27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
The racing game I have been waiting for.
Firstly, I'm pretty naff at racing games. I bought Forza 2, and couldn't get on with it, then tried Project Gotham 4 which I also found very frustrating. Which is, as I said, because I'm naff at racing games and nothing to do with the quality of either Forza 2 or PGR4.
I have been searching for a racing game which can give a novice like me a chance to have a...
Spoiled by online play
I looked forward to this game, played the demo, parted with my cash, even bought a steering wheel.
The game is good fun to play. The graphics and sound are good and there's more than enough cars. You can pick any car you want to drive and just dive in or you can go into career mode and work your way up through the classes.
Apart from some of the worst AI...
Firstly, I'm pretty naff at racing games. I bought Forza 2, and couldn't get on with it, then tried Project Gotham 4 which I also found very frustrating. Which is, as I said, because I'm naff at racing games and nothing to do with the quality of either Forza 2 or PGR4.
I have been searching for a racing game which can give a novice like me a chance to have a laugh zipping round a few tracks without crashing every 3 seconds, and give me at least half a chance to win a few races. And then, if I want to make things a bit more challenging, I can up the difficulty when I'm more confident.
I wasn't really all that bothered when I heard Forza 3 had been released. I just thought, ah well, another racing game which will be completely out of my league. I downloaded the demo from Xbox live just out of curiosity and was pleasantly proven wrong.
I switched to cockpit view and was bowled over at how accessible this game is, even to a lightweight like me. Gaming for me is about having fun. This game, with it's awesome graphics, excellent frame rate and addictive gameplay, is what makes video games great in my opinion. I cannot speak for the die hard racing game fans who want racing games to be as difficult as possible, but I'm sure the makers have tried to cater for all types of gamers.
I rarely buy any other type of game than shooters, but I'm really glad I went for this one.
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I looked forward to this game, played the demo, parted with my cash, even bought a steering wheel.
The game is good fun to play. The graphics and sound are good and there's more than enough cars. You can pick any car you want to drive and just dive in or you can go into career mode and work your way up through the classes.
Apart from some of the worst AI drivers thinking the back of my car is for use instead of brakes there's not too much wrong at all UNTIL you play online. I've seen several reviews recently claiming it's a backward step from where previous versions were. I've not raced online before so I can't confirm that, but it is awful. You can't race 'normal' cars, you can't set up to race with damage options turned on (unless you do it just with friends, so it's like going on the dodgems because there's no deterrent to stop people bashing into you.
A good game spoiled by terrible online options.
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Forza Motorsport 3 is the series' second outing on the Xbox 360, and i am pleased to report that the game has improved in EVERY way!
First of all the game comes shipped on TWO discs. Disc 1 is the main game itself and Disc 2 has extra cars and tracks, which you have to install your Xbox hard drive. This takes about 5-10 minutes to transfer and takes up about 2GB.
There are over 400 cars on the game, with a huge variety ranging from a latest model Ford Fiesta to the Bugatti Veyron! Its worth noting that Gran Turismo 4 on Playstation 2 had more cars; Many of them were to slow to seriously race with. If you buy this game new you get a code in the box which entitles you to download an extra 10 cars and two environments. Every car on the game includes a interior view, and you have the ability to customize your car both in performance to the fantastic new vinyl editor.
There are over 100 track layouts on the game across roughly 20 environments. Many of them are race tracks from around the world and the rest are either made up from scratch or re-modelled from the games predecessors.
The racing itself is great, and I can recommend turning off most of the driver aids, especially if you have experience with the previous games. The only one I'd keep on is the Anti-Lock brakes (ABS), just so you don't lock up the wheels! In case you do mess up you can rewind the race to retry the manoeuvre by pressing the back button. This isn't the first game to feature this and really I don't recommend using the feature too much as this takes away most of the simulation experience of the game.
So in summary the graphics are very good, the gameplay is excellent as long as you turn off the driver aids and hopefully we will see plenty of DLC in the near future.
TIP: For those people who want the interior camera view to be further back go to the options menu then multiscreen setup. Turn the Multiscreen ON (regardless if you have only one screen) and change the bottom slider to somewhere between 60 and 70 degrees and click yes to restart the game.
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I don't know anyone who buy's this game for the single player mode so the multiplayer aspect is mainly what I'm reviewing. In short if you're buying the game for the multiplayer you're going to be very disappointed.
When searching for games this is the procedure: You select Go Race, Multiplayer, Find Race (Private Race is for racing friends only), Circuit, then the class you want. When you select the class you want it tells you how many people are racing in that class. You then get put in a random lobby with other people who've selected that class (nobody hosts the games anymore). This is similar to Matchmaking (the game doesn't actually have Matchmaking) but you don't get put in a lobby with people of the same skill. Also it doesn't even bother to put you in a lobby with people who speak the same language as you.
