Forza Motorsport 3 is in short, fantastic. But while it falls short of utter perfection, it gets pretty close.
You start the game by installing the 1.9 gigs of extra cars and tracks that disc one just couldnt fit in. i was exited, and taken aback by the fact that this game must be absolutely huge, which it is. i also found it to be the simplest way of getting around the DVD's capacity limit, which is simply 'you can play this game without a hard drive, but if you want the full experience? get a hard disc.'
This means Everyone, regardless of what kind of gaming background you have, be it casual or hardcore, can play the game, and is this kind of malleability that makes this game such a success. but more on that later.
you are then guided into the career by a soothing british voice, which explains and simplifies everything that may have any chance of confusing you, it was a little patronising as a forza 2 veteran, but nevertheless, it wasn't annoying or intrusive in any way. you are then put into a tiny little hatchback, and find yourself entering the new season play career mode It simplifies your carrer into choosing 3 events at a time, and is designed to keep things fresh, it automatically selects an event with a different car or track , and really immerses you into the world of forza, which is again, a big leap in terms of appeal for casual gamers, who would have found Forza 2's large spreadsheet of similar events made different by things like engine displacements and such.
but dont worry, the hardcore are still well catered for( again a reference to just how malleable this game is) with an events list, which is pretty much the same as FM2's, with different events such as endurance, championships, and stock car races and put into catergories, allowing you to select the event you want to with much more freedom, and complete the game in a much for traditional fashion.
so when you find a race you like or a track you like in your little supermini, you will most probably notice how fun that little car is, the sense of inertia, and the physics of the small car are fantastic, and really add to the game. this is helped by the large amound of small tracks present i the game, which make it fun, rather than tedious, to drives a smaller, lower powered car. you should also notice the superb detail in the graphics engine, and the step up from forza 2. the cars look brilliant, the tracks look vibrant and detailed, the cockpit of every one of the 400 cars are rendered in painstaking detail. This in turn add to the games amazing realism that it provides, with some of the best graphics engines around. The game also supports 1080p, which perfectly complements the game's 60 frames per second.
now whicle the graphics engine is good, again, the game isnt perfect, some track like mugello raceway have low quality backgrounds, which appear to be just two dimesional pictures, and tracks like silverstone, due do absence of any weather effects, or day and night options, ends up looking a little bland and uninspired.
i really wished this game had the option to cycle between dawn, day, dusk and night, as it really helps to alter to graphical monotony of the career grind.
and i hope they do put this in a future update.
the games audio is fantasic too( if you like that sort of thing) with calm, minimal electronical played throughout the menus, and thumping drum and bass from the likes of pendulum and the qemists during races, really give races that little bit more exitement in a tense race. it's just a shame that the 30 licensed tracks that make up the games soundtrack, get old very quickly in a genre that requires hundreds of of hours of effort to succeed.
a few paragraphs into this review, and i have barely scratched the surface of forza's features, like it's superb, albeit time consuming vinyle editor, which allows you to create literally whatever you want, providing you have the patience, time, and creativity in order to do so.
but fear not if you don't, as every player has a storefront, which allows you to buy (and sell) and vinyle that it put up on thier profile. you can easily find what you want too, by narrowing you resuts by most downloads, newest vinyls or using keywords. this is fantastically fun and well designed way to buy a cool looking vinyl, or make a little extra cash on the side, and the best thing is, the storefront isnt limited to vinyls, it also does tuning setups, (think drifting or racing setups) whole car designs, photos taken from Forza's fantasic in-game camera, and high definition video clips made from the replay editor. not only this but there is also an auction house, where you van bid for cars to find them at a cheaper price, or find a limited edition model, which you may be in for a fierce bidding battle with.
All in all, this game contains everything and more you would expect from any sim woth it's salt, with top notch visuals, AI, and cars. And while it may not be the perfect driving simulator, it is easily the best one created so far... by miles.