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| Source // Giant Bomb |
I must confess that all these racing games have really started to blur into each other as I jump around history looking for my next fix of rubber-wheeled metal boxes waiting to be hurled around tracks of all kinds, real or imagined.
I've done the DiRT series beginning with 3 and ending with 2, which we'll get to very soon. Once I learned that Race Driver: Grid used that engine, or a version of it, I was absorbed in that. Then I had the great fortune of having bought Grid 2 at some point in the past, so got to enjoy that 2013 game for the first time in 2021. Chuck in the first Project Cars and I honestly couldn't tell you what was actually going on in 2009 when Forza Motorsport 3 was released.
The best comparison I can make is, of course, to Gran Turismo, which at the time was honestly making Gran Turismo 5, no, really, we won't delay it again, here's Gran Turismo on the PSP while you wait. So racing games looked pretty good, okay. That's a start.
As mentioned previously, I've come to the Forza series very late and through board gaming. Spoilers: They're the things that you find on the back of cars. Actual spoilers: I'm probably going to spend the afternoon playing some more Forza Motorsport 3.
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
Fun Times
I was lead to believe that Forza Motorsport 2 was more but better. A new console, new possibilities. Forza Motorsport 3 is even better. Noticeably improved graphics and a slick presentation with crisp white menus make the experience far more polished and professional than FM2 felt.
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
Diving into some racing, you're whisked away to a fictional circuit in the Montserrat mountains to take in some stunning sights both on and off track. These screenshots will have a hint of bullshot about them, but not much. The cars really do look this shiny, the landscape really is that detailed, and if it whizzes past you too quickly, you can jab the back button to rewind the race a short distance and try again.
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
The racing itself feels pretty damn good, too. While Gran Turismo was still on the face buttons, Forza was forging ahead with the triggers as your peddles, offering more control over your accelerator and braking inputs, and there are a fair few assist options to allow novice drivers to just hold the 'Go' button while the car does the boring stuff like braking.
Those assists and the difficulty you choose are important for the career mode, which is where I want to be no matter how many distractions Forza might want to tempt me with: shopfronts to show off your decals and car liveries... slow down, Forza, you're a racing game, let's race.
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
FM2 felt a bit like an RPG, where experience points were dished out and levelling up was all the rage. In FM3, experience and levelling returns, with a driver system tracking how well you're doing, with manufacturers throwing cars your way when you level up, and a shorter car-specific system where discounts to the upgrade parts are awarded for sticking with a car for more than a race or two.
Cars follow the same letter and number system as before, the performance rating of your car giving you an easy to understand rough idea of how good your car is, and each race gives you the option of quicking buying recommended upgrades for your car at the press of a single button, eliminating the requirement for knowing what air filters or suspension setups will do for your vehicle.
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
You might then think that FM3 strays towards the arcade side of things, but I don't think it does at all. The detailed options to tinker with your car are there, but it's all more accessible to those of us that just want to race.
The career mode is as no-nonsense as the menus. It's split into seasons and you've got a calendar to fill while the seasons' main championship takes place. Pick and choose which of the events you want to enter, pass the time between championship rounds levelling up your car or trying new ones in their own specific championships, and before you know it, you're climbing up the rankings with a garage full of cars you can slap your own liveries onto.
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
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I haven't gone into the customization stuff yet. It's rather in-depth, and it has to be if Forza allows its players to unleash their designs into the community in a similar fashion to FM2 - if it's called a storefront and not a driver profile, you know they mean business.
What I have gone into is just plugging away at the career mode. There are more than 200 events to take part in here, and while it takes the structure of a calendar of events, you can hop out and view the grid of events you're eligible for and just get stuck in. Forza wants you to just do what you want to do, I guess, but hopes you'll work to unlock it all.
With difficulty scaling providing more rewards for a harder challenge, you'll find a way to make progress with ease, and this time around, you won't be stuck driving around the same bloody test track for your first few hours.
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
Frustrations
That said, the game is quite menu-driven, and as such feels a little clinical. In Gran Turismo, you explore the world, through a menu, yes, but it feels like you're going across town to view a certain dealership, or get your car washed, or take another license test. In Forza Motorsport 3, you press the button to advance to the next thing, and if you want to not do the thing and work on your car a little, you flick through the menus to find the thing you want to do.
As I say, though, the presentation of the game as a whole is so much better than FM2 that you simply may not care about all the menus. They look fab, as do the replays of your AI opponents making absolute tits of themselves.
Maybe it was the difficulty level I was on at the time, but while I never had a crash as bad as that (plenty of scruffs and dents, though), I would see opponents just drive off the circuit at nearly full speed and stack it into a tyre wall or beach themselves in a gravel trap.
On the one hand, it makes the AI feel far more human than Gran Turismo. On the other, these instances were absolutely bizarre, and make it look like the game is broken. A minor point in the grand scheme of things.
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| Source // Giant Bomb |
Final Word
While I'm still lost in the history of racing games, wondering who did what first and which game had the best graphics at this point in time, I can say for sure - and did in fact say in the opening few paragraphs - that I would be playing more Forza Motorsport 3, for the simple reason that it is a solid racing game that you can just play in the background while listening to a podcast or something.
I'm not desperate to conquer every single event and crown myself as the champion of champions. I don't want to buy all the cars, tune them to the nth degree, or tart them up in a God-awful looking livery (though I probably do have to see how silly I could get with that at some point). What I want is a chill enough game that can occupy my hands while most of my brain is elsewhere.
That almost makes Forza Motorsport 3 sound a bit generic, but if anything it's the opposite. It's such a stellar title that it caters for folks who want the sim rig side of things as much as it caters for casuals like me.
My car isn't fast enough, what are my options? New car? Don't like any that I can afford. Quick Upgrade? Yeah, what does that do, makes things a bit better, great, let's try that. Okay, getting somewhere with this. Ooh, another manufacturer has just given me a better car for my impressive performance, well, it seems I've got plenty of options now.
And that's my Forza Motorsport 3. Pick a car for the job and don't worry about the details. Win some, lose some, that's racing, and it happens to take place across environments that look fantastic, with details you'll never see unless you're looking for them, just like the cars you're racing in.
For those of you that want a smooth, clean racing experience, driving everything from old classics to city runarounds to supercars, Forza Motorsport 3 has you covered and then some.
Fun Facts
Were these drivers crashing out succumbing to the pressure of me catching up to them? An updated AI model does feature drivers making mistakes when pressured, but outright driving off the track is still a little extreme as far as mistakes go.
Forza Motorsport 3, developed by Turn 10 Studios, first released in 2009.
Version played: Xbox 360, 2009.