WRITTEN BY: ROBERT PARKER

If Microsoft has learned only one thing in their quest to become a major player in the gaming industry, it could easily be said that they have learned that the only way to win is to innovate. And thus was their outlook on Forza Motorsport. They knew that if they simply cloned GT4, no one would buy the game. So they set out to add features which would truly revolutionize the future of simulation racing. Did they succeed? Absolutely!

Gameplay

Before you expect to get a racing game where the only control you need to use is the gas pedal, you should know that Forza Motorsport is thru-and-thru, a truly bred simulation. Don't expect to get a PGR3 or Burnout 4 out of Forza, because if you even attempt to play this game like you would the previous two you will find yourself spinning out in some random field with sand pelting your paintjob and several nasty scars from the wall you just hit.

However, keeping in mind that Forza is in fact a true simulation, and knowing that the majority of high-horsed sports cars are near impossible to drive without practice, the makers of Forza have decided to give you some help with the steep learning curves of the Porches and Ferraris. This help comes in the form of three assists which you can turn on or off before heading into a race. The assists consist of Stability Control, Traction Control, and ABS. Surprisingly, each one of these assists actually effects how your car handles in a very evident way. Most games offer assistance in name, but you never notice it while actually playing. In Forza however, they even included three lights at the bottom right of your screen which
reveal to you which assist is working. Now if you do not think that these assists effect how you drive, turn all of them off and attempt to drive as you had been before. I am willing to put money down on the fact that if you do what I just said, you will ruin your car in no time flat.

Two of the major innovations that Forza brings to the table are the driving line system and drivatar. Taking them separately, the driving line system is, as its name suggests,
a line of arrows which are laid on the track. These lines which are made up of arrow heads, show the best line which the player should follower for maximum speed it Forza. Also, these lines, which can be turned off, will also change in color depending on how fast you are going: if your going too fast for a corner, the line turns red, if you need to slow just a bit the line turns yellow, and if you should accelerate, the line will turn green. All of this is real-time and changes depending upon the car you are driving.

Looking to the other branch of innovation, the drivatar is an amazing intuitive AI which you can train to race races which you don't want to race. As amazing as it sounds, the drivatar is not simply a gimmick; depending on how you drive, the drivatar will be aggressive, passive, or simply bad. Again though, if you are an excellent driver the drivatar will be one also. And if you are wondering, the way you train your drivatar is by performing on a series of tracks were your actions are
ranked and computed.

Now Forza does not reinvent the wheel when it comes actual racing - you still start at the start line, race through a certain number of laps, and attempt to finish in first place. However, what Forza does do with this age-old formula is perfect it. With a combination of aggressive AI which actually learns from how you drive against it, amazing road physics which made Popular Science gawk, and a series of tracks which will test your driving skills time in and time out Forza has succeeded at being one of the best racing experiences which has ever been experienced on any console.

As if the racing were not enough, Forza offers features which truly shove it above the competition (you're all thinking it so I'll say it: GT4). What could do this? Two things: customization and online play. Simply put, Forza has a customization system which makes games like Need for Speed Underground cry in envy. You can modify engines, swap engines, tack on ground effects, add spoilers, and choose tires. In fact, each part of your car has one-hundred layers which you can visually customize - be it with stickers, paint, graphics, or whatever your mind can devise. The
success of this customization system has shown itself three-fold online -- as there are now entire websites devoted to creations which Forza players have made. As for the online, it is self explanatory. You can have car clans, flawless online races:
heck, you can even play through the entire career online. There are tournaments,market places, and customization shops which are both user created as well as functional. GT4 ain't got nothing on Forza.