Forza Motorsport has been widely tipped as Microsoft’s answer to and potential beater of Sony’s Gran Turismo series and yes to a point the comparison is a fair one, but generally an unnecessary one as each game has its own well deserved merits. Forza is however, Microsoft’s entry into the serious racing simulation market and whilst other games have attempted to try and offer their own style of racing it appears that Microsoft have gone all out to deliver a realistic racing experience that aims to deliver a pure adrenaline rush from the moment you pop the disk into the Xbox.

Forza Motorsport allows players to experience an impressively accurate racing simulation whereby players put their own performance and highly tuned creations to the test not only during the single player game but in the vast online world via Xbox LIVE. Torque up your wheel nuts, buckle up your harness and unleash the beast as you take to the races with Forza Motorsport. Bring it on!

Gameplay:

Forza is a racing simulation that boasts a huge roster of vehicles from a wealthy pool of manufacturing giants. There are some 230 cars available from over 40 of the worlds greatest car manufacturers which includes manufacturing giants such as Ford, Nissan, Honda, Ferrari, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz to name a few and also the potential for future downloadable content bolstering these collections further. So if you have dreamed of tearing around a racetrack in a Ferrari F40 or even an F50 then this is probably the closest you are going to get bar winning the lottery. Let’s also not forget that Forza not only caters for the high end performance vehicles but also includes some more down to earth road cars such as the sleek Audi TT coupe or even the sassy Honda Civic. There are plenty of cars to choose from to suit all types of players which means that players will get to drive as many or as few cars as they choose in any of the various game modes which include Arcade, Career, Multiplayer, Time Trial and Free Run.

Forza boasts a wide variety of race tracks including both real life locations such as the legendary Nurburgring and some circuits specifically created for the game by the designers, which allows for a variety of location styles ranging from the city streets of New York to the up and down and up hill challenges of Fujimi Kaido. All of the cars featured with Forza seem to handle both individually and react perfectly with responsive controls. Tweaking the in game setup can further help provide as real an experience as you can imagine on a console. All of the cars handle with their own characteristics and when you switch off options such as the traction control you get a real sense of having genuine control over your car. Each of the available game types which include Arcade Race, Career Mode, Multiplayer, Time Trials and Free Run retains the overall quality which I soon became accustomed too whilst competing in any of the various modes and within a very short time I found a near addictive feeling of just one more race the norm.

In arcade mode Forza uses 6 different vehicle classes to define the vehicle categories, The classes are D Class – Standard Production, C Class – Sport Production, B Class – Performance Production, A Class – High Performance Production, S Class – Ultra High Performance Production and finally R Class for purpose built race cars. The vast majority of cars are available from the offset throughout all of the classes, although some will have to be unlocked by competing in the various arcade events and any cars unlocked whilst in arcade mode can be used in multiplayer and free run mode. You are also able to use any you have purchased within your career mode either modified or standard if you so choose. Arcade mode features a total of 12 different series events with a total of 31 events on offer which concludes with the final 5 events (4 of which are point to point) all hosted by the legendary Nurburgring.

Arcade mode is an ample challenge in it’s own right even for the most hardened racers amongst us who could potentially compete in a total of 186 arcade races if they choose to compete in all 31 events in all 6 vehicle classes and with the potential to use all of the 230 cars featured and a scoreboards system recording your achievements separately for each individual car. The potential for you to continually try and improve your times is near endless! Arcade mode has consumed many of my hours behind the wheel of Forza Motorsport and I have often found the urge to compete in the same event several times in various vehicles whilst trying to improve my race times.

For those players looking for a fuller driving experience then they can indulge in Forza’s comprehensive career mode. Here players begin play with an empty garage and a limited number of credits (the games currency). You are required to select a home region; the home regions available are North America, Europe or Asia. Selecting your region determines the availability, starting cost and rarity of the cars you gain throughout your career but does not affect the tracks which are available. Each region offers you a different selection of available cars (6 cars are initially available from each region. For Example if you chose North America you would have to make your car selection from the following: 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser GT Turbo, 2003 Ford Focus SVT, 2003 Lexus IS300, 2002 Acura RSX Type-S, 2003 Acura 3.2 CL Type-S or a 1998 Eagle Talon TSI Turbo. Whereas in Europe you would have to choose from a 2003 Mini Cooper-S, 1995 Volkswagen Corrado SLC, 2002 Saab 9.3 Viggon, 2004 Audi TT Coupe 3.2 Quattro, 2003 Volkswagen Golf R32 or a 2004 Peugeot 206 Gti 180. I can’t really see any reason for the separate regions or the need to make any cars you purchase from different regions more expensive, maybe this is an addition more to create a market place where you are able to buy and sell your cars between profiles or over Xbox LIVE than a necessary addition for the single player experience.

