Never before has a Forza game been a launch title for an Xbox console, and perhaps this shows in the fact that Turn 10's Forza 5 comes across as somewhat of a "Forza Lite". And perhaps that is fair enough. Loveit or hate it, we are living in the age of downloadable content and microtransactions.
That's not to say that Forza 5 is some kind of token gesture, because it's not. A lot, and I mean a lot, of work has been put into making this the best-looking driving game ever made, and arguably the best looking video game ever made.
Forza 5 has 200 cars. That's down from 500 in Forza 4 but 200 is more than enough. And there are only 14 tracks, about half than in Forza 4, so if you do a lot of driving you'll be revisiting the same scenery over and over. But when the scenery is so amazing, then it's an absolute pleasure.
Don't expect any major reinventions in Forza 5 - it's still very true to the series apart from one new feature that is set to change the future of driving games forever. Turn 10 have coined it the "Drivatar".
There are no AI drivers in Forza 5,. Instead you are driving against real people - well, virtual representations of their driving style. You, too, will be represented by your Drivatar out in the Cloud and it will race on your behalf while you sleep to earn you experience points. It's a brilliant idea and you do get a genuine feeling of racing someone who is reacting to circumstances rather than processing sub-routines.
Although I am yet to play GT6, I can confidently say that this is as breathtaking a game as you will ever play.
