Forza Motorsport 4

It's quite hard to rate games like this. For newcomers it's a brilliant game and highly recommended if you are looking for a racing game, but for those that played the amazing Forza 3, it feels almost the same; with some additions, and with some content taken out.

The Forza series is a realistic simulation of racing with vast selection of licensed cars and tracks. The brilliant thing is, anyone can play due to the various difficulty options. All aspects of the car are covered and can be turned off or on; steering, gear changing, ABS, Traction Control, Stability Control, braking assist. A racing line can be shown on the track to give you the perfect line to guide in cornering and braking. A rewind feature can place you back a few seconds in the past to redo a corner or undo a collision. The AI difficulty can be set to a various levels. Car damage can be set which can really hinder your car if car collisions occur with damage to the engine slowing you down, and damage to the steering pulling your car to once side. Players that want a challenge are rewarded with extra race winnings but a penalty is taken for any damage to the car.

In the main career mode, the races are spread across 10 seasons which have an increasing amount of races in them and the races themselves become longer. With each race, you are shown the track you must race on, but have a choice of up to 3 race events which are biassed towards the cars in your garage and the car that you have currently selected. This system means that you always have a race available and cannot get stuck.

A lot of the races are fairly generic like A-Class cars, but some races are more specific like Lamborghini Diablo only. As you win races, your driver level increases and with each milestone; you are rewarded with a free car which you can choose out of a small collection of 2-5 high valued cars. With your race winnings you can buy cars but some cars are rather expensive and cost millions. With each race, the prize is usually set to 10,000 credits plus the extra bonus for higher difficulties, so you won't be purchasing too many expensive cars. However, there's such a vast selection and there are plenty available for less than 100,000 credits.

Most of the events are a race between 12 cars, but there are a few other types that occur occasionally to add variety. One of the additions is a Multi-Class event which means there are 2 races involving different classes of cars going on at once. All this means is that you have some slower or faster cars to keep an eye out for to avoid collisions. Another one of the additions is a 1 on 1 race on a course which has traffic throughout. The frustrating thing is that the traffic usually switches lanes before the corner, then switches back straight after which makes it really hard to overtake and keep a good racing line. A similar event gives you a target of the amount of cars you must overtake in 2 laps.

There are a few Top Gear events too including a time trial where you must pass between gates, and a score based game where you knock down bowling pins. The intro is voiced by Jeremy Clarkson and so is part of the Autovista mode where you analyse a car for its internal and external parts. For car junkies, it is a really cool feature but for everyone else, you won't spend too much time on this.

The cars can be upgraded with new parts and discounts are available on these parts based on your affinity level with the manufacturer. This is gained in the same way the driver level is, but you must drive that manufacturer's car. The cars can also be customised by applying paint jobs and decals which you can create very detailed designs if you are of the artistic kind.

The new courses added are Hockenheimring, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Infineon Raceway and the fictional Bernese Alps but the New York track has been removed. Also removed (but sold as downloadable content) are the entire selection of Porsche cars.

Overall, Forza 4 is the best Forza game yet, but if you've played Forza 3 and completed the extremely long career mode, Forza 4 could feel like a chore to play because you will be doing it all again.