Either way Forza is a cool series. The rewind feature is something I am especially interested in. I enjoy racing sims (the thrill of fast cars handling like they would in real life) but as it turns out I’m not a professionally trained race driver. (So I suck ;) Essentially a race is me doing well until I eventually take a turn too aggressive and lose it /crash . Which in games like this is enough to fail the race. The alternative up until this point is to restart the race (and do it all again, only to possibly lose even more time by wiping out on another turn) or *cringes*: race more conservatively and accept the fact that I will probably only be able to finish fourth.

Being able to rewind until before the turn, to “ease back a little”, seems like a very attractive compromise. Traditionally Forza 2 had many assists to make driving easier (including a “driving lines” feature which essentially drew a line around the track telling you where to drive and when to brake) but the always felt self defeating. If you are playing a sim, it’s for the challenge, knowing that these are real cars. Dumbing it down, means you might as well be playing another game then.

My personal tastes end up being slightly less “Sim-y” then the Forza’s and GTR’s, going into more the TOCA category. Need for speed’s upcomming “Shift” entry into the series supposedly seems to be slotted in around that balance of challenge/punishment. It’ll be interesting to compare the two and see which one can deliver the more accessible, yet still rewarding racing experience.