Forza 3

After the success of Microsoft's race simulator Forza Motorsport 2, Forza 3 had to live up to high expectations.

Forza Motorsport 2 broke the mold of race simulators and was Xbox's answer to PlayStation's highly successful series, Gran Turismo. A follow on from the original Xbox's Forza Motorsport, Forza 2 utilized the Xbox's better graphics and capabilities whilst providing an easy to use format.

Forza 3 is for the most-part, identical to Forza 2. I suppose the mentality of the developers Turn 10 was "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Forza 3 features over 400 different cars from over 50 manufacturers, ranging from Volkswagens to Aston Martins. The level of detail put into each car is unprecedented and each look stunning and realistic. Plus, with the new interior camera mode, highly detailed and acurate interiors have been created. Forza 2 looked amazing, but Forza 3 takes it to a whole new level. This is partly down to Turn 10 using over 10 more polygons giving each model a better 3D and more realistic look. Damage visuals have been upgraded, with scratches, dents and panels falling off. Another feature that has been added is the ability to flip your vehicle (presumably from an inability to slow down enough to turn).

It's not only the car models that have been improved. The tracks and environments have been improved too. New tracks have been added including the famous Le Mans Circuit De La Sarthe. The crowd has also been slightly upgraded and now don't appear as flat.

The cars also sound great as you rev them up to the maximum rpm and then change gear. The sound changes as you go under bridges and down streets. It sounds even better as it echoes as you shoot through tunnels. The sound of the engine change if you change camera. If the car is front engined it is loud in a front camera, and if rear engined is louder with a following camera. The engines sound realistically deeper from a cockpit view as they would in real life.

My one major grip with the tracks is that Turn 10 has decided to put tyre chicanes into the New York track's straights. I challenge any of you to do the 3rd one successfully on your first go.

Forza 3 introduces the tracks gradually. At the beginning of your career you will start with basic tracks with easy corners and then as you progress, the tracks will get longer and harder. Whereas a simple oval circuit is easy to do, the Nurburgring is so much more challenging, exciting and more rewarding when you win it. Most races have a specific requirement. There are two new types of races, speedway and drag races. Speedway involves tracks with minimum corners, designed for cars with high speed, whilst drag races focus on a cars acceleration and eventual top speed. The race may require any participating cars to be from a only one of the regions. Or it may only allow a certain car to race like in the Honda Civic v Volkswagen Golf event. It may also only allow a certain level vehicle to race. Vehicle level depends on the cars overall performance and rating and goes from F (a small crap hatchback) to S (a Bugatti Veyron) and then onto R3, R2 and R1 cars (racing cars, such as the Le Mans Audi R10 TDI).

Forza 3 allows you to "rewind" the race by pressing the back button. It rewinds it a few seconds which is extremely useful if you've just raced for 12 minutes and then ploughed into the wall of the last corner.

As in Forza 2, you 'Level Up' in Forza 3 by finishing races, the higher you finish and the harder the race, the more experience you get. This experience adds to your 'Driver Level' and the higher your driver level, the more cars and events you unlock. Additionally, as you finish events you earn money which can then be used to buy more cars or upgrade the ones you already have.

The upgrade system has been upgraded itself. There are more parts to buy and more areas of the car to change. You may need to customise a car for a certain race, for instance equipping tyres with a longer life for the endurance races, or increasing power for faster acceleration and top speed for drag races. One of my favourite additions is the ability to "Quick Upgrade" your racer. This make's it easier to upgrade the car to the best it can be, whilst reaching the required car level for a certain race. This negates fiddling around with each different component and is very pleasing.

The difficulty of the game can be changed to suit your ability, as can the drivers assists such as traction control and racing/braking line. The braking line is a big help to beginners of the game or to people racing new tracks as it helps you figure out how to take each corner. Making the game more difficult helps earn more experience and money.

Achievement wise, the game is a steady 1000, but generic. Most of the achievements are for levelling up and progressing though the gaming. However to achieve the full 1000 will require some on-line achievements as well as winning every event in the game, which will take over 150 hours. Attainable, easily, but it will take a while.

There are some issues with the game however. It can become quite repetitive, replaying the same tracks over and over. However I learnt to combat this by focusing on lap times and by mixing up the regions I raced in. Also, the tuning aspect of the game is never really explained so i ignored it completely. If I had known more about it, I could have used it to make my car better for the race. Also, certain tracks look cartoony and not as realistic as others.

My major problem is with the loading time. I appreciate how much data is to be loaded, but even with the game installed on my hard drive, it still takes about 15-20 seconds to load a race. (If it doesn't sound much, count it out).

I really enjoy Forza 3, as I did it's predecessor. I enjoy racing my favourite cars and the sense of speed you can feel from the game. The game looks stunning and as realistic as possible and uses the most out of the Xbox's hardware.

Ratings:
Audio: 5/5 - Great sounds from the cars, crowds and collisions
Graphics/Visuals: 5/5 - Stunning game, probably one of the best.
Gameplay: 4.5/5 - Easy to pick up and play, only the lack of tuning help lets it down.

Achievements: 4/5 - Can be achieved easily, but Turn 10 didn't try hard with them and takes ages.

Overal 4.5/5

(N.B. - I haven't played the game on-line because my university blocks the Live ports)