E3 2009 Preview
For a number of years, Gran Turismo
held the crown for the best simulation racing series. More recently, Forza
Motorsport has taken that crown with a racing game that wanted to be realistic
in every respect. Now the two are going to fight it out in the fifth Gran
Turismo and the third Forza. It’s unknown how prepared GT5 will be for this
battle, but it was clear at E3 that Forza does not want to lose the title it
worked so hard to achieve.
When it comes to game design, one of the things
the developers wanted to stress was that Forza 3’s gameplay is based on
real-world physics. That can be said about every part of the game – including
the way the cars crash (even when they’re spinning out and you essentially lose
control of them). The vehicles have a tough, almost dense feel to them, a design
that is particularly standout when you crash so violently that your car rolls
over. The scratched paint and dented/crumpled body effects are top-notch. And
the car models, of which there are over 400, have been designed with
individually rendered interiors to keep the look and feel of each automobile as
realistic as possible.
Among new features, Forza 3 features the
life-saving rewind button and the gameplay-simplifying auto-brake. Rewind is
exactly as it sounds: if you crash or do anything at all that you really didn’t
like, press the back button and the game will literally rewind itself a few
seconds. After the rewind is up, the game pauses, allowing you to race on from
that point – or continue rewinding. Right now, you can rewind as much as you
want. But the developers have not decided how far they’re going to take this
move in the final version. Considering that GRID already offers a feature just
like this, it’ll be interesting to see what the developers decide.
Auto-braking isn’t an option most existing Forza
players will utilize. But that’s not who it was designed for. Hoping to reach a
wider audience, the developers included this feature to allow newcomers to jump
in and start playing without any simulation racing game experience. It works
just as well as you’d expect – upon approaching a sharp turn, the game
automatically reduces your vehicle’s speed, making the turn much more manageable
than if you had to brake yourself.
The vehicle lineup is amazing, to say the least,
and includes models like the Audi R8 V10, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, Aston Martin
DBS, Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, and the classic 1968 Mustang GT 500. As you
select a vehicle, the menu is noticeably clean. The game uses a lot of white
space, providing only the details you need most – car images and a few
statistics – while leaving the rest behind. This style was inspired by the
simplicity of car manuals, which tend to be less gaudy than the average video
game.
You’ll be able to race these cars and every other
ride in the game across more than a 100 tracks, many of which are based on
real-world locations. Regardless of their status, if the demo courses are
representative of how the final game will look, this will be one of the most
stunning, eyes-out-of-your-socket racing games of the year. Body damage is being
taken even further than before, allowing you to see the flaws more clearly than
ever before. Every part of every vehicle is beautiful, no question. But those
background designs might get the most attention. They’re so realistic, you’ll
wish you could plop them into other games and explore them on foot.
Racing into stores on October 9, Forza Motorsport
3 is turning into one very exciting game.