Once you have chosen your car and home region and made any modifications which you require you are able to commence your career staring at Level 0 and initially only Amateur or Point to Point races are available. In Point to Point you can compete in 1 of the 3 open events which are Front Wheel Drive Challenge, All Wheel Drive Challenge or Front Engine Rear Wheel Drive whereas in the Amateur races you have 6 possible events which are the European Open, Asian Open, North American Open Front Wheel Drive, All Wheel Drive and again the Front Engine Rear Wheel Drive and naturally you can only compete if you own an eligible vehicle.

Choosing which cars to buy may seem like a small part of Forza, although this is a very central component of the game and your career as you will need to have a wide selection of vehicles (standard and modified) to be eligible to enter all of the specific events. Each of the Events are restricted in some way as previously mentioned with later events such as Tuner Face Off which is restricted to specific cars, The Low Power open which is 200 Horsepower or less, Hatchback Challenge, Mid Engine Challenge, Roadster Challenge, Rotary Engine Challenge, Z Cars to name but a few requiring either a specific car or car type and with the sheer volume of different events you will need to utilize your car collection to the fullest to ensure you have a competitive car for each and every one of the events.

Career mode offers a total of 5 race types which includes Point to Point, Amateur, Professional, Championship and finally Endurance. Each of these race types offers a vast range of different events and locations. The Amateur class for example features 20 different events and a total of 77 races and the point to point event features a total of 20 races through 10 events. There are absolutely loads of events to choose from and will take even the most dedicated of racers some time to achieve the ultimate success of winning each event.

With Forza’s career modes, early progression is a relatively rapid process and once you have chosen your first car and perhaps even made some minor modifications you are then able to head straight off to the races. Racing is pretty much as you would expect with the focus very much on Simulation and not Arcade racing in this mode. You are rewarded with credits for finishing placement and naturally winning is recommended to gain the maximum amount of credits available. In addition to gaining credits for position you will receive additional credits based on the difficulty level selected. Race difficulty can be adjusted from the main options screen prior to racing. As standard you have a racing line indicator on each circuit which is dynamic in that it will change color to reflect how accurate you are driving, turning off this option rewards you with an extra 15% difficulty bonus. Adjusting the opponent A.I to the hardest setting increases your bonus by a further 20%. Other options to tweak include Damage, Fuel/Tire wear, Shifting (gears Auto or Manual) Anti-Lock Breaking (ABS), Traction Control (TCM) and finally Stability Management (STM); adjusting these settings will reward you with a greater difficulty bonus credits after each race. Also the rarity of your car will have an effect on your finishing credits.

The addition of these options does allow the game to cater for all types of players, initially I personally found it simplest to leave the settings at default but soon discovered that by adjusting the opponent A.I to Hard and Damage to simulation it added just a little extra challenge and for me made the game just that little more enjoyable. In addition turning off the options such as the ABS, TCM or STM almost presented me with a totally different game, a harder and more realistic game in fact which required me to learn real driving techniques such as subtle throttle and brake control and more accurate steering. Having never either owned or likely even to drive the likes of a Ferrari 360 Modena with these settings disabled I could really begin to imagine just what it would be like.

Credits can be used to buy additional cars or add after market components, perform modifications and tune your car whilst also opening up higher ranked levels from your overall credit gained, which in turn opens up more circuits and challenges. As you progress through the various races you are also rewarded with either bonus after market components from specific manufacturers being unlocked or further vehicles being added to you collection. You will also at times be rewarded by establishing relationships with specific manufacturers for discount when you purchase any parts made by them. The rewards system is extremely well balanced and the rewards as you progress which in itself limits the need to continually race and re-race events as seen in other titles in order to gain enough credits to not only progress further but also build your car collection as required. The credit system like the bonus rewards works well and is well balanced although some modifications or after market parts etc do seem to be cheap in comparison to the ease of gaining the required credits; this is however balanced by the need to own a selection of cars and the need to modify them to remain competitive. Overall the credits system is fair and works very well as the currency within Forza.

Everything in Forza and throughout your career is far from plain sailing as you are penalized credits for any car damage sustained during any of the various races. The damage is based on Body, Brakes, Suspension, Engine, Gearbox, Driveline and Steering. Any damage inflicted not only results in you being deducted valuable credits but also your car handling and performance which are affected accordingly during the race. Adjusting the game’s difficulty will also have a bearing on the damaged received so for example if you opt to play in simulation mode and repeatedly crash your car you could well end up with a car that moves like a snail or veers to one side or the other so to speak, so go easy as damage can prove costly in more than one way! The damage does seem to be a mixed bag and although yes it is detailed in one sense, such as small cosmetic damage to the paint work in another, such as with bumpers or even spoilers falling off does seem to depend on which car you are driving and collide with, more than what would probably be the real outcome from the crash. Maybe the actual car manufacturers stipulated what damage they were happy and unhappy to see in the game or something, overall the damage system is a welcome addition and does add to the overall realism.

