E3 Impressions: Forza 3
It’s a little unfair to test out a game like Forza 3 using this setup (no matter how cool it is). First off, I’ll never have a set up like this at home unless I hit the jackpot). Second, after playing the game this way (which makes the whole experience feel more real) who would ever want to play the game on just one screen? Alas, I was forced to come to grips with this fact sooner rather than later. So after being forcibly ejected by the nice man running the booth, I went over to one of the free-standing booths and played the game two more times. The good news: this game is so smooth and so well built that it plays the same regardless of using the racing pod or the standard boring controller. That is a total testament to how well Turn 10 makes these games. Gran what? Turismo who? Give me Forza 3 any day.
While the demo was limited to about 6 cars, 3 tracks, and no customization, the soul of the game was there. Each time I played I was able to set the demo to my play style (gear-shifting with break line only) and just jump in and ride. And boy are these tracks fun to ride. Every track feels very smooth and the cars seem to glide along the track. The weight and gravity of each car, on straightaways and in turns, also feels fantastic, which is vital in a genre where misreading a turn can cost you the entire race. Or at least it used to.
In an interesting move, Turn 10 has added in a feature straight out of GRiD’s playbook: the ability to rewind your race and retry a bad turn or a messy collision that ends up pointing you in the wrong direction. Here’s the good news: I actually think the feature is quite a good idea. Although I didn’t ask the guy supervising the booth this, I assume ‘rewind’ is eighty-six’d in multiplayer games. And if you don’t want the help in single player, you can turn the feature off. But for people who are new to the Forza series (or racing games in general) it’s nice to give the player a chance to rectify his or her mistake and hang on to first place without requiring a full restart of the race.
Overall I am very excited about this game. Seeing as Forza 2 was one of, if not my favorite, racing game of 2007, I’m expecting Forza 3 to be as polished and fun to play as it’s predecessor. Forza 3 is slated to be released on October 22, 2009.
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