Forza Motorsport 5 is a beautiful new installation in the Forza series, however it barely offers anything new to the franchise. The leap to the new console created lots of excitement and high hopes. While the game definitely delivers graphically, as it is the best looking racing game that gamers have seen so far. Cars look stunningly realistic and shine gorgeously. Bumping into rival racers will crack windshields, scrape paint, and cause the world around you to spin like never before. Unfortunately, where the game fails to deliver is in everything below the surface.
Forza 5 boasts fewer cars and tracks than Forza Motorsport 4, which is a huge disappointment. Even worse is that many cars I looked forward to playing on this console are unavailable without purchasing DLC, one of which was the Buggati Veyron. The gameplay itself feels like a stale, rehashed version of Forza 4, and for a game that requires hours and hours of grinding out racing series this is a huge negative. The drivatar feature sounded great when I began playing. Races would no longer be played against the same AI over and over but with AIs based on actual gamer's recorded driving habits in real life. After enough time though, it still feels like racing against the same AIs again and again that we've come to hate. The racing in game doesn't feel exhilarating or excited like many other racers, but rather as if you had just picked up where you left in off in your career in another Forza game.
Car tuning and upgrading is done for you in most cases where the game will automatically beef up your car to be competitive in its class which kind of detracts from the personal feel that many racers, myself included, felt in the previous installments. Custom upgrading is still possible though. However, visual customization is the best its been so far. You can create nearly any vinyl group you'd like in any sort of fashion. Custom visualizations created by others will also be recommended to you based on the customizations you build, which is pretty neat.
Overall, Forza Motorsport 5 is the sleek and fun racer that has been around for years. Even with fewer tracks and cars the game has lots to offer to gamers who enjoy fast, fun simulation racing. With the gameplay as familiar as previous Forza games I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed those as well.