Forza Motorsport 3



£38.99

Despite Forza Motorsport 2’s numerous concessions to the non-hardcore racing fan, you get the feeling from watching Turn 10’s presentation at E3, that the series still has an image problem. Although the last iteration of the game made it much easier for racing fans oblivious to the concepts of torque, gear ratios and cambers to get involved, there was arguably still something a little cold and clinical about Forza. Listening to game director Dan Greenawalt speak at the after-hours event for UK press, you get the impression that Turn10 is aware of this perception and aims to broaden the appeal of the series with Forza 3.

“Our goal is to turn gamers into car lovers and car lovers into gamers,” says Greenawalt. “The point of the game is to bring people together and get them excited about cars.” And this is perhaps where the problem lies for Turn 10. Is this a game about cars or about racing? Do the two have to be exclusive? You could argue that the focus on licensed vehicles (the vast majority of which are European and Japanese) isolates the game from a potential American audience, a point which Greenawalt concedes when he stresses how important the European market is for Forza. Is Forza just a great simulator, with a dedicated, niche fan base? Is it the guy down the pub who tells you his favourite band is Can circa 1969 and then proceeds to explain the concept of avant-garde time signatures? Or is there the potential for more widespread appeal? With Forza 3, Turn 10 clearly thinks it can draw a new crowd and this much is obvious from two of the game’s new features.

After a brief foray into geekery explaining the new “aero-package” and “tyre flex” mechanics, Greenawalt tells us about “one-button-driving.” See, in an effort to show that Forza isn’t the inaccessible beast some may perceive it to be, Turn 10 has made it possible to play the game using only the left stick for steering and the right trigger for acceleration. The auto-braking system controls your speed through corners meaning all you need to concentrate on is sticking to the racing line indicator. It’s a system designed to get the “six year old kids with Lamborghini posters on their wall” into the game, says Greenawalt and it certainly makes the game easier. However, from our brief time on one of the game’s new alpine tracks (which looked beautiful, by the way) we found it to be an oddly distant experience; what we imagine would be like playing Counterstrike with the computer aiming and shooting for you. We’re not really sure who Turn 10 is targeting with the one-button driving. Gamers who want simple, arcade thrills are likely to look elsewhere, lest they be swamped by the variety of car and customisation options. And, for gamers who are car fans, Forza is probably going to be on their radar already.

The other new gameplay feature we saw has a more obvious appeal. The gameplay rewind function works much like it did in Codemasters’ GRID  - if you clip a barrier or overshoot a corner, you can rewind the game a few seconds and do it over again, removing the need to restart the race. Let’s face it, even the most hardcore of the hardcore get pissed off when they spin out on the last lap.

Another welcome tweak is the new Season mode. The last game’s “deep, broad” career mode (we’d go with “dense” and “unfocused”) is being overhauled in Forza 3. Although we’re told it will include 200 events, Greenawalt explains that the game will look at your driver profile, your performance and your cars and then choose the three most relevant events for you to take part in. The Season mode will also feature guidance and voiceovers by “the voice of motorsport God” Peter Egan, adding some silver-tongued gravitas to proceedings. Anything that can break the repetitive cycle of career mode racing is a good idea as far as we’re concerned. 

However, while these concessions to accessibility might be the focus of Greenawalt’s presentation, what we take away from the hands-on is something different. Forza 3, auto-braking or not, moves along at a frightening pace. We’re told the game is the only driving game to be released this year that will run at 60 frames-per-second at 1080p. “If you can’t run at 60 frames per second, you’re not a great racing game,” Greenawalt tells us before firing a couple of broadsides at the competition. “Other racing games hang their hat on one feature. ‘Oh we’ve got a cockpit view and it’s really immersive and...and we’re done.’ That’s not Forza,” he says.  “We’ve got the best physics, the best graphics, the most cars, the most tracks...we’re trying to redefine the racing genre.” We’ll let you know how they get on.

Forza Motorsport 3 is due for release on Xbox 360 in October.