Forza Motorsport 3 has been developed for everyone of every age group, from 6 year olds who can barely wrap their hands around the controller, to grown 70 year old men with big beards who have seen their fair share of changes in the world’s ever growing library of manufactured vehicles. It is also designed for those who prefer casual games, like the recently finished series Project Gotham Racing, and understand squat all about cars, to those who believe they are the single biggest car enthusiast the world has ever met, and if anyone dare touch their virtual car, they will give them a good ol’ pounding. The only people this game won’t excite is people who expect over-the-top crash mayhem, topped with added weather effects and a fully working day night cycle, because the game has just about, well, none of it. It is strictly, 100% on track racing.

 

 

The game starts you off on Easy difficulty, y’know by default, so you get used to the new handling system, amazing graphics, brilliant soundtrack and the one button feature. What this means is that you can keep your finger on the trigger all the time, and the game will do some clever little equation which measures the force you are pushing the accelerator down with, along with the angle of the steering wheel and automatically breaks to allow you to take the corner slowly and smoothly, but fast enough to stay in the lead. If you want to actually know what’s going on behind the scenes, you can. All you have to do is tap LB and a load of Telemetry numbers and stuff comes up. If you’re like me who just wants to race, and win, best left avoided!

 

However when you reach new difficulty levels this sort of data tracking comes in handy as you can work out exactly where and when you are messing up every corner. There is a new feature called Rewind, previously owned only by GRID and Dirt 2. This simply means you can go back to a past part of the race, e.g. a botched corner, and take it again. There is unlimited use of the feature, except the time doesn’t go on the leader boards for that lap (along with if you crash into opponents on purpose or cut track on purpose). Another new feature included in the game is how the game senses whether you are driving on grass by accident or purpose. This has been a fault in all the previous Forza games that if you hit the grass you come to an uncontrollable sudden stop. However, the game recognises if you took a bad turning, and only slows you down a little bit. However you do not want traction control off here because otherwise you just end up spinning round in circles, not exactly helpful!

 

For the first time in the Forza series, Forza Motorsport 3 hosts a brand new cockpit view. It is surprisingly detailed with all the information you expect, such as speed and what gear you are in, but also includes little details like real-time petrol fuel consumption. It doesn’t affect your gameplay on any level in the slightest, but it’s a nice touch to the overall experience. There is even an achievement related to winning a race in this mode. One note about achievements, the game has certainly learnt from its mess up from Forza 2, with some of easiest achievements a racing game has ever seen. 250GP in an hour. Bring it!

 

Obviously though, you need a car and a track to do this on. There are over 100 tracks at your disposal, with 400 cars to boot. Throughout your career mode (explained later), you will probably earn most of these cars through weekend wins anyway. Also throughout your career, you will play all 100 tracks, and then the reverse of them, once before you start to see them looped. It just adds some spice and variety to what could have been a very dull game. However all this extra content comes at a price to your hard drive; the game asks 1.9GB of it to be installed to play otherwise the game automatically adjusts to repeating tracks high and dry. Only 22 tracks and around 100 cars are on the one disk, so I would definitely recommend installing the pack!

 

The cars themselves have a new handling model as briefly explained before. However the main difference between this game and its predecessor is that the vehicles turn round corners without having to come to a complete standstill to do so and just feel more up to the job. Each vehicle has its own speed, look, and engine sound, and as you drive along the track, you can feel every single bump. It really is a very thrilling ride, without all the frilly bits attached to other glamour racing games. The cars themselves have been designed with sufficient detail to know what they are and who they’re made by, but lack things like number-plates and a high end damage model, rather just a bumper dent or tint scratches. This, however, puts the expansive customisation options in a bad place. Not only are they physically hidden under the array of menus, but they have all been done before and make very little sense. Add a cube here, and a purple star there. While you get full control over size, angle and location, it just feels a bit restricted and simply just a port of an earlier version for Forza 2 with a few new features. If you are a car stylising nut though, knock yourself out.

