Forza Motorsport Review

When you think of an epic driving simulator, the first thing that probably comes to mind is Sony’s Gran Turismo series. Microsoft is out to change that by introducing its own ultimate driving simulator, Forza Motorsport. With a lot riding on the game and what it means to the PlayStation 2 – Xbox rivalry there’s a lot of pressure on Forza Motorsport to give Gran Turismo 4 a run for its money. Well Forza Motorsport does quite well in the stretch and finally gives the Xbox a marquee driving simulator to rival Sony’s.

You can’t have a marquee racer without a lot of cars drawn from the real world. Forza Motorsport certainly delivers in this department as it features over 230 cars from 60 manufacturers. In addition, you have a wide array of parts that can be purchased to upgrade these vehicles making the number of unique vehicles possible staggeringly high. In fact when customizing your car the game will even determine a uniqueness factor for it as a way to encourage you to customize and tweak your car as much as possible, and you’ll receive bonus credits for winning a race with a unique vehicle. Creating a unique vehicle also enhances its value and if you want to sell your car online over Xbox Live, you’ll want it to be as available as possible. All of the possible customizations are not just on the inside, though. You can paint sections of your car such as the hood or roof different colors, apply decals that can be scaled, rotated, and placed just about anywhere on your car, and even tint the windows. If you enjoy tweaking and pimping out your ride, you’ll be in heaven … and you won’t be limited to one car either. Once you start earning credits you can start adding ever more powerful cars to your collection and access them all through your garage. In a unique twist the game even has you select a starting region from North America, Europe, and Asia that will determine which cars are rarer and give you discounts on local makes.

All of this customization and tweaking wouldn’t mean a thing if the racing wasn’t fun. Good thing for Xbox racing fans Forza Motorsport does not disappoint on this count. For sim enthusiasts Forza provides a realistic and challenging race environment, but this does not mean that more casual race fans or gamers new to the genre will be left in last place skidding all over the track. There are a number of game assists available that make it possible for newbies to jump behind the wheel and have a chance of competing and, yes, even winning. With traction control, stability control, and antilock brakes enabled, you’ll have an easier time negotiating the curves and turns than you would in full sim mode. However, these options do not make the game an arcade racer and you’ll still have to be smart about controlling your speed and your point of entry into turns or you’ll go skidding off of the track. If picking your path, or line, through turns is proving to be frustrating, Forza Motorsport has an innovation that’s so simple and yet so helpful that it’s a wonder that it hasn’t been a part of racing games for a long time. The suggested line feature puts a dashed line on the track that shows the best path to drive along. The line is also color-coded to let you know when to brake, coast, and hit the gas. Furthermore, as you are turning through a curve the line’s color will change as needed based on your current speed and position in the curve. You won’t necessarily get the best possible times following the game’s suggested lines – that’s where driving skill comes in, getting the most from your car by pushing it to its edge – but if you’re learning to race or are having a little trouble controlling the cars it is a godsend.

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.

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.