A Grand Turismo Killer?! You Better Believe it!
The Game:Forza is a full on realistic racer. It's the type of game that will make you want to feel what it's like to actually race at the high speeds the game lets you reach, a game that will make you want to spend all the money you have saved up on engine tuning or a turbo charger. Game developers are always talking about immersion in their games and Forza definitely accomplishes that, and so much more.
When you first start off in the game it will give you a choice between a few start up cars such as Acura Integra's or Honda Civics, from here you will soon jump up to Porsches, Ferraris, then even to F1 racers. The amount of variety in Forza is just astounding, over 230 cars, a career mode that will take you probably 30 or so hours to complete, and tons of customization for both the outside of the car and more importantly the inside. When I first saw my Acura RSX as just a plain car that I could find on the street I didn't think it would be able to stack up to the competition at all. After my first race I saw that I was wrong, I was really just racing against other cars of the same category, some Civics and other low-speed cars like that.
Graphics & Sound:Forza is a beautiful looking game. It's plain and simple, the game looks stunning, the tracks are masterfully recreated and have a true authentic look, and the cars are as detailed and realistic as ever. It's great to see your very own customized car looking just so great, because you did do a ton of work to it after all. So both the cars and tracks look as good as you would expect but the environments in the game are probably the best part. From races where you will have mountains in the background and browning trees, to where city lights are glowing down off of your vehicle, Forza's graphics can only be considered beautiful. The only problem you may have with Forza's graphics are the boring lifeless crowds, but then again what racing game does have good crowd effects?
The sound on the other hand is both awesome and average. The sound of the races is absolutely incredible, the cars themselves sound realistic and powerful, and when you're going around a corner too hot you're going to hear it. For Forza you may want to have the sound turned way up to hear the awesome sound of the cars and to get the real feel of racing, well as long as you have the soundtrack turned off. It's pretty much just boring all instrument remakes of older songs, and it most likely won't do anything for you. This is however an Xbox game remember so feel free to plug your own C.D. in the game and you will never have to worry about the soundtrack again.
Innovation:Although Forza is obviously inspired by Gran Turismo it is also able to innovate on it and outdo it. Multiplayer for one thing is something that every racing game should include because it is just so fun, and with Forza you get the most fleshed out multiplayer for a racing game ever with the online career and normal modes. The drivatar is probably the most innovative feature of Forza though. The drivatar is pretty much a trainer, it copies the way you drive to a great extent. First off you train your drivatar by driving a couple of training tracks so that the drivatar can see and copy how you drive and then you are able to put the drivatar into the races in place of you so that you can see how you take each corner and maybe improve on it the next time you race the track.
Mojo:If you love cars Forza's mojo is going to be off the wall for you. Tons of cars and tons of customization will make any car enthusiast feel completely satisfied. For those of you who are more interested in the driving itself Forza clearly delivers mojo here to, and will give you an awesome, intense and realistic recreation of how real competitive driving feels, with a nice touch of video game put into the mix. It's also really, really fast and that is a bonus in any game.