How often do you see critics change their original opinion of a game upon its release? The answer is rarely. However, there seems to be something in the air that has made a lot of critics change their original thoughts on a game; a game that was in murky water at first, but has stormed to one of the highest rated games on the Xbox. That game is Forza Motorsport. Developed and published by Microsoft Game Studios, Forza was unveiled to the public at ECTS 2004 and in the form of a demo on the Official Xbox Magazine, and it was heavily criticised by many a publication. However, in a dramatic U-turn, Microsoft Game Studios have given us one of the best drives of our lives!

Comparison is a dangerous thing, and Forza Motorsport has been compared to the critically acclaimed Gran Turismo 4 that is only available on the PlayStation2. Xbox answered its critics with Project Gotham Racing 2 to rival Gran Turismo 3, yet Project Gotham Racing 2 was an arcade racer and not the ‘real driving simulator’, so we’ve now come to the conclusion that Forza Motorsport is the only ‘real’ comparison to Gran Turismo 4. Combining racing with modification seems to be a very good method. Looking back at the ELSPA charts, EA had a huge success with Need For Speed Underground 2, and even took the award for the longest title to stay at the #1 spot, beating Who Wants To Be A Millionaire!

Forza Motorsport puts you into the seat of the most realistic and customisable Xbox title, and it doesn’t fail. Racing around tracks over 180mph is truly fun. Starting the game is very, very easy. Buy a car, race, earn credits, get awards for winning, upgrade your motors and progress through the career. A simple yet addictive game.

Racing around the tracks couldn’t be easier with the implementation of the on-screen racing line. Lying all around the track, the racing line helps gamers perfect the course by showing them where’s the best place to take a corner, and with the traffic light colours that illuminate the road. The racing line will change colours when it needs to, advising you to slowdown, yellow/amber to slow down, red to completely break, and green to go and no need to stop. Although this helps you, one thing that doesn’t help you is the intense response by your opponents. The AI is simply a real life scenario in racing; slipping into the inside corner and nudging you plus other opponents off the track.

The tracks range from the Laguna Seca (real track) to the streets of New York (fictitious), to the Nurburgring (real track), all of which look superb. Having seen the Nurburgring in Project Gotham Racing 2, the detail that’s been put in is astonishing. Having never experienced driving around the ‘ring, it was superbly realistic, breezing past the cars on the home-straight, sun gleaming down on the track it all felt like a ‘ride on the wild-side’. The Laguna Seca is available in the Gran Turismo series, and again, it looks superb. The changes that have been made are for the better; only small changes, but it shows how much effort has been put into the game. The game features over 30 tracks, both of which are real implementations of real tracks, and those that aren’t real; although they do look like a track like that could exist, take the New York tracks for example.

The cars in the game are split into classes, D, C, B, A, S and R. D being the poorest and S being the ‘big-boy’ cars such as the Ferrari Enzo and Porsche Carrera GT. The ‘S’ class contains the “purposely-built race cars” such as the Audi R8 and the Bentley Speed 8. The ‘S’ class are those cars similar to those that race in Le Mans 24; small, light and extremely fast. Within each of these classes, come sub-classes. For instance, in each class, you have the better cars ‘letter1’ (D1) and for the poorer cars you have ‘letter3’ (D3). It’s a really helpful addition, especially when taking the game online, but we’ll talk about that later on in the review.

Cars are easily won by going through the career mode. Alternatively, you can go through the ‘Arcade’ mode which is quite quick to complete, and at the end of each section of races, you’re awarded with up to 4 cars at a time, what you do with them is up to you. Cars can also be bought and sold, selling the cars you don’t want or don’t need to have those extra credits to invest in a new car. We suggest you keep one of every class, as sometimes you need a ‘D3’ car or something similar to take part in the races; then again, once this is done, you can either sell the car, or modify it. Which brings us on to the next part of the review.

Compared to GT4 in every way possible, GT4 lacked the ‘customisation’ and online. Forza has both of these, and the customisation is beautiful. Just selecting your favourite car (for those of you who don’t know, there’s a wide variety of car makers in here, ranging from Acura, BMW, Ferrari, Dodge and many, many more. The customisation of your car can be customised in any way, both the body and the engine, but what do you go for, looks or performance? Well, it depends on what you want to do with the car. Do you want to race, or do you want to show it off before selling it on? Forza has everything. On your car, you can have numbers and images for you to show off your car, all making it the more fun for you to play. Bodywork such as spoilers and bumpers can be changed, and most obviously, the colour of your cars; be warned, it’s quite costly getting your perfect car.

Many a gamer was extremely disappointed with SCEE’s decision not to bring the Gran Turismo series online, after many delays and so forth, it was not implemented. However, if this is a comparison, Forza wins hands down. Bringing your cars on Live is a tremendous and fun occasion. With so many things to do such as race for fun, race for credits and buy cars or sell cars to people. Expecting just to race was exciting, but being a dealer was even better. Forza online comes across as a racer, both friendly and rivalry and being a true dealer; perfect for those of you who want to start up your own car business. Along with all this, you can have your own “car club”. All your friends in a club and can enter races to compete against other teams, as well as been in a car club, you have the initials you want for your car club.

Forza strikes us as visually stunning. Running smoothly at speeds of 180+mph, no slowdown whatsoever. The environments look beautiful, the tracks, the surroundings and the sky! Yes the sky does look the dogs danglies! Racing up in the mountains, looking up at the sky and down the edges of the cliff, it makes you feel as you’re there, you’re racing point-to-point several hundred feet above sea level, a excellent feeling. With such great environments, the cars respond equally, looking as they do in life. The model’s that are on offer replicate those that are on the road in today’s world.

Anyone who has wanted that feeling of been on the starting grid, but doesn’t like the crashes that sometimes occur, will be pleased to hear (no pun intended), the revs of your engine on the line, foot on the accelerator, hearing your opponents engines revving before you set off, the tyres on each of the cars screeching as you all leave for the race. What an incredible experience it is. If you’re not into listening to your car ‘roar’, then you’ll be pleased to hear that there’s the option for you to drive erratically to your ‘tunes’. If you don’t have any tunes on your drive, there’s the option to listen to the default music.

Overall, we can honestly say that Forza Motorsport is an excellent title, surpassing Gran Turismo 4 for ‘the real driving simulator’. The inclusion of online play and customisation of your vehicle, Forza Motorsport will keep all you racing gamers out there at the wheel for months to come. Although the game is fairly easy, and the options can be changed; lowest setting if it’s too hard which results in a loss of credits at the end of each race. However, you are rewarded with more credits if you go to the hardest setting, while the normal setting results in no extra nor no loss of credits. Changing the options for many-a-thing in the game results in the gaining or loss of money. Switch the damage, make sure the tyres get heated when racing and so on, all this increases your credit by that little bit. Forza Motorsport is an excellent title, and races to our #1 spot; our anticipation was right.

Arron Hanley