Forza Motorsport review

The most revered feature of Forza is the customisation; you can custom design your car with all sorts of weird and wonderful paint jobs. At first you may be tempted to just slap a few skulls and lightning symbols over your vehicle, but by taking a look online you can see the depth of what can be created. Once Gamestyle bought its first car, the first thing we did was mess around with the design of it - all of this was before we'd had our very first race. A rather unique addition to not just the car but the entire genre is the 'Drivatar'. This weird and wonderful form of technology allows you to train an AI driver to drive just like you. Once fully trained the Drivatar can then race for you in the career mode. It really is rather clever!Once we'd tinkered with our design and had a short experimentation with our Drivatar we leapt straight onto the track with our custom designed beast. Handling, as you'd expect, is very unforgiving for novices, but once you get to grips with it, it's perfect. A few options are available to make the races simpler, such as help with the braking and damage being reduced, but the rewards for first place aren't as bountiful. Not all courses are immediately playable; instead they require you to have a car in a specific car class or for you to reach a certain level. Yes, we said "level"; much like an RPG you can level up and, each time you do, you get discounts in the upgrades shop or even a brand new car.The game is graphically rather brilliant; from the opening intro movie to the in-game races, it all feels incredibly polished. The damage your car takes also looks impressive but, unlike other games, the damage also affects the way your car handles, meaning some races can become increasingly difficult. It's also a rather saddening sight to see your custom-designed beauty falling apart. The only problem with this is that Gamestyle felt the sound effect of your car colliding with either a competitor or the wall sounds like you're driving a buggy rather than a mighty automobile, with no sense of power in the sound. A minor complaint, though, as the rest of the sound effects and particularly the music are much better. Obviously, much like in most Xbox racers, custom soundtracks are also available to use and they can be executed in the menu and during in-game races.Xbox Live owners are well catered for with online races with up to eight players. One of the main selling points regarding custom designs is for the online aspect of this, as you can show off your car to people from all over the world and, if you choose to, sell them for money. Car Clubs are also a welcome addition, allowing you to create clubs with fellow players on your friends list, much like the Clans you find in the majority of online shooters. Even if you don't have Live, the career mode will keep you going for months and months as you build up your garage and complete all of the races on offer. If there's one downside to the online portion of the game it will be that, unlike Project Gotham Racing 2, it has far less pick-up-and-play value, as choosing your car can become quite a difficult task (at least until you find out which is the best in each category and which one suits your preferred style).Despite this rather minor flaw, Forza Motorsport really is Microsoft's answer to Gran Turismo. Aside from the custom designed aspect and Drivatar, nothing here is particularly new and the game doesn't really revolutionise the genre; but then nobody expected that, especially those who played the abysmal early code that appeared months before release. Still, Forza Motorsport is a great game and worthy of every racing fan's collection. It's no quick-thrill arcade ride, however, and those looking for something more along those lines should think twice before considering Forza.