I know nothing about cars and even I’m obsessed with Forza M…

More than any other game released this fall, forza motorsport Has become my new passion. I’ve spent days tuning cars and improving my racing skills, with music playing in the background and zoning out. This is one of my favorite video game experiences this year. Looking at it, you might assume I’m your average car guy, easily won over by all those shiny, digital vehicles. It’s not like that; In real life I don’t even have a driving license.

the beauty of forza motorsport The thing is, you don’t need to be an automotive enthusiast to enjoy its great simulation gameplay. That’s because racing games are built around a collection of simple pleasures that pull from the best video games and completely dismantle them. Whether you’re a car fan or not, Forza is a video game to watch if you approach it right.

take it easy

In a passing glance, forza motorsport Doesn’t look special at all. It’s a standard racing simulator where you zoom around the track in incredibly realistic cars. It’s the most beautiful game in the genre, right next to Gran Turismo 7, but only seasoned driving sim veterans will be able to notice any of its nuances at first.

I was pretty much in that boat until I started playing for myself. comes from the most immediate hook forza motorsportRPG system, in which players earn experience points and level them up to improve individual cars. It’s a simple progression loop, but it goes a long way toward simplifying a straightforward racing simulation.

Turn 10 Studios accomplishes this through a simple “corner-by-corner” philosophy. Each track is divided into several parts. At each lap, racers are graded based on how well they handled the segment, with additional experience awarded each time they improve their best time on each chunk. The idea is to give drivers a more concrete goal within the race that does not require any real knowledge of racing simulation. Instead, it has a simple objective: focus on beating that “battle” faster next time. It’s a more concrete way of thinking about racing skills, almost turning corners into enemies to be thwarted.

Once I got my eyes so blurry I couldn’t see forza motorsport As an abstract RPG where cars are stand-ins for swords, I became laser-focused on deep mastery, which I usually have trouble achieving in games like this. First of all, I was a terrible driver. I couldn’t stay on the road and kept hitting cars while going at maximum speed and trying to turn at the last second. But the more serious I got about mastering individual turns, the more I began to realize what really affected me: forza motorsport Completely overturns the way I think about skill in sports.

I’ve always had trouble connecting with most games and genres with a higher skill threshold. In Call of Duty, I simply don’t have the reaction time required to turn around at a moment’s notice, line up my crosshairs on a moving target, and take them down before they catch me. while playing something like this mortal kombat 1 Online, I always feel like I get criticized because I can’t execute combos fast enough to increase my speed against skilled opponents. In sports I have been able to reach great heights tetris 99 Or super smash bros ultimateBut it takes a lot of energy to get there.

peaceful enjoyment of forza motorsport, and a lot of racing simulators at large, are methods that reverse that instinct. If I want to master a track in Forza, I’m not going to be able to accomplish it by constantly moving the joystick or slamming my fingers on the triggers. Instead, a successful run requires a gentle touch. I barely want to move my joystick when I don’t need to. Instead of hitting my brakes and gas hard, I need to ease in with light touches. This skill comes from carefully easing off the gas, sometimes letting the car drift into a corner with its own momentum. It’s about knowing when not to push a button.

he lends forza motorsport The almost trance-like gameplay flow that some games provide for me. Once I really mastered the track I could sit in my sofa and almost walk out from behind the wheel (something you shouldn’t do with a real car). It’s like Anti-Dark Souls, which trades lightning-fast response times for delicate controls. You don’t have to love cars to appreciate that relaxing experience; You just need to let the road guide you.

forza motorsport Available now on Xbox Series X/S and PC.