Forza Motorsport 3

As a matter of personal preference I tend to stray away from the overly realistic driving simulator genre. Sure, when I was younger I was hooked on Gran Turismo, but that’s because we didn’t have much else in the way of racing games, so it was the best I could get. But the point I’m making is that I’ve never really “got” the Forza series. It’s one of those big name titles that comes out every few years and sends shockwaves through the gaming community, with its wondrous graphics and realistic driving, that I’ve never been particularly interested in. But hey, I never turn down a freebie, so I figured I’d give Forza 3 a shot.

Let me begin by saying that this game is probably one of the best looking on the 360 at this time. Running at a perfectly smooth 60 frames per second, the cars are absolutely stunning in their detail, and the environments around are very pretty indeed. The racing line still looks unnatural and a little cartoony, but you can turn that off if it bothers you so much.

In fact, you can change a whole bunch of options to give you an easier or harder time. An interesting thing you can change is auto-brake, which allows the gamer who prefers to keep his foot on the gas an opportunity to do just that, as the car brakes whenever it needs to. It makes things a little too easy for me, but for a newcomer to the series it could be quite useful to begin with.

Lots more assists

Another nice little feature introduced is the ability to rewind time in case you mess up a corner or mash your car up a little too much, a la GRID or DiRT 2. Sadly, this feature is badly implemented, as it doesn’t allow you to actually control the point you rewind to, instead choosing to offer you a point to restart at, or letting you rewind further. To be honest, you’re much better just ignoring it, unless you manage to totally trash your car by taking a corner too fast.

Still, the racing in the game is pretty fun. The car responds in a realistic manner, and if you turn off all the driver assists you can really slide the car around the track like a madman, which won’t win you any races, but is damn good fun at high speeds. There’s an option to turn damage on, which makes races slightly more exciting, but since it does hinder your chances of winning a race unless you do everything perfectly, it’s doubtful you’ll want to turn it on. Leave all the assists on and you can look professional in the race, but personally I found it a little boring, and the steering not responsive enough with traction control still turned on.

Looks even better this year

I’ll touch briefly on sound, because there’s really not much to say. The menu has a nice smooth techno sound to it that’s really just there to fill the space, and does so admirably. The car engines sound like car engines, which is always a plus. Cars crunch and tyres squeal, and overall it helps add to the realism that the game is trying to put across.

I have to say, while I’m not totally converted, I am now more interested in the Forza series. Forza 3 looks pretty, sounds real, plays like a great driving simulator, and looks set to be a fantastic racing game when it lands on October 27th. Check out the demo if you’re a fan of the series or just a fan of racing games. I’m sure there’s plenty of enjoyment to be found for everyone.