What’s Good?: Seasonal Events in Forza Horizon 4 for Series 12 Summer (August 1–7,2019)
Ah, Forza Horizon 4 in the Summer! The sky is clearer, the roads are cleaner, and the races are actually pretty chill… which is good, because I was spending most of the afternoon on a livestream and celebrating someone’s birthday, so I wasn’t quite … all together, so to speak.
A new series starts this week, and kicks off with a pretty laid-back #Forzathon Weekly Challenge centered around the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. No racing or wins required — just punching the gas in freeroam for Ultimate Speed skills, Speed Trap stars, and Ultimate Skill Chains. It’s a pretty quick 200 #Forzathon Points, and if you don’t have many (or you spent them all last week) it’ll get you part of the way to a hard-to-find Hudson Hornet, if you missed it the first time around, in the weekly Shop.
Weekly Championships
Road Race: Commuter’s Cup
The Commuter’s Cup, an A-class series in … Vans & Utility? … was a surprisingly good time, at least, for me. I don’t spend a lot of time in this class, so instead of going for something I know to be a championship-killer, I went for something I knew I had tuned well enough previously: a Pursuit Ute that ended up being my most popular tune a while back for some reason. (Except I had it tuned for dirt racing. Again… not all there this week.)
Anyway, if you’ve tuned up right, you can flex in either a smaller Ute or El Camino, or a big ol’ Transit, as you choose. You’re more likely to get close to your top speed on the Greendale Super Sprint that goes over the highway, but that’s the only caveat I have to offer. I had a good time.
Multiple Race Types: Racing Through The Years — 1950s
The Horizon team made a very interesting decision for one of this month’s series. Each week, a championship is scheduled called “Racing Through The Years”, and each one will highlight a decade of vehicles from the 1950s through 1980s. Even more interesting is that this series of races appears to encompass multiple disciplines: Cross Country, Dirt and Road races. If you’re playing solo, you can pick your favorite for each, but if you try to run them co-op, you won’t be able to switch vehicles between races. You’ll want to find a balance in a single vehicle that will be adequate all-around. A win in this championship gifts you a snazzy legendary Plymouth Fury.
Road Race: Forest Run
This season is definitely more friendly to slower reflexes than most; Forest Run is the highest-rated championship of the season, at S1 (900). But again, it’s Summer, the roads are nice, and Modern Supercars is a pretty friendly car type for high-powered races.
There are Lamborghinis in this category that could fit the bill, but I went with a well-balanced BMW I8 Roadster I’d previously tuned to 900. It still took me a little bit of rewinding — but again, as I mentioned at the beginning, I was… not completely there. Thankfully, a past version of myself had previously tuned the Roadster well enough that it had exceptional handling and enough acceleration to edge out an Expert AI in the corner.
Again, even this week’s Trial is below S1, making this the highest-powered championship of the season, and I think the season as a whole is a lot friendlier to players who are either newer or simply enjoy lower-powered racing more. It could also be a great place for seasoned players to introduce their friends to Horizon and/or organize co-op convoys with them. As Keira would say, have fun out there.
