Forza Motorsport 3 Comments

"While PlayStation 3 devotees wait patiently for Gran Turismo 5 to finally appear, Microsoft has stolen the ball with Forza Motorsport 3. With sublime handling, beautiful modelling, a compelling career mode, and more polish than a crate of Mr Sheen, Forza Motorsport 3 is an object lesson in game design and presentation. Put simply, the best driving game ever!"

this comment makes you like a complete 360 fanboy, this website has become a joke, hungry for hits. FM3 is very good game but its way far from being the best driving game ever.

It might just be me, but the environments look bland.

Are those all in-game shots? Some of the rendering looks too good to be true...

... and a pc version will be released when? =)

Had my first online sesh with some chums last night. It's pure class.

I'm struggling to see how this can be a 10/10 when there are manifest problems with the AI and damage system. Still, the review is a significant improvement over the horrendous review of Forza 2 (the complaints about the Focus ST being a low point for TRs more generally).

"Still, the review is a significant improvement over the horrendous review of Forza 2 (the complaints about the Focus ST being a low point for TRs more generally)."

Are you for real?! And I thought I could get away from the wee girls over on IGNs forums! What is it about computer games/consoles/reviews that gets so many hot under the collar!

IT'S JUST SOMEONES OPINION! Jesus.

My thoughts for this can be summed up in one word....

WANT!

I'm glad you liked it so much Riyad, but unless I'm misunderstanding you a lot of the improvements you're claiming in Forza 3 were already in Forza 2. For example, the situation wherein upgrading your car too fast would push you into the next class was present in no.2. I recall spending plenty of time balancing my upgrades so I didn't push into an A class.

10/10 != perfection

if it were no game would ever deserve a 10 or probably even a 9

@Ahlan Metacritic lists 5 sites giving it 100/100. Maybe it's the best ever, maybe not but it is a personal opinion and I at least can manage to read it as such. This is the best site on the web for reviews and if you find it a joke then it's your loss.

Frankly if Forza and GT5 were not tossing the crown of best racing game ever back and forth between one another with each subsequent iteration, I'd be worried. These are the two premier franchises in racing and if you assume incremental improvement each time, then they should be the best ones out there. The likes of Project Gotham and NFS have been steadily improving but they're still a league below these two. Perhaps the next version of GRID will be more serious

Jones, calm down, only one of us is typing in caps and getting hot under the collar, and it's not me. I've given specific issues with both this and the Forza 2, both of which are, as you observe, are just someone's opinion. If opinion and counter opinion are something you find troubling then you'd best avoid the internet altogether.

Thanks to the postal strike I got my copy of Forza 3 yesterday. I finally went to bed at 2:30am after saying "this is my last race" at about 1am! I'm a big racing game fan but sadly also one with very little time but for me this game is excellent and much improved over Forza 2. I've played Gran Turismo Prologue and unless they pull something out of the bag with the final release Forza 3 is going to walk all over it. Just before you call me an Xbox/Forza3 fanbois I'm lucky enough to own both an Xbox and a PS3 so consider my opinion quite well balanced.

As for Forza3 being the best racing game ever? No way, it's the 2nd best racing game ever as TOCA2 (the one before Codemasters started the "Race Driver" series) still holds that crown for me. ;)

wow just got the limited edition version this morning and its a great game. just had a go in a bugatti veyron and a ferrari FXX followed by a DBS

It is very difficult to compare this game, with an unreleased one (GT5)..i think we should all wait before making any assumptions as the gran turismo series has never failed to dissapoint..

@Ahlan:this comment makes you like a complete 360 fanboy, this website has become a joke, hungry for hits.

How exactly does this make TR hungry for hits?

Anyway, I bet there is a good chance the OP has both consoles, and has has left school by now.

ps. A free virtual chocolate bar to the one who can spot the PS3 fanboy :)

For the record I haven't played this game or even read the review for that matter, but I don't see how you can compare this to GT5 when it still isn't due to be released for nearly another year. It may be the best racing game on the market at the moment (though you have had to play every other racing game on the market to come to that conclusion), but I think the comparisons should wait until you have actually played the game you are comparing it to (GT5:P was a fraction of what the final game will be, and was released 18 months ago quite early on in development).

Also, 'best' depends on the type of racing game you prefer and which you find more enjoyable. Some will be much happier in games like GRID, DIRT or NFS: Shift than the more realistic sims like Forza and GT5.

