monthly time trial. Handles nicely and is fast, but I can't have a silent car. I give away all electric cars. I'm not interested really in any of them. I need my engine to sing, or growl, or rumble.

New series kicked off today.

A few weeks ago a change was made to wheelspin payouts. Many small money denominations are now included, and what used to be a reasonably lucrative mechanic has been nerf-hammered to death. It really sucks now. I'm glad I started playing when I did (just before Christmas) so that I got a lot of cars before this change.

On a positive note, for the first time I actually qualified for the 40-point season reward, a Zonda R this week. Didn't have it, wanted it, got it. Mastery included a super wheelspin. Payout from that spin, 25k and a pair of socks. And that's far from a one-off, they're almost all like this any more. Socks. And that wasn't the first pair of socks I spun yesterday. Bring back the old wheelspins!

Hey Bill Grant, I've been playing FH5 a bit over the past few days. I was sitting in my car along the side of the road, looking at the map. When I exited the screen and looked out the front windshield there you came, blasting around the corner and flew right on by. Nice to finally see you in the game haha.

I hadn't played since last December according to Steam, but there has been a lot added to the game, new stories, new events, and it was enough to draw me back in and it's been a blast.

What's the deal with the test track? I went there, did an upgrade like it told me to, and then what? Is it just a way to try upgrades for free and everyone else is removed from the map or something? I don't get what this is about.

When I played before, I was using a controller, but now I have my full wheel and seat setup in place and man what a difference. So much better.

No Bill Grant?

Still don't know what the test track is for.

I bought the Rally Adventure DLC. It's not bad. A new (small) map, new events/traps/zones to hit. Lots of free vehicles, but of the off-road variety of course.

I blew through it in a few days. Worth 20 bucks? Probably not with a critical eye, but if you like Forza it probably is. Or if you enjoy off road and rally type driving then yeah, probably. I'm not a massive fan of off-road, but I don't hate it either. My jam is the road racing (on tarmac), especially the Rivals mode. Hotlapping ladder racing.

In Rally Adventure you're handed a number of unique vehicles, but most of these are the purpose-built baja type trucks, the ones with a few spares mounted on them. They are kinda heavy and not well balanced. I appreciate the freebies, but I actually like this sort of racing best in a hot hatch style car. Like the Cossie you get early on. Mini Coops, a Golf, and that sort of thing, outfitted for rally racing. These cars handle well, have good balance and traction, and are not a nightmare to drive from first person cockpit view, unlike some others. Especially over the jumps that are so prevalent here. Rally Adventure is fine, but get it on sale if you can.

One nice side benefit of picking up Rally Adventure is it opens up a couple more festival events. As 'Badlands Champion' I got two extra events this week, a speed trap and another seasonal race circuit.

In the past, I've rarely hit the second tier of car reward for the week, which takes 40 points. I don't get in to much of the PvP stuff, event lab or team racing, so I am always short of 40 points. But now, those additional 7 points from the extra events let me hit 40 and get the second car. You can get the same from Hot Wheels, but I've skipped that. I play in first person cockpit view and looping tracks are nearly impossible to navigate in this view. GTA 5's Stunt racing mode showed me how lousy it is, and I am thinking it must be the same with Hot Wheels tracksin FH5, so I've ignored it.

No one is posting in this thread so this is in to the void I fear, but did anyone manage to win the seasonal event called 'Escaping the Heat'? The AI is smoking me in this one. Which car did you use?

I'm nearly at 500 unique cars in my garage which is crazy. This game throws them at you, but about a year ago wheelspins were nerfed hard so the rate has slowed, but they are still piling up.

And I figured out how to use the Test Track, what it is all about. Not a big deal, but it does let you try the modifications before buying and installing them. I've used it a lot over the past week.

Broke down and bought Hot Wheels too. I thought it would suck for driver cam players and it does. These looping tracks don't work when you drive from the cockpit as you can't see what is ahead if the car has a roof. This forces me to drive in chase cam which I don't care for. The content itself isn't bad, a neat twist and fun diversion. But this would be the last DLC I would buy (and it was!) and could easily be skipped altogether.

I was a little kid in the 1970s and Hot Wheels were hot, although honestly I was more of a Matchbox kind of kid. But racing on these Hotwheel tracks is fun. Some are magnetized, some are ice and it's a neat twist like I said.

As mentioned I dig the Rivals mode in FH5. It is ladder racing against ghosts. All disciplines are represented, but it's the sprint road racing that I like most. All of my old times were set with a controller, and now I'm giving them another pass with a wheel and the times are dropping nicely. If there is anyone around playing this game who likes Rivals, I'd like to add you for more ghosts and laps to run against. But then again, if anyone around here were playing they'd probably be posting so I won't hold my breath lol.

I also bought the Itailan car pack so I could get the 296 GTB. I'm a massive Ferrari fan, and especially the mid-engined V8 Ferraris, and even more especially, naturally aspirated mid-engined V8 Ferraris, which has made the 458 S my most driven car by a country mile. Those days are over and that mantle has been taken up by the 296 in my mind, so I was keen to get my hands on it. Modded it to the top of S1 and it's good, but a little heavy. Must be that battery.

I'm sat now on about 520 uniques. That is quite a stable.