Forza 3... Who's Getting It?

Finally got to playing around 10pm last night. Had to quit by 12, gotta be up for work at 5. Fun game, but I think I got a bit spoiled by nfs shift. I'm a sucker for a good in car view, and nfs is miles ahead in that department. Every other aspect of the game is rock solid.

I went to bust out my wheel last night and can't find the ac adapter for it.... I think I lost it moving. Anyone know if ms woulfd replace it?
 
Picked up my copy from toys r us last night since i took advantage of the gift card that came with halo odst in sept. Having spent a pretty good amount of time with forza 2, I feel like forza 3 seems a little easier? Maybe its just that the starting cars can't go fast enough to actually slide around and stuff? I felt like with only ABS and TCS on my car was pretty well planted on the track and was getting away with more dumb mistakes than in forza 2. Anyone else feel that way?

Other than that, holy crap, i'm not used to seeing so many hills and stuff. I really like some of the new track additions so far though, a good change.
 
VolvoR said:
You're not a shitty husband, you're just doing what works for you!! Actually, last night she asked I got my game. I said yes, but I haven't played it yet. She said, why don't I go and read for a while so you can play!!! WOOT.

I love it.

So, I played until about 11pm (from 8pm). The game is awesome. I can see it sucking up a lot of my time that's for sure!!

All the people out there who say the changes are "minor" should take a closer look. The tracks and environment look gorgeous, the cars, well we've all seen pictures, and the physics is much better.

The only thing I'm finding it hard to get used to is the camera angle. It's just slightly different than Forza 2, and that's taking some getting used to.
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The camera angles are the same for me. you from the uk?
 
Imitation said:
Picked up my copy from toys r us last night since i took advantage of the gift card that came with halo odst in sept. Having spent a pretty good amount of time with forza 2, I feel like forza 3 seems a little easier? Maybe its just that the starting cars can't go fast enough to actually slide around and stuff? I felt like with only ABS and TCS on my car was pretty well planted on the track and was getting away with more dumb mistakes than in forza 2. Anyone else feel that way?

Other than that, holy crap, i'm not used to seeing so many hills and stuff. I really like some of the new track additions so far though, a good change.
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turn off traction control, makes the game far challenging and way more fun
 
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The handling model is far better than the one in Forza 2... which is why it seems a fair bit easier. RWD cars were utterly broken in Forza 2, whereas they're a lot better in Forza 3 (perhaps a little too friendly on the lower end cars, but still fairly evil on the high end ones).
 
I posted my review in another forum:

I have been a Forza gamer since the release of Forza 1. My only other "sim" experience is with GT5p and Race Pro 09. So my experience is now FM1, FM2, GT5p, Race Pro 09 and now FM3.

I picked up my pre-order on the way home last night from Gamestop. I received my LCE Edition. Very nice packaging. I haven't looked over the USB key or keychain yet, but I will do that soon.

The first thing I had to do was redeem the codes for the 3 different cards that I received. The R8 car from Gamestop, the Track/VIP/Legends packs. I believe that was about 550mb of content total before everything was downloaded.

Then I put in disk one of two of the FM3 package, and did the 2nd disk 1.9gb install onto my 120gb Elite. Once that was complete, I installed disk one to the HDD as well. By the time all the packs were downloaded, and both game disks were installed, it must have been "about" an hour.

You know how hard it is to wait ANOTHER hour for a game that you have been waiting for since they announced it? That was some serious overkill to get a game started IMO. Oh well.

This review will be short, as I am only working driver level 5 and car level 5 of my Fiat.

The announcer isn't bad. When I first heard about it, I wasn't keen on the idea. But it hasn't ruined the experience any so far. I like that you can disable future tips from him after you hear them for the first time. I chose to use Season play and follow that to a "T" and see how that pans out. So far, it's been a joy.

I have chosen to go "Expert" with every assist off, and with AI at medium and using cockpit view. This gives me a +85%, which is pretty good. My first car was the Aveo. I only used the aveo until the Fiat was awarded to me, and never looked back. Right now, in my season, I just finished the second "weekend" championship, and I am starting my second 2 week session.

To me, this title is night and day better than FM2 in most areas. The cars feel heavier, they feel better connected to the ground, and I have found the oversteer and understeer to finally be represented properly. So much so, that it's pretty close to Race Pro 09 in respect to oversteer/understeer.

I have to preface by saying that I have not looked to see if the wheel/pedal settings can be adjusted. But as is, the braking is like FM2. Way too sensitive, requiring you to feather your brake pedal (where as in Race Pro, you can hammer the brake just like a real car when needed). I am not too excited about this. Granted, I have only toyed around with a few cars (Abarth 500, Aveo in career and 2010 Camaro and Veyron to dink around on the high speed ring). My hopes are that the settings can be changed, otherwise I will need to get "adjusted" again.

