For any Car enthusiast, this game is like a dream come true... but to anyone else, its just a damn good game !
There is over 500 cars in this Ultimate edition, which gives a car enthusiast the time of his/her life. Choose from the likes of Ford to the thrills of Ferrari, with over 60 manufacturers to choose from and 100+ tracks, there is no end to the fun to be had. The tracks are all great and fun to drive on, some feel a little too similar to others when they are in the same location however and there is only about 20 locations.
The cars all feel different in their own way, which is great. It means every time you swap your car for a new better one or go back to using a worse one, it takes time to get used to how far you can push the car and when to brake and turn. The other good thing is, the cars actually feel like they are attached to the road, grip and wieght play a vital role in determining how fast your car gets round the next turn which makes the gameplay much more deep and exciting.
The career mode is good to start with, you choose a simple class F car to get on your way, and move your way up. The races at first seem well chosen and great fun to take part in, however after a few seasons i realised that every season had more races than the last. Not only this but they also get longer. Although this sounds good, it offers no incentive to continue. Races late on can last a good 10 laps even when each lap is 4 miles long... this means you can be stuck racing for almost 30 minutes in the same car on the same track, which is not the best way to keep someone motivated. Thankfully, if you look at the season play differently, like collecting cars, tuning them, customising them and racing in them to beat times on leaderboards, the game still holds its own in being a brillaintly fun competetive racer.
The Best thing is outside of Career mode, you can simply choose any car in any colour, any track in any layout and race to your hearts content, whether its against the clock or against opponents, either is great fun for anyone who loves cars. The difficulty feels right, because the game offers a vast range of assists. If you have them all on, the game is easy as eating cheese, if you opt for them all off, you need concentration and skill to stay on the road... or you could just go for somewhere in the middle to give a challange. The diversity is great, an avid car sim lover can have as much fun as an arcade lover on the game thanks to the great difficulty system. The difficulty also effects how much money you earn and how much EXP you get at the end of a race, so easing off assists, along with the benefits of getting more rewards is a great way to improve. Driver levels are a large part of the game in season mode and this increases as you complete races, its fun to unlock new levels considering the game hands you a free car each time you do.
You can Hire drivers, which is helpful, but means you get no EXP, and you loose substancial amounts of cash, but thankfully they are immense drivers, and although they are prone to making silly mistakes (like the AI in general, falling asleep at the wheel for a second) they are actually quite helpful and amazing to see in action.
The interior views on the cars are all nice, but often feel like they are just simply placed in front of you in a race, rather than you actually being in the car. The head view you see from can often be too close, or too far from the wheel making some cars feel odd to drive, or just look oddly shaped, and when you look behind, the car magically disapears, which again makes you feel as though you are not in a car, but rather floating along the road in a dashboard shell.
The online community is great, with the awesome custom cars you can make, you can then sell them on a bidding system which is active all the time. Spend a few hours on a car and sell it for money or keep it and buy someone elses work. The online gameplay also seems lag free and varied, with easy games to have fun with friends or serious matched against the top of the leaderboards. Occasionally you can come across the odd agressive idiot who thinks the games objective is to crush the opponents, but thankfully the game has measures to stop these things happening a lot.
Forza 3 is a great racing game (and experience) for anyone. From the Avid racing sim driver to grandad and grandma at christmas, the game is fun for all.