There are no options to configure when searching for games (other than the class you want). You can't host a Public lobby (that anybody can join) and so there are no game options for setting up a public lobby.
Races are always the same: Damage: Cosmetic, Collisions: On, Laps: 3, End Race Timer: 30 secs, Grid Order: Random.
Tracks just play in Alphabetical order. If someone in the lobby doesn't want to do a track they can vote to skip it. When the majority of the lobby agrees with him - the track is skipped. Players can also vote to boot any other player - so if you win consistently then be prepared to be booted!
Once a race ends (and everyone is back in the lobby) then next race doesn't start until 1 Minute 29 seconds have passed (the timer is displayed). Sometimes when you search for a game you get put in a lobby with 5 secs on the clock so you don't have any time to select a car or tune (so you automatically start in a crappy car).
* Naming Tunes - If I want to name a tune as "Road Atlanta Short" I can only call it "Road Atlanta Sh" as this is the maximum amount of characters allowed! Forza 2 had a higher character limit (although still small)
* Tunes are not listed in alphabetical order or in any sort of order. You can't sort them. The same applied in Forza 2 - however at least in that game you could see a vertical text list of all your tunes. In Forza 3 the list is horizontal and you only see 1 Tune name on the screen at a time.
Other Issues
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PENALTIES - making somebody's time invalid just because they went off the track slightly is silly. For example I might get a 0.33 or 0.100 penalty in Forza 2 but my posted lap time would add the penalty time onto my lap time. Sometimes you're quite happy to take an unintentional penalty. However in Forza 3 if you were to do the same thing you're time is classed as uncertified (penalty) - on the scoreboard you'll see a symbol in the Triangle column.
The reason why it's bad to get a penalty is because the fastest Uncertified times will show up under the Slowest certified times.
TUNES - Forza 2 had the option to have your tunes uploaded so that when someone selected your time on the scoreboard they could download the tune for that track. The option is still there in the HUD however it doesn't actually do anything. You can still give tunes away for free (or sell them) by uploading them to your storefront but they are locked by default (and you can't unlock them). This means that people can load your tune but they can't see the settings or modify them. In Forza 2 how often did you download a tune only to find that you had to change a setting to match your driving style? Well now you can't. This basically means that you have to tune the cars yourself instead of downloading them.
There's actually only 24 tracks in the game (not including the variations), 10 of these are new tracks and only 2 of those are real world tracks. Frankly the new tracks are garbage and I think they've been designed for drifters instead of for racers.
I was a Top 50 driver from Forza 2 and I played the multiplayer for at least 5 hours a day. I waited 2 years for Forza 3 expecting it to be better than Forza 2 in every way. The multiplayer in Forza 3 is a complete joke as is tune management. If you look on the Forza 3 forum you'll see that a LOT of people agree with me - there are MANY more problems with the game (not just the ones I've mentioned in this review). I've got racing in my blood and the fact that Forza 3 is unplayable is a shock to my system - I'm stunned.
The Forza developers just don't listen to their customers and I can't trust them anymore after Forza 3 (I've sold the game now) and I won't be buying their games again. It seems like any game that requires lobbies will now have lobbies like first person shooters - random lobbies with no configurable options. I think I'll start to play MMORPGs now as these are the only games that don't require lobbies.
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After having had a few hours on Forza 3 over the last few nights, I gotta say, this game is immensely good fun. One of the nicest things about the game is the engine sounds, that appear to be much improved over the last game, if memory serves. I've had the previous two games and enjoyed both, but Forza 3 seems like a definite improvement over the previous games, and there seems to be a lot less excessive "sliding" off the corners. In Forza 3, the grip seems to be a lot more tangible, so it's much easier to judge the grip and correct any ill-judged corner entry speeds.
Also, the latest game has in-race music, which I believe was switched off on the previous games, by default, and required users to use their own tunes during the race. I'm yet to test the online play, as there's so much to be done offline first...
Overall, highly recommended!
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Forza 2 is a great game so Forza 3s improvements are possibly not so obvious to some. Beyond increased choice of cars (including some real classics)and tracks( including real and game only) the two main improvements are the car models (most noticeable by petrol heads) and the physics engine.
The car models are beautiful and the level of detail is a huge leap. When left to idle the game will lovingly look over and around your currently selected car. I daily drive a car in the game and can safely say its lovingly recreated perfectly (except the sweetie wrapper stuffed ashtray). The in car views are accurate too, albeit my car isn't a left hooker...
The physics are a step up from the previous incarnation, and without assists is as close to a full on car sim as you can get on a 360 (Race Pro aside)...with the wheel it's pure joy.
The online features make it really easy to share/sell cars,paint jobs, tuning set ups, photos etc, and the painting options are fairly intuitive allowing you to really personalize your cars. Its a real driving sandbox. Online driving is competitive and you can set rules to keep the games within your prefered parameters, like restricting or allowing assists,views car types etc...The online community is getting busier,especially since the USA didn't get this game until a few days ago.
