What’s Good?: Seasonal Events in Forza Horizon 4 for Series 14 Summer (September 26 — October 2, 2019)
Ah, Summer in Forza Horizon 4! The previous series had a couple of downers that “coincided” with a break from doing these writeups. But the first season of a new series is an opportunity to start fresh, and I woke up this morning to some good news: one of this week’s hard-to-find cars is the Ferrari 599XX Evolution, one of the most beastly and rarely-appearing road cars in the game. I put that text in bold type because I believe it’s unusually important. This is only the Evolution’s second appearance that I’m aware of, and trying to find it at auction is a fool’s errand, so we already know that at least one of the events this season is worth doing. Let’s get to it and see how the rest are.
The weekly #Forzathon Shop has a nice little Koenigsegg Regera that could save you a few regular Forza-bucks if you happen to have more FP handy. (If you already have a Regera, its appearance in the Shop could mean it’s more likely to fetch a good price at auction, since a car’s popularity in the Auction House will raise its maximum price cap, but that’s not a guarantee. It also feels like a very broken algorithm, but we’ll see how long that lasts.) One of the hard-to-find RTR vehicles is back in the spotlight, too, and all the RTRs have a very overpowered vibe to them, if that’s your thing.
Weekly #Forzathon Challenge — Horizon Anniversary
Did you know this game’s been out for about a year? It feels like I’ve been writing about it for a year. I haven’t. But I’ve been playing it for a year.
This week’s Challenge uses the 2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS, a solid piece of S1-class muscle that can be upgraded as far as S2 (again, if that’s your thing). The Challenge’s chapters include 10 Trading Paint skills, 3 Street Scene races and some Skill Score accumulation. If the ride feels comfortable to you at or near stock, these shouldn’t give you too many issues, but maybe you’ll feel more confident taking on the Street Scene races if it’s tuned to the top of S1.
Seasonal Championships
Race Central
Let’s start our journey by taking on the highest-classed championship of the season, a Road Racing series for the Extreme Track Toys car type, at S2 (998 maximum). This is a particularly breezy selection of tracks. The Astmoor Heritage Circuit has some great sweeping curves for high-powered showoffs. Lakehurst Forest Sprint does, too, but as a point-to-point, you have less overall time to ensure that you finish the race at the front of the pack. You also have to negotiate just a little bit of rain. And the Greendale Club Circuit is a pretty straightforward track as well, save for maybe one S-curve you should keep an eye out for.
Overall this is the high-velocity championship you expect it to be, but with a comparatively kind selection of courses — which is almost surprising, since at the end of your journey is the Ferrari 590XX Evolution, the aforementioned hard-to-find car that I’ve mostly only spoken of as legend. And while I usually recommend picking up every hard-to-find car as it appears, I can’t recommend this one strongly enough. The Evolution is regarded as the fastest vehicle currently in the game, if not explicitly confirmed. Do what you have to, and win these races, so you can get that car. Seriously, do it. If the week ends and you don’t have it, there’s no telling how long it will take for it to pop up again.
There’s A Snake In My Boot
Now that we’ve gotten the most important thing out of the way, we can relax a little bit. The “Snake” in the title of this series refers to the Shelby Cobra brand. There’s two Shelbys (Shelbies?) that goes down to B-class (700); the one I used is the ’65 Cobra Daytona Coupe.
We’ve talked about one-model races before, and the benefits and drawbacks to same, but the key to dunking this championship is driving a slightly better tune, and driving it slightly better than the AI. Oh, and it’s also a Street Scene championship, which means you have traffic on the roads to deal with, which also adds a bit of variance that you have to leverage in order to be on the good side of the traffic while your opponents are not. But the lower-powered B-class gives you more time to plan ahead and make calculated moves.
The top reward for this championship is the “Classic Race Suit” which might go well with your vintage ride even though you’ll get the suit after you’re done using the ride.
Horizon Heats
Finally, we have the lowest-power championship of the season: a Retro Hot Hatch, C-class (600) Dirt series. Rally driving is one of the few things in which Hot Hatch excels, and C-class means you don’t have to worry about upgrading your tire compound. The Derwent Reservoir Trail has so many long straight paths that it actually feels like a slog for lower-powered vehicles, but the two Scrambles make up for that by giving you some loops to drift your way around.
Seriously, Get That Car
Even if you’re not aggressively collecting the rare vehicles in this game, or you’re not interested in becoming a collector, I cannot stress this enough. The Ferrari 599XX Evolution mentioned elsewhere in this article as the reward for the Race Central championship is one of the fastest in the game, handles better at higher speeds than anything else in the game, and it’s one of the rarest finds in the game. If you do nothing else, make sure you pick this up. Your Personal Bests on the Speed Zones will thank you for it.
So, What Else Is Good?
About halfway through the championships this week, I had a feeling I was going to enjoy absolutely everything this Summer had to offer, and so far I’ve been absolutely correct. I haven’t messed with The Trial or Playground Games yet, but when I’m figuring out whether I’m actually having fun with the season, the multiplayer content doesn’t usually figure into it. The championships are paramount, and this week they’ve really delivered.