The feed back in the MS Wheel on some rumble strips is not as effective as other rumble strips for some reason, at least in my experience. Once I was doing a chicane and used the rumble strips, and felt nothing. No bump, no vibration. Yet in another chicane, I got some excellent FFB. Bug? Intentional? (doubt it), but I hope this gets addressed (I don't think it will).

I can't comment much on the engine sounds, but of the 4 cars or so that I have driven, those sound good. I don't know what a real Abarth sounds like. However, I have been in an Aveo, Corvette ZR1 and 2010 Camaro and they all sound spot on. I didn't notice much difference (if any) between the screeching sounds of the respective tires. Either it's not there, or I need to listen a little harder next time.

I found the AI to be far improved over FM2, probably the best yet on console, but I am still not too happy with it. I lost count the number of times that the AI spun me around or tipped my tail out from behind. Granted, I am pulling the inside turns quite a bit as they are coming from the outside, but they seem to being taking me out a bit too much. I guess I will need to change my driving line. I do love the fact that I was on a couple AI's tails for a long stretch, and it made them nervous and they screwed up in the turn. That is how I react in racing as well in real life, so it's a pleasure to see this added.

Graphically, overall considering the awesome physics in this game, it's very good. Car models do not look as real as the GT5p models...but it's damn close. If I had to put the realism on a scale for consoles, with 100 being the best, GT5p would be 100, and FM3 would be about 95. Cockpits are where FM3 loses at least 3 points to GT5p (exterior loses 2). Don't get me wrong, I love that FM3 added cockpits (it's the only way I want to race), but the details and 3D are just not there compared to GT5p. I don't give a crap about the shifting animations, as I wish we could turn the wheel and arms off anyway. The environments are the best though. I am madly in love with the track choices this year. Represented the best, and it's representing exactly what the community wanted. Even the artificial track at Sedona is awesome. Highspeed ring will end up getting countless hours of time from me.

I went through and did many of the acheevos. Made a very custom Aveo with a sticker on it, made a 30 second movie clip, bought something from the storefront, got air for 5 feet, drifting for the 1000points, etc. You name it, those were easy to whip out. But the one thing that bugged me was the video/movie maker. With encoding a 30 second movie AND uploading it to FM.net, it took about a half hour. That is something I just won't have time for. More power to the people that elect to use this feature, but that is way too time consuming for me. Not to mention, your Xbox 360 is getting MAXED out of RAM during the encoding. When you try to pull up your Xbox 360 min-guide during the encoding, it struggles to allow you to even scroll through to access your friends list, etc. Be prepared to grab a cold one while you wait, just an FYI.

I took some quick photo..(I love photo mode) to get the acheevo quickly. I do not recommend using your MS Wheel in photo mode. Pain in the butt. Use the controller for the win, please.

Storefront...is pure awesomeness. This can't be touched by anything I have ever seen on any console game in regards to community. There is so much love and sweetness there. The different options, sorting, all the content, liveries, vinyls, custom cars and tunes, paint jobs, photos, videos, it's just beyond what I expected.

I am glad that the loading is faster than than the loading that the demo experienced (noticeable), but it's still not fast enough for my tastes. Also, during one of my hot laps (or maybe I was testing drag), the game decided to rewind on me all by itself. I was like..WTF, what is going on here?! Speaking of rewind (and this isn't a thread for rewind and sim debate), I used rewind a couple times already in my career. I will be the first to admit it. Both times are when the god damn AI took my back end out and put me into a wall. I thought to myself, literally, you guys would cringe if they saw me doing this. But you know what, it felt DAMN GOOD to get back into that turn and avoid the AI. Call me a non-sim racer or what you want, but I was happy to have it for that.

There is so much more to cover, and I have so much more racing to do, but I have to say, this is my favorite racer of all time so far. Just my 2 cents. And thanks to those who bothered to waste a few minutes in their life to read my little review.
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in forza 2, turning off all assists and then driving the Z06 vette was not a simulation, it was ridiculous. The physics of the car do not handle in such a sensitive way. I like forza 3, you can put your foot in the floor, and pull your foot out of the floor, and steer the car with the throttle. It all makes for a very enjoyable gaming experience which acts closer to how a real car would handle.
 
