Forza Motorsport

Forza Motorsport is a simulation game that was supposed to match up to Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo, which has still dominated the raceway since 1997. Forza was released in May 2005 with 250 cars and about three-dozen tracks, which is probably the best selection to come on the Microsoft XBox. It reached a million in sales a few weeks ago, and it was dubbed the Gran Turismo Killer around many websites. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Forza Motorsport doesn't quite raise up to the bar that the Gran Turismo series, but this I must say is one of the most impressive starts to a racing series yet.

Graphics

Gran Turismo 4 was probably the greatest game on the Playstation 2 in terms of its visuals, and anyone who says it isn't impressive is a fool. Forza Motorsport is another eye pleaser that has come onto the XBox with flying colors. While not as impressive as Gran Turismo 4 in this category, Forza delivers vehicles on such integrity and precision that the XBox does...

THE GOOD:
Excellent graphics and gameplay. Extremely deep. Online play. tons of cars to choose from.

THE BAD:
Doesn't bring anything new to the genre. Basically it copies Gran Turismo 4 (PS2).

SUMMARY:
Originally planned as one of the Xbox's big 2001 titles, Forza Motorsport finally comes out in 2005 to much anticipation. Based on Sony's Gran Turismo 4, the game lets you build and customize your ride based on numerous actual cars from the major car makers.
The graphics are near-perfect. Cars and tracks show an impressive amount of detail, but the cars to appear to have some slightly blurry spots. Sounds are top-notch, with good music and authentic sound effects. Controls are excellent, and the cars handle like their attributes indicate they should. Gameplay really cuts down the middle-namely, if you've played GT4, Forza is pretty much the same game, only for Xbox instead of PS2. The concept is really great, but this whole "die-hard car...

THE GOOD:
-Amazing Graphics
-Extremely Realistic Damage
-Option to make the game harder or easier [Not by changing difficulty either...]
-Fuel and Tire wear (would ya look at that?)
-Responsive tuning

-Pretty much everything, this game has very few flaws.

THE BAD:
Nitpicking:

-Buy/Sell rooms on Xbox Live voice access should be limited to you and the person you are selling to or buying from, not the whole room.

Difficulty.

-Whether you change the AI from Easy, Medium, or Hard, there doesn't seem to be much of a change, especially from Easy to Medium.

Pains in the ass:

-Stock car races. They suck, they take too long, and if you mess up one time, you lose.

SUMMARY:
The game is great, so I will keep this part short and sweet.

If you don't have it, GET IT. If you do have it, DON'T GET RID OF IT.

THE GOOD:
Everything. Next generation (xbox2 like) Graphics, great analogue handling, online mode, everything.

THE BAD:
Im just nitpicking but I would like to had more options while waiting for a race than just chatting (spectator mode, buy and sell etc) a tutorial mode would have been nice. Online games can easily get unbalanced for newbies.

SUMMARY:
"Forza is everything you wanted and expect of a gran turismo title but now is available on xbox live!". I think that is a bit derrogative description but still accurate, Forza is a game that stands on its own, but its difficult to explain without tracing back to other great car simulators. Forza is probably the best GT "clone" to appear in a good while, but the are where it really shines are the ones more original as well:

Realistic damage model:
You CANT destroy a car in forza like you do in burnout, but you do can put a lot of hurt to it! unlike other "serious" car simulators, it is...