The Cross country races are quite the challenge at Highly Skilled, Pro and Unbeatable… there’s always that one drivatar that is hard to beat…
Anyway… What I’ve found is that, just like all other racing games, your line is everything… Especially on the cross country runs… I don’t have any issues winning sprints and circuit races in Pro difficulty, but for Cross Country style races, I find it VERY hard to keep up and get to the front when I get off line. In those types of races, the Drivatars seem glued to the driving line more often than not. I’m also a cockpit/hood driver (never really used chase view in and FM games and rarely in FH1), so when I have to switch to chase view to see over the vineyards and over grown fields, it messes with my driving chi… For Cross country races…I’ve started to really pay attention to my line and I’m getting used to chase view driving. I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my cross country results…
I remember when the rally expansion came out in Horizon 1 that most people complained it was too difficult. Most people just didn’t understand how to adjust their driving style on the slippery, off road courses. It’s definitely a different beast. Here are a couple tips OP:
-Don’t use a RWD muscle car off road. Find something that’s FWD or AWD if possible (maybe not if the game is forcing you to use that car off road)
-As another poster mentioned - throttle control. You can’t just keep the throttle pegged to the floor on off road tracks. You need to anticipate bumps, jumps and turns and let off a little in order for the car to get control and not slide all over the place
-Definitely use normal steering. You say that you’re using a wheel and I think most wheel users around here (myself included) would advise that normal steering is not only easier - it’s also more realistic
Most wheel users think normal steering more realistic than simulation? This is the first i’ve ever seen anyone say that…Most people swear by sim steering with a wheel.
I would argue that in previous forza games, sim steering was very unrealistic, and way too twitchy with a wheel. It just felt like they made it too hard for the sake of being hard. I’ve driven all kinds of real life sports cars, and own a modified 500 HP car.
However, I think they actually did a decent job in horizon 2, and I’m committed to using sim steering only. I am quite good at beating pro and unbeatable with no assists (except for braking racing line)… With that said, I do feel that sim steering is still a bit exaggerated.
As for the A.I., I’m not a fan of how they seem to be so much faster in a straight line. I get that it is supposed to be unbeatable… But beat me on skills alone, not because you get an automatic Horsepower boost based on the difficulty level. Other than that, this is the best forza game in the series to me. Forza 4 was the best forza until horizon 2.
I think its to do with the way they’re tuned, in FM5 they’d be faster in straights and slow in turns because they were tuned for more HP over handling, regardless of the drivatar, and since it uses the same engine i’d expect that to be same too, would be good if the cars had the actual persons tune on their drivatar for that car (if they owned it), would make an altogether challenging racing
I’ve had a different experience with, so to speak, cheating AI than the OP.
In my case, if I am in a race and even barely miss the checkpoint flame on the outside by inches, it tells me I missed the checkpoint and I have to rewind or I get reset back before the checkpoint. This isn’t the case for the AI. At one point, the entirety of the checkpoint was on the grass, and about 5 drivatars behind me drove on the road missing the checkpoint and passing me with absolutely no penalty. That’s a little messed up and shouldn’t be difficulty dependent.
Here’s a fun fact: despite its arcade-ish feeling, Horizon DOES simulate physics.
Here’s another: most people don’t know a thing about driving off-road. On the other hand, every Drivatar will be Sebastian Loeb when you set the difficulty to “unbeatable”. The Drivatar system has also considerably improved since its inception, and now Drivatars will not only drive like real pros (okay, maybe I’m exaggerating here…), but also employ effective (if dirty, but hey, try racing on our roads - and enjoy your free trip in the wonderous Italian jails!) tactics.
In my first off-road race (in the best off-road car ever, the BMW Z4) I got shredded because I hammered the throttle and drove like a maniac after saying to myself, “heh, who cares about driving properly, it’s just a big dumb arcade game”. I then tried again, this time feathering the throttle and taking the corners like a real Swede and managed a respectable second place. I could probably do first with a 4wd car, but I couldn’t care less at the moment.
P.S: I haven’t seen a Drivatar miss checkpoints so far. If anything I’ve been rammed quite viciously by a Macca trying to squeeze through the smokes!
Offroad races are sometimes messy, it’s part of the fun.
I thought your thread was refering to the fact that the opponent did cheat, because they do by using boost (to a certain limit, they’ll slow down or be faster depending of the player pace, but it’s usually not a problem, as i think the game cheat less at the end of the race than at the beginning, it’s just there to keep fun).
Has anyone noticed that the AI don’t have to go thru the check points? Watched all of them completely miss a check point, I followed but had to go back to get the check point. Kinda BS, and since when does a Miata keep up with a F12 Berlinetta?
Ok I’m glad I’m not the only one this happened to. This morning while playing one of the off road races the AI just decided checkpoints really weren’t that important. Wildly cutting the course, as if it was a Mario Kart Wario stadium glitch shortcut. Infuriating!
