Forza Motorsport 3 Review

[sambowie]

"It feels so good, in fact, that someone who has never played a racing game before but knows how to drive -- in this case, my wife, for which the last point is debatable..."

Oh snap!

[RumbleCard]

Re: Forza Motorsport 3 Review

Which wheel is good with this game? Never played with a wheel before, sounds fun.

[TCrouch]

Re: Forza Motorsport 3 Review

The MS Wireless wheel is what I used, and what the game seems to be designed around.

[CreatineKasey]

Great review, Terry. I am personally not a sim racing fan, but you really described your experience well. This is what I appreciate in reviews: I'd know what to expect if I got the game (a good expectation).

[bang911]

Thanks for the review. Months ago, hearing about this game, I expected it to be awesome, and now the reviews have shown that it is a great game. The last racing game I really liked was PGR2, and this looks to be much better than that. See ya'll online!

[Peninc]

This is an excellent review. I didnt expect it to be excellent but it was. The game sounds great and from the demo you could tell it would be a blast to drive. This is a MUST BUY

[BusterPosey]

Kick butt review. I wish this game was already out

[deepen03]

i like this game, but why no Acura's? I have a TSX and its a perfect car for a racing game like this. they always neglect Acura. I remember Forza 2 had the RSX, but they stopped making that 2 years before forza 2 came out! I have wanted to drive my TSX in a video game for so long.

[Nuggie]

Not sure if this has already been mentioned in the comments before me but you can change the angle of the cockpit view, making it more zoomed in or out, depending on what you prefer. Just head over to forzacentral.com and look in the FM3 forums, it's a sticky

[TCrouch]

Re: Forza Motorsport 3 Review

Yeah that was posted (at least here) well after the review. I can't change the content anymore here, but it's not a default camera--it's about as counter-intuitive as I can imagine having to set it to multi-screen just to change the FOV. But at least it works.

[SeaNNyT]

Re: Forza Motorsport 3 Review

Have had this game paid off for a while. Can't wait till next week.

[nosice]

So has anybody played both forza 3 and GT 5 and came up with an outcome.. i have both PS3 and 360... tend to lean towards 360 games because of the online... But im looking for a racing game..

[solofx7]

Re: Forza Motorsport 3 Review

So has anybody played both forza 3 and GT 5 and came up with an outcome.. i have both PS3 and 360... tend to lean towards 360 games because of the online... But im looking for a racing game..

I am truly not in a position to rate both, but I have both systems and both games.
I have had Forza for a much longer time, and recently went out of my way to upgrade to the oddly marketed and sold forza ultimate edition. I only say this because I am in the US and could not find the game at any retail locations. I had to eventually order it on Amazon. The reason I had to have this version is here nor there, because I had just about all of the DLC. I did want the extra cars and was willing to pay for them after my older version fetched a good price to offset the new copy.

Here are my thoughts on the games.
I think that Forza is a more open varied game. Making money is easier, driving has more options should you be a car person, but not a big driver. It is also a great game should you like to paint or build cars a specific way. To me it is a more "fun" game based on the options, variety, lack of all cars being "premium" looks to start the game, not having to play with horrible cars for a long time to progress, the game moving more smoothly and not feeling like such a grind to progress.

