Forza Motorsport 2 review - Xbox 360

Fast cars, great racetracks - what more could you want from a racing sim like Forza Motorsport 2? How about detailed stats that allow you to judge every minute aspect of your car's performance, masses of modifications to unlock and both single player and online options? Whether you're a racing newbie or a true petrol-head, there is plenty to keep you driving through the night in Forza Motorsport 2, but is there enough to set this sequel apart from its forerunner and rivals? Read our Forza Motorsport 2 for Xbox 360 review to find out!
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Forza Motorsport 2 review for Xbox 360
If there’s two words that succinctly describe Forza 2 it’s ‘car porn’. This game is every motorphile’s wet dream, with everything from Lamborghinis to Lancias rendered in loving hi-def detail. And it’s not just the visual realisation of these automobiles that’ll have car lovers salivating. Because for every nanosecond your car’s out on the track, the physics system is performing hundreds - nay, thousands of calculations, at a whopping 360fps (by comparison, the frame rate is a ‘mere’ 60fps) to ensure that every stat-head out there is informed of every minute detail of their vehicle’s performance. Watching a replay of a race and seeing the telemetry at work is utterly jawdropping. Literally everything you can think of is covered - torque, power, boost, RPM, suspension, heat, damage - while you can see the camber of each tyre, its temperature, friction and amount of wear, all calculated in real time. For every single car on the track. For anyone experienced (read: geeky) enough to know what it all means and how it affects performance, Forza Motorsport 2 is likely to be everything you wanted and more. Which surely rules it out for anyone who’d rather spend more time racing than tuning up, right?
Not a bit of it. Because the genius of Forza 2 is that it’s as accessible or as deep as you want it to be. While it’s fair to say that more casual players will be less likely to see every unlockable car, track or piece of equipment the game has to offer - and there’s a quite overwhelming array of things to buy and modify - there’s still plenty for the newbie racer to sink their teeth into. Sure, it never turns into a blisteringly paced drift-fest, like your OutRuns or your Ridge Racers, but then Forza wasn’t ever meant to be like that.

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