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THE GREATEST MOTORSPORT EXPERIENCE for the Xbox 360 has finally landed after several months' delay, just in time for the cold days. Forza Motorsport 2 is the sequel to the much acclaimed Forza Motorsport released on the original Xbox. Expectations were huge for the sequel and after a release delay the sceptics grew in their numbers. However, now that it is here, the Forza community can be relieved - this game absolutely blows our minds. Turn 10 have reworked the driving and physics model to improve on the original, sounds have been rerecorded and everything has had an overhaul. By all means the game isn't actually perfect, but it's such an enthralling experience that the little things that do pop up are far less important.

The Turn 10 developers have managed to pack a colossal 300+ cars into the game, from your run off the mill VW or BMW Mini to high performance Ferraris, Porsches, McLarens, or even your tricked out Nissan Skyline. There is definitely something here for everyone's tastes. Going into the technical side of things, Forza 2 runs at a solid 60 frames-per-second, with 8 cars on track regardless of the action on screen, with 2x anti-aliasing and high-dynamic range lighting in 720p. What does this mean? Forza 2 is an impressively smooth game. It's not the most amazing game out there in the graphics department (à la Gears of War), but sacrifices had to be made to have physics like Forza 2. This results in some jagged edges, especially in the course backgrounds.

The sky is definitely one of the uglier skies we have seen, and some tracks also just seem bland. Forza 2 lacks weather effects and races are always during the day. A plus side are the impressive lighting effects and real-time reflections on the body of the car. The draw-distance is also massive with cars being visible at the end of very long straights. The reworked physics are running at 360Hz which means that every undulation in the track or twitch of the car is calculated instantly. With the MS Wireless Racing Wheel these bumps can be felt vividly through the force feedback.

There are 12 different environments in Forza 2, making it one of the sparsest racers in this respect. They are called environments because each has several courses (called "ribbons") giving Forza 2 over 60 in total, although this gives the feeling of being offered the same lunch in a different lunch-box. This is a small amount, no doubt, but with the likes of Laguna Seca, Sebring and Mugello making an appearance it is forgivable. They are recreated to a level of detail which is unprecedented in today's racing genre on console. Most impressive is the reincarnation of Nürburgring which is a gruelling course over 20km in length and takes an impressive length of time to get around, but is all the more rewarding once you have negotiated your way through it in Forza 2.

When you boot up Forza 2 you are greeted by a highly polished user interface where everything is easy to find. As soon as you begin a race you'll notice the cars have a real sense of weight to them and feel as you would expect, which makes it easier for people new to a racing genre to pick up and play. The aim for the developers was to turn car enthusiasts into gamers and gamers into car enthusiasts and it seems to have worked. By making the game accessible, you won't be banging your head against the wall out of frustration when you don't know what a slip-differential does (I know I don't). The game uses a number of assists and difficulty settings to scale the game to whatever difficulty you want. There are racing lines and braking lines (which change colour depending on your speed), traction control, ABS, automatic gears, damage settings, fuel and tyre wear and stability control.

There are also several AI settings to make the game truly competitive for even the racers. The AI "drivatars", as they are known, are your virtual opponents with whom, believe it or not, you will build rivalries. They are aggressive and fast, and one Italian who goes by the name of M. Rossi is particularily fast and dominates the leader-boards throughout with his aggressive manoeuvres and fiery Italian personality. In general, though, if you race respectfully the AI will be mindful of you and not ram you off the road, although it does happen. By including these settings the game will teach you the art of racing and as you progress and improve throughout your career as a pro racer you can scale back on these depending on your level of confidence.

Forza 2 has several modes: Arcade, Career and Multiplayer. Arcade Mode includes time trials where you race against the clock, and other players' times on Xbox Live, exhibition races and free run. The career is where the heart of Forza 2 lies; here you will build a personal affinity and attachment with vehicles, be they your first car in the game, or a car you know only from dreams. You invest time and money into your cars and make them your own. Money is generated by winning races, and similarly race wins give you driver level upgrades and car upgrades for the vehicle you're driving, which gives you access to new cars and discounts on cars and upgrades, as well as new tournaments to enter. Unlocking tournaments is nothing that hasn't been done before in countless other racing games, but Forza 2 just has a certain flavour that keeps us coming back, sometimes in the middle of the night, to show Rossi that our BMW Mini can leave him standing on the starting straight. The relatively short load times make this even more enjoyable as the immersion is never interrupted for long.

A huge array of customisation options are at your fingertips. You can do performance upgrades which include gearbox upgrades, weight reductions, tyre upgrades and pretty much any other upgrade under the sun, even drive-train swaps. These are also easily understood as each upgrade explains the effect that it will have in a small text window. This is emphasised by the PI (Performance Index), into which all cars are categorised. D class is the lowest and includes your normal road car, and as the class increases so does the performance of the cars. ometimes you really just don't want your little Golf GTi racing against super sports-cars so balancing these upgrades is an art. An incredibly powerful decal editor is implemented in the game wherein you can create anything your heart desires, or be content with what is already on offer. Judging by some of the designs flying around some people have a greater knack for this than I, but it is still great fun designing things and then seeing your creation on the road and in your control. It's so great, in fact, future birthday cards sent by yours truly will potentially be customised cars with a cake planted on the hood. Nothing says Happy Birthday like a personalised Enzo Ferrari.

That brings us to the online and multiplayer portion of this game. All the usual options are there, split-screen and system-link, as well as standard online races against up to seven opponents. But you also have the option of taking your career online and competing for TruSkill ranking. The beauty of this is that you can fully show off those fine lines that you were creating in the decal editor to the rest of the world. And admittedly there's nothing quite like swapping paint with a bunch of friends. Forza 2 is fully connected to the Forzamotorsport.net homepage, which means you can upload pictures and lap-times directly from your game to view and download. There is also a virtual auction house in which you can pick up or sell some beautifully stylized cars. My favourite feature by far is the constant updating of lap-times onto the server to let you know where you stand. It's not a bad feeling when you get a time in the top couple of hundred out of 30,000+ players. The same thing happens with ghost cars and replays, and you can easily and quickly download the ghost car or replay for the best players and see what it is that you're doing wrong. And finally, you've got Forza Motorsport TV which essentially is like Gotham TV from Project Gotham Racing 3, wherein you can watch 'featured races' and most races that are currently underway.

The sound is less dramatic. Each car has had sound recorded from several parts of the car to get an authentic sound. It doesn't totally leap out at you as it perhaps could, but it sounds convincing enough. The developers thought the sound was so good they decided to not have the game soundtrack play during races, only in loading menus, which in our opinion is a shame - at least having it as an option would have been nice because with the likes of LCD Soundsystem and Chemical Brothers the music is enjoyable. However, the music is very much suited for when you're adding layer after layer of decals to your in-game personification, your car.

Overall, Forza Motorsport 2 is a slick presentation, within which a pretty powerful racing simulator is tucked away. It's accessible enough for non-gamers and old gamers alike, challenging enough to keep even the hardcore fans going for months. As Forza Motorspot 2 is published by Microsoft, the low price point makes it even more attractive and essential to anyone attracted to fast cars or close racing. The negatives in the graphical and sound department do not outweigh the positives of a solid frame rate and an even more solid physics and driving model - and to top it off, this game has enough content even offline to keep you satisfied for quite some time.