Forza MotorSport (Xbox)

In Forza Motorsport you have 3 game modes Arcade Mode where you take on arcade races but they do have a purpose just like the career races. The Career Mode is the core of the game and mush like Gran Turismo Mode on GT4. You will go about entering races for credits in Amateur, proffesional, point-to-point, championship and endurance races. The system is based on credits so the more credits you earn the more you have to spend on upgrading your current crop of cars. The Career Mode is split into various serieses so say your in a Mazda Miata series you have four or so races win them all and you win a car. The car custmisation is great you can fit turbos, rims, reduce the weight of your car even create your own decals and take it to X-Box Live.

The game however does have its flaws the music for a start is rubbish. Thankfully you can rip custom soundtarcks to your hardrive. The lack of tracks is very noticeable you will be racing the same course over and over again. The lack of depth may also dissapoint you.

Graphics 9 Top notch although GT4 looks better and it's got less graphics power.
Sound 4 All the engine sounds are there but the music is awful.
Gameplay 9 Forza excels in this area and is a lot more forgiving than Gran Tursmo which is welcomed.
Lifespan 10 An enourmous Career Mode and X-Box Live enabled this will keep you going for months.

Forza Motorsport is indeed the answer to Gran Turismo. If you want an authentic racing sim on your X-Box look no futher. 9/10. Thanks for reading. John Mitchell.


Gotham Beater   May 15, 2005
Neil Tankard
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I was,until 3 days ago a Gotham fan.I thought that Project Gotham Racing 2 was the best racing game ever but Forza sounded interesting so I bought it on release date.I got home,put the disc in my Xbox and was astounded with the game.The cars look realistic as do the tracks.Career mode will take you years to do every single thing.The most different part from Gotham is the modding option.Take a Volkswagen Beetle,add a new engine and supercharger and the Beetle may go as fast as any Ferrari.There are also thousands of vinyls and decals to add to your car.Oh and mentioning a Ferrari,Forza has them,unlike a certain highly rated PS2 game.Porsches are also in the game,another thing that GT4 misses out on.If you can't be bothered to read the whole review,just let me sum the game up in one sentence.
BUY THIS NOW.


The current laurel-wreath racer on the Xbox   November 3, 2005
Spuddy Spud (The Spuddery)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

I’ve played this game since it was released in May. Racing games are my favourite genre, and I’ve played most of the major ones on the X-Box. I haven’t played Forza live. My admiration for it comes purely from the one-player career mode.

I had some initial doubts about Forza. The graphics, at first glance, don’t seem as smooth or error-free as other titles. They don’t have the pin-sharp freshness and fast frame smoothness of TOCA 2. Reflections on the paintwork don’t look quite so good as they do on TOCA, either, and the cars are not as handsomely modelled as PGR2. You even get the odd bit of scenery pop-up. Having said that, no racing game has the astonishing attention to detail that this game has, particularly with regard to foliage and road textures and, especially impressive in this game, ambient lighting. You forgive the odd graphical glitch because the Xbox is being forced to move so much stuff around on screen. The graphics have a super-saturated, slightly grainy Technicolor look to them, like a 1970s film, which adds to the atmosphere. Moto GP 3 is faster and smoother, but it looks cold and clinical, with hard-edges all the way up to the horizon. Forza looks natural.

The first few games are a real baptism of fire: you can’t move, or go round even the widest corner, without spinning off the track. But when you STRICTLY adhere to the rule ‘thou shalt brake in a straight line at speeds of more than 50mph’, just like real life, you’ll be fine. Once you’ve got it, the control system is flawless. If you spin off the track, it’s ALWAYS your fault, and when you slide it right, it’s a beautiful feeling. When you go back to other ‘serious’ race games after Forza, you’ll realise how ‘arcadey’ other games feel. Forza feels natural.

One of the main things going for this game is its enormous depth. There are countless ways of tweaking your car’s braking, aerodynamics, suspension, gears, etc., etc. Other games have mod options, but nothing like this. Upgrades are not just ‘plug and play’ bolt-ons that indiscriminately improve everything about the drive (NFSU2 and Moto GP 3 take note). With Forza, it is possible to over-power cars with upgrades, so that they become virtually undriveable until you change the car’s set-up. There are a huge number of sliding controls for tweaking every aspect of car performance you’ve heard of, and no doubt a few things you haven’t. Grease monkeys will have a field day, while casual gamers may be overwhelmed by all the choices. But here’s a thing – you can actually FEEL the differences when you change those settings! In Forza, if it’s in the game, it MEANS something. Nothing is cosmetic. Forza acts natural.

