Forza Horizon is the latest in the long running Xbox series of racing games. Until Horizon, the games have been based around track racing, with various vehicles being drivable, from a lowly Mini to an Audi Le Mans racer. All in closed tracks or street courses.

Until now that is. Forza Horizon is more of an free roamer game, with some races being held in closed off portions of the Colorado landscape and others taking place on open roads with a spattering of non-racing cars, trucks and buses pottering about. The game revolves around a racing festival, obviously called Horizon, and you follow a newbie who arrives to take part.

There are various types of races, the main being the standard style race. But every now and again, you are given the chance to take part in a 'showcase Event' which generally puts you in a high powered car against some other form of transport (so far I've race a plane, hot air balloon and a helicopter).

Gameplay is up to the standard of Forza 4, and the visuals are the same. The controls are, again, your basic Forza fair, with the cars handling like you'd expect from Turn 10.

The game does have it's niggly irritants... The main one being the lack of cars that ship with the game. Forza 4 had a very long list of vehicles, Forza Horizon has maybe half that number, with many Forza stalwarts missing. This leads me to believe that Turn 10 are to make you rely on the monthly car packs to bolster the small car list, personally this isn't a good move by the developers and the lack of vehicle options if you have the basic version of the game will be irritating unless you buy the various packs.

Overall though, the game is enjoyable and well worth picking up if you are a racer on the Xbox.

9/10