This was my entry into the Forza series, as I never got the chance to play the first one on the original Xbox.

Right off the bat, I noticed that this was not the type of racing game I was used to. You see, I was used to powersliding around corners at 200 mph in various arcade racing games. But I had never before tried a racing simulator. This definitely took some getting used to, and absolutely resulted in a rage quit every now and then. Keep in mind, this was before almost every racing game had a rewind feature. I have countless memories of making it very far into endurance races (usually 100+ laps, with full tire wear and fuel usage simulation if you choose) only to spin out at the last turn and fall down the rankings to 3rd place or beyond. This is a very unfortunate thing when investing potentially 30-90 minutes of your life on one race, especially if you work a full-time job like myself. However, it did make those 1st place victories that much more satisfying.

Now, after playing simulators more over the years since this game came out, I really appreciate the simulation racing genre a lot more now. Arcade racing games are still fun, but I now often prefer the more grounded realism of these games.

There are plenty of cars to collect in this entry of the Forza series. Including DLC, there are 349 cars. There are 12 different environments to race in, which include 47 tracks. Considering the limitations of storage on the Xbox 360 HDD and the dual layer DVDs it used (~8.5 GB), I'd say that's a decent amount of content. It should be enough that you won't remind repeating a few tracks here and there.

I also discovered a lot of music of the electronic variety from this game, including some songs I'm surprised I hadn't heard before. A few generations of Forza games after this one, they started including some drum & bass music from the likes of Hospital Records which was pretty cool, but the stuff you'll find in Forza Motorsport 2 is not quite like that.

What I will say for now is that there are some memorable experiences to be had, if you happen to still be playing on Xbox 360 (which I know a bunch of people out there are) and haven't yet tried a racing simulator or the Forza series in general. After getting used to this game I really enjoyed it.