Forza Horizon: finding my way

I've never been excited by the previous Forza games, which is largely driven by the complexity they model and the feeling that unless you have an hour to spend tinkering with your car before each race you're not going to do very well. This is one of the reasons I've largely ignored the Gran Turismo series ever since playing around with it via bleemcast.  I just want to get in a car and race.

Forza Horizon allows you to do that, though there are loads of cars to choose between and there's the possibility of upgrading them with parts as well.  I've not done that, I've just bought a few new cars and raced those.  I've explored a lot of the world in free drive mode, have challenged a fair few of the other competitors (but only those driving crappy cars), and have participated in a number of the event races (and a couple of street races).  I've nearly gained the blue wristband which will open up even more content.

It's an excellent game.  It's an iteration of what's gone before, but it pulls things together excellently.  It has the free roam of Test Drive Unlimited, linked to the social gaming nature of Geometry Wars (constant updates of what friends are up to), with collection and exploration of Crackdown.  And an excellent driving engine underpinning it.

And it cost me £15.