I’ll tell you now so you’re in no doubt about the following games review: this is my all-time favourite game for the 360 - and I don’t say that lightly. I may need to get a new copy, because my current disk has all but melted from over-use.

The single-player gameplay outshines any other racing game I’ve played, with amazing depth of car-tweaking and tuning, brilliant AI opponents, and a huge selection of cars to unlock. It will be very familiar to players of the original Forza game but that is no bad thing at all, as the interface and selection of race types is great.

Not only does the game play well, but it’s chock-full of petrolhead eye-candy. The high-definition vehicle models and scenery are getting very, very close to the real thing. And when you throw in the physics modelling that goes on behind the scenes, (and a decent steering wheel and pedals set-up, and a nice surround sound rig) then you’ve can experience a garage full of amazingly fast and sexy cars to thrape to bits at your leisure.

But where Forza 2 really lights up is the fantastic Xbox Live (XBL) integration. This game is responsible for my friends list filling up– I’ve met a few decent players in other games since I got my 360, but as soon as I got online with Forza, I was adding a couple of friends a night because the player base is thriving. And it looks like the smack-talkers are staying away (mostly!) which is no bad thing if you ask me.

Because of the ranking system you’re never out of your league – and if you put some hours into the dingle player game you can unlock and tune some really nice cars to give you a bit of an advantage to get ahead. It’s a breeze to find a lobby based on the type of race you want, but with a big buddy list, it’s a lot more fun to see who’s on and catch up with your mates.

If you’ve got a 360 and an internet connection, and you like racing games, then I’d be surprised if you haven’t already got Forza Motorsport 2. And if you have got it, then why the heck are you reading this and not out there playing it?

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