I also love how the RWD cars don't lose control on every turn with the assists off. Funny you mention the rewind feature when you used it. I feel like half my races the AI is purposely knocking me off course. And then I started to wonder if that's why they put the rewind feature in. =)

My 2 complaints are the load times for the tracks and the AI being a bit too aggressive with crashing and trying to spin my car out.

The menu system is the most improved thing, so much easier to do what needs to be done with no extra fluff. Especially hated first clicking on a country then the manuf. in FM2.

So how can I backup my saved game to my USB stick in case of a RROD?????????
 
RRoD wont affect your saves. Hard drive failure would... but that's a different story.
 
I have noticed the AI is meaner after I hit them first. :) Try to not hit them at all during the race, I haven't been spun out or knocked into real hard unless I hit them first.

I sure do love this game so far.

and RROD doesn't screw up your hard drive. The hard drive is its own entity in failure.
 
I've been having a discussion about the AI on another forum. It seems that people who generally seem to be having a problem with the AI take a different line to them through the corner... meaning an unfortunate intersection as you cross their preferred line.

Apparently I drive like the AI... badly probably. :D
 
I noticed the AI likes to change the line to try and block. I know in F1 you are only allowed to block once in a turn. Too bad they didn't write these crazy drivers to do that. But if my xbox RROD's I would be without a console for a while with no save game to keep playing. I know I am going to put my first serious constant time on the console because of this game. Just made a vinyl group for my personal company. Pretty cool to pretend we are sponsoring one of these cars. =)
 
Some of the vinyls up there are already pretty damn good. Can't imagine what they'll be like after the game has been out for a while. :)
 
Honestly the vinyl system is similar enough to how it was in FM2 that with the same skill level painters you're probably going to have vinyls that are already nearly to the level of FM2's.
 
I picked up Forze 3 limited and the Microsoft Forcefeedback wheel last night.... Havent played it yet, traded in Shift and a few other games for the purchases.
 
I think I like using the controller better than the wheel so far. Freaky: What are you waiting for!!!!!
 
My new fav D class car is the 90s hatchback civic with a B18 swap. Put 205 tires on it and race suspension/driveline. It's way fun on fujimi kaido and that other long mountain track.
 
ok, finally got it, will be on later tonight playing, gotta see for myself whats new since the demo didn't really show off any new features at all :(
 
thankfully i got the LCE so i can get the ZR1, superlegarra, scuderia and all that stuff, because from what they said on the forums, they aren't going to be selling the VIP stuff at this time on the marketplace.

I've gotta say that i like this game alot better than Forza 2, lots of winding tracks, and all that stuff.

Definately the best game that i've bought this whole year.

my only gripes about it are the auto revving, and the fact that the hired drivers don't count towards your driver exp, have to do all the slow races too :( not very fun, but once you get past that, it's tons of fun going all out on the fun tracks, like the Okinawa track and the one that's in spain or w/e.

lots of fun :)
 
played a bit of single player and multiplyer tonight.....i am very happy overall, single player is fun, haven't been able to get better than third in the first three races against AI set to hard and with all assists turned off, it's like unless you ram your way through to the front at the beginning you wont even stand a chance at catching up and over taking them because the cars are so evenly matched (until you upgrade of course)

the multiplyer is lacking something though....it feels very unfriendly...very....random and vague...i dont know why....i got in a few rooms and hardly anyone was talking even though they had mics, nobody was excited, nobody was verbally taking requests for next track or class change....nobody was even talking crap, it was like a bunch of zombies sitting there waiting the game to launch itself.....not convinced yet that the way they did multiplayer was an improvement, i think its a step backwards in terms of providing that "community feel" that they keep bragging about

the auction house and storefronts are a bit cluttery and by that i mean it takes a few minutes to even see whats going on, i purchased something, thought it was a car, turned out to be a tune, you cant even tell half the time if you are looking at a design, tune or just some random picture or video that someone posted up.....you fiddle with right and left bumpers to figure out the sort order, then finally notice the "Hit X for Search" at the bottom of the screen to reload all those search filters you chose, and then i finally realized i was not even in the auction house, that it is a seperate area...how awkward

and whats with the text being so damn small? i have a 46" HDTV, not small by any means, and even my wife commented on how extremely tiny everything is that you have to read and how things are almost hidden....not much color at all

i appreciate the clean look they were going for, but i think they could have used a font a little larger and added a tiny bit of color to the "action buttons" on each menu screen so i wasn't looking all around trying to figure out what i had to hit next to get it to do something...no i dont have bad eyes, perfect vision thank you

overall i really like the game, but man, some of these little details are like.....wow, how did the consensus ever come to agreeing on this as a final build?? to me it looks like one person's version that was very heavily influenced by their idea of what clean is, but didn't take the time to ask anyone else for input....i guess if you look at a drafting sheet with pencil on white paper and think it looks good....then the new menus would look appealing....and you didn't mind having to scan the entire screen for new action buttons...sure.....but they just went overboard with the clean bland colorless theme guys...
 
