Games

Xbox One racer Forza 5's headline trick is delivering its huge car collection and decent selection of tracks in beautifully shiny 1080p graphics running at a silky smooth and consistent 60fps – something other titles on the console have conspicuously failed to do.

It also demonstrates Microsoft’s online prowess, delivering matchmaking and hosting races flawlessly on Xbox One’s new ‘cloud’ servers. Online races are brilliantly tense affairs, only let down by too many first-corner pile-ups and crash-happy players. By comparison, offline races can feel slightly soulless, with the game’s A.I. making it too easy to establish an unassailable lead. The Top Gear commentaries and turgid soundtrack damage the atmosphere too.

What’s really upsetting some players, though, is the way this full-priced release constantly suggests that you spend more real-world money on fast-tracking your career or buying in-game cars. But to be fair, we personally haven’t felt tempted to follow these suggestions, and there’s no feeling that adding micro-transactions has impacted the game’s structure.

Overall Forza 5 is a showcase of much that’s good and potentially bad about console gaming’s new generation. Though whether this makes it an essential purchase or merely an academic curiosity is debatable.

Forza Motorsport 5, Turn 10/Microsoft Studios, Xbox One, £55 Approx
HCC VERDICT: 4/5