Forza Motorsport 3

[Tom_B]

Wait! You mean there's no restriction on the performance of the cars you use to do any of the races? Well I feel stupid for tuning my cars to be as close to the class limit without going over...

With that, the rewind function, and the masses of driving aids, I guess they don't want to leave any gamer behind with this. You have to deliberately force yourself to finish anything other than first. Weird. It's like making a Mario game without any collision detection, with the player deciding whether they should die or not.

[Christoph84]

Arse, it totally locked up on me again tonight, screen freeze, that's three times now, gulp.

[T Pot]

Anybody know what the update was for this evening?

[FlowerOfInfinity]

Wait! You mean there's no restriction on the performance of the cars you use to do any of the races? Well I feel stupid for tuning my cars to be as close to the class limit without going over...

AFAIK the only races with specific class restrictions are the ones with the class name in the title (I've just done the Class A American Tour). The others are only restricted on other things like region, rear wheel drive etc.

[Yasawas]

Anybody know what the update was for this evening?

Fixed a bug that corrupted save games and allowed you to load your own tuning setups in an online lobby.

[Sigourney Beaver]

Anybody know what the update was for this evening?

Decent handling?

[RFT]

Wait! You mean there's no restriction on the performance of the cars you use to do any of the races? Well I feel stupid for tuning my cars to be as close to the class limit without going over...

Don't get too carried away. the little icon on the event poster is a guide as to the competition in a given series, but if a championship is called "A-Class", then you'll need to use an A-class car. the actual restrictions for a given series can be seen by hitting X on the event list or when selecting it in season play.

this is basically how things were in FM2, actually. some champs are restricted on body style, manufacturer, region, and some on class. it's just that now there's the guide icon, where previously you had to look at the opponents to get an idea of the PI to aim for.

[Beezer]

The game is set up so that you can play it at whatever difficulty you like. Set the PI of your car relative to your opponents to give a decent level of challenge... then calibrate until fun. I'm currently on hard, no assists, but with a PI about 20 above the top opponent. Bit less difference on the slower classes... bit more on A and S.

Then on top of this you've got rewind, which lets you race at the limits of your ability without frustration.

FM3 seems less about coming in first place than FM2. You get the cars gifted as you level up, not as you win races, which helps me to just enjoy the races and not feel the need to restart before the end if i'm not going to make first.

I thought the career was horribly unbalanced at first, but I'm starting to get it now and can see it being really addictive.

What are folks thoughts on Season or Event List? I'm favouring the old school event list right now. Not sure why.

[routeburn]

Don't get too carried away. the little icon on the event poster is a guide as to the competition in a given series, but if a championship is called "A-Class", then you'll need to use an A-class car. the actual restrictions for a given series can be seen by hitting X on the event list or when selecting it in season play.

Yes, there are certain races which are named "A class" etc. like you say. I like these as they give a restriction to work within and add to the challenge.

It just seems like the game gives an indication like "A 600" for a weakly restricted race (e.g. RWD, Japanese), and the impression I get is that you're meant to be aiming that high (i.e. the game thinks you won't have cars that are good enough), rather than having a couple of cars in your garage which can easily walk the race.

[pompey88]

Shit! Quick fella call it off, there is no system link in Forza 3.

Argh! Was so annoying, we found out AFTER we set up. I'm quite annoyed about the lack of system link, still we had a good night...

[Harns]

oh well at least you had Halo. You could have tried the nifty 3 screen set up that they had at E3.

[McSpeed]

Fucking hell, it took me all evening to get one (digest!) replay uploaded in video bits on the My Forza website Sure: the race was 10 laps, resulting in roughly 8 minutes of material (which is about one third of the total replay), but why does it have to be in bits of 30 seconds, and why does it take so long? It wasn't even in 720p!

Still, I've got the perfect material to make my first full-blown Forza Motorsport 3 video now. Will be spending quite some time in Movie Maker tomorrow, although now's actually the time to get both a better computer (my 4,5 year old Acer Aspire 3500 is slow and dying a bit more every day) and Adobe Premiere

[Meers]

So -- first question -- am I understanding this right, or am I missing something?

Second question: Am I doing it wrong?

You could unbalance the game for yourself and create racing monsters to use against the AI. It's because you can. And because you do.

But you may as well give up on the single player that way, because unless you set the AI on the hardest difficulty, you won't get any challenge or satisfaction.