Apparently they added some new hoppers yesterday. I've not played it since though so I'm not sure what they are.
 
I bought it, love it. I played Forza2 for the longest time so it was a natural progression for me.
 
I've enjoyed it so far, although I haven't had a chance to play it much. Hopefully I can get a few decent cars in my garage by the weekend and try out the online experience.
 
JacobC1983 said:
I promise, you aren't the first nor will you be the last. It has happened to me as well.
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i was thinking the video encoding feature might take a few out that were on the edge already, have heard it pretty much taxes the machine out for a long time while it is encoding the video to WMV for posting online
 
I'm enjoying the game, but I just wish they did a better job with car models. The NSX is like my favorite car since I was a kid and they continue to mess up the model and the specs. It like they are just touching up the original models from Forza 2 which was also wrong. The 2005 NSX looks close enough and the specs are right, but the 1997 looks wrong and ugly. The specs on the 1997 are also wrong.

GT seems to do a better job with car models, but I prefer Forza's driving physics.
 
Should let them known on the specs, they've already said they're going to tweak a few errors.

What's it in game vs in real life?
 
JohnleMVP said:
It like they are just touching up the original models from Forza 2 which was also wrong.
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That is what they did from FM1 to FM2, and now to FM3. They touched up orginal cars. GT5 is doing the same thing. Bringing in 800 or so touched up cars from GT4 (and GT3). It saves them time and money.
 
The Integra Type-R on this game must've seen a 3rd-party moonroof installer before hitting the game.

The Type-R has no moonroof but on the game it does :\
 
JohnleMVP said:
I'm enjoying the game, but I just wish they did a better job with car models. The NSX is like my favorite car since I was a kid and they continue to mess up the model and the specs. It like they are just touching up the original models from Forza 2 which was also wrong. The 2005 NSX looks close enough and the specs are right, but the 1997 looks wrong and ugly. The specs on the 1997 are also wrong.

GT seems to do a better job with car models, but I prefer Forza's driving physics.
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Probably thought the NSX didn't deserve love for trying to keep up with Ferrari. Ferrari said bad Honda, time for a spanking.
 
The NSX is old, but I think it still gets some love, it was the Forza 1 cover car and one of the cars in the Special Editions NXE theme. They also have like a bunch of different versions of this car in the game so its not a lack of love.


Psychotext said:
Should let them known on the specs, they've already said they're going to tweak a few errors.

What's it in game vs in real life?
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The game says 3.2L 276hp for a 1997 Acura NSX, but 1997 was the first year for the 3.2L 290HP engine, up from 270HP 3.0L of previous years. Now the Honda NSX (JDM) was rated at 280ps which is probably 276hp, but in reality its the same car and engine and it wouldn't be branded an Acura. They probably got the specs wrong because they just copied the stats from the Honda version of the car in the game.

The Honda NSX-R GT is also wrong, but I can't really blame them for making it better then it is. They made it 2595lbs, but in reality its a NSX-R with a body kit, so it should still be ~2800lbs. The R GT version of the car was made in very limited quantities (5?) just to allow the Super GT race car to make aero dynamic changes under the Super GT rules.


Bogie 19th said:
That is what they did from FM1 to FM2, and now to FM3. They touched up orginal cars. GT5 is doing the same thing. Bringing in 800 or so touched up cars from GT4 (and GT3). It saves them time and money.
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It will be interesting to see how well they do it though. I would rate Forza's touch up jobs as poor because some of the older cars look awful.
 
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Omg I will never play a racing game without rewind again. I LOVE this feature. I only use it once or twice per race but it makes the game so much more fun and not frustrating being spun by an AI.

Also the MS wireless wheel fits this game PERFECT. Don't even need 900 degrees. I will go as far as saying my MS wheel feels so much better than my G25 with prologue.

Also I have the first batches before the recall and never bothered with sending it back to MS.......think mine might burst into flame?
 
Yeah rewind is a nice feature for the non-super human driver. It saves a lot of frustration and with it I'll probably attempt some of the longer endurance races this time around.

As far as the MS wireless wheel, I hate it. I wish the G25 worked or the Fanatec wheel wasn't so rare and expensive. The G25 is expensive, but since its widely available you can get some deals on it or find it used.
 
Just got the GTR race car. I love it, took it to the infiniti/nissan matches. It was rough, but the GTR pulled out a win :p
 
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