- Publisher: Microsoft
- Developer: Turn 10
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Racing
- Pros: Nice graphics & sound; great gameplay; accessibility; livery editor; storefronts/auction house; tons of cars and tracks; cockpit view; auto upgrades
- Cons: Dumb A.I. drivers; load times
Features
The car list consists of 400+ vehicles from 50+ manufacturers, and there are more planned as DLC. It isn’t as many as some other games may boast, but the carefully edited car list means there are more cars you’ll actually want to use instead of just having a long list of junk you’ll never touch.
The total number of track variations tops 100, so there is a lot to see and do in Forza 3. So much so, that the game had to ship on two discs. The first disc is the play disc, and the second disc is merely installed to your Xbox 360 hard drive. One word of caution, however, DO NOT install Disc 2 from the dashboard. Only install it following in-game prompts by playing Disc 1 first. It only leads to headaches to do it the other way around.
Career Mode
The career mode is long and amazingly well designed. You start off with slow low-level car, but as you win races you earn money and can buy bigger, better, faster cars to take on more challenging events. You earn new cars for each experience level you gain, and the prize cars are generally pretty awesome and an easy way to get a hot new ride really early on in the game. Or, of course, you can just buy whatever car you want. It has to be noted that I never really had any money problems in Forza 3. You earn plenty of money from races to be able to afford upgrades or new cars. I never even bothered to sell any of my slower rides or unwanted prize cars, which is a far cry from what you usually have to do in this type of game.The progression of the career is also interesting because it is rather focused if you want it to be. The races are presented in a “season” format, and you only have enough time for a handful of events each season. When you finish one event, you are presented with three more to choose from – one that shows off new tracks, one that shows off new cars, and one that lets you continue driving your current car. This way there is always new fun stuff in front of you. Or, if you want, you can also just choose from any event in the game from the menu and do anything you want and throw the season stuff out the window. One great aspect of the game is that you can auto-upgrade your cars to meet maximum requirements for any event you enter. You can always buy parts separately if you want, but this makes it quick and easy.
Gameplay
Some specifics on the gameplay. First, the A.I. is kind of dumb. The A.I. cars generally do a good job of holding their lines and racing correctly, but they also have a nasty habit of completely blowing corners if you put any pressure on them. You can count on it pretty much every race that when you catch up to the leader, they will screw up and hit the wall. It is like they are trying to match your pace but then forgot to hit the brakes on the next corner. Another comment on the gameplay is that Forza finally has an in-car view. It isn’t perfect (I wish it was moved back a bit), but it is definitely the best way to play the game. And, finally, the Microsoft Wireless Steering Wheel is completely awesome and Forza 3 feels like it was made for the wheel. Still great with a normal controller, but I highly recommend the wheel.
