Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Forza Motorsport 3

1. Official Site
2. Platform: 360
3. Publisher: Microsoft
4. Developer: Microsoft Game Studios
5. Release Date: 10/27/09
6. Genre: Driving

by Jason Ballew

Developed by Turn 10 Studios, Forza Motorsport 3 is the third game in the series, and the latest to try to wrest the crown of 'Best Driving Simulator' away from Gran Turismo.  This year, Forza brings many new features including the ability to rewind races, increased damage modeling including tire deformation and detailed undercarriages, SUVs, over 100 tracks and 400 cards, and an all-new Season Mode.

To be honest, comparing Forza to Gran Turismo is like comparing lemons to limes, as while they're both drifing simulators, they're also exclusives to their specific consoles, so there's not really any way to see a head-to-head comparison.  However, each game has its hardcore fans, and with that in mind, I took Forza 3 out for a spin to see what it had under the hood.

Forza Motorsport 3 comes on two discs, with the second disc being an install disc which allows you to access all of the cars and races and takes about five to ten minutes at most to load up.  Also, the retail game comes with a code which adds a number of tracks and races.  This offers incentive to those who pick up the game new as opposed to picking it up used, and is an interesting way to promote new game purchases.

Upon starting the game, you are given a choice between the main game, Free Play, and the Xbox Live Marketplace.  Most of the playtime will take place in the main part of the game, but Free Play allows for players to do quick races, Hot Lap (which allows you to race one car on one track to make the best lap time possible) and Split Screen (two players at the same time).  The main game mode allows you to either race events (anything you've cleared to date in an attempt to make first in every event), play multiplayer events or Season Mode.

For most players, Season Mode is where you're going to spend most of your time.  When you first start, the game asks you what your skill level is, and has you try a test race with a car fitting that style of driving.  Once you've accomplished that race (with assists turned on or off to match the level you claim to have), you are given the ability to choose a starting car, as well as the ability to turn on or off whatever assists you want. 

With this accomplished, you then begin your season, performing a number of race series in between the World Championship series.  Every time you race, you gain both driver level (your overall level in the game) and vehicle level (your familiarity and presense in that particular car).  When you gain Driver Levels, you get free cars, it's as simple as that with the ultimate goal being to reach level 50.  As you gain Vehicle Levels up to level 5, however, various part dealers will give you discounts, making it easier to modify the car to make it the best that it possibly can be.

In between each of the races for the World Championships at each Class, you're given a choice of three Series events.  One will generally be for the car you've most recently received, one will generally be for a car you already have, and one may require you to buy a new car. 

Each race gives a number of car-related facts in the loading screens, which brings me to the one major sticking point in the game.  If you don't install the game to your hard drive, the load time before each race approaches 45 seconds to a minute.  Given the sheer number of races in the game, this can add up to quite a bit of time.  Even after you install the game to your hard drive, it can take upwards of 20-25 seconds to load each race. 

Overall, there are six seasons to the game which should take you close to level 50, if not all the way there.  Of course, once you've done that, you can still beat the events you haven't tried yet, and continue to play. 

When you're tired of beating up on AI opponents, there's always multiplayer via Xbox Live.  You can (of course) choose a Quick Match, or you can go to the Playground which includes four game modes: A-Class Expert which has simulation damage and removes some of the assists, A-Class Hotlap which is circuit racing with A-Class cars, Tag (Keep The It) where you want to be it the longest, and Tag (virus) where you want to be the last one who is it.  Circuit Races, Drifting, Drag races, Oval racing and Road Racing are other options for multiplayer.  Unlike Season mode, in multiplayer you don't have the ability to buy parts and tune cars.  Instead, everyone has the same pool of cars to choose from generally.  Also, multiplayer is limited to eight players at a time just as the regular single-player modes are. 

Every car you win or purchase in the game can be modified, from the parts on the car itself to the color and vinyl designs.  Not only that, but you can also sell or buy cars, parts packages, vinyl packages, or paint schemes on Xbox Live Marketplace for in-game credits.  Needless to say, the community is extremely active, and have come up with some very inventive vinyl kits. 

Not only that, you can trick out a car with a polished paint scheme and vinyl kit, tune it properly and make it the best possible car, and then auction it off.  Unlike eBay or another auction house, you cannot set the price you want to bid on a car, you just increment the current bid, which also adds time to the overall car timer.  This avoids the possibilty of sniping, and means that if you have the top bid with a minute left and someone jumps in, you have time to take the bidding higher if you want to.  This benefits the car seller, of course, who reaps even more in-game money from the ensuing bidding war.

The graphics in Forza Motorsport 3 are simply incredible, even on a 720p screen.  Everything is richly detailed, from the cars themselves, the scenery and background and just about every detail you can think of in a racing game.  The only reason I honestly wouldn't give it a perfect score, graphically, is that there is some slight graphical fuzziness in various spots, which you really have to look for to see.  It's nothing at all that even remotely detracts from the visual enjoyment of this game.  The cars are beautiful, and a true car enthusiast might possibly cry at seeing a car finish a race with most of its paint scraped off, dings and dents deforming the body, and a tire which looks like it's been through a destruction derby. 

The sounds of the race itself are very good, with different engines and intakes actually causing different sounds while driving and shifting, and even different types of terrain sound different.  Admittedly, much of this is common now and while I'm not a in-depth car tuning enthuisast, a mechanic I know listened to the game after doing some tuning of a car, and said that there are definite differences in how the cars sound based on what parts are in the car, which is truly authentic. 

The game also features a full soundtrack featuring various flavors of rock and hip-hop.  To be honest though, none of it is truly noteworthy, and when you're racing you're not likely to be paying attention to the songs coming through the speakers.  Much like other sports games, there's simply little reason to have music in the game other than simply to have music.  Personally, I turned off all the songs after little more than an hour. 

Controls in this game are pretty much similar to any other racing game on the 360.  The triggers control braking and acceleration, steering is handled by the left stick, and the face buttons contorl your handbrake, gears, and the ability to look back.  New to the control scheme, and one of the more interesting features, is the ability to press the 'back' button to rewind during the race.  If you get bumped into the wall, or simply overshoot your turn; if you just want to see if you can make that turn while passing the last car needed to win the race -- you can.  It only pulls you back five seconds at a time, however, and while there's no penalty to using it, it's also completely simple to avoid, which means that those who want to use it can, and the truly hardcore can ignore it (while setting their options so that car damage and fuel usage take effect).

While the game supports a number of driving wheels, it's quite playable with the standard 360 controller, and not having a wheel won't put you at a huge disadvantage.

I've played a number of racing games, including most version of Forza, Project Gotham Racing, Burnout and Gran Turismo.  I feel that I can fairly say that Forza Motorsport 3 is the best racing game out to date.  It's incredibly fun, very easy to get into and allows for an almost infinite amount of customization as far as your individual cars go.  Multiplayer and single player are both tons of fun, and to be honest, you'll get as many hours out of this game as you would out of any full-length RPG. 

If you're not sure if the game is for you, there's a demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace.  However, if you're a fan of racing games in general, Forza Motorsport 3 is a definite win in my book.  I almost wonder if Sony might have made a mistake by not releasing Gran Turismo 5 during Fall of 2009.  Time will tell if that's true or not, however.

Gaming Trend Score

94

1. Graphics: 96
2. Audio: 92
3. Controls: 87
4. Gameplay: 96
5. Value/Replay: 95
6. OVERALL:94