Forza 5 is gorgeous and smooth as butter, and its utterly enchanting handling makes it a joy to drive hard, but this game is more than just a rock solid technical titan for the Xbox One. It's an essential destination for the automobile obsessed.

Stunning visuals; Genre-leading sound; Drivatar; Terrific handling

Light on tracks

I've considered myself a very die hard gamer for the vast majority of my life and there's only ever been two styles of games I've never really been good at – racing games and fighting games. I always enjoyed playing games like

+ Stunning graphics; + Unbelievable attention to detail; + Forzavista; + Drivatar AI; + Accessibility for newer players

- Lack of tracks/cars at launch; - Lack of environmental effects

The more articulate car nuts among us need little reason to wax lyrical about their favorite vehicles, and no other series has so elegantly serviced our love affair with the automobile in recent years. If you were worried Forza 's Xbox One debut might skid off the track, rest easy.

+ Beautifully detailed and varied vehicles made real with faithful handling physics and killer sound effects, + Outstanding damage modeling; immersive car-specific cockpits; Drivatar A.I.

? Why can't any cars honk their horns

On paper, Forza Motorsport 5 is a massive disappointment. Its car roster has been halved, leaving a paltry 200-odd to Forza 4's 500-plus, and its showing of tracks is so limited that you'll likely have raced on a variant of each within the first hour of play.

Still one of the most fun; inviting racing sims; Subtle refinements to all areas of gameplay; Drivatar system could revolutionize solo racing

A paltry number of tracks; Less aggregate content than Forza fans may be used to

I'm new to the Forza series, and I've never really spent any time with a racing sim. I own a car, but it's a 2004 Hyundai Sonata. I love BBC's Top Gear , but I couldn't name most parts that make a car actually work.

I never really thought I would get the hang of driving a powerful car in a game like Forza; Racers like Mario Kart and Burnout taught me that Sir Isaac Newton didn't know what the hell he was talking about; My issue is that I don't want to play with too many assists on.

At first; I was happy that I only needed to learn a few tracks; but it is a bit disappointing after a while to hear the announcer reveal that you're heading back to Sebring International Raceway for the eight time.

Over the last five years, my favorite sim racing series has definitely been Forza Motorsport . While the PC games often model physics and tracks more accurately, they don't have the budgets of the big-name console games for the licensing of hundreds of cars, and there's no distinct control advantage...

All in all, Forza 5 is a beautiful game, with plenty of achievements to unlock, cars to buy and badges to collect. Whilst it may be lacking in cars and tracks, it is an impressive showcase of what the Xbox One can achieve. Ultimately, if you're a fan of Forza, you'll buy this.

I can't tell you how many hours I spent playing Forza Horizon. Even today it still remains one of my top five racing games of all time, so I was understandably excited (but not surprised) when Forza Motorsport 5 was announced as an Xbox One launch title.

Positives Stunning visuals, sound, and classy BBC presentation; Excellent controls thanks to impulse triggers on new gamepad

Negatives Drivatars are constant source of frustration turning single-player games into multiplayer demolition derbies; So many events but a reduced amount of cars and tracks make things overly repetitive; Super-long load times for each race

. While the PC games often model physics and tracks more accurately, they don't have the budgets of the big-name console games for the licensing of hundreds of cars, and there's no distinct control advantage if you have a steering wheel that works just as well on Xbox 360 as it does on PC.

There's something about the racing genre that holds a special place in the gaming world. There's no story to push you forward. There's no allocating skill points to improve your character. There's no intricate series of button combinations to remember to execute an on-screen move.