Forza Motorsport 3

One of the other excuses for my lack of blog updates during September and October is the release of Forza Motorsport 3 on the Xbox 360 on October 22nd. Of all the different types of games I enjoy, I have to single out the driving games. Driving games just feed something in me like no other game. Before Forza 3 arrived, I’d been putting in some time with Need For Speed: SHIFT. I’ve got a few things to say about that one as well, in my round up of half a dozen games that I’ve been playing until Forza took over. That’ll be coming along at some point in the near future.

Strangely, driving isn’t a passion of mine. I glaze over when colleagues and friends talk about and drool over the latest cars, or bang on about Top Gear and what Clarkson et al thought about this car or that. So it took me a while to figure out exactly what it is about Forza 3 that I enjoy as much as I do.

The appeal of Forza for me is twofold. Most of all, I think it appeals to the perfectionist in me. Completing lap after lap in an attempt to find the fastest line; to hit each corner correctly; to brake as late as I possibly can – it just never gets old. As long as the car in game feels good to drive, I could race for hours. The best thing about Forza 3 in comparison to the previous game in the series is the sheer number of environments that you can race in/through; a Japanese mountainside, numerous speedway ovals, an Italian village on the side of a hill, Formula 1 circuits like Barcelona and Silverstone, the Le Mans 24 hour circuit, the fearsome and legendary Nurburgring in Germany, and a mesa-enclosed circuit in the middle of an American desert, amongst many others. These circuits all look beautiful too. Sure, there might be other games out there that push more polygons, have shinier cars, etc. But nothing looks quite as classy and rock-solid as Forza 3. With so many different locations and so many variations on these circuits, it’ll be a very long time before I’ve done the perfect lap on every track. However long it takes though, I know I’ll have enjoyed getting there.

It’s the collector and hoarder part of me that also loves Forza 3. Games like these with hundreds of different cars in them just play to that part of me that never quite grew up, and wanted to collect all of those toy cars and put them in a big box to play with whenever I felt like . There’s over 400 car models in Forza 3, and there’s a part of me that wants them all in my in-game garage. I’ll probably never quite get around to that, due to the prices charged for some of the cars, and the amount of time it would take to buy them all. In fact, the ability to collect every car out there is one of the reasons that I bought the ‘Collector’s Edition’ of the game. It wasn’t the 2Gb memory stick, and the etched keyring. It was the fact that the collectors edition allows access to 5 cars that will never be made available to anyone else. It’s also meant that I receive free cars from the developers whenever they feel like it… which seems to be quite often. Let’s say, me likey. And I’d definitely recommend the collectors edition if you’re quite as anal as I am about the car-collecting

One of the greatest things about this game is that it isn’t just a game. The number of people who buy forza to do something other than race is just huge. People buy this game to paint cars and make the coolest videos possible. Some of the painting work is absolutely astonishing if you look at the relatively primative tools that are used to create the images. You can photograph your cars, or even just take some shots of the (gorgeous) scenery. My attempts are pretty amateurish compared to most of the photos taken in-game. But here’s a few of the photos I’ve taken so far, including my Welsh themed car…

As I said, those are just my fairly random in-game photos. To see some of the finest shots taken, have a look at the best pictures selected by the developers here. Once you’ve admired those, take a look at a photostream of every single photo uploaded by users to forzamotorsport.net, in the community gallery, here.

So, how does the game play? In my opinion, it plays really well. It’s car racing, so obviously, there isn’t a huge variation in how the game plays, but the choice of circuits and the events themselves, provides about as much variety as you can within a driving game. There are point-to-point races (like rally stages). There’s oval/speedway racing. There’s circuit racing over some world-famous closed and open-road circuits. There’s even drag racing. All of these different types of racing can be tackled in one of 10 different car classes, ranging from family sedans and SUVs through supercars like the Ferrari FXX, right the way up to LeMans-style race cars with unbelieveable acceleration and braking.

More than anything, what Forza 3 offers is the chance to play the game at a level that suits you. You can tweak the gameplay and difficulty to your heart’s content. Want the 360 to deal with your braking? You can do that. Do you want to see where the ideal racing line is, and how fast you should be approaching? That too. And do you have one of those stupidly expensive Fanatec racing wheels with gear stick and clutch pedals? Yep, you can play Forza with that too – manual gear changes with clutch. Not for the feint-hearted, that one.

The point is, that you can make Forza as easy or as hard as you want it to. Sure, it can sometimes feel like a bit of a grind once you reach certain points of the 6 racing seasons, but if you get bored of a particular race type, you can always pick a new event, or a different car and take your career in a different direction. Or you can duck out of the season mode altogther and pick your events much like Forza 2 allowed you to.

The one thing I can’t comment on at the moment is the online aspect of Forza 3. I’ve only recently started playing online again, dipping my toe into the waters of FIFA 10 (review soon). The impression I have of Forza online is that private races allow for all sorts of customsiable options, while the standard ranked races are a bit more hit & miss. As with any racing game online, I think a lot will depend on who you’re racing with, and whether or not they respect ‘the rules’ of racing (i.e. not weaving, not ploughing into people at the first corner, etc.). In general, I think that the Forza community are a good bunch, but you need to beware of the usual arseholes, as with most games.

So, all in all, I’d say Forza is possibly the best racing game available on 360. Whether or not it beats Gran Turismo 5 (due out on the PS3 probably sometime in 2010) we’ll have to wait and see. Certainly GT5′s promised weather effects, and 800+ cars may tip the balance in it’s favour. But it’s going to take an awful lot to beat Forza 3.

See you online. I’ll be the one ploughing into people at the 1st corner. And if you’re not on my friends list, feel free to buy something from my storefront and net me another 10 gamer score. I’ll pay you back. Honest.

~ by richiebabee on November 23, 2009.