GT5.
In some aspects, I think that the game looks better, nearly photo realistic. That being said, to get to that point where you have the "premium" cars, it is very much a grind. I love car games, but I have always hated this about GT games. The first sections of the game are truly hurtful to the overall experience. They are truly "racing simulation" games. No matter how much you love cars, getting to the point where you have money and fun in the game is sort of a chore if thats not your thing. I love the game, the graphics, and the overall quality, but that barrier to entry to truly appreciate or love the game the way that it should be loved as an overall package is very high. You really have to work for a long time before you get good cars, and many of the beginning races/cars in the game have a jaggie/ps2 look to them that is inexcusable for a game that was being made for this long. Though there may be reasons for this, I cannot give Sony or Polophony a pass on this because as a game that I spent $60 on, it should be a complete game, and I do not feel that was about a huge number of the intro cars. I think that people will get turned off by the quality of some of the cars and the grind that it is to make progress in the game. that being said, I have had the same issue with GT games in the past, and I have reached out to my online race buddies to help me progress and make it past this. Finally I think that the progression system is somewhat broken. By this I mean, early in the game I will enter a race with a car that I think is great for that race, yet I keep losing. I look at the cars entered and then I check their prices. All too often there are cars in these races that I could not afford till later in the game and spec-wise price themselves out of the race/class so to speak. By this I mean, I may have spent maybe 150 to 200k on a car. I look at the other cars and I see cars competing and winning that cost 15+ million dollars. To me there is an issue there. Taking this scenario into account, I then spend a chunk of money on upgrades to make the best car available to me competitive to win these early races in the game and win a lot less money than I could win, am stuck with a car that is only good for specific races, and am in a position to not have enough money to repeat the process to win the subsequent races. These are my personal gripes with the game and the series.
That all being said, I love GT5 given these flaws and for the money you cannot go wrong. As NBA 2k11 is quoted as being a "love letter to MJ and basketball fans," GT5 with its 1100 cars is nearly the same thing to car fans. The sheer number of cars, events, quality of the tracks, detail given to the actual driving experience make this game a "racing game RPG of the highest order. I do not think that anyone would or could finish this game in a short period of time. Personally I love cars and love to collect them in the games. I hate giving them up, so having so many potential cars is mind blowing.

I am not sure what your budget is, but if it is low, then get Forza Ultimate Collection, you will not be disappointed.
If you are a middle of the pack person in regards to cars and games, then get Forza Ultimate Collection and a good wheel. Again, you will be a happy camper.
If you have a bit more money and are on the fence with these games, shop around for price and try to get both either used or on a good deal.
If money is not that big of a deal, then get both, and consider which one you would make better use of with a steering wheel.

I think both games are close in some regards, but far in others.
I love the cars, but am not so much on the racing part. Forza makes it easier for me to make choices to play the game I want. I can put on assists that cost me money, but make the game more accessible than it ever would have been. I can thus "not grind" collect cars and have money for cars when I need them. The ability to race following the season format or enter any race you want is also huge to me. It makes the game and the cars available where they night not have been otherwise. GT5 takes a different approach with their leveling and strict guidelines for entering races or even buying cars. Again I think that the decision breaks down to what you want out of the game and how you play. I cannot specifically say which is better, but I can say because I have both games that the experience is different and caters to different gaming types.They are close, but different. Finally, I am not a huge "race" kind of person, so other posters may be able to answer better as to which game technically recreates the experience better.

I truly hope this helps as this is the most typing I have done outside of school and work

[solofx7]

Re: Forza Motorsport 3 Review

So has anybody played both forza 3 and GT 5 and came up with an outcome.. i have both PS3 and 360... tend to lean towards 360 games because of the online... But im looking for a racing game..

oh and the other thing is I cannot speak for online stuff as I do not play online much if at all.
Though I can say that GT5 has some features that Forza does not have in that area.
GT5 has a daily used dealership/daily online dealership/different seasonal online events/daily museum cards, and other regularly updated online features that Forza does not that I am aware of. Forza does have a nice variety of DLC packs that have a nice variety of cars as well as making sure that you are getting a good set of quality cars for your money. Again you will get nearly all of the cars with the ultimate pack.

[nosice]

Hey solofx7... I appreciate all this information... after I posted this I thought I would probably get a whole lot of crap and some fanboys ... ie. "GT sucks"...lol

But This was awesome.. Here's the deal... I had forza 2... LOVED IT... But didnt get Forza 3 when it came out... GT. is new.. and is the only reason why Im even thinking of getting GT... THe only reason why Im still in limbo is the fact that everybody is giving GT high marks.. 8.5 IGN.. 8.5 here.. Which is pretty high..

Anyways I do appreciate the info.. And I think im going to go look for forza 3 Thanks again..