The Struggle

With Forza Motorsport 4 coming out in October, I think it's appropriate to start the process of moving on from its predecessor, a game that's easily held our attention for almost two years now. For some, that means preparing your vinyl groups for import, or breaking up designs into neat groups to apply on the new car models. For others, it involves earning as much money or buying as many cars as possible in the hopes that will benefit the garage and save game import, however that might work.

If you're like me, what it really means is getting all the achievements in Forza Motorsport 3 before Forza 4's out. After all, in a game where the rarest achievement is winning every race in career mode, s-ranking Forza 3 is the ultimate statement that you're ready to move on and face the new challenges and events Forza 4 poses.

Getting Solid Gold while working towards an s-rank isn't easy, though. Here's all you have to do while working through Forza 3's 220 career events:

• 799 races, ranging from 3 to 20 minutes each
• 30 oval races
• 90 drag racing heats
• 120 point-to-point racing heats
• 10 endurance races, each slightly over an hour in length

That's 1,049 races in total. It's no wonder that almost 20 months after its release, only 194 people (2% of Giant Bomb's Forza 3 players) have achieved Solid Gold. It's even harder for those of us who insist on never using a hired driver!

The Support

It's apparent that many of us could use help and encouragement to finish this game. Maybe you just want a place where your struggles are recorded. Maybe you want someone else in a party chat who's working on finishing the career mode just like you. Maybe you've achieved Solid Gold, but still haven't gotten that 100,000 point drift lap.

We're here to help.

I want to get as many people as I can to s-rank Forza Motorsport 3 before its successor hits store shelves. There's nothing inherently wrong with leaving a game incomplete, but wouldn't it be nice to finish a game completely before enjoying its sequel?

That said, if you haven't s-ranked Forza 3 yet and you're interested, post in here with your gamertag (if you want), how much gamerscore you have in Forza 3, how far you are through career mode (check Forza Motorsport 3 > My Profile for that stat), and either your plan of attack or what kind of help you're looking for, if any (even if it's just other people to share the pain).

As the weeks go by, do feel free to check in with any updates to your stats as you continue to work towards an s-rank. We'll talk about our strife, and get this done together.

Support Group Open House

In addition, we're going to have weekly support group meetings on Saturday afternoons in America (Saturday evenings in Europe), where we'll invite people to gather up and work together on finishing this game, or perhaps another racing game when you're done with Forza 3. That's around 3-6 PM EDT, 12-3 PM PDT, or 7-10 PM GMT, roughly. Anyone is free to attend if they'd like, and it's going to be more of a casual gathering than any actual game night. We'll figure out the specific details of gathering people together if it actually picks up.

The Table

I look forward to seeing what we can (hopefully) accomplish here!

Knowing the way I play and how little I get a chance to, I doubt I'll be S-Ranking it. (Hiring drivers is just painful) Good luck with that, though!

Pro-tip: save your podcasts and only listen to them while going through the races.

I would only play Forza 3 for 4-5 hours a week (GB and Tested) and got through it in no time at all. By the time I was done, I said to myself "... well now what the fuck am I going to do while I listen to podcasts."

I'm thinkin I need to do audiobooks for Forza 4. Cause, yah know, I am the Stig.

995 points :/. The assinine drifting achieve. And the support I wanna request is one of you aces come over to the house and do it for me!

Seriously? No, don't care much, care cup empty, etc....

990 I think in Forza 2 and all I needed to do was sell something in Auction House...and never bothered...am I OK??? Apathy anonymous? ;)

@ShaggyChu said:

Pro-tip: save your podcasts and only listen to them while going through the races.

I would only play Forza 3 for 4-5 hours a week (GB and Tested) and got through it in no time at all. By the time I was done, I said to myself "... well now what the fuck am I going to do while I listen to podcasts."

I'm thinkin I need to do audiobooks for Forza 4. Cause, yah know, I am the Stig.

You speak the truth. I actually listened to the very-awesome "Best of" compilation podcasts by fellow user ZanzibarBreeze. He made quite a few great ones, such as theHotspotlineup, which is what I listened to the most as I raced. Also visit his blog page for a lot of others. Pretty awesome. Also, the Bombcast is always an excellent option as well, but I assume most people are already caught up with those. Podcasts are key to keeping the grind entertaining.

I have indeed already completed my S-Rank though, so I'll just wish everyone else good luck.

Also: When you've completed your S-Ranks, this video must be watched. It'll make the accomplishment that more more rewarding:

Have fun, everyone! :D

995 points :/. The assinine drifting achieve. And the support I wanna request is one of you aces come over to the house and do it for me!

Seriously? No, don't care much, care cup empty, etc....

