As I mentioned in my preview of Forza Motorsport 3, approaching this game in any capacity has had me feeling like I was back-stabbing a best friend, in some respect. I've always been a huge fan of the Gran Turismo series and since the first Forza Motorsport hit the racing sim scene I've instinctively turned my nose up at it, condemning it as a far inferior title next my beloved GT. Turns out; I'm and idiot, and Turn 10's latest Forza offering is not only the best in the series, but the new pinnacle in racing simulators. Sorry Gran Turismo, it's now time to play catch up, and Forza 3 is like a lap ahead.
A huge factor for any racing simulator is how authentic it looks. If the cars don't look incredible then you aren't worth a damn in the genre. And luckily, Forza 3 nails them. All 400. Forza 3 has the most photo-realistic vehicles in a video game yet. But I would also like to point out; while the in-game car detail is incredible, it still doesn't quite reach the level of quality you've been seeing in Forza 3 screenshots and videos. Those screens and trailers are easily mistakable for real life pictures or videos, but when you see Forza Motorsport 3 in action it's much harder to make that miscalculation. But before everyone's panties bunch up and a flame war breaks out on the interwebs, I want to reiterate what I said earlier: Forza 3 still remains the most graphically accurate racing game to date.
For example, the first thing I did in Forza 3 was earn enough money through the game's career mode to purchase a Subaru Impreza WRX STI because that's also my real world car (at least the normal Impreza hatchback). Therefore, it's perfect reference material for judging just how accurate the car modeling in Forza 3 is. And surprise surprise, once I pulled back the camera of the in-cockpit view in the game's options (it's way too narrow a focus by default) I was thrilled to find out the in-game model, both interior and exterior, was identical to its real world counterpart. Down to even the obnoxiously large emergency blinker button in the center of the Impreza dashboard. Seeing how much attention to detail Turn 10 paid to the Subaru Impreza puts into perspective just how dedicated the team was to delivering the most authentic looking racing experience ever made. However, the lack of a shifting animation is bush league by today's standards. How hard could it be to program a slight hand movement down to the shift stick, or even a flick of a finger on a paddle shifter in this game? Turn 10 made sure to nail everything else about driving these cars, why not that?
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Having talked about the cars, let's talk about the courses they'll be driving on. While they might not be as detailed as the game's cars, they still look fantastic. Although there is one catch; you gotta be driving. When blazing around winding roads and down long stretches of road every track in Forza 3 looks near photo-realistic. But slow down the action in the game's replay mode, or sit back to watch the pre-race course flyby and you'll be able to see a lot of the shrubbery, grass, and other such foliage looking rather pixelated and two-dimensional. But Forza Motorsport 3 does feature a bunch more tracks than previous iterations of the series to counter-act the graphical flaws of each individual course.
I also want to make special mention of the menu system in Forza 3. In a single hyphenated word; "game-changing." As trivial as it may seem, one of the reasons Gran Turismo has always been my preferred racing simulator is because of how eloquent the whole game was presented. The menus were always as slick as the wax jobs on the cars. Forza 3 now follows suit and ups the ante considerably; creating a menu that is not only intuitive, but just plain pretty to look at. In some respect, I was more blown away with the cool menus than I was the cars, tracks, and gameplay of Forza 3.
