Forza 3

[Ish]

season mode is just brilliant in this, and the rewind feature rather than being ill advised lets you really hang it out and go for fast (clean) laps without the fear of having to redo a 10min plus race because of one cock up near the end.

the Fuji mountain rally stages are stunning, I've gone up to hard and am sliding an old 70s Datsun 510 with a rust paint job round the most beautiful sweeping stages.

Agreed - the season mode makes it so addictive. It really gives it that one more race feeling.

And Fuji - sweet christ if it wasn't for rewind the first time I tackled super lap on there the pad would have been out the window. Those twists and turns are a nightmare for a "challenged" driver like me (i.e. I'm crap).

[Ish]

You've got to admire the attention to detail too. I took a photo of the dashboard of my R8 and the clock was showing the right time.

[merf]

the whole package oozes attention to detail and is of a very high quality. I love the menus and clean look of them, they make even the most basic of cars stand out and look interesting.

I'm finding it interesting how some of what would appear the lesser cars are actually huge fun, sometimes more so than what you would think. I mentioned the lovely RWD 70s Datsun, I also enjoyed attempting to coax a Range Rover round some tracks as its tyres nearly popped off the rims.

A hugely impressive game that gets so much right for my tastes, whilst Gran Turismo leaves me cold.

[TheForce]

I loving it more and more ! I also notice I'm watching replays more often then I ever did with Forza, this really is looking quite amazing...
some lovely shots of the GT3 RS

[sharky_ob]

Need some advice from those of you more au fait with the tuning options.

My Chevrolet Aveo5 LT when tuned for class C races has enough power to compete but is really struggling with understeer. It?s a FWD car to from what I understand understeer is common but this is really impacting the speeds I can tackle corners, having to slow down much more than most opponents on the very sharpest bends.

I went back to stock parts and whilst overall performance was slower, handling was much improved and I could take the corners at higher speeds.

Is there any tuning options I can tinker with to help combat this understeer?

To get rid of understeer the best thing to do would be to use race anti roll bars front and rear. Set the front ones slightly softer than the rears and see what difference it makes. Race springs will help too.

This game is amazing. The handling is so sweet and all the cars I've tried have been fun to drive. Fujimi Kaido and Amalfi Coast are the best tracks I've ever raced on in a game.

I've been doing quite well selling stuff from my storefront too. My transformers designs seem quite popular

Hope they sort out the online side of it soon though. The playlists really are a poor idea.

[Ish]

The R8 is so much fun to drive. I want one.

[Malc]

I'm ok with the online side of things. I mean, it suits my playstyle of just being able to immediately find a lobby with similar skilled opponents and do a quick race or two.

I don't really see what's wrong with them, maybe if someone can explain?

[copperband]

I'm loving this, have to say I enjoyed Forza 2 but got a bit bored with it as it didn't offer me the same compelling reason to keep playing as this does.

I really like the competition element which is hardly orginal but seems to be well implemented, i like the 3 short races that lead up to the bigger race at the end of the fortnight.

I progresseed the RS focus last night and couldn't believe how much faster everything was compared to the trusty Abarth I used for the first season. Quite how fast it will all seem by the time I get to the supercars remains to be seen but it's a nice progression so far.

Now, a very basic question.....I have played video games since the ZX Spectrum and clearly moving from playing on Keys to a pad was a grweat move when the master system came along.

I have had every console since then and played driving games loads but always resisted (for whatever reason) buying a wheel.

I am now wondering if that time has finally come?
My question is though am I going to hate it and want to return to the pad as it is what I'm used to or am I going to need a bit of practice but never look back at the pad for driving games again?

I tend to be lazy with driving games and always play gears on Auto and whilst I like the in car view in some games I always tend to resort to the near chase view when things get more challenging.

So what do you think for Forza 3, will it enrich the experience?

[Kubrick]

I'm ok with the online side of things. I mean, it suits my playstyle of just being able to immediately find a lobby with similar skilled opponents and do a quick race or two.

I don't really see what's wrong with them, maybe if someone can explain?

As far as I can see, if you want to setup a lobby with friends, it has to be a private race that no-one else can join. In FM2, you could have random players join and fill out the rest of the grid. The best you can do here is have AI players, but they're useless and might as well not be there.

Also, what's with making A class the minimum allowed in online races?

[Fat_Bob]

The wheel (offiical) works so well with Forza 3. They've really got the sense of grip nailed in terms of when you start to wheelspin you can sense it in the wheel and start to let off. It also allows you to turn in using precise increments of control. It also makes using the new in car view a real treat although I couldn't find a way to turn you head which is a shame.

Overall I highly recommend it and personally think it brings a lot to the game. I also used to think that by using the wheel you were handicapped against people playing with pads online but I haven't noticed this as much in F3. I do play bumped cam online tho as some of the in car views can be a bit restrictive.

[Bassman]

You can race in any class in a private race.

[merf]

received an ingame mail with a link to set off the download of the LCE theme, for 13mb it seems a bit underwhelming, just a blue sky background from what I can see.

I'm up to level 24 and struggling a bit on hard with the R3 cars, I had to spend a fortune on one and picked a Viper which I'm finding a bit tail happy and heavy to get round the bends.

Best career mode in a racer I can recall, all the better for not having loads of extreme music and american idiots blathering on all the time at you about how 'rad' your new paintjob is.

[Kubrick]

The career seems even longer than that of FM2. Miles longer if you want the Solid Gold achievement.
I hit level 50 the other day and I'm halfway through Year 6 but I've still only done 22% of the events according to my stats page.

[TheForce]

I'm now racing with the R3 cars... I bought straith the Ferrari 430... the car is damn hard to drive, it's incredibly nervous on the gas, got wheel spin in 3rd gear going through the corners... it's much harder to drive as in Forza2.... Bought afterwards a Porsche R3 and that one is much much easier to drive.

Also played a few ranked races online yesterday, the racing itself worked just fine, but the whole lobbysystem is making no sense to me at the moment, I liked it much better in the previous game... but this is only my first impression, I will give it some more time during the weekend to see if I maybe missed something...
Does someone know maybe if it's possible to join a friend who is racing in a ranked lobby ? that would be bit better already...

The career seems even longer than that of FM2. Miles longer if you want the Solid Gold achievement.
I hit level 50 the other day and I'm halfway through Year 6 but I've still only done 22% of the events according to my stats page.

yeah, I think I will never finish the SP side of this game... It's really huge... I will play it to level 50 to get all the price cars and from there on I will only pick the races which seems fun to me, I'm already skipping (where possible) the F, E, D and C car races... from B onwards the cars are fun to race with, but everything below is not really interesting for me..

[sharky_ob]

You can race in any class in a private race.

Wow, can you? Thanks for being so helpful.

I'm now racing with the R3 cars... I bought straith the Ferrari 430... the car is damn hard to drive, it's incredibly nervous on the gas, got wheel spin in 3rd gear going through the corners... it's much harder to drive as in Forza2.... Bought afterwards a Porsche R3 and that one is much much easier to drive.

You can sort this with some basic setup changes. My F430GT is much better behaved now - I'll put the setup on my storefront for you.

Edit - Available now.