“Podium Finish” – Review Of Forza 3

Gadgets    By S.Cadet on November 21, 2009 at 9:20 am

Racing games, for many, aren’t user friendly outside of Mario-Kart. Sim-racing franchises like Forza and Gran Turismo are popular with car nuts and basement dwellers alike. Still, they mostly boast unapologetic learning curves that push newcomers away. It’s refreshing that Forza 3, the latest Xbox 360 exclusive from Turn 10 Studios, manages to walk the fine line between realism and ease of use. But does it take first place or stall out midway in the race? Read on and find out.

Forza 3 comes with a gang of options to tailor your racing experience. You’ll start your career with the game’s guide, fully equipped with a British accent, asking you if you’re a casual, regular or experienced driver. After that you take part in a “diagnostic” race of sorts. Then the game sets up a number of aids and assists based on your performance on the track. From there, you take part in a series of races each season, get paid (exceptionally so for podium finishes), rank up, buy and get rewarded with cars. The career formula isn’t wildly different from prior installments outside of the yearly set up. The hook is the guide , which explains menus clearly across all modes. For instance, the diagnostic race is nothing new in the genre. But after that you all too often find yourself on your own. It can be off-putting to rookies: especially those not familiar with cars.  Forza 3’s assistant is helpful in showing new jacks around and it allows you to shut the assistant off once you figure things out.

All this is fine and dandy but it doesn’t mean anything if the game spins out on the track. Thankfully isn’t the case in Forza 3. The handling model is the smoothest, most merciful system I’ve ever seen in a sim. Games like these are often chastised for making cars fresh off the lot feel more like boats. This forces racers to grind with stock parts until they upgrade them towards a more manageable ride. Most of the stock cars feel great when you drive them and they’re still upgradeable. They all handle differently and some are more unyielding than others. But that’s more due to how they’re made rather than the game arbitrarily making them a hassle to drive.

For instance, rear wheel drive cars are notorious in sims for having ridiculous over steer effects. In Forza 3 this is on a car to car basis. A stock Porsche 911 GT 2 is RWD yet it’s one of the smoothest cars in the game as it’s one of the slickest rides in real life. Meanwhile a stock Ford GT, also RWD, is a lil’ chunkier around the corners. They have over steer issues from time to time but they’re manageable with a bit of practice. On top of that, you can ride with the assists on and barely feel any control loss. Then again, in classic Forza fashion you get much bigger monetary bonuses when you race with them off. Its open ended racing model is a welcoming environment, yet long time fans can still satiate their hardcore fix if they choose.

The new (offline only) rewind feature is yet another olive branch to those green to racing sims. Messed up a turn? Just press the back button and the game will do that good Casper slide reverse to the moment before you screwed up. You can’t control where the game places you but it does a good job of resetting your car to a manageable point. If you’re still not satisfied, you can rewind further until the game forces you to stop. Once again, it’s not a brand new innovation but it’s a welcome addition to a genre known for its unrelenting difficulty.

My time with Forza 3 has been quite enjoyable, but I there are some questionable design choices in an otherwise buy-worthy game. First off, online multiplayer still only supports eight racers. This has been a standard since the first Forza so I hoped the franchise would graduate to a field of 16 or more for the bigger tracks. Tracks like Le Mans that, in real life hold 50 cars, feel flat out vacant with just eight at most. Additionally, the new matchmaking system currently omits many car classes, game modes, tracks and options found in private lobbies. The devs said the playlists will change and evolve over time but it’s pretty bar bones right now. If you’re planning on racing online with a variety of modes you might want to beef up your friends list and set up your own games. Matchmaking isn’t a game breaking feature but so far it doesn’t fit for a game that’s so option rich.

So what else is there to say that hasn’t been said? Obviously the game is jaw dropping, has a good sense of speed and it’s one of the best looking games I’ve seen on the 360. The storefront is pretty dope as well. You can buy and rate custom made tuning setups, car designs and vinyls made by the dedicated Forza community. Hell, you can even make your own designs, vinyls, and tuning settings and upload them for sale. Players can also view and upload pictures and replays as well as swing buy the auction house for user made deals on new and used automobiles. Let’s not forget the game already comes with over 400 cars and 100 tracks. So many games these days aren’t worth $60 but there’s enough here to warrant the asking price. It’s one of my favorite games of the year so I encourage cats to give it a test drive whenever they get the chance.

Posted in Gadgets, SMOKE BREAK — Tags: Forza 3, Microsoft, Turn 10, XBOX 360