Review – Forza Motorsport 3 (X360)

Forza Motorsport 3 is the culmination of years of work by Turn 10 and Microsoft Game Studios.  What started as a hardcore-only title on the Xbox is now a simulation-style racing title that has something for everyone.  Is it the most definitive racing game of this generation?  While the end result is not perfect, it is easily the most enjoyable racing game I have ever played.  The sheer amount of things to do is potentially overwhelming, but everything is presented cleanly. There is a focus on making it all approachable but it still contains depth for those who want to the details.

Forza 3 sports over 400 cars from 50 different manufacturers and thousands of upgradable bits and bobs.  These vehicles visit over 20 locations and race on over 100 different track layouts, which includes speed rings, drag strips and a few reverse tracks.  There are some sweet cars in the game, ranging from perfectly reasonable ones like the Firebird Trans Am to ridiculous stuff like the Veyron.  The game mixes some fictional courses in with real ones and even has a few winding road courses thrown in.  In a somewhat curious move, all cars and tracks are unlocked from the get-go, so no grinding is necessary.  Vehicles can only be upgraded and tweaked once they’re part of a garage, though, which can require a good deal of play to save up enough credits.  It’s an interesting move all the same, since it lets everyone go at their favourite bits right out of the box.  It does mean that there’s nothing to look forward to, though.

Screenshots show that a huge amount of effort has gone into making Forza 3’s car models absolutely stunning.  But nothing can show how the game looks and feels during that first race.  Every single race blazes at a solid 60fps.  I never experienced a moment of slowdown, frame drops or screen tearing during an offline race.  Having such a high frame rate makes controlling this beast an absolute dream.

I’m not a huge fan of using racing wheels in games, even though it’s the preferable option.  Thankfully, driving using the regular controller works amazingly well.  Cars respond well to everything I do, and after only a couple races, I was back in the groove.  Racing hundreds of laps in a game that looks and feels this good is easy and fun.  It’s not necessarily the definitive racing graphics of this generation, but it is a very high watermark that will hopefully inspire other developers.

The interface, from menus to the HUD during races, has been designed to be simple.  Want to race?  Just choose Go Race.  Want to check out cars, or do upgrades, or go to the storefront?  Choose those options.  The HUD during races is the same for all vehicles and varies depending on the camera choice.  The good news is that the cockpit view in this game is perfectly playable, and shows a good amount of internal detail to boot, with working gauges and all that jazz.  There were a couple times I wished for a bit more detail in terms of on-screen stats about the race or trial I was taking part in, but what’s there is more than adequate.  During play the game will record ghost laps for each vehicle on each course, which is awesome.  I’m a huge supporter of the ghost agenda.

However, all is not well in the land.  As good as the in-game racing looks, it’s clear that corners were cut in order to keep the game at a solid 60fps.  During replays or the ‘car porn’ slideshow in the menus, the game looks noticeably different.  During a race, there’s little in terms of post-processing effects, such as motion blur, pixel shading and bloom lighting.  There are some good lighting effects and transitions from dark to light that can be breathtaking on certain tracks, but the whole game has a very efficient look that can come across as plain.  During photo mode and replay mode, all sorts of tricks get turned on to make the game look great, but at the cost of the frame rate.  At the moment a race finishes, when the game switches from race mode to replay mode, the sudden change in frame rate can be very jarring.

The damage modeling that the game uses is visually weak, even though cars scratch up nicely, paint flakes off and body panels bend and distort.  There’s a little spark effect that comes off vehicles when they rub or bump, which comes across as a little weird, especially for cars that I know have carbon fiber shells.  But that’s really the extent of the damage.  It’s enough most of the time, but if a car takes a really bad turn and flips, it’ll come off looking like it just had a little rough love in the corner.  It’s the same with smashing into a wall at 150mph.  It’s a minor complaint, but it’s something that can spoil the immersion.

The roar of engines and squeal of tires in Forza 3 are top notch.  I’m not a massive car buff, so I I don’t know how accurate all the sounds are, but every vehicle seems to have its own unique sound.  When a race is going smoothly, the sounds are great and adds to the excitement.  The collision noises are a little weak and usually amounts to little more than a thump or a bit of grinding.  The music is a vast and mixed bag.  The stuff we get at menus and during the little preview bits is generic electronic filler – nothing too offensive, but nothing that I can remember.  There’s some nice, slow piano pieces that play during car showcases.  There’s some rock, some drum and bass, some electronic, and some pop.  I have no idea who made this music, who the artists are, what the names of the tracks are, or anything -  there are no credits to be found.  There is no ability to skip or configure anything other than the volume. Which is a shame, because good music makes racing exciting. I either turned the music down, or put on my own terrible racing music for most of the game.

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