First Roadtrip

The next milestone to pass is our first Road Trip!

Dealing with an Obvious Issue

BEFORE we do anything else and before we race though, let's head back to the Festival and visit the Garage! By the way you will notice that you are unlocking new roads? There is an Achievement for unlocking all of the roads in the map, just like in the last game. Something to think about?

When you reach the Horizon Festival pull into the Garage - here you can do car upgrades, see Your Cars, and do Tuning. This is also where you can do Design and Paints and see your Barn Finds.

When I looked into the My Cars Section of the Garage I found just the BMW - the special cars that should be there that came with the Day One Edition were not present at this time. To obtain the Launch Bonus Cars you need to open the Cars menu outside of the Garage and download them. The same is true for the VIP Cars (if you are a VIP Member).

Now BEFORE we do any of the races, now would be a good time to discover ALL of the roads! Well that, and as long as you are careful you will also reveal most (if not all) of the collection signs. But try NOT to collect any - having them available and revealed by the numbers will make them that much easier to collect.

You don't have to do this but we have found in our experiences with the first game that doing this first gives a significant edge since you end up with lots of points and experience as well as more than a few Prize Wheel Spins!

You will also unlock the following as you complete the process:

• License to Skill (10G) Earn 5 Skill Points.

• Human GPS (10G) Drive down every road in the game.

In the process of driving down every road to add them (and the points you get FOR adding them) to your game, you will also encounter the following game play elements: Speed Traps, Speed Zones, Prize Wheel Events (for leveling up), and Skill Points.

Speed Traps

The difference between the two is that Speed Traps are just that - a camera installed on a pole on the side of the road that snaps your pic and records your speed. In the game these are a sort of mini contest in their own right, being scores you can lock that you then compare with those of your mates.

Speed Zones

Speed Zones on the other hand are basically a pair of cameras that take your pic and record your speed, but unlike Traps, they do it in sequence, and your average high speed is recorded as another sort of mini game you match with your mates who play the game to see who can make the highest cumulative score (speed).

Prize Wheel (for Leveling Up)

The Prize Wheel is a special event you do when you gain a new Level in the game that can reward you with either a prize of cash, or a new car. With the cash prizes if you are also a VIP Member of the game, you basically get a bonus along with whatever you roll on the wheel - so for example when I rolled the 20K Credit Prize what I actually received was 40K Credits!

Skill Points and Skills

Skill Points are points you earn via the Skills System (basically for |completing special moves) that are directly exchanged for Skills or Perks - those being special abilities that you can choose to add to your character's profile and thus profit by.

If you look under Skills in the Main Menu for Stats you will see that these are very similar to the same basic system that was used in the first game: they are actions that you score Skill Points from which contribute to the Skill Points Meter and that, once filled, awards you a Skill Point. These actions include:

• Highest Skill Score (Chaining actions together)

• Total Skill Points Earned

• Perks Unlocked (X of 25)

The actual actions are:

• Ultimate Drift Skills

• Ultimate Speed Skills

• Ultimate Draft Skills

• Ultimate Pass Skills

• Ultimate Burnout Skills

• Ultimate Air Skills

• Ultimate Two-Wheels Skills

• Ultimate E-Drift Skills (Drifting using the Emergency Brake)

• Ultimate Near-Miss Skills

• Ultimate Wreckage Skills

• Ultimate One-Eighty Skills

• Ultimate J-Turn Skills

• Total Ultimate Skills

The “Ultimate Skills” above represent whenever you have pulled off a perfect move for one of the types, so you see you don't actually get a Skills point for the meter for every SUCH action, but only for the perfect ones.

The game will also keep track of car-specific items SUCH as:

• Highest Skill Score Car

As you play on, and unlock the roads, you will also be acquiring stats to add to the Stats Section, which include (but are not necessarily limited to) the following:

• Top Speed

• Average Speed

• Distance Driven

• Biggest Air

• Longest Drift

• Longest Jump

Having learned this as an important lesson from the previous game, the Level Ups you get as well as other special things (like Perks and etc) that can be had simply by doing the total road unlocking Before You Begin the racing has decided benefits, because it gives you some levels and perks and the income to improve your car with upgrades.

All of that makes the races you are going to do so much easier that it really IS worth the effort! Trust me on that...

The process of unlocking all 315 Roads took me just under three hours, and 257 miles of driving. During that process I scored a Top Speed of 173 MPH, had an Average Speed of 73 MPH, made a Longest Drift of 375.3 feet, and a longest jump of 302.3 feet (with a Biggest Air of 2.14 seconds). Not too shabby then!

Collecting all 315 Roads means two Achievements and a pile of Credits with which to upgrade your ride. Totally worth it!