A lot to do and a beautiful world to explore

Dec 23, 2014 13:45 GMT  ·  By

Next up in our Softpedia Game of the Year 2014 awards is the biggest racing game of the past 12 months.

In theory, this year was an important one for the genre as a number of companies competed to create and launch new and interesting experiences linked to it that took traditional mechanics and aimed to expand on them in innovative ways.

In many ways, Forza Horizon 2 seemed to be the most restrained of the coming bunch, with the developers at Playground Games and Turn 10 aiming to expand on the theme of the first title in the franchise, while delivering a game that can show the power of the Xbox One home console from Microsoft.

But when the title was launched, I became strangely addicted to it for a few days, ready to spend more time with it even as new titles were competing for my attention, and the culprit was the density of activities that it offered.

Forza Horizon 2 takes gamers to southern France and northern Italy, with some impressive landscapes delivered as the single-player story progresses, and there are some very solid races the developers have put together both in urban environments and cross-country.

But the real shining moments of the racing experience are those that ask players to react to its environment and adversaries.

I especially appreciate the Bucket List, which offers access to some truly impressive supercars and asks the player to perform some pretty impressive stunts using them.

Forza Horizon 2 understands how the mind of a gamer works

The development team at Playground Games knows that we are easily bored and that we are easily attracted to new experiences, and that’s why it has crammed so many events in its new release.

By offering variety, Forza Horizon 2 manages to remain attractive in the long term.

The quality of the graphics also helps and the team who created the landscapes has managed to capture the essence of Southern Europe, even if the details are not accurate.

The Xbox One also has the power to keep the entire experience mostly smooth and responsive.

Forza Horizon 2 is a classic that can deliver tens of hours of cool racing action.

The biggest problem with all the rivals for the title was that they were in very bad shape at launch and have not managed to solve their issues fast enough to truly compete, and both DriveClub and The Crew will probably only manage to get a niche audience.

Read our full Softpedia Forza Horizon 2 review to get all the details about the racing title.

Forza Horizon 2 Images (9 Images)

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