990 I think in Forza 2 and all I needed to do was sell something in Auction House...and never bothered...am I OK??? Apathy anonymous? ;)

@xMP44x said:

@pweidman said:

995 points :/. The assinine drifting achieve. And the support I wanna request is one of you aces come over to the house and do it for me!

Seriously? No, don't care much, care cup empty, etc....

990 I think in Forza 2 and all I needed to do was sell something in Auction House...and never bothered...am I OK??? Apathy anonymous? ;)

Use the Bugatti Veyron and do it on Fujimi Kaido. Stupid in theory but a few runs should get you there assuming you have all the assists off. I was able to do it on my first lap with the Veyron but I couldn't do it with the Top Secret S15. Give it a go and see!

If that doesn't work, not sure if you've done it already or not, but downloading a drift tuning setup from the storefront will do a lot of good. I believe I went all Initial D and used a Toyota Trueno with a drift setup from the storefront to get this one, myself. Whatever method you use, it'll just take a couple of tries, but you'll get the hang of it eventually. Good luck, duder.

@xMP44x:

Are you referring to Free Run on Kaido?

Well, maybe I will give it a go, been kinda weirdly craving Forza after playing DiRT 3 for a while lately.

Thanks for the tip.

@pweidman: VW Beetle.

Don't give me that face. Just......just try it.

My gamer tag is Big Bad Sleazy (maybe without the caps). I'm ony two achievements away from S-ranking the game, and while I suspect I may never get the drift lap (I've tried probably close to forty times with all sorts of different cars and setups geared specifically for the achievement without even coming close), I hope to get a huge livery going as well as get the all gold achievement. I'm only about 40% away from getting it, with most of the major races finished. It's just mopping up races, knocking out a few silvers into golds, and the like.

Hit me up if you need very specific cars, and I'll see what I can do. I shouldn't really need any help, but if in the last few months you come across some sweet car designs or vinyls and want to share with me, I'd much appreciate that. I'm always up for chatting, though I absolutely stink at multiplayer and am avoiding it until Forza 4 comes out.

@Sparky_Buzzsaw: Don't be afraid to use the rewind when going for the drift achievement. I probably used it a dozen times on just one turn so many times in order to get the turns just right.

I might start this, maybe, yes, no, yes!

This is an awesome thread
 
My GT is dHAWXb and I have 920 points, missing only that elusive solid gold achievement. I play many other games but I would like this to be my 11th S rank if possible, I believe I have about 450 races under my belt. 
 
Oh and scoring 100 000 drift points can only be done if you have a continuous drift down Fujimi Kaido. If at any point you're not drifting for more than 3 seconds you won't get it. It's a bullshit achievement.

@blacklabeldomm said:

Oh and scoring 100 000 drift points can only be done if you have a continuous drift down Fujimi Kaido. If at any point you're not drifting for more than 3 seconds you won't get it. It's a bullshit achievement.

I don't know where you heard that from, but it's not true whatsoever. So long as you cross the start/finish line with 100,000 points, you will get the achievement.

@ShaggyChu:

It's just not going to happen. If I can get a friend to come in and do it, or get my brother to figure out drifting (he's phenomenal at racing games but he's rarely in town), I'll get it. But by myself, the frustration level is just too much.

Currently on 675 points with 6 achievements to go. Have years 5 & 6 to do, levels 45 & 50, as well as Solid Gold and Connoisseur to get. Think I might start trying to get a couple of hours in each week now to finally round it out. Still have one achievement left in Forza 2 to get, the 1 million credits from online races.

Doing three endurance races in a row has officially fried my brain.........

I'll give Forza 3 another go...maybe. No guarantees.

@ShaggyChusaid:

@Sparky_Buzzsaw: Don't be afraid to use the rewind when going for the drift achievement. I probably used it a dozen times on just one turn so many times in order to get the turns just right.

This. Also, use an all-wheel-drive car and lots of handbraking. Of course, I did it in a RWD Mustang Cobra :D but at any rate, you want at least an A-class car, or maybe S-class. You need lots of power to get the drifting going in such a narrow space.

As for me, I'm at 99-point-something percent on the career mode, with Solid Gold as the last achievement. I have a bunch of R1 races left, including the endurance race, as well as the R2 endurance race. It's gonna be terrible. >_< I think I'll turn braking line back on, but I refuse to lower the AI difficulty or hire drivers. I hired a driver 1 time and I regret it.

@slowbird said:

You need lots of power to get the drifting going in such a narrow space.

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID! Boom.

I did it with an upgraded (R2, I think) R34 Skyline. So much powerrrrr I got the achievement with TCS on. No handbrake either. Just had to lay down the powerrrrr.

Regarding the 100k drift achievement, my method involved using the stock Ford Focus RS you receive as a reward, but the SEAT Leon Supercup could work, too. For front wheel drive or all wheel drive, just make sure it's something you can get used to handbraking with and keeping sideways. As ShaggyChu's hinted, my go-to car for drifting these days is the VW Beetle, as it's extremely easy to control in and out of slides when mildly upgraded.

