Played a couple of hours last night while my wife was off playing with iTunes upstairs. I started off in Drownington Cove, doing various things. I finished off the career races there (on two stars), then did some challenges, collected some liveries, got a couple of Mavericks, etc. Best race was probably a Raid challenge there. It starts off easily enough – you can stay ahead of the AI easily enough on the way to the first checkpoint by ignoring the roads – but the second half of the race is a bit harder, as you have avoid an awful lot of water. There’s a big body of water you have to dogleg past, then the final part of the race sees you picking your way between small pools. I eventually did it, after about four tries, by watching where the AI went, which revealed a path across the shallows at the side of the lake. Then it was just a case of sticking to the roads to avoid the pools, before powering across the grass to the finish line. Excellent stuff.

After that I moved on over to Redrock Bluffs, where I did some more career races. On the way to one of them I had another great Fuel moment. I was driving across the desert at night, when a sudden flash of lightning illuminated all the terrain and great forks of lightning appeared in the sky. It gave me a vivd honeymoon flashback, reminding me of watching storms roll in across the Grand Canyon as night fell. Perfect.

Then, this morning, I played for an hour or so before work, polishing off another two or three career races and unlocking three more areas of the map in the process. Wonderful stuff. I know I keep saying that, but it is.