June 15, 2005 - True racing simulations are a rare breed nowadays and even more so on console. The reason is simple; few can stand tall against Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo series. Where certain quasi-realistic PC titles may remain unscathed, console titles even hinting at realism will get compared to the crowned champion without mercy. In 2000, Sega tried to launch its own salvo on the Dreamcast with Sega GT. While the title may have looked the part, it hardly compared. So much so that when the sequel was released on Xbox (Sega GT 2002) few even batted an eyelash. And in the meantime, Sony’s consoles saw GT2, GT3 A-Spec and finally GT4. In all cases, the titles added more and more realism to its engines and kept the polygon count higher and higher. Other publishers saw the writing on the wall and began developing more arcade oriented titles and street racing games like the Need For Speed Series and Midnight Club as well as branching out into other racing genres altogether like Codemasters’ Colin McRae series. But after Microsoft published its latest Project Gotham title to rave reviews and phenomenal fan support, The Big Green Machine announced the unthinkable; it would take a shot at the GT title. The result; Forza Motorsport. And now that the dust has settled, which series stands victorious?

Forza is a massive title; just the numbers themselves are impressive. Over 250 cars from dozens of licensed manufacturers, 17 various environments with a ton of painstakingly recreated tracks of varying length and difficulty from around the world, combined with a superb physics engine puts Forza at the head of its pack. In the end though, no matter how many cars or tracks a game has, its quality over quantity; fortunately Forza excels in this area as well.

One of the biggest strengths of Forza Motorsport is its fine attention to detail and near endless customization. One can spend hours and hours in the garage, tuning and tweaking a car to gain a few tenths of a second on the track. Slap a few decals on your car or go all out and upgrade the bodywork piece by piece. The vehicles are divided into multiple classes based on weight and power. And while increasing the horsepower of a car may seem like a sensible idea, you will also have to deal with the class changes and constraints of each class. This is both a strength and a weakness, but above all else, a true test of balance. But through it all, if you like fine tuning, then Forza Motorsport is a dream come true. If you are more like myself, and prefer to race stock rather than investing the time to perfect the look and feel of a specific racer, then you'll still be very competitive both in the career and Xbox Live competition by simply buying new upgrade parts and slapping them on quickly. Much like in every other of its features, the game allows you to spend as much or as little time doing any one thing.

Players are given a variety of options to begin; you can start a single player career or simply head out to the track in arcade style action. The career mode is long and progressive; player’s level up by winning races and thus money. Races are divided into categories and divisions based on car class and type. You start out by selecting a region; North America, Europe or Asia. Your starting car selection, as well as the cost of region-specific parts, will later be calculated using this region. You can build up your garage by winning or buying new cars, and then customize them to your liking. Forza offers fifty levels in which to progress through; each new level bracket unlocking a variety of events and new divisions in which to compete. To reach the higher levels, you could be playing for a long time; fortunately that is where drivatars come into play.