Marko, don't spit the dummy out please. I'm just fed up with reading about people whinging over the quality of reviews. TR thankfully largely avoids this in non gaming areas. I'm merely pointing out that the sort of reactions to a review as seen in places like IGN, NME and now here (to a limited degree) are verging on pathetic. Sounds more like bitter wannabe journalists who can't get a job more than anything else to be frank.

By all means discuss the game and any reasonable points raised in the review but complaining about its 10/10 score for the reasons written is splitting hairs. GTAIV wasnt devoid of faults, for example, but is still very much a 10/10 game for a number of reasons. I can think of faults in Mario 64 or Zelda 64 too but would still rate them the highest score.

Im just glad TR refrains from using decimels or rating out of 100. Some of the arguments on IGN regarding whether a game should get 9.3 or 9.1 are beyond me.

Hehehe http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/video_game_flowchart.jpg

Good review - as "Energizer Bunny" pointed out in his comments... the car class system was already an integral part of Forza 2.

I blame this small error on Riyad getting too many cool things to look at & review - the excitement is clearly messing with his mind ;-)

I like how Turn 10 turned 25 blandish tracks into 100 using the rewind feature. Personally I got bored with the 30sec-1min loading times I'm really no petrol head this game bored me to tears.

Forza 3 looks fantastic, maybe the best rendered car models ever seen on a console, detailed, dynamic colourful scenery with nice textures, whilst still shining through with silky smooth 60 fps frame rate.

And more than any other racer, it has *the right feel* - nice physics that actually let you spin opponent cars realistically (if that's your thing). Even if it's not your thing - there's nothing more jarring than slamming into a car at speed in Gran Tourismo only for it to continue 'on rails' unaffected.

Before anyone flames me - Gran Tourismo is great - but it has ignored a couple of important aspects of racing for far too long - and for me at least, Forza is right at the cutting edge of racing games - perfectly balancing the needs of both casual action-adrenalin junkies and serious sim-pumping petrol-heads alike.

Maybe Sony/Polyphony will pull it back again with GT5 - but they have a tough act to follow with Forza 3 playing such a strong hand here on all kinds of levels.

Ugh, please best sim racer ever? Don't make me laugh. GTR2 by SimBin still owns that crown. Also please don't compare it to GT5, you haven't played GT5, unless of course you went to TGS or the Tokyo Motor Show.

Also no G25 no buy, until MS allow third party wheels Forza will always be behind GT, the standard MS racing wheel is really awful and bad for serious sim racing gamers.

To people comparing Forza 3 to GT5 Prologue, please don't. Prologue hasn't been updated for nearly a year, while GT5 has been under continuing development, the version I played in Tokyo was pretty good, some tearing and framerate issues, but with the release date still months away I'm sure Kaz will fix them all.

Do reviewers seriously have to start appending "in my opinion" to every sentence, in order to stop you guys from saying "NO MY OPINION IS BEST NOT YOURS"?

You people must have very violent, argumentative lives.

Where's Cub?

GT5 will disappoint. Meet me here in several months.

Oh, and to those who aren't aware and keep replying to him: Ahlan is a hardcore PS3 fanboy, so just ignore.

I think some perspective needs to be sought here. Games are good or bad depending on their time of release. Half Life is one of the best games ever, and I still maintain that after playing the latest modern batch of shooters.

I gave a friend Half Life to play having never encountered it before and they hated it. The graphics were bad, the controls difficult etc...it was nothing on the latest games. That's exactly it. 10/10 is representative of a really great game at the particular moment in time.

Don't think of a game you played ten years ago that was subjectively better. It's simply not a current game hence cannot be reviewed as such. When you realise this fact you'll find yourself relaxing and not getting hung up so much on scores.

I actually wish reviewers would get rid of scores and simply give an concluding opinion coupled with an award such as "one to take on a desert island" if brilliant or "play it. trade it" if it has little replay value. Of course none of these would ever be the same (because people would bring up the same scoring judgements", plus looking at it, the reader instantly gets the gist of what the game was like especially if looking up old reviews.

@DrDark - Hi <waves> were you expecting me? I try to be logical when I can, I've not played the game, but it looks great - the developers are kids, but that's not to say they can't make a good game. And as has been pointed out, so little is known about GT5 it's a pointless argument. Anywho, see you here in several months ;)

And Ahlan is hardcore, even I've argued with him before about his fanboi rhetoric...

