By
Mark Yesilevskiy
on
Monday, January 04, 2010 1:55 PM
239 views
In a nutshell, Forza Motorsport 3 is biblically good as a racing simulator. The amount of stuff that’s in the game puts it in a class of its own.
Sure, Project Gotham Racing 4 was an absolute blast with its advanced weather effects, but the car selection is rather paltry when compared to Forza’s. PGR offers less than a third of the cars that you can find in Forza, and most of those cars are very high-end models.
What if you want to start out with something like a Honda Civic, or a Scion tC, and upgrade it to the best of your abilities? Out of luck in PGR, you would have to look towards a game like Need For Speed Shift. Shift, however, houses physics and driving styles that are too unrealistic to be considered a racing sim, and while the option to upgrade your car is there, the game is more about flash than performance.
Graphics:
The cars in Forza Motorsport 3 are absolutely stunning and flawless in every way. You can tell that this is where the modelers and animators spent the vast majority of their time. The damage effects are incredible as well. If you bump into an opponent’s quarter panel, the opponent’s car will have a dent, and your ride will be missing some paint.
Sure, Project Gotham Racing 4 was an absolute blast with its advanced weather effects, but the car selection is rather paltry when compared to Forza’s. PGR offers less than a third of the cars that you can find in Forza, and most of those cars are very high-end models.
What if you want to start out with something like a Honda Civic, or a Scion tC, and upgrade it to the best of your abilities? Out of luck in PGR, you would have to look towards a game like Need For Speed Shift. Shift, however, houses physics and driving styles that are too unrealistic to be considered a racing sim, and while the option to upgrade your car is there, the game is more about flash than performance.
Graphics:
The cars in Forza Motorsport 3 are absolutely stunning and flawless in every way. You can tell that this is where the modelers and animators spent the vast majority of their time. The damage effects are incredible as well. If you bump into an opponent’s quarter panel, the opponent’s car will have a dent, and your ride will be missing some paint.
While the cars look great, the environments unfortunately are not up to par. Sure, the scenery is beautiful, but the rendering and texture quality just isn’t there. The trees still look jagged, and some textures are blurry.
For example, when racing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain, one of the opening shots focuses on the sign that shows the racer’s positions. The numbers and words on the sign are blurry and muddy, and simply do not look good.
Forza isn’t about the environments though, it’s about the cars. The visuals earn themselves a 9/10
Audio:
Each engine note from each individual car has been uniquely captured. As upgrades are performed to the car, the engine note only gets sweeter. The growl from the Audi R8’s engine in the very first race is enough to draw you in and make you want to play more. The audio earns a 10/10.
Game-play:
All of the controls are spot-on. There is nothing sweeter than hitting that apex perfectly or breaking on the corner just that little bit later than the rest of your opponents.
The Season racing mode is massive. I had completed something like 30 races and my completion percentage was at a mere 3%. Multi-player is great as well, with individuals racing unique car set-ups. Players can also race stock cars in order to see who is the best driver.
From the moment you start, you’re always working towards a bigger, better, and faster car collection. The thrills of driving a virtual Ferrari F430 are incredible, especially in the cockpit view on a big HDTV. Gameplay earns a 10/10.
Presentation:
The one downfall of the presentation is the navigation between certain options. You can only go forward in menus from the start.
For example, lets say I want to buy a Volkswagen Scirocco to race with in the V-Dub Club series. The way it should work is that I press the left bumper and I’m taken from Acura to Volvo. The way it does work though, is that I can only press the right bumper to bring me from Acura to Alfa Romeo.
The menus are beautiful and the navigation concern is a relatively small one. Presentation gets an 8/10.
theCD’s take:
Forza is a must buy for fan of racing games, especially sims. The graphics are beautiful, the audio is top-notch, and the game-play is perfect. In fact, you are making a mistake if you skip over this release.
The menus are beautiful and the navigation concern is a relatively small one. Presentation gets an 8/10.
theCD’s take:
Forza is a must buy for fan of racing games, especially sims. The graphics are beautiful, the audio is top-notch, and the game-play is perfect. In fact, you are making a mistake if you skip over this release.
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