In the uphill section of Fujimi Kaido, I'd recommend aiming for at least 850-1000 points per turn at a minimum. If you can't get that, rewind and try again. It's rough, but you want to try for 45k-47k minimum before starting the downhill. You can definitely make up for a lot more than that in the downhill, but if you're struggling, that's a good target to aim for. You'll get a lot more points more easily in the downhill section.

For downhill especially, make sure you're using the handbrake liberally to get wild, and use the gas to stabilize the car. I'd recommend staying completely off of the standard brakes for anything other than emergencies like losing a huge chunk of points. If you crash, rewind. Don't assume that you can make it up later on, as you'll only end up stressing yourself out and making more mistakes.

I just ordered Forza 3 on Amazon today (can't wait for the next Race Night!) So add me to that list! I'm gonna achieve S-Rank before 4's released (lolno)!

Dear god, I cant think of another genre I would hate to attempt getting a S rank in more.  Hats off to you all trying for it.  

I might have jumped the gun a bit here, but just a few minutes ago, I finished the R1 endurance race at Nurburgring, unlocking Solid Gold in the process. My quest for an S-rank is complete.

My final stats:

I'll still be around Saturday afternoon in the event people want to gather for a support group. Next target: Getting 1 million online credits in Forza Motorsport 2 so that I can finally S-rank that game, as well.

@blacklabeldomm said:

@PsEG: so what's the major difference between "races", "victories" and "podiums"? You have a difference of over a 1000 between races and victories.....

Races is the total number of races run, podiums is the total amount of those races in which I've placed in the top three, and victories is the total amount of those races in which I've placed first. That includes online and offline races.

Given that all of my offline races were wins (save for a handful of DNF restarts), this would seem to indicate that we've had at least 1,200 races during Forza Race Night.

I needed this topic back when i was going for solid gold. 
OF COURSE i used the hired driver.  
And the top secret s15 is awesome on the fujimi kaido full course.  
I have a challenge, get 100k in one linked drift!! 

Just finished up the last of the World Cup races (I think that's the name - the ones on the furthest right of the race selection screen). I'm using an alternating pattern of one long race, two short races. It's not only helpful in keeping the boredom to a minimum, but it lets me use some cars I'd otherwise never use by making me switch up cars after just about every race.

I'm going to make the commitment and finish it as well. (I've made this commitment several times now over the last two years).

I'm at 45%. Just events to do. 915 Gamerscore.

Gamertag: TobyD81

Forza 3 Gamerscore: 865

Percent Complete: 30.6. I guess the achievement I should be most concerned with is getting all the races done, but in my mind it's the 100K drift lap. My drift game is ass.

All I know is I'm going to be happy just getting the endurance races done.  I just finished the S-class one in my HKS Lancer Evo and which it didn't provide any real challenge like the R2 and R1s did, I'm still completely already fed up with the endurance races and just wish I could be done with them.  Especially that F class one I'm dreading.  Seriously how long does that one take to finish?

Forza just arrived in the mail today, so add me to that table! Also, maybe you could add me to the Race Night list as well? Please?

Gamertag: OutpostZero

Percent Complete: 0.000%

Just checking that everyone is keeping up on their commitments....

ughh....played a bit more but am only at 760 races done so far, now I'm not so sure I'll finish before Forza 4 comes out.

This game can go **** itself. I hit the point where I was hunting solely for Solid Gold before I had 50% of the races done courtesy of playing with all assists off. By the time I sold my Xbox, I had the first two "blocks" done, along with all of the class-based end-of-season championships.
 
I just couldn't be assed to do the championships that I actually had to buy cars for, nor most of the championships restricting me to solely American cars and barring me from using a Lexus or Infiniti. It just became a complete drag to do and I gave up right around 70-80% completion IIRC. I still had all of the endurance races to do, most of the regional class championships and a few of the low-level American muscle championships. Then my bloody game file decides to erase part of my garage and take most of my high-value cars.
 
Mind you, GT5 and its long-as-hell endurance races are no better than having a wall of events to race. I still remember the glory of Forza 2 and that S-rank, which was hella fun to get and never felt like a drag.
 
Hats off to you blokes, undertaking this challenge. I wish you the best in conquering the game that I could just endure no more of.
 
@PsEG said:

Regarding the 100k drift achievement, my method involved using the stock Ford Focus RS you receive as a reward, but the SEAT Leon Supercup could work, too. For front wheel drive or all wheel drive, just make sure it's something you can get used to handbraking with and keeping sideways. As ShaggyChu's hinted, my go-to car for drifting these days is the VW Beetle, as it's extremely easy to control in and out of slides when mildly upgraded.