@Gordon, It's probably a testament to your reputation now, but I normally look out for the editors choice mark straight after the title. I appreciate you need to give scores; without them what would Metacritic aggregate :)

Also has anyone else noticed the TR Recommended logo in technology stores and advertising? Soon they'll have them printed straight onto the boxes!

No you definitely have to keep the scores, it is the first thing i look at in reviews, as they generally summerize each aspect of the game up, as well as the conclusion. So don't drop the scores :)

Not played Forza 3 but i will be purchasing it next week, it looks superb, just about every site thats reviewed it have given it a top rating. So it looks as if 360 owners really do have an alternative to the Grand Tourismo series now.

az

Personally I prefer Project Gotham. Forza and GT are just too realistic (read boring) for me. Each to their own though.

Best racer ever is surely the original Mario Kart. No?

@Jones "I'm just fed up with reading about people whinging over the quality of reviews."

Then don't read them. The reality of the internet, irrespective of your little tantrum, is that people will debate opinions. If that's something that makes you fed up and unable to respond without petty insults then I'd suggest you don't participate in such discussions.

@darkspark88 - I have to disagree with you there, games don't just become worse with age, and there are games more than 10 years old that I would still give a 10/10 to today (with, rather ironically, Half-Life being one of them, and yes, I have played it recently). While they may have been limited by technology in what they could do and the scale they could achieve, if you take a moment to look past the dated graphics there is still the same level of innovation and storytelling present in the games as there is today, if not more so as games back then were more a labour of love than a source of profits for the developers.

While I will not disagree that the overall standard of games is increasing, probably due to the larger budgets available for them, I also believe there is a certain point beyond which the age of the game simply doesn't matter. Take Half-Life 2 for example - it's 5 years old now and I am still yet to come across a game since then that has eclipsed it, or even come close for that matter (though Crysis was mightily enjoyable, the story just wasn't there). You could probably say that's due to the fact that many of today's games still use the source engine so it doesn't look particularly dated, and you'd be right, but I think it goes beyond that. I think beyond a certain level of realism things start to plateau out, the differences between the newer and older games become more subtle so you don't think, subconsciously or otherwise, that you're playing an older game. Games are all about immersion, and this is achieved to a large extent by the graphics, so as long as they're good enough to make the game world believable and consume you within it (which also needs the helping hand of a captivating story), then the game will become infinitely more enjoyable.

Of course, I could be wrong, but I really hope I'm not. If I am, then it will truly be a sad day when Half-Life 2 is no longer considered a 'good' game.


Oh, and @Riyad, my comments weren't aimed at you (as I said I hadn't even read the review), but more at the subsequent commenters ;)

Happy Birthday BTW!

@Riyad: Oh, Happy Birthday! and Kol sana wenta tayeb, for good measure (not sure if you can read that, but what the heck).

@Cub: *waves back*

Marko, simply stating "then don't read them" isn't exactly a good argument! I don't like polution in the air - should I stop breathing then?! As I said before, which you seem to agree with, feel free to debate opinions. Lets just avoid the moaning about review quality as it comes across as a little bit loserish.

"It is very difficult to compare this game, with an unreleased one (GT5)..i think we should all wait before making any assumptions as the gran turismo series has never failed to dissapoint.."
I agree that it isnt right to compare the two yet but would have to say that for me and a few people i know, GT4P, GT4 & GT5P have all dissapointed (except in the visual side of things.)
I for one was lucky enough to get mine yeterday also (thanks shopto.net) and am impressed with my whopping 30 mins of play i manged before having to go to bed :-(

@Darren:
I think you need to go back and read Himesh's statement again, very carefully.
Unless it really was a very witty slip of the finger...

@drdark, Cub:
You pair are a hoot, and perhaps more than a little camp.... :)

But to return to topic, I'm seriously considering trawling eBay for an Xbox just so I can own this game, and I hate consoles.

It's Friday afternoon again, so I thought I'd pile into the 43 comment debate...

