Forza entry grabs virtual racing's checkered flag

Hugely improved car and scenery detail, and accessibility to newbies make it best race game

Nov 14, 2009

Special to the Star

When it comes to the automotive world, fans like to align themselves on one side of the fence or another: Ford versus Chevy, Lamborghini versus Ferrari and, in the realm of driving video games, it's Xbox-exclusive Forza Motorsport versus PlayStation's Gran Turismo.

Debates over which racing title is superior can be nasty with fervid fans quoting features and performance specifications to each other. While I admit to a personal bias toward the Gran Turismo camp, having been introduced to the automotive world through the original Gran Turismo on the first PlayStation, I have to reluctantly break ranks from my GT roots and admit that Forza Motorsport 3 is the best console racing game you can buy.

Graphics have been greatly improved over the last generation of the Forza series, the cars are more detailed and the scenery is distractingly beautiful.

With more than 100 track configurations that range from simple oval circuits to complex city courses, there is enough variety to keep things interesting while you work your way through the race seasons.

While other developers have sacrificed frame rates for on-screen effects, Forza manages to look amazing while maintaining a perfectly smooth 60 frames per second.

One area that has not improved is the loading time between races. Waiting 40 to 60 seconds for a race to load is gruelling. As an example, a Hyundai Accent can go from 0 to 160 kilometres per hour in under 40 seconds, faster than Forza can load a single race.

These brutal loading times can be shortened by 10 or 15 seconds by loading Forza 3 onto the local drive but it's still a long wait.

New to this Forza game are detailed car interiors and the number of cars has increased to 400-plus different vehicles from more than 50 manufacturers.

While the car list is impressive, it lacks a few notable models such as the Nissan GT-R and the new 2010 Ford Mustang. Most likely this is a cash grab, holding back popular cars in order to make players pay for them later through a downloadable add-on.

Not only are those cars missing entirely from the game but other cars such as the Lamborghini Reventon and the Corvette ZR1 are only available to players who have purchased the $89.99 collector's edition of the game.

While it's fair for developers to charge for add-ons they develop after the initial game has been released, I can't help but feel cheated when these "add-ons" are more of a "left-out." Did we really need a Nissan Versa to come with Forza 3 and not a Nissan GT-R?

Besides the excellent graphics and the huge car list, what impresses me the most about Forza 3 is how well it manages to satisfy both the casual racing fan and the hardcore game enthusiast.

Forza has made a game that allows anyone to pick up the controller and drive. That success is due to the array of driving aids – from auto-braking and steering to a glowing green suggested driving line – that players can turn on or off.

Forza can also help new players perform a quick automatic tune-up of their car for each race if they don't have an interest in playing around with the huge array of tuning options and upgrades available.

The best of these features is the new rewind function that gives racers who have made a mistake the ability to rewind the race a few seconds and avoid disaster.

Best of all, Forza 3 is one of the only racing games released this season that still allows for split-screen two-player action. While Sony is promising a lot for Gran Turismo 5, we won't have a chance to play it until the middle of 2010.

Until that time I can confidently say Forza Motorsport 3 is the best console racing game on the market.

Toronto Star