[BG Daz]

Forza 3 Demo impressions



The next in the Franchise, Will Turn 10 set the bar even higher ?

Microsoft have now made Gold their next instalment of the popular racing franchise they have built up Forza Motorsport 3, Along with the announcement they told of the Demo. A 1 track race with 5 cars just like the Forza 2 demo but this time with added scoreboards...

You get to race around the Camino Viejo racetrack, a mountain course inspired by roads outside of Barcelona, and you get to use a variation of 5 cars from a John Cooper Mini S up to a Porsche #80 Flying Lizard 911 GT3 RSR ...

After loading the demo you are met with a very clean Menu that looks very similar to the Finished games menus ...
You get to pick your Car then get the normal difficulty settings that you can change as per Forza 1 and 2 but now with the Added option of Auto Brake, I have to admit, This doesn’t belong in this game so I haven’t tried it out.

The demo definatley has longevity in it with the addition of Scoreboards, I have already gotten into Battles with friends as to who is the Fastest through the Car classes and this will undoubtly follow over to the full game...

So you pick your poison and are trusted into a 2 lap race against cars in the same class, the AI in the Demo are VERY good, they race clean but hard, squeezing you where they can and keeping a good line, unfortunately they still all seem to run around on the racing line (For the Demo at least) And I didn’t see them Deviate from it...

The Physics on the game are a definite step up from Forza 2, Forza 2 was a good base platform and you can see where the new Tyre physics and the running in the McLaren F1 simulator have paid dividends to the Feel of the game... Anyone who has turned a wheel on previous Iterations will feel right at home on the new one...

One thing that they have added into the game is the Rewind function, this came from Codemasters GRID and more recently DiRT 2, This lets you rewind the last 10 seconds of the race and replay it, so instead of having to restart the race, you get to try that corner again, interestingly though, unlike Codie’s take on the Feature, Turn 10 have given unlimited amount of Rewinds to the player.



At the end of the Race you get the replay options, this is by far some of the most in depth replay options I have ever seen an a Racing Game, there are a staggering amount of camera angles that shoes off the game and action perfectly.

The Game looks gorgeous, the 5 Cars are modelled meticulously well and the track looks visually stunning with some nice changed in lighting. The Cockpit views although looking great looked a little dark. The Damage model is second to none and the Underside of the Cars look great (Yes I have rolled the cars but I stick by the story it was for Review purposes only )

Turn 10 have obviously listened to the Gripes of consumers from Forza Motorsport 2 and have implemented more Audio options into the game so you can individually turn things down.

This Demo sets the tone for a blockbuster Racing Game that is due to hit stores on October 23rd, it also sets the bar Very high for its closest racing game rival Gran Turismo 5 ...

Look out for my full game review in early November...