I think smc8788 has put it most wisely; as long as the graphics of a game are convincing for the time then the game can be very immersing if a good story / plot / realism hangs it together.
For me this can be subjective though.
I thought Halo was a ground breaking game at the time and I used to play it at every opportunity for years. However, I recently bought it on Xbox Classics download looking forward to a nostalgic few evenings of play, and was royally disappointed and didn't play more than 30minutes as my expectations (of graphics, depth, atmosphere, alien AI, realism, sandbox freedom.....) had all moved on considerably; so it just wasn't immersive or compelling any more.

That's the point with Forza3 I guess.
My current view is that F2 rocks. But give me more realism, better sensation of speed, better rendering of real world tracks and more comprehensive car detail and I'll no doubt want to move on to the next thing.

Right now that next level is Forza3.

GT5 isn't out yet, so doesn't warrant any debate of comparison, any more than comparing to Forza4 or Forza5....

Oh, almost forgot-
@Max Power: Need for Speed Shift is by a lot of the same people as GTR2.

After reading all these comments about Forza, GT, NFS blah . . . I thought i'd see what the hype about this game is. For starters i own F1 & 2, NFS Shift, PGR 2-4, GRID and played GT 2-4 to death at mates houses. After F2 which was good but lacking i didn't pre order this game assuming more of the same, but today decided i'll download the demo, no harm.

After half a lap around that track in the Audi R8 i realised that this is BY FAR the best sim/racer i have played. I fired up amazon and ordered the special edition. The feel of actual grip is just surreal, the analogue sensitivity of the controls with aids turned off is perfect and (after playing GRID on pc for 2 months on max settings) it looks mighty fine.

Ok 10/10 is strong, but i'm sure it deserves a high 9. Bring on GT5 is what i say but i'm now highly doubting its going to top this . . .

i think the person writing the review is either not a gamer that really knows his driving games or has gone a little bit over the top with a 10/10 and saying it's the best driving game ever. I've always enjoyed the trusted reviews and this one is not to be trusted. While it's a great review of the game, saying the above isn't right. There are many other driving games/sims that will knock the socks of Forza3 in some areas but certainly not all.

@Jimi: 9.8 rounded = 10 :)
@Bandare: From the reviewer's POV, it's a 10. IOW: Riyad believes it's the best game ever, please feel free to disagree, just remember at the end of the day it's HIS POV, would you he rather not give his opinion? (wound't be much of a review if he did like)

I'm not a fan of driving games my previous qualifications extend as far as GT3 and Dirt 1. On a second play through of Forza 3, 10/10 is absolutely right, TRUSTED REVIEWS WERE RIGHT, I WAS WRONG.

Best driving simulator game yet bar none, so good it's really hard to put down. I don't care for GT5 as I don't have or wish for a PS3, if it's going to top this is needs a serious tune up.

@Keith: I do understand it's his view but we are coming here to get the best and trusted reviews on things, are we not? This, to me, is based upon a comprehensive knowledge of the area in question to be able to give that review. I'm just rather surprised (as many others here) that this game has been given a 10/10. Incredibly surprised! For that reason, I made my comments as I think to say it's the best game ever (that is or has been released to date) is such a huge accolade that honestly, doesn't stand up to the many other places where reviews have been written.

@Bandare:
- I don't think even anyone on TR is big-headed enough to say they have the "best" reviews on everything.
- "Many" others are not surprised.
- The "many other places where reviews have been written" generally place Forza 3 within the '9' or above bracket; and since TR don't do fractions, it actually fits in quite nicely.
- Riyad's "view" can at least be afforded 1 point of the score, either way. He enjoyed it so much that he decided to add that point. Get over it.

@riyad
My first playthrough was in a Fiesta with no assists ;)
I have niggles, damage model, track reversals but i am being a real nitpick, the tracks are sublime. This game gets better the more you play, a rare USP, I will duck your challenge I am ONLY 3.3%, due to auctions and MS paint :)

@Andy: Apologies I forgot to come back to the comments. I ordered it from Game and they sent it via RM if I recall correctly. They emailed me the week before to say they'd be shipping early.

In response to other comments, yes I understand GT5:Prologue is very old and I'm sure GT5 when it's released will be amazing graphically and physics. I just think that unless they've done a turn around and implemented crash damage then it'll just be about bouncing off the crash barriers like it always has.

Forza 3 is the first racing game I've played with all assists turned off and I believe that is because the physics engine is so good that I can "feel" the car and correct stearing/accelleration to keep me heading in a straight line. Totally loving Forza 3.