By Ryan Quinn

When Forza Motorsport first appeared on the Xbox a few years ago, it was quickly labeled as one of the greatest racing sims of all time, if not the greatest. Many racing enthusiasts were stolen from their coveted Gran Turismo because of the absolute brilliance of the new Xbox ride. Now, years later, will the new Forza Motorsport 2 leave the competition behind again or will it just be a sloppy sequel.

Well, if the graphics can say anything, it doesn’t look too good for the new racing game. While the game does look great, it doesn’t look that much better than the original Xbox title. Only a few upgrades to things like lighting, blur effects, and more detailed damage modeling are really noticeable. It could be that the development team got lazy, or it could be that they couldn’t get much more photo-realistic than the first Forza. I think we have officially hit that mark in graphics that racing games won’t look much better. Only slight changes are possible as the cars and tracks are so close to realism that updating everything simply isn’t possible. Same with the sound design. Every engine sounds different and the roar of the crowd as you pass by the bleachers feeds the realism. However, it was the same in the last game. The one area I saw in sound that seemed to be a step backwards was the music. It’s almost nothing but repetitive, ear-grinding techno. Even people that like techno will probably turn off this trash. It’s not much of a problem, though; as you can just let your hard drive music take over. Goodbye techno, hello Iron Maiden!

The controls are just as good as before with fluid and responsive steering as well as ease of braking and acceleration. Every car handles differently (all 300+ of them). It really is quite amazing to see the subtle changes from car to car, that ultimately lead up to drastic changes in the scoreboard. It also leads to extraordinary depth to each race. The 300+ cars can all be heavily modified and even tuned to the individual gear ratios. A near limitless amount of possibilities arise from this depth. And although it can seem a bit daunting to those who haven’t played it or are not familiar with automotive care, it is actually quite simple if you want it to be. Just go through the parts and select the ones that make your cars stats go higher. That plus the fact that you can tweak the difficulty from driver A.I. right down to the type of damage your car can sustain means that everyone from hardcore gear-heads to elementary school students can have an absolutely different and great experience with this game.

The multiplayer is also phenomenal. Not only can you race against other people and see how you rank in the entire online community, but you can also watch Forza Motorsport T.V. It is basically a way to watch your friends race online while you wait for the next race, as well as a way to see the top competitors whip around corners and learn a thing or two. And like the last game, the vinyl and paint designs you can create make certain that your car is a unique piece of art. If you’re good enough, you can even sell your designs.

Although this game is just an upgraded version of the original, that just means it’s an upgrade of the best racing game ever made. This is still the reigning champ of the simulation racing world. The next Gran Turismo is going to have to pull off one hell of a miracle if they want to get anywhere near close to this gem. SCORE: 10 out of 10.