Laguna Seca with one lap to go. It's an angry, beastly circuit in the California desert. But this is Forza multiplayer. It's not over until the penalties are counted, the "mute all" button is pressed, and the checkered flag is waved. The leader has a problem. The soft tires are ruined. He has a one-second lead over second place in each sector, and as they approach the infamous Corkscrew chicane, the two cars go side-by-side in the braking zone.

The minimap showed that things were not looking good for either car: both cars ran off the track, and one hit the car in front of it as it was returning to the asphalt. With three corners to go and nowhere to go at the start of this lap, I was trying to win the race. However, I did not win the race. What happened instead was that I proceeded cautiously through the last corner, which caused one of the victims to go down in the corner and I had to carry a 1.2 second penalty for corner cutting. I finished in first place, and finished in second place.

The lesson here is that victory is decided by the smallest of margins. In lowercase "m" motorsports, and in "Forza Motorsport," despite its considerable qualities and resources, it manages to seize excellence despite its technical and conceptual problems.

In other words, as we knew, the handling is truly excellent. The car is genuinely better than I've ever seen in the driving game, and the circuit fidelity is very high. But Turn 10 has played it too safe in the single-player career mode of FM, taking these valuable assets and stacking them up with racing series categories like Gran Turismo and Grid, which are necessary for a career. Fortunately, online racing enlivens the whole experience and gives us a reason to get a big car collection, many upgraded vehicles, and everything else the game demands.

FM's cars have a newfound weight to them, with much more precise detail than in 2017's Forza Motorsport 7, letting you know exactly how frustrated the tires are with the G-forces on the platform. And when you reach the limits of traction, the results are more severe. The best-case scenario is that you steer like a sea captain, trying to get the back end back under control, drift, and lose time. Worst case scenario is spiraling into an unrecoverable tank slapper and seesawing into the tire wall. There is a "Forza Horizon" feel to the depths of the motorsport, but the level of simulation is more demanding and closer to the venerable "Gran Turismo."

Of note, there were a few last-minute desktop crashes in both online races and offline series events; according to PCG, the multiplayer crashes were a known bug that has since been patched. But beware, if you are in the driver's seat close to launch, you may be in for a bumpy ride until the next few updates are implemented.

I was able to forgive these crashes because it wasn't such a huge loss of progress in single player, and because the cars in Forza Motorsport felt good. The appeal of Turn 10's new handling model is that every corner's precise limits, i.e., finding the point just before the tires give out and the back end steps out. This is true in principle in most racing games, but few other games give you this much information, this much feeling, to find the limit point of traction.

If the fundamentals are this good, it will not be a problem to just run a number of series (mini championships with cars grouped by a specific theme) that the career mode is familiar with. Let me tell you why. Because the cars and handling behavior here should have been more varied.

There are many subtleties to grasp: the pull of the 1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee, the vague steering of the iconic Lamborghini Countach at high speeds. The way the Wankel engine powers the Mazda RX8; the terrifying lateral changes in the LMP cars; the RPG-like mechanics of leveling up a car, where XP is awarded for feats like lap times and overtaking. The more you level up your car, the more upgrades you get. It is just a shame that there is no more creative way to show the culture behind these cars in single player.

Solo racing has some worthwhile new elements, the AI drivers being the first of these, and although they have been tamed since the last beta test (I could be wrong, but that chaos was great), they are still smarter than the average computer racer. They take many different lines on a single corner. They make mistakes. They block you and sometimes even swipe you. It makes the battle for position more three-dimensional and hones your online racing skills.

The practice race format also encourages, nay, forces you to memorize braking points and lines before the race, which is a net positive. However, after several series, this becomes tiresome and is contradicted by the new mechanics who can choose their grid position and the further back they start, the higher the reward for a podium finish. Are they simulating a race weekend by forcing practice laps, or are they gamifying the race by eliminating the need for qualifying and allowing you to pick your grid position for gambling purposes? It's fun to hone your line. It's also satisfying to sweep the pack, secure a podium finish, and reap the dividends. The two work in unintelligible harmony. [The handling, the machine upgrade system, and the race format all come together to create something special. The custom lobby creation tool is as powerful as "Assetto Corsa" and "Project CARS 2" in that you can dial in weather, time of day, rules and regulations. Also, in the official multiplayer series, vehicles from different disciplines are grouped in a more formal way, as in the Career Mode events. Whenever a race is entered, there is always drama, tactical depth, and surprisingly sporty racing.

And this is why FM is able to sustain a community. Online racing is truly robust and rewards things like tire management, clean driving, and hours of hot lap practice. Just like any online racing game, if you lower your safety rate too much, as in FM7, you might end up a bumper car, but at least you're often matched up with other racers who are trying to pass you cleanly.

I wish Turn 10 had rolled the dice a bit more in this area, but even so, I can't help but admire the safe but finely crafted sims that Forza Motorsport has to offer, and I'm sure that The Crew Motorfest will have a lot to offer in its 28-player, 3-phase Forza Motorsport lacks the great ideas to move the genre forward that The Crew Motorfest brought with its 28-player, three-phase grand race. The single player is too familiar, but with such a collection of cars and a vehicle and track fidelity that even Kaz Yamauchi would give a nod to, you can play it safe and still stand on the top step of the podium.