Where Gran Turismo 4 is all about cars as usable pieces of art and history, Forza Motorsport is all about almost everything else. Microsoft’s latest racing masterpiece succeeds in many areas that most racing simulators don’t: real time damage, online options that boast a lot, and the beginnings of street tuning customization. All in all, the game succeeds in more areas than one.

From the very first seconds of starting your profile in Forza Motorsport, you have the ability to do a slew of things. The career mode will start players off with a nice amount of money with reasonable starting cars along with many types of races. This type of wide open game play is one of the game’s greatest strengths. By not leading players to specific goals, there’s more open ended game play to do things as you wish.

Forza Motorsport also has the interesting Drivatar system where you can sub in the Drivatar to do a race for you. After you have run a series of tracks that require different skills, your Drivatar is trained to race like you do. This can help to shake things up a bit, especially if you’re busy and want the computer to do some racing for you.

On the racing side of things, Forza does an excellent job with bringing a sense of realism to the game. Even though there are times when you’ll lose control of the car, you’ll find that you have no problems with recovering. The damage model is really something to admire, as the damage you do to your car will affect the way that it drives.

In terms of graphics, the sections where you aren’t in control are absolutely stunning. The Drivatar races use dynamic camera angles, which makes the entire experience look almost like a high cable race on television. While it’s still lovely, the main views when driving look almost cartoon like in comparison to other titles on the market. Given the power that the XBOX has displayed, it would have been nice to see smoother textures.

Although Forza Motorsport isn’t a jack of all trades, it’s still a racing game that does a lot more than any other. The game offers more than 250 cars complete with specs and customization for races. If you own an XBOX and have been searching for an alternative to the popular Gran Turismo 4 for the PS2, Forza Motorsport is the title you’ve been waiting for. This game redeems racing on the XBOX and takes the entire genre to unprecedented levels.

- TopXboxGames.com