Forza Horizon 2 is due to come out next week on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 and initial impressions look great as critics check out the game in advance. What are they saying?

The game will take players for an exciting ride but it is not perfect. However, whatever pitfalls Forza Horizon 2 has are negligible given the kind of driving experience it offers. Yes, the game will take you to races around Southern Europe, but it is more than just a bunch of race tracks with a view.

In a sense, Forza Horizon 2 combines all the joys of driving. There's the adrenaline rush from competing with a train. There's the nuanced (maybe annoying) Drivatar system that pits players against each other by using an AI system that represents actual players. There's the freedom to just cruise through cities and take in the view. It even also addresses the urgency of just wanting to keep on driving from race to race by implementing an intuitive in-game GPS that players can simply talk to.

"If you just feel like having a fun drive along a pretty road with Chvrches playing on the radio, go ahead and do it. When you're ready to bump into big trucks in the rain, staring at your screen without blinking, there'll be a suitable championship or multiplayer roadtrip for you on the next stop. Forza Horizon 2 is a big, bouncy summer drive," said Joystiq, giving the game 4 out 5 stars.

Polygon was less impressed, rating the game 7 out of 10. "The excellent foundation below Forza Horizon 2's open world and the experimentation that it occasionally encourages at least provide a reason to race there. But the same open world serves as a less well-executed space to race and drive than the tracks that have defined previous games, and the open-world activities can't quite make up the difference," it concluded.

"Forza Horizon 2's greatest moments sometimes come under the most unexpected circumstances. What developer Playground Games has added, however, is a far richer world that's exponentially denser with rewarding racing and exploration content. The new Bucket List challenges are the best; unique activities to complete in cars parked around the world. [But] above everything, it's always fun," noted IGN, which gave it a score of 9 out of 10.

Forza Horizon 2 officially hits shelves on Sept. 30 in North America and Oct. 3 in the UK. Playground Games developed it for the Xbox One while Sumo Digital built the Xbox 360 version of the game.