I'm following the game's rules; auto-upgrading when the game tells me to, and racing on hard difficulty. It's a challenge that way, and it's balanced enough to keep me interested in the career mode.

That was my understanding as well.

But, why would I choose to make it harder for myself without any reward for doing so? For example, do I get more reward for using a car closer to the max PI of the other AI cars in the race? I don't think I do. So why wouldn't I just take my S-class monster on the track, whizz round, and pocket the points?

Ultimately it's up to you, but it's a bit unfair to blame the game for it. You can't expect the game to adjust to your hunger for upgrades. Set it on the hardest difficulty and report back.

Decent handling?

Sigourney. I am disappoint. What causes this ironic remark? Are you doing it wrong? Aren't you feeling it?

Lie down on this here sofa and let's talk about it.

[Sloth]

I'm really not sure what to make of this. I mean it all looks nice enough and the storefront and design options are great. But the actual driving just doesn't feel right to me.

It's like you are driving on a sheet of ice, there just doesn't seem to be any feedback from the road through the rumble on the pad which means that you can't get a feel for the car.

I think I'll stick PGR4 on again in a bit and see if I'm imagining things.

[Meers]

It's like you are driving on a sheet of ice, there just doesn't seem to be any feedback from the road through the rumble on the pad which means that you can't get a feel for the car.

Oh no! Not the driving on ice thing again!

Sarcasm aside though, these kinds of racers really ougth to be played with a steering wheel. I'm not going to try to sell you one, but you can definitely feel the road through it. The cobblestones on the streets of Almafi (sic.) for example, can be felt through it. The force feedback reacts to what's going on with the car under stress. There's nothing like it. Joypads just can't handle all the effects they've put into this game. You wouldn't play a PC racing sim with a pad either, to be fair. PGR has nothing on this, absolutely nothing at all (because it isn't a sim), apart from that it plays better with the pad than the wheel. And Forza 3 is vice-versa.

Methinks you're too rough and abrupt on the steering, making you slide about the place? You can do that in PGR, but not in here.

[Sloth]

I figured that it would probably feel better with the wheel. However mine is in a loft 6000 miles away so not much chance of using that.

This isn't a PC racing sim though, It's a console game. To say that a wheel is a requirement to play is quite frankly ridiculous. The vast majority of players are going to be using a pad and the game should control properly just as well with it.

I'm not sliding around all over the place at all, I just can't get a feel for how I'm placed on the road because the game offers no feedback from the road surface whatsoever. The pad feedback was better in Gran Turismo 4 than what we have in this.

Feedback can be done well on a pad, plenty of other games have done it. It seems like Turn 10 just couldn't be bothered.

To say that PGR has "nothing on this" is laughable. It was (and still is) an excellent series of games.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I'm considering a wheel (especially now with Intertoys' 15% off discount until the weekend) , but I see a lot of practical obstacles due to its size and, probably, need to be fitted to a solid surface. But I'm sure some of you geeks have worked out some wonderful solutions.

My situation:

This is my gaming chair:

(IKEA Poang)

The distance between my chair and 32" screen is about 2 feet (ie as close as possible)- there is room to move back though.

I'm looking for an efficient method to use the wheel and, especially, storing it after use. Preferably this does not involve large extra furniture / tables / desks. As I'm not looking for a dedicated driving chair I want the solution to be portable and quick to build and quick to remove / store.

[Sloth]

Having just compared this and PGR4 it seems that I was a bit hasty with my comments above, the feedback on the pad is pretty comparable between the two, the only real difference is that PGR4 gives you a good old blast of rumble with a gear change.

I still don't like the shiny roads though. And the force feedback on GT4 when using the pad was excellent.

[bradigor]

Fucking hell, it took me all evening to get one (digest!) replay uploaded in video bits on the My Forza website Sure: the race was 10 laps, resulting in roughly 8 minutes of material (which is about one third of the total replay), but why does it have to be in bits of 30 seconds, and why does it take so long? It wasn't even in 720p!

Still, I've got the perfect material to make my first full-blown Forza Motorsport 3 video now. Will be spending quite some time in Movie Maker tomorrow, although now's actually the time to get both a better computer (my 4,5 year old Acer Aspire 3500 is slow and dying a bit more every day) and Adobe Premiere

I can't wait and I totally appreciate the effort.

