Forza Motorsport 2

I'll admit before I even begin: I have never had even a passing interest in driving simulations. I love F-Zero, have a ton of fun with Mario Kart, and have enjoyed a round of Burnout on occasion, but when I gave a game like Gran Turismo a try, the learning curve just didn't seem worth the pay-off. It felt like the game would truly take a lifetime to get the hang of. After hearing all the great things friends were saying about Microsoft's steering wheel combined with Forza 2, I felt it was my responsibility as a gaming enthusiast to give the title a shot. It was a $200 gamble that has paid off better than I could ever have hoped.

The first thing I noticed upon booting the title up was the way it seemed to welcome players, rather than try to intimidate them. Instead of being forced to go through licensing tests and trying to figure out what exactly any of these menus mean, I was able to jump right into the meat of the game, the career mode, and within minutes I had chosen my home turf,...

THE GOOD:

Over 300 cars to burn some rubber in.

Monthly Downloadable content.

Impressive graphics.

Interesting features including the Auction House.

In-depth analysis of your racing performances using telementry.

Limitless options when designing your car.

THE BAD:

Draw distance isn't great.

Questionable soundtrack.

Annoying CPU.

Racing online can prove tricky for rookies.

No weather conditions.

SUMMARY:
Nowadays the Xbox 360 is full to the brim with FPS's and it's very welcoming to load up a racing game. With Gran Turismo 5 looming over the horizon in the PS3 camp a decent racing game is just what the Xbox 360 needs. And Forza 2 is probably as close as they will get. Though it's been out since summer '07, it's still proving immensely popular with car fanatics.

With games such as Need for Speed and Juiced providing gamers with the chance to "break the rules", Forza meanwhile keeps it strictly track based. You find yourself racing on some of the most renowned tracks on earth from mud slides of Silve...

THE GOOD:
Even though it's slightly dated now, the graphics are still gorgeous. The simulation aspect of the game is right on par with what one would expect from Forza. Fourteen tracks to choose from, 47 different configurations of the tracks, including Nürburgring!!

Multitudes of difficulty options allows you to choose your experience from hardcore no holds barred racing sim, to a slightly more leisurely experience.

With over 300 cars from all around the world, chances are you may even drive one of the cars included in this game. Hundreds of customization options allow you to tweak your car from sporty to ultra high performance. You can customize every aspect of your cars from the ground up with body kits.

THE BAD:
Collisions aren't as accurate as I'd like. For instance hitting the pit barrier at 200mph does little more than stop your car. No flipping, no barrel rolls, no explosions. These are the shortcomings I've come to see a lot, especially when I bump the lead cars into others. Wh...

THE GOOD:
- Awesome, ultra-realistic physics
- Updated car list from Forza 1 for Xbox
Read on for more

THE BAD:
- Not that popular, so not that many people online

SUMMARY:
Forza Motorsport 2 for the Xbox 360. The original Forza Motorsport never got the attention it deserved. Gran Turismo 3: A Spec and Gran Turismo 4 took all the glory, as most people owned a Playstation 2 in comparison to the Xbox.
Sony made a bad move by delaying their much-hyped game, Gran Turismo 5, although many people went out and bought the prologue game, in contrary to Forza 2.

The game offers super realistic physics, and if you play with a HDMI cable especially, beautiful car eye-candy that will make Jeremy Clarkson have a "crisis".
The cars range, as they did on the original Forza, from standard cars like the Ford Focus ST and Vauxhall Astra VXR, to Lamborghini Murcielagos and McLaren F1s, to purpose built race cars that you'd race at places like Le Mans.
All the engines sound different, too, which is a very nice t...