Your opponents on the whole are not there to simply make up the numbers, they want to win as much as you and are willing to rub bumpers at times where necessary to achieve their own personal success. At times the opponent A.I and seemingly aggressive driving style does feel more like a desire to stick to the racing line and braking zones of each of the circuits rather than a highly intelligent and competitive opponent, especially when they appear to make little or no effort to avoid a collision. Having set the previously mentioned difficulty setting for driver A.I to hard this didn’t seem to overly affect the opponent A.I through the earlier races and could be recommended as an easy option to utilize in order to initially gain a greater level of bonus credits. However under more challenging circumstances I did notice much improved AI behavior where the opponents would actually try to avoid the previously mentioned collisions as best they could and even compete amongst themselves for a winning position.

With each and every car you own throughout your career there is also a whole selection of additional options available to tune, customize and add after market components. Players are able to tweak not only the appearance but also the performance but also almost every other aspect of each and every car, which will no doubt please those of you who have a specific car that you like and wish to customize. However don’t expect a full reign over certain vehicles as some will not allow you to add some after market components such as body kits. If it doesn’t exist in real life then it probably won’t appear in the game, how’s that for realism!

Forza also boasts pretty comprehensive options to fully modify your car’s appearance. You are able to paint your cars from a range of 80 different colors and also have the option to paint specific body parts, such as the bonnet, wing mirrors and rear spoilers. Once you are happy with the coloring of your choice, you can then apply decals and vinyl overlays from a total of around 200 various designs. With a little experimentation and imagination you can relatively easily create your own vinyls by simply overlapping them and this is where real individual flare comes into play which will add that little extra personal touch. With the ability to add up to 100 layers and each layer capable of being rotated, stretched, copy and pasted, designs and layers of pure beauty or sheer ugliness depending on your tastes and skill will soon be showcased in what will surly become the Xbox LIVE ultimate pimp my ride showroom. The process is a relatively easy one to understand but to get the best results will take an immense amount of time to be invested. That said, for those of you with Xbox Live means that you can impress others with your individual flare at driving but also dazzle them with your creative designs.

Personally I found the whole process of adding decals and vinyl’s to my cars both a laborious task and perhaps overly complicated. It was slightly on the fiddly side and very very time consuming. The feature does work well but as I personally have little interest with pimping my ride in real life I found the urge to needlessly add graphics almost pointless, yet adding body styling parts such as bumpers, side skirts and spoilers is a necessary evil but does have two advantages over the graphical enhancements available which is they are both performance enhancing and very quick to select to apply to your car.

The Time Trials mode offers players a slightly different approach, with the objective to set the fastest single lap time on any of the specific tracks. There are a total of 21 different time trial events across various tracks including the Forza test track. Much like Arcade mode, times are recorded with scoreboards although unlike Arcade mode you are not able to select which car you use for any of the events, this seems to be a great addition by the developers as it offers an even playing field to all who compete instead of allowing people to compete and win simply because they have the fastest and best car.

The final available mode is Free Run. Free Run allows you to practice on any of the 22 tracks, 13 (including the Forza Test Track Drag Strip) point to point tracks or 10 Autocross challenges which are best described as point to point races with a coned out section of the test track. As with the entire Arcade mode free roam times are recorded by way of scoreboards. Throughout all free roam events you are able to select which car you use from the 6 classes and in Autocross challenges you are able to fine tune your selected cars Tires, Gearing, Alignment, Anti-Roll, Springs and Damping before you commence any of the challenges in order to squeeze just 1 more hundredth of a second off here and there.

Within Forza you also have the ability to train a Drivatar; this is your personal A.I driver which you train to imitate your own unique driving style. You need to train the A.I driver before you can use this option in any of the career or arcade races. Training involves racing through several tracks using a variety of cars and keeping to the racing line the best you can. Once you complete each of the races, you are rated accordingly based on each type of corner with a professional racing and then a final percentage score is issued to you when you complete the training. You can however, continue to train the A.I driver in a free-run mode after you have completed the initial training. Once you have created and trained your unique drivatar you are able to use them in any of the races but this does come at a cost as you are deducted credits from your overall total at the end of each race if you have chosen to use your Drivatar. Using your drivatar may prove especially handy in the longer endurance races and does almost add a very simplistic management aspect to Forza which is a neat touch. The addition of the Drivatar feature does add a little extra something and certainly in the later endurance races proves to be useful addition providing you have trained you’re A.I driver sufficiently but to be honest I personally like to play the games I buy and not simply watch the game play it for me. Yes it is a handy feature for those who choose to utilize it but not one I personally found the need nor did i want to use it all that often especially as the credits charged for using the Drivatar seriously impact against and credits gained.

