That is the exact amount of time I've spent racing cars in Forza Motorsport 2 over the past 29 days. Kind of crazy isn't it? That's something like two hours and 15 minutes a day for the last month. Now when I tell people I do not watch TV shows this is why. I'm not a car nut, I have never even changed my own oil let alone know how an engine works but I do enjoy driving fast and taking turns at very high speeds. Since it's not really safe for me to that in my car I get that thrill of driving hard and fast from video games.

Forza 2 is a racing simulator for the Xbox 360 and does a very good job at simulating the feel of racing. To be a good sim you have to take several things into consideration. For instance if I lose control of my car in turn 10 and spin onto the infield, I should feel the wheel jerk around as I drive over the bumpy grass. If I cut a corner a little tight and clip the infield dirt I should see a poof of dirt in the air behind me. I should also hear my engine rev up as I bury the needle on my RPMs. I should hear other cars as they get near me and I should hear my tires squeal as I drift through a turn. Well Forza 2 delivers all this and a ton more.

By far Forza 2 is the most engrossing racing game I have ever played. When you start the game you are get to choose a difficulty and from that it chooses what aids you will get while you race. You can play the game to completion will all the aids on and have a very enjoyable experience but you might want to also turn off specific aids as you progress within the game because the aids take away from the credits you earn in races. On the easiest setting the game will provide you with a path that will show you the ideal line around a course. That line will change colors when you need to slowdown or break hard. This is a nice aid but if you limit the lien to only when you need to slowdown or break then you will get 5% more credits after a race. The main aids are driving lines, ABS breaks, traction control, stability control, tire wear/gas usage, damage, shifting and opponent difficulty. You can adjust these to earn more money and make the game a little more challenging or earn less money but make the game a little easier. By offering this system this makes Forza 2 one of the most accessible racing simulators games ever made.

Spending as much time as I have in the game has made me appreciate how beautiful the cars and tracks are. The lighting in Forza 2 is absolutely amazing as it reflects off the track and the cars. If you drive into the sun you will get that flash of glare and when you race across the shadows they perfectly appear on cars. It is very obvious to me that the development team spent a very large amount of time in getting the lighting, sounds and the cars absolutely perfect. They nail these three aspects of the games.

My only complaints about the game are with the tracks and some of the HUD information. Forza ships with nine race tracks that have multiple configurations which is nice but if you race through all circuits and their events it gets to the point you can race these tracks blind folded. I'm hoping that they will release some new maps down the road. As beautiful as the cars are some of the tracks just don't look that great. This can be forgiven since the games does run at a very high frame rate and to accomplish that they probably had to make the tracks look a bit less detailed. What I really didn't like was the fact that the HUD item that showed you how far the car behind you was blended into the clouds on several of the tracks. This was very annoying and often I spent too much time trying to read that number and made a mistake on the track.

Overall this is a great racing game that anyone with a 360 and a live account should at least try. There is a free demo on the market place that lets you race of of the tracks. I would say it's definitely a game I'm glad to have in my collection and has managed to climb to number four on my most played list.