Boring
First of all let me state that this is from a casual racer game fan’s view. I’ve always played racing games starting from Pitstop 1 on C64 through different platforms to current next gen games. Especially the earlier Need for Speed and PGR games have found it’s home here. Don’t care about the most arcade style other than maybe the more recent Outrun gems. Other aspects that I don’t care too much is the import tuning scene. Any car Nissan or Toyota has made has never been cool in my books. Maybe this tells more about my age than anything else. Anyway on with the review.
I owned, played and finished all the previous Forza Motorsport games and was really looking forward to a new version. Unfortunately that’s what’s this feels like. More like a new revision rather than completely new game. To start with interface and the menus. Really plain white simplistic look is soothing and everything mostly look good. When idle on the menu the game will display your current car in different angles and this sure looks nice. In the garage mode you can display your cars naturally as well but there is no way of admiring the car from different angles, if one would desire this. On the shop part where you buy your cars they’ve done some improvement. Newly added search function surely helps to find your car on the selection +400 car lot. Also it is possible to open several manufactures same time and display the cars in grouped view. Not really used either of these functions but still good I guess. They’ve also updated the upgrade car function with quick upgrade. Meaning you can just pick a car class and the game will automatically tune the car to that specific class, assuming you got the racoon skins that is. Just briefly about the classes unless you are not familiar with Forza Motorsport. Each car is assigned in to a specific class depending on the performance. By tuning the car you can increase this class. For the hardcore tuners this is probably not as useful as for likes of me who don’t really are about the type of flywheel or what not.
Although one thing about this quick upgrade I noticed that it is mostly the performance part that is upgraded and it is not always maximised with the part that don’t improve performance. Say you might have 500hp on your Fiesta but still driving with the stock tires.
As of gameplay selection. You get normal career type mode which is new to this series. What it consist of is a number of series of races and then a grand prix race. These two are not connected but the grand prix races end each month are. Nice breakdown from the normal grind like list but feels bit inconsistent and vain with the calendar and racing year. You race the same races in the normal race menu anyway, only difference is that after calendar month you need to pick one out of three which to use your normal racing as. Only difference is that you get additional achievement when finishing one such useless racing year. The race list has huge number of different kind of races you can race. Some limited to car class some to car make, origin of the car make and what not. Enough of races to keep one busy, until level of boredom for sure, which happened to me.
Graphics in-play look brilliant in my opinion. Everything looks shiny and realistic. Only lack of audience and sometimes annoying flare effects are disappointing. Adding bright sun some tracks is sure realistic but this is not a thing you like in real word then why would you want to replicate in a video game. I ain’t starting to play with my shades on. The tracks could have been also more dynamic, except for odd audience flag or this sun flare there isn't really lot happening outside the track. Also the weather and day cycles would have been nice addition.
In general graphics are better than previous Forza but not sure if better than the new Gran Turismo 5 if this ever comes out eh.
The tracks are mostly recycled from previous game (unfortunately) with couple of new additions. Granted it is always pleasure cruising down the Nurnburing forest and the new Spanish/Italian seaside type is fun to drive. But this is definitely something Spin10 could have introduced more tracks. About the controls quickly, as mentioned I am not a hard core driver in that sense that I can not tell if this is more realistic than Gran Turismo and not that I care. Driving with most assist off gives a good enough driving feel and there is a clear difference between cars and tunings.
On the sound front there is not really much to say. The engine sound is decent enough, just using the tellys speakers so can’t really say so much more about it. The music is OK at least the ambient music played on the menus. The in-game music got turned off after 1 sec. It’s a racing game and unless its not licensed metal/rock I ain’t interested.
Saved the the best thing to last, the one where I got biggest gripe with this game. The car selection that is. As mentioned game boast massive selection of 400 different cars. And my opinion about it? Absolutely rubbish. OK mostly rubbish at least. Besides the must upgrade of the latest Audi’s and Ferrari’s there isn’t too many interesting cars. OK we got the high-end SUVs now which Cayenne, Tuareg, Q5 and Range Rover which is really good addition and these cars are really fun to drive. The biggest disappointing is the vast selection of recycled cars from previous game. 10xViper’s, 10x911+100xbland boring Japanese tuners. With only difference being a different paint and sticker setup. Ie. Skins. OK cars might have slight different performance but don’t see what difference it makes anyway. And here is my effort to do some sarcastic/witty criticism on a certain car make/type. Enter Buick Regal 1987. Come on. Did i miss a memo on how this car is cool or fun? Why this is again the only Buick included? Not that I can think of any more desirable Buick but I am sure they have made more models than one 1987 black Regal. As far as I can see this is pretty generic American mid-sized car with not one interesting bolt on it. How does that go together with games motto of: ”Forza Motorsport 3 – Drive that dream”. OK we have some old Datsun and Supra's and what not but these are at least exotic in some sense. I am fan of most American muscle cars and always happy that each car game has these always but don't really understand how Regal fits that picture.
One new addition to the game is a ability of rewinding your game couple of seconds incase you screw up a turn or overtaking. Really nice addition and ideal function if you are trying to get your lap time higher on the world leaderboard. This also where you get your best challenge as well. Well besides racing online. Even us Xbox Live silver account holders get the track times listed online. Nice way of seeing who is fastest in group of friends as well.
Trying to come to some sort of conclusion here. I can not say anything on how the online part is because I dont race online. If you are interested in relatively realistic console racer game where you can race against rest of the world. Or if tuning and creating cool designs for car is your cap of tea then this a game for you. If you are like me and just interested in a offline racer that gives a proper challenge and a race day feel look somewhere else. Mostly because all you get here is big number of cars and some shiny tracks. The essence, the racing day fun factor is non-existent.