With all of the options available throughout all of the different game modes, at times it does feel like you spend more time filtering through the menus and tweaking various cars to be eligible for any of the available races than actually racing; yet this somehow didn’t feel a chore. The developers have done an excellent job making this as easy or as complicated as the player wishes to make it. For the more serious petrol heads among us an incredible amount of data is available after every race. Using the replay mode, some of the most detailed information I have personally ever seen in a game and data that wouldn’t look out of place in the garage of a formula 1 team is available; including individual wheel speeds, G-forces and Friction levels to name but a few. Naturally this data can then be used to fine tune your car to near perfection utilizing the finer tuning options which allows you to tweak amongst other things Tire pressures, Gear ratios, wheel alignment, Anti-Roll bar, Springs, Damping, Aerodynamics, Braking and Differential settings. These more detailed and specific tuning options will more than likely only be used by the more serious racers, it’s a great addition but in a similar way to the application of the vinyl’s and decals is far too involved and fiddly for my own personal tastes but those wishing to gain even the smallest of advantages will do well two invest time here.

Graphics:

Graphically Forza is on par with any of the leading driving titles that have graced the Xbox console, each of the available locations have either been meticulously recreated in the case of the real world locations or lovingly created from the ground up by the development team in the circuits of the city streets. Attention to detail from the development team also means that visually every location is as highly detailed as all of the featured cars.

The damage model within Forza is also very detailed yet at the same time limited, unlike titles such as Colin McRae Rally or Rallisport Challenge where you will see components such as bumpers or bonnets regularly part company with the car you will not see this in Forza, where you will see more cosmetic damage than actual parts fall off the car although this is not always the case. You will not only see the damage applied to your car but will also see it on the track which shows signs of any careless driving such as if you scrape along walls or barriers you will notice a layer of your paint is left as a reminder of either a small or large driving error. The draw distance is second to none with vast and detailed landscapes scrolling past at near eye blistering speeds. Overall the graphics are of the highest standard and only help to emphasize the experience within Forza.

Sound:

Blasting out in 5.1 Dolby Surround you can almost feel the rumble of the engines on the start line. The sound throughout is as equally detailed as the tracks, locations and cars and just as lovingly recreated by the development team. Each of the 230 cars engines have been meticulously created and sound just as you would expect from any of the vehicles featured under any given circumstances. Taking a Ferrari for instance out for a spin and you are left with little doubt that there is in excess of 500bhp of Italian horsepower inches away. Hammering down a straight followed by the shriek of tyres rubber, leaves little doubt in your mind that you have either turned in and or braked just a little too late for the oncoming corner.

In game music is catered for in 3 different mixes which are fighting mix, forza motorsport and a Racing mix. Each one caters for a mixed range of musical tastes which will no doubt please those that like to thrash it out to head banging tunes or even some more relaxed Latin beats. If you are a little pickier with what music you like to drive to, then there is always the option to use custom sound tracks as you choose.

Longevity:

This is yet another area in which Forza excels, even without the additional options provided by Xbox LIVE Forza offers racers a comprehensive and accurate racing simulation that will be easy to get to grips with yet take an age to master.

The extensive customization options will undoubtedly only add to the longevity of this title, allowing players to almost design and then race the car of their dreams. The vast combinations of additional parts such as bumpers, spoilers, body kits and decals available to customize your cars appearance will allow players a near infinite amount of possibilities to customize each and every car; not to mention the sheer amount of tuning parts available to buy and bolt onto each and every car you have stored in your virtual garage. The potential ability to adjust the car’s settings such as handling, braking and gearing will also take quite a few hours out of your life for those of you who choose to do so.

Forza’s multiplayer options feature split screen, system link and Xbox LIVE play. On Xbox Live, players are able to earn extra credits by competing against fellow human opponents which in turn improves your overall online ranking. All of these multiplayer modes available only add to the potential longevity of Forza Motorsport and excel the game beyond the already challenging and extensive offline modes.

Overall:

The first ever true driving simulation to arrive on the Xbox console has achieved the highest standards in terms of graphics, sound, realism and playability. As most people would imagine, creating a driving game on a console that needs to be both compelling and accurate takes a lot of determination, passion and effort from the developer and the end results within Forza prove just that. The developers have without doubt paid a great deal of attention to detail and have put in a vast amount of time and effort to create this game which at times translates to the player putting in equal levels of effort and determination to progress through the extensive world of Forza Motorsport. Forza is without a doubt an essential purchase for serious and perhaps not so serious racing fans, as this benchmark title will probably be unmatched until a successor to the Xbox console is released.