Microsoft and Turn 10’s racing simulator, Forza Motorsport, is back for its third installment in the series. Over the years, Forza has made a name for itself as one of the best racing simulators out, customizable features, and its user-created content. Turn 10 has a new nickname for Forza Motorsport 3, they call it “The definitive racer of this generation.” Very strong choice of words, with statements like that Turn 10 must be really happy with all things they did for Forza Motorsport 3. So does Forza Motorsport 3 live up to that hype or does it come in last place? Read on to find out.
If you like cars, then you’ll end up loving them in Forza 3. There are over 400 cars in Forza 3 for you to tune, customize, and drive with. Most of your cars will be earned in Forza’s season mode or event play modes. Season mode allows you to have scheduled races in your calender, simple as that. Event play allows you to enter different racing events, depending on class, manufacturer, and so on. Both these modes will reward you with experience points and credits. The more experience points you have, the more discounts you can earn, which will help you save credits to buy a better car. Season and event play are pretty much the same, they both have you driving and earning cars which is what you’re here for.
If there’s anything Turn 10 should take pride on, it’s their gameplay and customizable features. Forza Motorsport 3 is a driving simulator, which might be a little to serious for the casual racing fan. But Forza 3 makes it easy for even the occasional racing player to jump in, with its customizable difficulty features. You can increase the AI difficulty, turn on and off anti-lock brakes or stability control, and more. Another addition to the racing gameplay is the new Rewind button (back button) which lets you rewind the race (in-game) in case you took a wrong turn or bumped into a car. This feature may sound like cheating and out of place in a game that is to be taken serious, but its a life saver when you crash into a wall on your last lap.
Like I said before, Forza 3 has over 400 cars available, with tons of parts available to improve the performance of your cars. Four hundred cars might be overkill for me, but people who strive to get them all will be in for a long ride, no pun intended. Every car I’ve driven in Forza 3 handles well, but if one doesn’t suit your driving style then you’ll have to tune it to your liking. If you can’t understand the tuning options then you can do a quick upgrade or buy someones tuning options online.
The cars drive great but if they don’t look great then what’s the point. Luckily, Turn 10 does a great job at making these vehicles look as beautiful in real life as they do in Forza 3. The cars are almost identical to their real life counterpart thanks to Turn 10’s attention to detail. The race tracks also look pretty good, definitely an upgrade from Forza 2. Forza 3 also sounds great, I’m not sure if the engine sounds are real or not, but they sound real enough. Every racing game needs music and Forza 3 has some not so good music, but you can hardly hear it while racing with the loud sounds of the engines and tires.
The main highlight of Forza 3 for me, is the online features. The amount and quality of the user-created content in Forza 3 is always amazing to see, I can spend minutes just window shopping in Forza 3’s auction house. You are now able to buy decal designs so now you can paste Master Chief on the hood of any car you like, that’s if you’re not one of the geniuses creating this content. Racing with other is still there, but with new online modes to increase the amount of fun. Drag races, drifting, and even Cat and Mouse modes make their debut in Forza 3, adding a new way to play with other friends.
Turn 10 has a strong appreciation for cars, and it shows once you go deep into Forza Motorsport 3. It can get overwhelming to a casual racing game player but Forza 3’s options lend a hand to get you by. If you like racing simulators then take a spin with Forza 3 because it’s better than its ever been. Turn 10 said Forza 3 would be the definitive racer of this generation, well it’s true, but maybe they should of added “so far” at the end of that quote.
