Format: Xbox One
Genre: Racing
Developer: Turn 10 Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios

The Forza Motorsport series has always had crisp, colorful, pseudo-realistic visuals, and this particular entry in the franchise does nothing to stop that trend. All the same, it's almost impossible to tell how it's been improved from its Xbox 360 predecessors; the devil is in the details for sure, but for most people spotting the difference will be an irrelevant effort of splitting ever-so-fine hairs.

Turn 10: Who is this composer, and what did you do with the real Lance Hayes? Please bring him back so that the world can be rid of this absolutely hideous Hollywood-orchestra work; the player is driving cars, not waiting for Jean-Claude Van Damme to leap out of an exploding building. As for sound effects, the crash sounds are a definite improvement, but for all of the effort put into the so-called "Forzavista" feature, it's obvious that most of the cars don't have authentic recorded engine noises.

The Forza series has always billed itself as featuring a legitimate simulation physics engine, and while a premium is placed on weight transfer-- particular with the game's assists all turned off-- every single car in the game feels like it is driving on snow, or like the tires are coated in butter. In real-life, cars are inherently grippy, and only oversteer or understeer at the very limits, the onset of which is fairly abrupt. What they don't do is madly swing around at all times as if being driven on a skating rink.

Forza Motorsport 5 is a pseudo-simulation racer with an obnoxious soundtrack, run-of-the-mill graphics, and a challenging but not entirely realistic physics model. It's not a bad game by any means, but aesthetically it's a step backwards for the series, and on top of it, at its core, it's the exact same game that the original Gran Turismo was back in 1997; buy a car, upgrade as needed, race a few times, rinse-repeat. The formula badly needs a hand-brake turn to freshen things up.