Circuit-based racing games are repetitive by nature, but the deja vu you experience when playing Forza Motorsport 4 is especially pervasive–at least if you’re familiar with its superb predecessor. You can’t help noticing that the majority of the cars and tracks in Forza 4 also appeared in Forza 3. They look noticeably better now, which is no mean feat in itself, but early in your new racing career you could still be forgiven for wondering if developer Turn 10′s latest offering might more appropriately have been titled Forza 3.5. Thankfully, that feeling dissipates as new features and improvements reveal themselves, and ultimately there’s no doubt that this is a worthy sequel to one of the best racing games in recent memory.
If you’re one of the many people who played and enjoyed Forza 3, or are still playing and enjoying Forza 3 two years after its release, you’re rewarded for your efforts the first time you start up Forza 4. You don’t get to keep your vast collection of cars or your multimillionaire bank balance, but you’re awarded a good selection of cars and a modest sum of money based on factors such as your Forza 3 driver level, VIP status, and whether or not you owned any of the rare “unicorn” cars. It’s great that after spending countless hours with Forza 3 you don’t have to start from scratch in Forza 4, and you might be pleasantly surprised by some of the cars that you find in your garage once you start playing. Newcomers to Forza have to make do with a first car that wouldn’t warrant a second look if you passed by one in real life, but as one of the Forza faithful you might have access to a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Ferrari 430, an Audi R8, and a Bugatti Veyron as soon as your career gets under way, to name but a few.
