THE GOOD:Even though it's slightly dated now, the graphics are still gorgeous. The simulation aspect of the game is right on par with what one would expect from Forza. Fourteen tracks to choose from, 47 different configurations of the tracks, including Nürburgring!!
Multitudes of difficulty options allows you to choose your experience from hardcore no holds barred racing sim, to a slightly more leisurely experience.
With over 300 cars from all around the world, chances are you may even drive one of the cars included in this game. Hundreds of customization options allow you to tweak your car from sporty to ultra high performance. You can customize every aspect of your cars from the ground up with body kits.
THE BAD:
Collisions aren't as accurate as I'd like. For instance hitting the pit barrier at 200mph does little more than stop your car. No flipping, no barrel rolls, no explosions. These are the shortcomings I've come to see a lot, especially when I bump the lead cars into others. When cars smash into each other hard enough, the parts of the car, even those not involved in the crash (like smashing headon into another car) just seem to fall off of the car rather than be wrenched away by the sheer force of two cars colliding headon at 200mph each.
Also the customization options become a little tedious, as all the engine component upgrades are almost exactly the same for every car. The steering mechanism for the game is off as well. It's nearly impossible to approximate a turn with a thumbstick, so you usually end up taking a turn in either a full turn or in slight increments, which can sometimes cause the higher end cars to spin.
SUMMARY:
The online seems a little empty nearly two years later, so I can't really give a good or bad review on that aspect of the game. There are many options to restrict the cars that players can use, if you can find someone to play with. What I can say about online interactions, though, is that there is a healthy auction house where you can buy and sell cars from other players and gives the game a whole new dimension aside from the single player and multiplayer experience. There are millions of credits to be had if you can create a sick design on a car. It's also a place to acquire cars that you cannot yet purchase, which is a slight downside, but the cars are usually far too expensive to be had at the beginning stages of the game.
In the end this IS the best racing sim out there, period. At least until Forza 3 comes out. While it doesn't exactly simulate every aspect of driving (collisions, for instance) it does the best approximation of it that has been released on any console.
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