Buckle your seatbelts and get ready for the ride of your life!

 
Forza motorsport 3 will be available exclusively on the Xbox360 machine and will provide petrol heads and Sunday drivers alike with the chance to experience racing in its purest form. With over 400 cars, 100 tracks and a thriving online community, FM3 is set to provide players with the most comprehensive racing experience available. Can you tell that I am excited?

 


 
In Forza Motorsport 3 you, the player, are charged with reaching the upper echelons of the racing community from the very humblest of beginnings. Upon first starting the game, you will be required to drive an Audi in a quick 2 lap introduction race. After that, the player will have the opportunity to choose their first car, from a collection of cars that any boy racer would be proud hang their fluffy dice from. The cars are standard factory spec models, of course. But this can all be changed as the game progresses.

 


 
From here on in, every race that you compete in will earn you experience points and hopefully cash. This cash can be spent on buying any of the cars (all of the cars are unlocked, you only have to supply the money) or improving the cars you already own. The cars are divided into different classes, ranging from the lowliest F class through to the A class, the S classed super cars and R3, R2 and R1 classed racing cars. These classes are used as restrictions in races, to make sure that everyone is on a level playing field. From the Cars option on the main menu the player will have the chance to check out the cars that they own, or go and browse the huge selection of machines available from the numerous dealerships.

 


 
On the main menu, you have the option to Go Race. This will take you into the season play, event list or multiplayer. The season play will offer the chance to compete through a calendar of events, chosen specifically based on the cars that you own and the races you have previously chosen. The event list will show you all of the events that are available within the season play. This is a whopping 220 events for the player to compete in, from a simple F class race to a crazy fast R1 experience. Multiplayer is where you can take the racing online. Join up with friends, or complete strangers, and compete in a collection of different race types, such as timed, drift, drag, tag and elimination, to name a few. Remember that you will still receive xp for racing online.

 


 
Choosing upgrade from the main menu will let you get your hands dirty with your car. There are quick upgrade options available to those without the blood of a grease monkey flowing through their veins. However, for the petrol heads out there, full tuning and upgrading is available. Visit the upgrade shop to purchase new parts and then go into the tuning area and try to get that little bit more acceleration from your car. The possibilities are endless. You can even change the tyre pressure!

 


 
For the artists amongst you, the paint option will be your first port of call. Paint your car from a selection of different finishes and then get busy with the vinyls. It is here that so many people spent their time in Forza 2, coming up with the most incredible designs for their cars. Using the tools within this section, some time and patience, you can create any look you could possibly think of for your four wheeled pride and joy.

 


 
The storefront gives the player the chance to download other people’s photos and replays, buy tuning setups, designs and vinyl groups and even sell your own. There is in-game money to be made if you are good with tuning or designing. Take photos of your most awesome racing moments, or make a movie to show off your progress, and then put them in your storefront for others to enjoy. And there is a good reason to do this…

 


 
The leader boards. FM3 has a great collection of leader boards for you to climb, and not just for racing. Along with the customary circuit and time trial leader boards, FM3 features boards for drag, drift, oval, p2p, tuner, graphic artist, designer, photographer and director. There is indeed a leader board for everyone.

 


 
The player is able to set the difficulty at any time in the game. Choose from casual, regular, serious or customize the difficulty to suit. The addition of autobraking along with other driver assists makes for a simple game for novices to enjoy. Damage can be turned from cosmetic to realistic for the experts amongst you. With a selection of choices to make the game easier or harder, this game truly caters for all levels of driver.

 


 
The addition of a new rewind function will also be a valuable addition for the newcomers to video game racing. You have the ability to rewind a race to before you made that fatal mistake and retry it, and there is no limit to the number of times that this option can be used.

 


 
The game comes on two discs, with the second disc containing an additional optional install. It is not mandatory to install the extra content, however not doing so may lead to a lesser experience in the game. The extra content consists of more than 100 cars and a selection of tracks and installs to about 1.9GB. Even without this extra content installed, there is still a whole lot of game to enjoy. But surely everyone’s going to want more cars?

 


 
First off this review is based on the fact that I’m not a huge driving fan as I don’t have a lot of experience when it comes down to racing car games, so I‘m a bit of a newbie. So initially when I had hands on with Forza 3 some weeks ago, I literally was thrown in at the deep end. In a way I think that was a good thing, because I wasn’t judging it on previous titles. This really was a newborn experience for me.

 


 
Trying the game for the first time it was a truly great experience, mainly because I think FM3 has a learning curve to it, being that you can be at any level from beginner to even a child picking this game up or if you’re a more advanced driver then it takes you to the whole professional side of driving. Not only does it give you a choice of such a wide selection of cars, within twenty minutes or so most of the cars are unlocked which was great. I tried out on the F class mainly because I wasn’t confident to try out the higher class cars. I’m glad I did in some ways because I had to get used to the handling and steering of the vehicle.

 


 
There is the suggested green line that came in handy as it provides you with the correct optimum driving route and gives you insight into where to brake and slow down. Believe me when I say that I did come off the corners quickly. Mainly because I was going around the track like a woman on a mission. Auto braking was my friend to be honest, if it wasn’t for that I probably would have crashed into several barriers or I would have been spinning around in circles on the grass. The funny thing is, after playing on it for a few hours my confidence started to grow and my curiosity for the higher class cars grew. Slowly I was beginning to get the hand of the driving and felt more confident at the wheel. I did eventually take out the R1 and R2 cars and how mad was that as I was screeching around the corners.

 


 
The rewind function is a god send if you spend a life time of crashing. It gives you the option to rewind and redo areas that previously you may not have been good at, although I would not recommend using it all the time as I feel that would alter the whole experience. So at the beginning of this review I’ve told you I’m not a big fan of driving cars, but what I didn’t say is that it changed my mind completely. If anything after playing FM3, it actually made me want to play it more and driving became something I enjoyed and loved for the very first time. So it’s a good sign that this game is actually doing some good. It teaches people about cars and racing, but also shows what you can do with your car if you want to upgrade. This is a game where you can tune everything up from the pressure in your tyres to changing the steering, braking etc. I think FM3 works hard on the physics side of things this time round giving you so much option for you to be in control of what your car can manage to the colourful vinyl’s you can stick all over it.

 


 
Graphically it was absolutely amazing; I don’t think I can say it had any flaws in its design and intricate detail on each of the cars. The sound was amazing and attention to detail of the cars is at the highest level. The driving of these beautiful cars is truly a great one, it’s a fantastic game and if anything I’ve come away feeling that it really is the ultimate driving experience.