Forza Motorsport 3 Hands On
Lee - Overlord Sep 18, 2009 at 15:54;)
As myself and Grahame walked into Microsoft HQ, we had a simple plan. He'd go have a look at ODST, which we'll talk about on Sunday, and I'll look at Forza 3. After all, I'd been playing Forza 2 all week, so I shouldn't look like too much of an idiot playing the game. But I need not have worried...much.
The build on show was pretty similar to the demo being released on the 24th, and was very bare bones. None of the career mode was available, nor could we tune the cars or check out the livery editor. What was available to us were 20 cars, 3 tracks and a variety of difficulty modes and assists, which could be customised to suit your ability. In this particular build, most of the assist options were available and could easily be adjusted using the preset options. You could also individually tune your driving experience by switching the individual assist on or off. Again, it's all down to preference.
;)
The first car I chose was the Mercedes SL 65 AMG Black (pictured left). A 661bhp RWD monster that's known to be a handful, but could easily be taken sideways around any track. So I, being the cocky fecker I am, decided to turn all the assists off and give it a bash around the twistiest track available. I also decided to give the force feedback wheel a go, which proved to be a wrong move, as five minutes later I still hadn't made it around the track. I couldn't get used to the steering wheel that Microsoft had provided. It was far too sensitive and the pedals were a nightmare. So I quickly reset and gave it another go with the controller.
This totally changed the experience I had with the game. From what was starting to be a very frustrating experience for me, quickly changed as soon as I had the controller in my hands. The car behaved exactly as I expected, and I was no longer fighting with the controller, but the 600+ hp beast that was on screen.
Having driven the Audi R8 and the Mitsubishi Evo X in real life, they were the next two cars for me to try out. To say I was shocked at how accurate the simulation actually is, would be an understatement. Both behaved as they would in the real world, producing an abundance of grip, with the R8 slightly easier to drift and the Evo X correcting itself if you go over it's limits, which is quite easy to do in Forza 3.
;)
All cars available in the game are fully damage modeled. Bumpers and wings crumple and fall off, paint chips and scrapes and you can now roll the cars over, with the latter being quite difficult to do. I only managed to roll a car over once, and was the only one on the day that managed to achieve such a feat of automotive destruction.
The visuals are truly outstanding, and the game zips along at a constant 60fps, even with all cars on screen. However in this particular build, there was a noticeable framerate drop when in the cockpit view. Though we were told this would be fixed in the final game, I doubt a constant 60fps would be achievable considering the amount of detail on the interiors. If they do manage it, they deserve a medal.
Overall it looks like Turn 10 have completely outdone themselves here. From the short demo we played, it looked and played amazingly well and there's no doubt about it, the physics simulation in Forza 3 is the best I've experienced on any console so far. I would have liked a more in depth look at the career mode, but with the game gone gold, I'm sure we'll get plenty of time to explore the game further before launch.
http://www.gmrfm.com/home/2009/9/18/forza-motorsport-3-hands-on.html
