Forza Motorsport 3

Forza Motorsport 3 features some of the V8 Supercar field.

Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360) has managed to achieve something amazing.

After its humble beginnings of being a poor child in the highly competitive motor racing sim stakes, it is now challenging the lead across the finish line. Its latest offering has achieved something admirable: it appeals to everyone.

By being easily accessible, instead of just the hardcore motor racing fanatic, it provides a highly entertaining and enjoyable experience, no matter what your level of racing skill is. The career mode is a series of six seasons, each one longer than the last.

Besides assists such as auto-braking and self-tuning, your career path is based on your skill and preferences. Tuning customisations can be taken to absurd levels including custom parts through to vinyls for Africa.

As a novice, you can get training or set the game for easy while those after highly-skilled car handling can get the sort of game they expect by turning down the TCS, ABS, and driving line assists and switching to manual - with or without clutch!

The Event List mode gives so many races in each class there are effectively 220 races with more than three laps each. Some of these involve track days, touring, the speedway, Asian and European opens, drags for each BHP class, and the ubiquitous series. Needless to say there are myriad options for all comers. There's also Free Play mode and multiplayer.

The level of options are, quite frankly, breathtaking. There are over 400 cars and supposedly 100 tracks although in effect 22 track locations with different track layouts. That's still more than enough.

There are cars to suit everyone's tastes including McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche and Ferrari, all lovingly recreated down to interior detail. Race damage and near realistic effects on car driving physics make it fun to take a little damage after power-tuning your car. Upgrade options are available for each car and if you drive really well, you can be awarded a new sponsored car and may never need to buy a ride!

This video gives you an idea of the work gone into creating just one lap of a course:

There are options to race your present car, upgrade and tune, choose a car manufacturer and see the available line-up to pick a new car. The best tracks show off detailed scenery throughout what is a good-looking game.

So, while there's plenty of room to customise, it means you can concentrate on those tricky hairy corners rather than having to constantly adjust your options. If you have a game racing wheel and the assists off, you can probably come close to real simulation but even with the controller and the assists off, you can still have loads of fun.

Forza 3 has improved its race dynamics focusing on the driver so that every race is fun. Part of this is the AI of the competition which gets more and more gruelling as you progress the classes. There are 12 controller layouts to make it an easier drive for those without a steering wheel, a host of set up configurations for server/multiplayer and many display options.

This includes a multiscreen mode and plethora of HUD and gameplay options such as cosmetic damage on/off and chase camera distance. Multiplayer online is really good, providing you keep within the same class and split-screen mode has been perfected.

Some negatives up front: Rewind oddities e.g. tyre tracks are a little off but who cares, off-track physics have a little trouble with some grass and rubber surfaces. Also there is only clear day-time racing, and the occasional freeze up after hours of play or sound glitch. The long load times to be expected with this much detail.

The standout feature of this game is the 'rewind' ability so when you take the wrong line for a corner, crash or accidentally pit, you can rewind back (literally reversing like rewind on a DVD player) to before you started to lose grip or until you can resume and take the correct line. This is, of course, cheating, however if it means race-over and ride busted, who's to argue?

To make it even more cool, there are several rewinds available taking back your play up to a half minute each so you can have a perfect race every time!

Another pleasing feature is the Replay, Movie and Photo modes and the ability to share them online.

Overall, simple controls, loads of choices, and fun for everyone's gaming style making this one of the best car racing games we have seen.

MadGamer rating: 9.5 / 10

PHOTO:Forza Motorsport 3 launched with the Xtreme Screen at Hoyts Sylvia Park - the biggest cinema screen in the world measuring 30.63m x 12.29m