Turn off all of the assists and you’ve got yourself a serious driving sim. The controls are nice and responsive and tight, but unless you know what you’re doing you’ll spend more time fishtailing and skidding off of the track than you will actually racing. Sim fans will also appreciate the amount of tinkering the game will let you do to performance parts as they try to squeeze another second or two off of their top lap times. Suffice it to say that Forza’s got you covered no matter where on the spectrum of racing skill you lie.

There's a lot of room for customization of your wheels.

The sim model is not the only bit of good programming found in the game; the AI is superlative. Your competition knows more than just how to drive; it knows how to race. Cars draft, protect their position, and know when to take advantage of an opening. They’ll avoid overly aggressive moves that would put their race of car in dire jeopardy, but they aren’t scared to push the envelope a bit. The skill of your opponents in any given race will include a mix of levels, but as you advance to the higher race classes you’ll find that this mix becomes increasingly biased towards the high end. The coolest thing about the AI in Forza though has got to be the inclusion of what the game calls “Drivatars”.

A drivatar is basically an AI version of you. When you create a drivatar, you are put through a series of driving tests while the game evaluates your driving skills and style. Once you have been put through your paces your drivatar is available for races. You can use the drivatar as a stand in for you in any race, or you can race against multiple copies of your drivatar. You can’t get a much more level playing field than that!

One of the problems with racing games that license real cars is that the manufacturers usually refuse to let the game show any damage on their precious vehicles. Apparently auto manufacturers think that you believe that a car can bump a wall at 120 MPH and escape unscathed even though your car picks up a new ding every other time you go to the grocery store. Well Forza Motorsport is full of licensed cars … but it sports a pretty good damage model. While you won’t see every dent and ding you pick up racing around the track, cars can lose parts when taking major damage which is a lot more than we’ve gotten before from a racing game damage model. On the other hand your car’s handling will feel the effects of the game’s location-based damage model even if your car is still looking a bit pristine. Heck, you can even burn out your engine if you rev it too much before a race. Aerodynamics, steering, braking, power, and just about every major system that you can think of can take a beating from a collision-marred race and leave you struggling to keep your car in the running – or in the race.

As for the races and tracks themselves, you get a variety that include circuits, city courses, and sprints that will have you careening down mountainsides negotiating some nasty curves along the way. Some races include restrictions that allow only a certain type or make of car, so to race every track you’ll need to build up a collection of cars in your garage. As you race your performance will be evaluated – your place in the race, the amount of damage you take, etc. – and you’ll earn credits based on your performance. You need to place in the top three to unlock the next race in the series, but your credits will accumulate to determine your racing level. As you move to higher levels you’ll unlock additional races and have the opportunity to purchase new classes of cars.

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