[marcus]

I'm considering a wheel (especially now with Intertoys' 15% off discount until the weekend) , but I see a lot of practical obstacles due to its size and, probably, need to be fitted to a solid surface. But I'm sure some of you geeks have worked out some wonderful solutions.

My situation:

This is my gaming chair:

(IKEA Poang)

The distance between my chair and 32" screen is about 2 feet (ie as close as possible)- there is room to move back though.

I'm looking for an efficient method to use the wheel and, especially, storing it after use. Preferably this does not involve large extra furniture / tables / desks. As I'm not looking for a dedicated driving chair I want the solution to be portable and quick to build and quick to remove / store.

A dozen or so pages back someone showed their setup using a Argos laptop table to mount the wheel onto, this is what Im thinking of getting when I buy the wheel shortly. The table is about £45 according to the website - http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/part...APTOP+TABLE.htm

[Valver]

Yep, that was my post. Marcus has linked to the right product..

The laptop tables not particularly cheap, but importantly it has wife acceptance factor, which no steering wheel dedicated devices have. The table is light enough to easily carry around (I move it out of my lounge after playing, up two flighs of stairs!) and is actually usefull for my laptop in the bedroom when I work up there. You could dismantle it each time if space is an issue (it uses 6 allen key bolts to assemble the frame) but I wouldnt reccomend it. The table is just the right height for my dining room chair. It could be a tad high for an Ikea chair - they more comfy recliners arent they? The Pedals fit nicely into the rectangular metal frame base.

I'm very happy with it.

I dont want to play Forza with the pad at all now. Wheel all the way.

[bradigor]

£4.99 Ikea table and a sofa... I have not taken 3 unused shelves from a DVD cabinet and taped them together to create a blocker for the pedals.

[Meers]

This isn't a PC racing sim though, It's a console game. To say that a wheel is a requirement to play is quite frankly ridiculous. The vast majority of players are going to be using a pad and the game should control properly with it.

To say that PGR has "nothing on this" is laughable. It's was (and still is) an excellent series of games.

It's a simulator, and it being on a console doesn't matter - this game has been developed with a force feedback wheel as the primary controller in mind. And to be fair, if you're taking racing sims seriously, chances are you've got a wheel anyway.

PGR has nothing on this with regards to the physics. Argue all you want. Try a wheel first, then complain.

Having just compared this and PGR4 it seems that I was a bit hasty with my comments above, the feedback on the pad is pretty comparable between the two, the only real difference is that PGR4 gives you a good old blast of rumble with a gear change.

Ah! I was taking my time with my reply, and you posted this in the mean time.

[bradigor]

What's happening with Smith? Not seen him online at all since Forza 3 came out.

[Meers]

What's happening with Smith? Not seen him online at all since Forza 3 came out.

He's been having some personal troubles lately, and losing his job doesn't make him any more cheerful about many things...including FM3. It's hard to enthuse him these days.

He's playing it though. He wants to do the career first before racing online.

[bradigor]

He's been having some personal troubles lately, and losing his job doesn't make him any more cheerful about many things...including FM3. It's hard to enthuse him these days.

He's playing it though. He wants to do the career first before racing online.

Fair enough, wish him my best

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I bought a wheel stand pro They're pricey at £95 but I just closed my eyes and clicked "order". I just hope they're as good as I've heard. Anyone else got one and care to make me feel better about such an extravagance?

I'm way too middlecore for that kind of investment

A dozen or so pages back someone showed their setup using a Argos laptop table to mount the wheel onto, this is what Im thinking of getting when I buy the wheel shortly. The table is about £45 according to the website - http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/part...APTOP+TABLE.htm

A good solution, but too high.

I just thought of something though ... I have an organ stool which is literally 6 feet from my 360, and it might slide over the chair...

[Sloth]

PGR has nothing on this with regards to the physics. Argue all you want. Try a wheel first, then complain.

I figured that it would probably feel better with the wheel. However mine is in a loft 6000 miles away so not much chance of using that.

Trust me, I'd be using the wheel if I could.

[Meers]

Trust me, I'd be using the wheel if I could.

If my wheel would ever die on me, I would buy a new one immediately. Even if I would have to sell my body in order to get the money for it. No way in hell I'm going back to a controller.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

How well does it work to just keep it on your lap?