[360] Forza Motorsport 3

Well I just finished a race using the Ferrari California...the game looks good...don't trust those screenshots. At least on my LCD it looks really good. If you've seen those HD gameplay videos of FM3, that's exactly how the game looks. Driving model feels better than FM2. The backgrounds are very nice with lots of high resolution textures but some of the textures for the boulders could be better. Ground textures are superb. Gameplay looks to be solid 60fps but replay feels like 25-30fps.
 
Well I just finished a race using the Ferrari California...the game looks good...don't trust those screenshots. At least on my LCD it looks really good. If you've seen those HD gameplay videos of FM3, that's exactly how the game looks. Driving model feels better than FM2. The backgrounds are very nice with lots of high resolution textures but some of the textures for the boulders could be better. Ground textures are superb. Gameplay looks to be solid 60fps but replay feels like 25-30fps.

Some of the better news I have heard.

Does the demo have any online or offline MP? If so how do the gameplay options look in terms of robustness?
 
Cockpit Field of View is really small


Why is Driver's face so close to the wheel? When I look at these pictures I feel like I am hunching and I can't see out of the car much. For me, NFS Shift has better Field of View ... much more real than this (but NFS Shift has too much exaggerated movement).

I almost feel like there must be some mistake with photos and I should buy a 360 and download just to see if the field of view is really like this. Can it be?

Who has a 360? Please tell me.
 
The debate on the driver view position is something that won't end. Whether it be further back (more view of the side mirrors and interior, smaller view outside the windshield) or further forward "hunched over" to see more outside the car is going to automatically make 50% of people mad ... No winning here outside of allowing users to adjust the position to their liking.

One thing I have noticed is it seems very smooth in cars. I preferred how others games were more jerky and bumpy on the inside. Hopefully the demo isn't as smooth as former vids.
 
Some of the better news I have heard.

Does the demo have any online or offline MP? If so how do the gameplay options look in terms of robustness?

No coop on or offline that I coud tell. The demo doesn't allow lots of different options you can only select I think 5 cars, different colors then there's the normal stuff like assists, AT/MT, collision etc. Oh one thing that I hated is the color choices too vibrant and ugly. You will definitely want a custom paint job if you want a good looking car but that's not available in the demo.
 
I played it for about 30mins this morning before heading into work.

Set it to expert but with ABS on and cosmetic damage. I drove the Audi and Porchse.

The thing that really struck me here was the AI. Holy shit, it's good. On my 2nd lap in the Audi, I was driving drafting the AI past the start finish and into the first right hander. I got inside but got a little sideways and into the grass a little and lost some speed. The AI shot right up besides me. We went through the following esses side by side. There no was contact and no AI having the "get back on the racing line ASAP!" mentality. The AI completely adapted to new situation like you'd expect a good racing driver to. I was able to pass the AI by outbraking myself a little and then cutting his front end off on turn in. Even then, instead of ramming me, the AI actually checked up and tried to switch to an outside side and was underneath me again but I had enough power to stay ahead.

Another time, I had 3 AI cars in front battling. One got underneath another and got by while pushing out the car that's being passed. The 3rd car in line tried to shoot the gap also and ended up making contact. This pushed both cars and then I tried to get by both of them. I went for it and got in hot and scrubbed off too much speed mid corner. The 2nd cars by this time had recovered and used it's momentum to re pass me on the outside.

Driving in career mode is going to be a lot of fun.
 
Also played it for a few before heading off to work. They have definitely retained that "Forza" look, which I think I heard coined as hyper realistic rather than truly realistic, ie. a bit more saturated and clean than real life, which I know many don't like. But if you liked it before, it's much nicer now. The screen grabs aren't representative of how smooth it looks at 60fps. Actually enjoyed the few races I was in quite a bit. The sense of speed and weight of the cars felt good and navigating around the AI authentic.
 
My response to this pic, said aloud, was "Oh my giddy aunt - that looks poo." Thankfully the latter pictures are a vast improvement, but it is lacking considerable to the PR campaign images. It's a shame racing games do this. :( If they were honest from the outset, there'd be no let-downs and gamers could appreciate the game for what it is, instead of lamenting what they hoped it would be.
 


Yikes. Looks like up-scaling. At least the backgrounds look mostly nice.
 
the game looks good...don't trust those screenshots. At least on my LCD it looks really good. If you've seen those HD gameplay videos of FM3, that's exactly how the game looks.

Yikes. Looks like up-scaling. At least the backgrounds look mostly nice.

This should be interesting ... the discussion will now shift to the quality of screen grabs and those who have/haven't played the actual game and those who are experiencing it through various other media. :LOL:
 
I played it for about 30mins this morning before heading into work.

Set it to expert but with ABS on and cosmetic damage. I drove the Audi and Porchse.

The thing that really struck me here was the AI. Holy shit, it's good. On my 2nd lap in the Audi, I was driving drafting the AI past the start finish and into the first right hander. I got inside but got a little sideways and into the grass a little and lost some speed. The AI shot right up besides me. We went through the following esses side by side. There no was contact and no AI having the "get back on the racing line ASAP!" mentality. The AI completely adapted to new situation like you'd expect a good racing driver to. I was able to pass the AI by outbraking myself a little and then cutting his front end off on turn in. Even then, instead of ramming me, the AI actually checked up and tried to switch to an outside side and was underneath me again but I had enough power to stay ahead.

Another time, I had 3 AI cars in front battling. One got underneath another and got by while pushing out the car that's being passed. The 3rd car in line tried to shoot the gap also and ended up making contact. This pushed both cars and then I tried to get by both of them. I went for it and got in hot and scrubbed off too much speed mid corner. The 2nd cars by this time had recovered and used it's momentum to re pass me on the outside.

Driving in career mode is going to be a lot of fun.

Holy cow, that might get me back into driving games. One of the biggest things (if not THE biggest) that put me off driving games for the past 7 or so years was the fact that the AI was a blithering idiot when it came to driving.

Constantly ramming into you, and then on top of that there being no consequences to ramming another car. But the AI bumping, ramming, etc. to get back on the racing line was just a huge turn off.

I'll wait to see more impressions, but that has actually gotten me seriously thinking about buying a racing game for the first time in years. I think my last racing game was either Grand Turismo 3 or one of the Need for Speed games at the time.

Regards,
SB
 
Well in the first one it's clearly a double scaling on the car at least. :p Perhaps a dynamic horizontal scaling, but 640 is pretty low. :|

Oddly enough, the images are 1280x719.
 
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