Video Game Vintage Title: Forza Motorsport 3

Forza Motorsport 3

Forza Motorsport 3 is a racing video game developed for Xbox 360 by Turn 10 Studios. It was released in October 2009. It is the sequel to Forza Motorsport 2 and the third installment in the Forza Motorsport series. The game includes more than 400 customizable cars from 50 manufacturers and more than 100 race track variations with the ability to race up to eight cars on track at a time. These cars vary from production cars to race cars such as those from the American Le Mans Series.

Forza Motorsport 3 Gameplay

New additions to the game include an in-car driving view, one button assisted driving, vehicle rollover with detailed undercarriages, real-simulation drifting, drag racing, and SUVs (Mostly Crossovers). Also new to the series is the addition of stock cars, albeit generic. Furthermore, the game also provides the ability to paint and upgrade all cars, whereas Forza Motorsport 2 only allowed for production and tuner cars to be painted or upgraded (although one downloadable Peugeot LMP could be painted). Also included is the ability to upgrade certain production and tuner cars to the race-class level (represented by the performance ratings R3, R2, and R1) whereas Forza Motorsport 2 did not, as well as the ability to create in-game videos and upload them to the Forza Motorsport website. Forza Motorsport 3 is shipped on two discs, but only utilizes one for gameplay. The second disc serves as the "installation disc," which contains extra vehicle and track content, 1.9GB in total. Forza Motorsport 3 supports only two Force Feedback racing wheels: The Microsoft wireless racing wheel and the Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel made by Fanatec.

Dan Greenawalt unveiling Forza Motorsport 3 at E3 2009

A new single-player season mode puts the player through a completely personalized racing calendar that includes more than 200 different events, including circuit, oval, drag, drift, and timed events personalized to the player's tastes. New to the series are Circuit de la Sarthe and Circuit de Catalunya. These tracks join Road Atlanta, Road America, Twin Ring Motegi, Silverstone, Laguna Seca, Tsukuba, Mugello Circuit, Sebring International Raceway, Suzuka Circuit, and N�rburgring Nordschleife as the licensed real-world tracks included in the game.

In addition, the online multiplayer mode gains an all-new game rules editor. New Xbox Live scoreboards display not only the greatest racers but also the most prolific car tuners, and painters in the community.

At the E3 2009 Microsoft Press Conference, Turn 10 mentioned a rewind feature (much like the "flashback" feature on Race Driver: Grid and Colin McRae DiRT 2), but did not divulge specifics. It was later revealed at the E3 2009 coverage council that the rewind feature allows players to turn back time to fix previous mistakes made on the track. The rewind feature has no limit on how many times it may be used but afterwards you must wait 30 seconds before being able to rewind again. It is one of the many assists in Forza Motorsport 3.

During another interview at E3 2009, game director Dan Greenawalt revealed that the updated physics engine will include tire deformation, and the ability to flip your car over. He also included that there is a "pressure" system in which the A.I., depending on how the difficulty is set, will make mistakes when under pressure. In addition to improvements to the A.I. and physics, the new Photo Mode features ten times more polygons in each car model, bump mapping, and texture resolutions four times higher than before. Also, it is confirmed that the game will run at 60 frames per second. The interview also revealed that there will be several scoreboards ranging from driver scoreboards to painting and tuner leaderboards. There will be a video editor feature available. Dan Greenawalt stated that Project Blackjack, the team that made an E3 trailer, used capture cards to make their videos. The video editor grants players more possibilities. Players will also be able to create their own race rules but only in private matches as public matches are held through a matchmaking system that has no customization for the player. The player instead has to choose from one of the hoppers provided which are A-R class races. Unlike its predecessors Forza Motorsport 3 doesn't support System Link.

Reception
Forza Motorsport 3 was highly praised by critics. On GameRankings, the game has an overall score of 92.26%, based on 68 reviews, while on Metacritic, the game has an overall score of 92 out of 100, based on 90 reviews. IGN called it 'One of the best racing games of this generation'. Criticism mainly stemmed from the grid being much smaller than rival games (only 8 cars), the inability for users to tune their vehicles during public multiplayer racing, and the inability to create custom public multiplayer races. Turn 10 however is adding more modes to the online lobbies in an attempt to counter this problem, such as the Playground lobby which lets users play Tag Mode online in public races but custom public lobbies are currently unavailable.

Forza Motorsport 3 has won numerous awards. At the Spike Video Game Awards, it was named the Best Driving Game of 2009. Gamespot awarded it the Driving Game of the Year award, and also received a nomination for Best Xbox 360 Game of the Year. G4TV also awarded it the Best Driving Game of 2009, while IGN named it the Best Xbox 360 Driving Game of the Year.