Forza Motorsport 3

Fill her up

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Turn 10 turn up the pressure in the fight to be the definitive racing game. Although having fewer years under the belt than Gran Turismo they manage to deliver an update to the franchise that will be hard for Polyphony Digital to top.

With the E3 show floor closed at the end of day 2 we were ushered in to spend some quality time with the updated 360 exclusive racer. A broad cross-section of the development team were on hand to answer questions while Dan Greenwell kicked of proceedings by talking us through what makes Forza 3 for them "a project of passion".

As he hit the headline features of the new game, there was no denying the passion and personal interest invested here. Greenwell talked about "turning gamers into drivers and drivers into gamers", and went on to back up this claim with an impressive delivery on a range of features.

This, in fact, was his main point in relation to other games. He was happy to admit that there were other racers that offered Forza 3s features. But (and here's the rub) there are none in his opinion that match all of them. The Forza team's commitment to over-deliver is certainly impressive. It's also interestingly reminiscent of Bungie's Halo 3 release in that they simply cram so much onto the disk. This is a trend that makes Microsoft published titles really stand out.

The team spent time with the McClaren Formula One team, including conversations with Lewis Hamilton, to get some outside input into their game. The results we sampled on the barren show floor suggested that all this effort and passion is really paying off for them. Even a little way out from release, the experience was generally polished and hitting all the right notes.

With Microsoft pulling all the stops out on the demo set-up - featuring three screens, three 360s, a cockpit and racing wheel - we spent a happy hour trialing three of the tracks from the new game with a range of the high end cars. Sitting down for the first play we were introduced to the one button driving. Here, the game in easy mode provides a strong harness of assists to ensure new comers don't spend all their time in the sand.

Although not quite the level provided by Wipeout HD with its hands free steering, on easy mode most players should be able to compete with just a little practice. The game provides extra guidance on racing line and stopping distances as well as handling gears and even a little assisted breaking thrown in for good measure.

However, it's not until you turn these assists off that the game really starts to prove its worth. On hard mode you have none of the computer aids, instead being left to rely on your own reflexes. This is where the simulation really kicks in and you soon realise that you can really play close to (and undoubtedly over) the limit of the car's grip and momentum.

As we get used to the driving, Greenwell was on hand to flesh out the more geeky petrol head details for us. First there is the dirty air system that models the mess a car makes of the air as it plunges through it, something that then affects the performance of cars behind. Then there is the tyre flex technology that models the roll over of the rubber as it gets hot during a race and increases the amount of wheel to road contact.

A nice feature, seen in Grid last year, is the ability to rewind the action if you make a mistake. This enables the conscientious driver to work on their perfect line, as well as the less restrained to undo their latest zeal fuelled carnage. It also, says Greenwell with a twinkle, let's you re-watch those perfectly modelled pile ups and play with how the simulation responds to even very minor changes.

Then it was onto some more general information about the scale and scope of this third game in the series. Firstly the game will provide 400 cars across 50 manufacturers and 100 tracks. The tracks themselves are around a 60/40 mix between real world and invent environments, with the real world getting the lion share. Each non-real track shouldn't be dismissed though, as much care and attention has been applied here as elsewhere in the game. In fact each track has its own fictional history written to provide a context for the visual layout before a single cell has been drawn.

As we climbed out the cockpit and stretched out legs we were told a little about the community aspects of the game. Here, they are improving on the already strong showing of Forza 2 that saw some individuals invest so much time in designing cars that they have essentially become part of the team - even being referenced on first name terms by Greenwell in his talk.

This is joined by an impressively nuanced video creation tool that lets players direct their dream race car shots and upload them to Forza.net. This is then wrapped up with the other user generated content in a scoreboard system that lets players vote on their favourite videos, photos and paint jobs. This then lets others locate and track the best content and the people creating it.

Standing up and stretching our aching bodies perhaps said it all. This is a game that convinces on every level. The attention to detail as well as the technical finesse convinces mind and body that what's happening here is significant. An hour of flinching at every crash or tensing through each bend left me feeling like I had been involved in a real race.

Forza 3 may not have instantly turned me into a driving nut, but it did open to that world a little and in a very seductive way. It also made me want to sit not a few of my car crazy friends down in front of it to see if they made a similar move towards my world of gaming.

By Paul Govan