 

Your first race in career mode, and if you haven’t played the demo it will make you lost for breath. The amount of detail added to this game over the previous game is phenomenal. There are breathtaking vistas, lifelike crowds, and tire marks which stick. However, as you play through the game, and take part on over 100 tracks, the game quickly loses its magic touch, sometimes even looking slightly last generation in open, sparse spaces. With no weather or time affects either it certainly does not help the matter. The cockpits have equally not had a revamp and are simply just a way to drive through at a slower speed and fix a few flaws out.

 

The game does however provide a soundtrack both in menus and in races. It consists mainly of driving anthems of the noughties rather than Bonnie Tyler or Bon Jovi. But they are good rock songs never-the-less and certainly give the race a certain flair having a sort of radio attached. It would have been nice if the developer had taken this a step further and put real life commentary on loud-speakers like you hear at races, rather than add a soundtrack like the norm. However Turn 10 has invested in a brand new dude called Announcer, who guides you through the menus, and career mode, to start your career off. Rather than sounding like some I’m-so-bored-I-could-kill-myself tone, he is surprisingly enthusiastic and certainly adds to the experience, and makes you feel at home with Forza Motorsport 3 again.

 

This leads me beautifully to the single best new feature of them all. The one feature which compiles every other feature presented in this review, and puts it all together in one bag, with extra polish for luck. The main career mode called ‘Season Play’. And it does what it says on the tin, you play your career in seasons. That means up to 8 races a week, with up to 8 laps each, followed by a 3 lap weekend finale, in which you win a load of in-game credits, discounts, respect, XP and above all, cars! Then after you finish a season, you do it all over again! The game no longer wants you to stay driving Class F Mini’s around nonstop, and within a few seasons, you will have unlocked Class B or Class A cars. The game throws up 3 races for you to play in Season Play. These races offer you the most satisfying rewards and most variety in tracks and cars as possible. There is a minor bug in this method though. Since you cannot see what is involved with the season, merely just the winning money, once you enter the season you cannot back out of it again and must complete it before selecting another to progress. I ended up entering a season with the compilation of tracks I had just raced on a few seasons before because of this error. A bit more information about the season would have been nice. Alas, the game also tricks you into thinking that getting to Class A means you have nearly finished the game. A quick look at the stat screen will prove you are probably, if lucky, 5% of the way through career. The majority of races are hidden in the Event List. They will come around in season mode eventually but until then, you can just get practicing in Event List mode.

 

The amount of money you end each race with depends on your difficulty options. So if you choose to turn off racing line, but keep automatic brakes, you may get 30% of the winnings. But if you choose to turn both off, you may get 35% to give an example. These may seem like small numbers but in later championships this could mean up to 10000CR more, which could be an essential upgrade, or even a car via the awesome new Marketplace.

 

 

Only available to Xbox Live members, and separate from XBLA, this is purely for cars. Got a really cool, pimped out Mini Cooper which you want to share with the world but won’t just give it away? Set a price tag low enough for people to take interest, but high enough to show its true value, and let people bid away. Alternatively you can put a Buy Now ticket on and sell it to someone for a huge price. But be warned, when I went on this Marketplace, gamers were bidding on Class F cars up to 40000CR higher than the original Buy Now price, so if you are prepared to take the risk of losing money, it is only your choice to make. There is also a Design Corner where you can sell your decals separate from your car if you cannot bear to lose your pride and joy. Both these marketplaces are fierce, and terrifyingly addictive. Approach with extreme caution!

 

And just before I finish my extensive essay on what could only be described as one of the best racing games on the market, I would like to mention quickly about the online multiplayer. There appears to be a bit of confusion as to whether you can Quick Match to find other players matches, or if you can only join others parties. When I tried to quick match, I kept getting send to a lobby with options I could change despite me being the only one there, plus no one was joining my lobby. I did however get into a private match with friends and I can confirm it is a very solid experience but it really is just Forza 3 but with actual people. It’s exciting, but nothing to shout with joy about.

 

Once upon a time in a land quite some miles away, a few boys dreamed of becoming the world’s best racers...winning all the money, living in stardom, and grabbing all the girls. Now every young boy in the world wants to be the next best racer, as they soar round vibrant computer animated tracks in the finest pixalated cars the world has ever seen. And you can see the joy on their face when they find out it’s no longer imagination, when they receive an invitation, to the best simulation racing experience around. So without further ado, I present to you, Forza Motorsport 3, and then some!