Captain Ahab had his white whale, Inspector Javert had Jean Valjean, and Forza Horizon 6 players have Bowie Knife99—an AI drivatar that has pushed players to breaking point with its erratic and borderline murderous driving.
If you’re not familiar with the legend of Bowie Knife99, let me shed some light on the situation. You see, in Forza Horizon 6 lobbies can be filled with AI drivatars, many of which have names based on existing players, devs, or other influential accounts. You can then race against these at different difficulties. The only problem is that some of these drivatars are pretty aggressive and will go to any lengths to beat players in a race. Enter Bowie Knife99.
bowie knife99 just sent me back to Mexico from r/ForzaHorizon
This drivatar in particular has been wreaking havoc in races, hunting players down through the woods, crashing down on players from the sky, and just generally being a right pain in the ass and a really hard car to beat. “It’s always Bowie,” one player says. “The fucker always makes me repeat races.”
In response to the torment some players have decided to fight back, and thus ensues the unending and perhaps unattainable quest to hunt Bowie down and beat it at its own game: “He can’t keep getting away with this.”
Anything’s game. Players have been knocking Bowie Knife99 off course, ramming it into barriers, pushing it off the road, doing pretty much anything to make sure the drivatar doesn’t win, even if it costs them the race. The war cry “justice for all the Bowie Knife victims” rings throughout the rolling roads of Japan.
But on the brightside, all of this Bowie Knife99 mayhem has managed to not only unite the playerbase but has also proved just how fun NPCs are when they’re full of character, even if its defining character trait is evil.
