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There should be more to next-gen gaming than pretty graphics, of course. But even so, it’s still worth taking a few moments to sit back and admire how beautiful Forza Motorsport 5 looks. If the HD era ushered in the notion of car porn, then this is car erotica.

As a developer from franchise owners Turn 10 explained to us in a behind-closed-doors session at the E3 expo, every material used to create objects in the game – from the tarmac covering the picture-postcard tracks down to the leather on the supercars’ seats – has three layers of virtual paint that all react to light differently.

The attention to detail is so great that it’s not the perfection that catches the eye, but rather the imperfections. The trend for hyperreal showroom models has been replaced by cars that just look real. Running in 1080p at 60 frames per second, it’s simply stunning.

As with the motors themselves, though, it’s what’s under the hood that counts. And next-gen Forza 5 is powered by Drivatars, an inelegant name for an extremely elegant feature.

Using the Xbox One’s ability to harness the power of the cloud – the 300,000 servers that will back up the console – the game will take note of where you understeer on corners, how you overtake, the different ways you cope in front-wheel and rear-wheel drive cars and everything else.

This data will be continually collated, refined and extrapolated to build an increasingly unique virtual representation of every single Forza 5 player. This means you will be able to race against friends, family or even famous people (the Top Gear presenters will be available at launch) whether they are online at the time as you or not.

Turn 10 claims the Drivatars feature signals the end of the artificial intelligence era, replacing it with actual intelligence instead.

Whether this incredible innovation achieves that lofty ambition or not, there’s no denying that Forza is ushering in a next-gen approach to racing games. And we can’t wait to start those engines in November.

* Read Dan's reviews of Hotline Miami and New Super Luigi U from this week's Sunday Mirror by clicking on the links.