Sony and Gran Turismo are like two peas in a pod, which also seems to be the case with Mircosoft and Forza. Unfortunately for Sony, Forza 3 is quite possibly one of the best racing games that have ever been released. Time to up your game Turismo!

Sony and Gran Turismo are like two peas in a pod, which also seems to be the case with Mircosoft and Forza. Unfortunately for Sony, Forza 3 is quite possibly one of the best racing games that have ever been released. Time to up your game Turismo!  

It might be a little unfair to compare the two because although they are racing games, Forza bridges the gap between hardcore car enthusiasts and weekend warriors. One part of the reason for this is because of the way cars handle in Forza, which are decidedly more forgiving than Gran Turismo’s mechanics, but also because of the new ‘rewind’ feature that allows you to rewind time by a few seconds so that if you lose control or fail to take a corner properly, you can correct it with a simple press of a button.   You can use the rewind feature as much you as like with the only penalty being that it will put an asterisk next to your name, so if you can hack looking like a newb on the leader boards, feel free to use it as much as your heart desires.  

Oopsy daisy...

Without a doubt, Forza 3 is the most manageable and understandable racing simulation that has have ever been released. Every little detail can be toggled either on or off allowing you to get as deep or as shallow a racing experience as you require.   All the options are adjustable and not in a confusing way either, they are all there ready to be taken up, taken down, switched on or off. Easy, convenient and can be done at almost any time. Perfect.  

Now hardcore drivers don’t roll your eyes when I mention it, but Forza also allows for newcomer friendly ideas such as auto-braking, which sounds like training wheels to the already initiated, but to the newbie starting off, this is going to help them get into the building on the ground floor before they start ascending to the top, and once again, if you already consider yourself to be a decent driver, turn it off. Like everything Forza represents, it’s there if you want it, use it or don’t, it’s up to you.  

Like Gran Turismo, the game seems to change the moment you start to change cars and try harder tracks. Never before has it been done so well though than here. AI and assorted other factors never feel cheap. Rubber banding seems to be a blight on the racing landscape, but I can say that the AI has been done with true artistry and attention to detail because most of the other cars on the track behaved devilishly natural most of the time.   They themselves would spin out of control if they took the bends too fast, and depending on your difficulty level you’ll see the drivers do all kinds of things that would probably happen in real life.  

Shiny!

Forza 3 truly feels a lot different than the first and second ones. The first one introduced us to some great graphics and driving while the second one opened up all the endless community possibilities giving it years of life, number 3 perfects the advancements of both first games and creates a tighter package that I can’t see anyone doing it any better. Just in case you didn’t know, this also happens to be one hell of a big game, so big in fact that it comes on two discs. The second disc has additional tracks and cars that you must install to the hard drive (and since I only have a 20 gig hard drive on my 360 this was a little bit inconvenient) but at least you don’t have to swap discs all the time.  

Not only are there tons of cars and tracks to enjoy, but racing through all the different competitions is going to take you forever! I’ve been playing this game solid for weeks and have only managed to complete a little over 10% of the races. I’ve already sunk two dozen hours into it…I think Forza 3 is the only racing game I’m going to need…until Forza 4 that is.  

One of the biggest drawbacks to Forza 3 is the load screens which seem to take an absolute eternity to get through. In reality I’m sure it’s only 30 seconds or so but when you add up all those little amounts you’ll have spent hours on loading screens alone. That’s not to say that Forza 3 isn’t worth it, but it’s probably a good idea to have a DS or iphone (and Rock Band) handy while you’re waiting.   Luckily the races can go on for quite a while so I guess waiting 30 seconds to a minute isn’t too bad. As far as saying anything bad about Forza goes…that’s it…I’m serious, that’s it. 

The possibilities end when you decide they will

I haven’t even touched on the community side of things. There is no other game with better community support than probably Halo 3 or Call of Duty. There is absolutely so much to do, to find, to download and create, there really is a danger of losing yourself in content and menus for hours as you see what everyone has created as well as create vinyls, decals, paintjobs, photos and tune kits yourself. This game is the ultimate car porn and for everyone who remembers the amazing jobs people did on paint and decals last time, this game promises even more by lifting the layer cap from 100 to 1000. The possibilities do seem endless. With games like this you really don’t need DLC, this is the kind of game that just keeps on giving and when you have so much user-generated content as well as the ability to create stuff yourself and sell it via the auction house, you’ll be playing this game for some time to come.  

Online this game worked a treat and I had absolutely no problems with connection or lag. There are a few balancing issues regarding the classes of cars that can race against each other but trawling the forums I was able to see that the developers are aware of this and working on a patch to be released in the near future.  

The presentation, gameplay and graphics are all triple-A quality. If you’re a casual gamer or a hardcore racer, Forza 3 will meet your needs, this is so rare that a game can cater to every spectrum of gamer, but it does and does it so easily that you’ll wonder what took racing games so long to catch up! 

If you only buy one game that involves fast cars going around in circles, this should be it. It is the cream of the racing crop and until someone steps up, I don’t think there are many studios out there that could capture the themes of what Forza 3 represents…racing nirvana!