Forza is generous with its cars and tracks, and all are generally gorgeous to look. Tracks cover a range of race types, with point-to-point, GP circuit, and oval tracks. The only disappointment is the cone challenge tracks, which award no style bonuses (as in PGR / PGR2) and play no part in your career ranking. Also, these tracks are very dull to look at, like supermarket car parks. The city tracks, however, (New York and Tokyo) are the best recreations of real places I’ve ever seen in a game. The New York track is a highly recognisable facsimile of Broadway and Times Square, with spot-on lighting, advertising and shop frontages.

What makes this game the current pick of the racing crop is the sheer FUN of playing it. Like PGR2, Forza is fabulously moreish. It never feels like a chore to play, and all the challenges seem ‘do-able’. If you can’t do one race, Forza’s non-linearity means that you won’t be stuck: you’ll be able to win other races, get more money, buy better cars (or upgrades), and THEN win the race you’re stuck on. The AI racers can play dirty, but they crash into one another and come a cropper just as often as you do, unlike the filthy AI cheats in PGR2 and NFSU2. Consequently, you’ll spend less time turning off the console in a huff, and more time chewing your lip and planning your winning strategy.

One very minor gripe is that the cumbersome menu system. It’s not immediately obvious where certain game options have been ‘put’. This will not bother you for long, though, because you’ll play Forza a LOT! The developers have obviously spent so much time working on the gameplay they haven’t over-concerned themselves with presentation.

Forza Motorsport isthe first serious challenger to PGR2. It is currently the best ‘serious’ racing game on the Xbox.


So real its unreal   June 24, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Forza motorsport, WOW! This game at first glance is excellent, the further you go into it, it just keeps getting better and better. The handeling of the cars is extremely realistic, this is truly a driving sim not just a game. Rear wheel drive cars will easily spin if you give them too much gas: front wheel cars will not turn if you go into a corner too fast, all wheel drive cars will do all sorts if you mess up the approach into tight turns. The braking is tricky to get used to at first especially if you've been playing Need for Speed Underground 2, the cars will not turn and brake at the same time and some people may find this annoying. But if your a fan of realism you'll love it! The tracks are precise, (the nurdburg ring is exact to 17mms) and the xbox is more than capable of handeling the immense details and will even leave your tire maks on the track throughout the race. The look of the cars is also very precise with damage that can effect the handeling of the car and its performance. Finally a racing game that is true to life, no more hitting walls at 200+mph and just bouncing off to exit corners at silly speeds, try that in this game and your car WILL bounce but you'll find that it won't be in the same shape as before. Mostly it wll be in little bits. The AI cars are also very competitive and will happily bump into you as you enter a corner and cause you to merrily spin in a visual feast of the track walls! Also one thing to bear in mind is that the AI will hold a grudge, if you slam into the computer make sure you do a propper job cause if it catches you up you'll be in trouble. The modding of the cars can be very complex including adjusting the tyre pressure, gear ratios, suspension rates the list goes on and on. This can get tideous but is well worth the time as it does make a massive difference to the car. Visualy can also be change on most cars but for some reason you cannot change all the cars or even just add a simple spoiler. This bad point aside the game rocks, the challenges are just that, the choice of cars is managable(unlike GT4) and progress is easy at the start but require skill and persistance. BUY THIS NOW!


Fantastic   April 8, 2006
E. rivett (Israel)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I'm not going to go on to much about this game,but what I will say is this:I've been for the last 5 yrs a PS2 gamer ,I've played every racing on the PS2 that was worth playing and this surpasses all of them including the mighty Gran turismo 3 + 4.

It wins on all fronts,Graphics,gameplay ,{replay value probably not},but everything else it does .There's a damage feature{Visual} and also effects the handling of the cars.All the cars are there Porsche,Ferrari etc ,.

I love this game it's got to be the best racing game on current generation consoles around.I love my Xbox so much more than the PS2 it took me some time to get one but I'm so glad I did.