You may recall the story of the young man who raced against his dead father’s ghost in the Xbox game RalliSport Challenge. There is now a new ghost story to add to the list, and this time, it involves a racer using Forza Horizon 3 to get a chance to play against his friend who died in 2015 (Via Windows Central.)
The story was first posted to the Xbox One Reddit by Redditor Spartansnverdie, and his since reached internet fame with over 4,924 upvotes. The user explains how he ended up racing against a virtual ghost of his dead friend:
So I am just cruising the Coast when I see a XBL name i haven’t seen in a while. It was my buddy Drew. Sadly Drew passed away about a year ago. He was only 19 years old. Anyways i see his driveatar, I Immediately pull up behind him and challenge him to a race. It was pretty surreal it was like i was playing with him again on xbox. It was bittersweet, but just another reason to love this game. Thank you for bringing me that moment with him.
This moment, nonetheless, is possible thanks to the Drivatar technology which was first introduced to Forza Motorsports 5. The Drivatar is an offline ghost that is seen in the game and is based on the real world in-game driving habits of the Redditor’s friend. Even so, the Redditor has since expressed appreciation for all the fame, and has since edited his post to say, “Well this blew up, I really appreciate all the well wishes and support, and thank you kind strangers for the Gold, this is why I love the Xbox community, you’re good people.”
