Last year was one of the greatest years for video games in the past decade. Highly anticipated titles like Fallout 4, Star Wars Battlefront, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 all took the virtual world by storm. While I love first-person shooters and role playing games like Fallout and Battlefront, the one genre that never ceases to take up my studying time is racing games. Forza Motorsport, Dirt, Project Cars, and so many other titles also launched new games or sequels last year. For those of us with oil in our blood, these games meant that we could get another fix racing unobtainable cars on circuits we may never drive.

I recently bought Forza Motorsport 6, and I have spent large portions of my free time spinning virtual tires on some of the world’s most famous race tracks. While playing the game, I have made note of a few of the good, and not so good, things I’ve noticed about it.

Compared to Forza on the Xbox 360, Forza 6 is beautiful on the Xbox One. Cars boast multi-layer paint schemes, which means that metal flake paint jobs and even matte carbon fiber finishes look realistic. The tracks are also rendered beautifully. Every surface is different: Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi is smooth as ice, whereas Willow Springs shows its age through bumps, dips, and potholes. When it rains, the drops bead up on the windshield and slide away depending on which direction you’re driving. Visually, Forza 6 is quite flawless; all thanks to the great processing power of the Xbox One.

In the past, Forza games had a problem of making cars feel similar. Now, every car has its own personality, its own handling characteristics. Mid-engined cars suffer from snap oversteer under heavy braking; front wheel drive cars understeer right into barriers if you don’t lay off the throttle mid-corner, the diversity of handling is phenomenal. Also, driver aids can be completely disabled. With no traction control, antilock brakes, and a manual transmission, players can exploit every inch of the tracka�� until they go sliding into the wall at a mind-boggling speed. Thank you “Hit Y to rewind.”

I only have one complaint about Forza 6. After a while it becomes monotonous. The races have a new “Objective” each time, and if you don’t finish on the podium, you don’t continue. Races are also divided into car category now; that means there’s no racing a highly modified Civic against Ferraris. It’s rather disappointing. Because the same repeated races in categories and the lack of variety within the categories one can get bored pretty quick.

Forza Motorsport has been the premier racing title on Xbox consoles for the past ten years, and the game still holds its own in the field of fantastic racing games out right now. Forza 6 is a showcase of the incredible physics and visual effects that will be going into video games in the next ten. With the advanced characteristics Forza shows off, it will be tough to beat for its competitors.