I feel like this one has been a long time coming. I first picked up an Xbox 360 right at the tail end of 2005, and after seeing the fun but shallow Project Gotham Racing 3 on that hardware, it's been a long wait for a real racing sim. I'm a bit of Johnny-come-lately to Microsoft's side of the console world; right up until Gran Turismo 4 I was firmly in Sony and Polyphony Digital's camp. Curiosity and the desire for an Xbox media center resulted in my trying the original Forza Motorsport, and straight away I could see things I liked. At the time, I still gave GT4 the edge, but in the last 12 months I can count on one hand the number of times our PS2 has been turned on. Forza might have been laggy when played on the 360, but the disc got a workout.

The more I played the original Xbox game, the more I wanted to see what the developers, Turn 10, would be able to do with the current generation of console hardware. Originally slated for release in November 2006, delay followed delay, and I have to admit I started taking it personally. Finally, a concrete release date was set and followed by a playable demo, which appeared on Xbox Live last month.

This little appetizer did exactly what it was designed to do: impart some of the flavor of the full game and ignite a burning desire for the calendar to hurry up and get to the end of May. That day finally came, and now you may very well have a copy of the game in your hands right now, although if you're in Europe or the Antipodes, you'll have to wait another week.