Forza Motorsport is an awesome ride, which any racer fan absolutely may not miss.
The game has various improved aspects, and some downsides. One big aspect which no racer fan may avoid is customizing your vehicle so deep, that it's truly unique.
What feels great about Forza, is that the level of freedom is still extremely great, and yet it's level system prevents you from entering racers, you won't be able of winning anyway. There are more than 280 cars, and nearly 70 are already unlocked from the start.
Speaking about the leveling system. If you start winning races, you earn money. That money, is used as a "percentage" for a level-bar. Which, fills up with money untill it's full. You level up. At each level, you unlock somekind of discount on a specific modification. Getting to level 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 etc. unlocks a series of cars, and you get a free one for yourself. ---- GAMEPLAY ----
The gameplay is extremely varied. You can go and venture on Arcade Series. Which are a series of races, and once done with one series, you unlock another with a set of cars you can use.
Then, you can enter the career mode; Starting from the beginning, you select a home region. Which, if you select America, you collect discounts on American vehicles such as Chevy, Dodge and Ford, and their modification parts. If you choose Europe, you gain discounts on European vehicles, and their parts. Same counts for Asia.
Selecting a Home Region actually should be done with some thoughts. Incase you're from Asia, but interested in American vehicles alot more - You should take America afterall for specific discounts.
Afterall, the only thing that will change is the list of unlockable vehicles. If you select Europe, you'll unlock American, European and Asian vehicles on a different level than if you'd took America or Asia. It doesn't prevent you from anything, the only thing that changes is the sequence of unlocks. You still can collect all the vehicles, and their parts.
Once selected a starters' vehicle. You can venture on the roads. You firstly will unlock Xbox Live races, Point-To-Point and Amateur Races. Professional, Champion and Endurance events are unlocked on different levels. Professional are tighter, and more restrictive versions of the Amateur races. Champions Races are a row of races, in tournament form. You constantly finish in a race, to earn points. 7-10 different races completed, and if you gathered the most points(obviously, you earn the most when you finish 1st) wins the unlockable vehicle.
Endurance, however isn't as hardcore as the Gran Turismo Endurance Events. No, you wont have to drive 24H, or 25 rounds of Nürenburg. These times, they can be driven by humans. Cause, they're still tough however. But, can be finished within a hour most of the time.
If you're sick of driving yourself, you can train a "Drivatar" to drive for you. It's a extremely well designed AI-system, you can teach to drive like you. Only, there's a slight downside. Many gamers had trouble with this, doing the Drivatar missions very good but the Drivatar itself driving horrible and constantly driving like a half-assed. Mainly, flying out of every corner.
The only downside about Forza Motorsport is the lack of tracks. There's only around 20 tracks available.
And if you're done with Career, and somehow fed up with tuning your vehicles. You can venture on Time Trials. Challenging!
---- SOUND ----
The sound, is very well made. However, the soundtrack, done by famous dutch disc-jokey JunkieXL is, very harsh said - Lame. Same rock-metal-ish music literally ALL the time. It caused me to tune the volume of the music, off.
The vehicle sounds are nice, and they slightly alter once you modify your vehicle. The crash sounds, sound sorta weird now and then.
There's also a small glitch in the sound for X360 gamers. On tracks such as Laguna Seca and Nürenburg, the sound slowly fades away and then starts squeeking. It can be fixed fast by hitting START and returning into the game.
---- GRAPHICS ----
The graphics, are not really what you expect. They're kinda downgraded, compared to the graphics of Gran Turismo. The shades look pixel-ish and the roads look like GIFs. I, cannot dislike the graphics cause, mainly everything else makes up for it - Big time.
Also, what amazed me was the background. Sometimes, you would lose your consentration into racing, and really look at the surroundings.
Damage, is also very well implied.
---- CONCLUSION ----
Forza Motorsport is a racing simulator which any, and I mean any racer fan may not let go by. It's very good. And really lives up the name of a racing simulator. Forza digged itsway into the grounds of Gran Turismo and they started battleing.
It won't be strange for me to say, that Forza may actually even be better than Gran Turismo. Forza doesn't cost more than 10 dollar, and only requires a small, and free updrate from XBL to be played on the Xbox 360.
And trust me, those 10 bucks will be well spend over the next months.