Forza 2- the new king.
For a couple of reasons....:
First of, Forza 1 set a high standard. In it's generation it was the best looking racing game next to Gran Turismo 4, it had the best physics on the XBOX, alot of tracks, challenges, cars....
Well, Forza 2 has those too... well, not really. Let's see
- Graphics: The game really lacks at this area. Don't get me wrong: it looks great, BUT. A few months earlier with this graphics, the game would've been sick. But now, especially now that DiRT is out, it's obvious that the game's graphics is far from Xbox360's limits, in fact, the enviorment really looks like Forza 1 in 720p! The car models are amazing, the reflections are too, but the game totally lacks AA(jaggies) and AF(shimmering). Yes, 60fps stable, but it'd be ridicilious if it WASN'T 60fps with these graphics. - Physics: Nothing to complain about here. It's AMAZING. The cars behaviour the way they should. Arcade-ish enough so that you could control it with your controller, but sim enough so that you would have to pay alot of attention. Great! The damage model, though... almost completetly reused from Forza 1. And the 360 is capable of much more.... the cosmetic damage I'm talking about of course. Not very satisfying.
- Tracks, cars, challenges: Well, tracks. There are too few. P2P races are completetly removed for example. The thing is, by the time you reach 25% of the game, I guarantee you had raced on every track of the game at least 10 times. The car-count is amazing, though. Unlike GT, Forza concencrates on cars we actually DRIVE or WANT TO drive. Challenge wise, though, again: too few tracks result in quickly tiring racing, and you'll be completetly uninspired.
The game plays well, all considered. If you like racing. If you don't, this game won't change your mind. At all.
But again, if you DO like racing, and driving, you'll find that the game holds much more than graphics and tracks. It holds depth; customization, different driving style for each car, etc. Overall, this game if was released in 2006 would've been a tremendous achievement. But now, it feels rushed, which mostly shows on the graphics and the content. Although it gets a relateively low score, it's the best racing game out there.