One major criticism some players have is the assists like the rewind feature. If you are a racing purist, DON'T USE THEM...simple. I simply don't understand the vehement slagging this game recieves from some people who want to exclude the casual and non driving gamer from it. I haven't even used the rewind button, but I can see how it would help some people and keep the game fun. There's enough assists to cater for all levels, and even a clutch for the truly hardcore (how many critics are using the clutch I wonder, hmmm?).
The damage modelling is not meant to simulate hollywood style car crash and burns, it's simply there to make you take more care on the track. If you want pyrotechnics and a perfect 10.0 from the russian judge for your triple somersault try Burnout/Grid type games. Sure you can roll your car in Forza 3 but the whole point of "racing" other cars is you want to avoid it....
The limited edition hasn't yet really proved its worth to me yet so maybe save your pennies and get the standard game, but either edition is a worthy update of the original if you like your racing games. If you aren't really bothered then maybe just plum for Forza2, especially if you don't have xbl or aren't into online racing.
Happy to answer any questions....Enjoy!
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Whilst its covered extensively in other reviews, I agree that the changes to the multiplayer really ruin this game. Unfortunately the single player get monotonous after about level 25 and beacuse the matchmaking in the multiplayer is so limited and problematic very few people are playing online.
Id wait to pick it up at when it hits the classic range, its just not enjoyable enough to be worth the full price.
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I've never really been that interested in racing games. I tried the last Forza and thought it was too hard. Project Gotham didn't really have the depth for me, as I thought it was a bit linear.
I saw Forza 3 had been released and had got some great reviews, so I thought I would give it a go.
You start off with all the assists turned on (optional), which I found great as it meant I could just get straight into the game and start to win some races. You can also turn the assists off (such as racing line, ABS, traction control, auto-brake etc), the more assists you turn off the harder it gets and the more credits you get for each race. This is a great idea as you can gradually reduce the assists while learning the game. You also get the rewind function where you can rewind a portion of the race. No spinning off on the first corner and spending the rest of the race in last place!
There are loads of different events and cars to race and has a lot of depth to the game. The game is accessible and very enjoyable, you get a real sense of speed and the graphics are immense.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys racing games, and in fact even those who have tried a racing game in the past and didn't enjoy it. Forza 3 is better and is worth a try.
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The Gran Turismo series nailed car handling from day one and in this respect; everyone else has been playing catch up for a long time now. Finally, Turn 10 have produced a game that not only has the polish and class of Gran Turismo, it's got one hell of a simulation engine and will have you hooked from the first corner.
Presentation is impeccable, from the first load screen to the chequered flag FM3 oozes quality, car models are beautifully realised and the track detail is equally impressive. So it's got the looks, it's got the moves, but where it leaves Gran Turismo trailing in its wake is the single player mode. Turn 10 have gone to great lengths to make this game accessible to everyone, from the seasoned pro to an absolute beginner, there really is something here for everyone. Newbies can turn every driver assist on to guide them round the track safely, and seasoned pros can rejoice at how much extra experience they gain turning everything off to progress quickly up the experience ladder (I'd keep ABS on, because, well you never know....)
Cars are divided into class, ranging from Fiat 500s to Le Manns rocket ships like the Nissan R390 and they're all a hoot to drive. After every race you collect experience depending on your performance and every time you level up you'll be gifted a new car. Each one will lead you down a new road, i fell in love with the tail happy Masserati only to be dragged away to enjoy the thrills of the awesome Ferrari Testarossa.
A calendar forms the basis of your schedule which keeps the game flowing and will always allow you to swap to another car to enter whatever race comes up, and will even allow you to upgrade or downgrade at the push of a button.
There are only a couple of annoyances, kiss goodbye to 2GB of dish space on install and the tracks will still take up to a minute to load. But factor into the package the powerful 'Photoshop' editing tools, online store, online play and you have a vast, engrossing racing game which has the honour of being the first racing game this millennium to steal my heart without using the words Gran Turismo.
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I like many people spent hours playing Forza 2 and was very excited to hear about the new game coming out. Last week I finally bought it and within half an hour of playing I was left with an overwhelming feeling of disappointment. The game itself is brilliant, the cars handle like a dream and some of the engine noises make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up...but I am left feeling slightly disappointed that the new game is just more of the same and the promised major upgrade in the graphics has simply not appeard. For all intents and purposes the game is just Forza 2 with more cars and a less intuitive menu system.
This is a very good game, but don't expect to be blown away by it...if you enjoyed Forza 2 then you will enjoy this, but take a look at the graphics in TOCAs Grid and Dirt 2 and you can't help but be left with the feeling that this was a massive missed opportunity.
If there is to be a Forza 4 I will hold back before rushing out to buy it - despite my disappointment I am still ging to give this game 3 out of 5 because it is still a very good racing game!!
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