Review: Forza Motorsport 3

Today sees the retail release of Forza Motrsport 3 for the Xbox 360. Its first and foremost a car racing simulator but theres so much to it. Its simultaneously a complex and simple game from Turn 10 Studios which really shows the evolution of the genre and tries to push it further. A lot of eyes are on this one. Some are worried they simplified it too much, making things too easy. Others worry that its too hardcore and inaccessible to all but the extreme car enthusiast.

The way the game was described to us by Korey Krauskopf (Game Production Lead) is that they wanted to distill their product to something which made video game lovers in to car lovers and vice versa. In general, this principal can be seen in all of their design decisions.

To start with there is minimal soundtrack to the game. What music there is is relatively ambient and subtle, forgoing the typical bombastic energetic soundtrack. Why? Well if you want to listen to music, you can pick your own using the Xbox’s custom soundtrack feature. This game is not about music. Its about the cars.

The game features over four hundred cars right out of the box, with more promised as DLC in the future. Each one is beautifully detailed both inside and out. The lines are so crisp and impressive that the main menu screen transitions to an ambient screensaver the folks at Turn 10 internally referred to as “Car Porn” Even the user interface, borrowing from the aesthetics of luxury car marketing has an appropriate feel to it, evoking motor-lust.

As for the game-play its impressively solid and accessible. There is a robust and deep simulation engine at work here, factoring tire physics, airflow, and a veritable tonne of data intelligible to only the most intense racing fanatic. For hardcore racing simulation fans, this is definitely a solid game, but what about the rest of us?

Well fret not. Even the most casual player can get in to this title. There are a number of assists to make things easier. Each can be toggled and controlled independently. If you are horrible at racing and need all the assists turned on, you just need to floor the gas and point the car where you want to go. It couldn’t be easier. If you want to turn them all off then its as rich of a racing simulation as you can get without getting in to an actual car.

Somehow they have managed to make a game which tackles both ends of the player spectrum successfully and every iteration in between so new players have nothing to fear and veterans will certainly find the challenge they’re looking for. This alone is an impressive feat. Turn 10 have ignored all other influences and distractions. There are no red herrings in this game. Its a game about cars. Thats it. It does one thing, and it does it extremely well.

It may not be a perfect game, certainly having its faults (slow load times for instance) but it is certainly a step forward for the genre and anybody with even a passing interest in cars will find something here to drool over. If nothing else this game is absolutely beautiful. You might hate to play games. You might hate cars. You will have a hard time denying the beauty of this game though. Its a joy simply to watch. Every once in a while you’ll turn a corner and be awe struck by how pretty everything is. Its a pretty safe bet that hardly anybody will regret buying this title. Its just that solid a package. Well done Turn 10. You’ve won us over.