Video Games

On top of the vast tuning and customization options, stout physics engine and comprehensive online play, Forza Motorsport 4 has a fascinating variety of vehicles from which to choose. Whether your proclivities lean toward mammoth SUVs, fire-breathing supercars, snappy hot hatches or out-and-out race cars, the latest installment of the Xbox 360’s flagship racing title has something for you.

This is not to say, however, that the folks at Turn 10 included as many vehicles as they could have on the disc. To remedy this, the company has been releasing downloadable 10-car add-on packs for the last six months. Each one has added variety and depth to the already eclectic car roster, and the one for this month – the April Alpinestars Pack, which dropped yesterday – is no different.

Modern video games are remarkable achievements, and a far cry from their ancestors in terms of sophistication and realism. This is particularly true of racing or driving games; watch a replay in the likes of Gran Turismo 5 or Forza Motorsport 4 and passers-by might ask you which channel you're watching. Turn back the clock to the genre's formative days, however, and it's hard to imagine how even the most powerful imaginations managed to envision those crude congregations of pixels as cars on a race track.

This is not to say, though, that these trailblazing titles aren't worth revisiting. After all, without them there wouldn't be any Dirt 3 or Gran Turismo 5 or Need for Speed: The Run. Hence the reason we're starting this series, chronicling the racing games that helped shape the genre into what it is today. And where better to start than with the first commercially successful and popular first-person-view title, Night Driver?

Since Gran Turismo 5 has been on store shelves for about half a year now, you had to know that sooner or later that info on the next installment in the Forza Motorsport franchise would drop. We got a taste of what to expect at last year’s E3 in the form of a tech demo utilizing the Kinect motion controller, but not much news after that.

Fast forward to this year’s E3, though, and Forza developer Turn 10 has spilled a whole can’s worth of beans on Forza Motorsport 4. And it turns out there’s a lot more to it than being able to drive without a controller.