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Forza Motorsport 3 360

Format:
360

Genre:
Racing

Style:
Firstperson
Thirdperson
Competitive

Buy/Support:
Support Sid, click to buy via us...

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Other GamePeople columnists have reviewed this from their perspective - huh?:
Family Gamer (360)
Perpetual Gamer (360)
Race Gamer (360)
Frugal Gamer (360)
Tech Gamer (360)

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Forza 3 Xbox 360 is one of the most detailed, realistic racers on the market today, as close to race car driving as possible in your living room. Its makers claim that anyone can play it from six to sixty but as usual, I'm only interested in the online content. While racing proper needs much practice, the novelty 'Tag' game hit the spot for me.

Forza 3 on the 360, according to the blurb, has over 400 cars and 100 tracks. But that doesn't matter one bit when you can barely keep one of them on the straight and narrow. Jumping straight into multiplayer, I expected to be kept back from the 200+MPH beasts until I'd made the grade, forced to drive Miss Daisy round in a Toyota Yaris. But Forza 3 online allows you to jump right into the seat of a number of high performance cars like Porches, Ferraris and Lamborghinis right from the off.

I might have known choosing the sexiest looking motor out there was a bad idea but, hell, I was swept up in the moment. Two minutes later I was regretting that decision. The first race I leapt into, after selecting Quick Race, was following the beautiful Amalfi Coast. A track so thick with bends and tight corners that I didn't even complete a single lap before it was all over. And so it went for another five races. I'd swap cars, choose something equally as sexy and fast, and promptly skid of the track on every corner. Granted, I'd set the racing and braking aid to corners only as I consider myself experienced enough to be able to at least keep the cars on the track in the straights, but even with these on, everything I drove was so fast that I just couldn't keep it together At which point I thought it might be a better idea to get into something more sedate, just so I could give myself a chance to actually complete a lap before the forty-five second countdown to oblivion began.

Now this was better, I was still utterly useless but could at least manage to stay on the track. I just had to put up with everybody else zipping past me in souped up, self-tuned racing machines.

Eventually, I grew bored of losing gracefully and fumbled about in the lobby looking for other thrills. 'Drift' caught my eye. You don't win by coming first, you win by drifting round the corners and scoring points for keeping your car on the track at the same time. Skidding? Surely I was a master at the skid by now? Well, at least master at spinning out of control and slamming into walls. If I thought racing proper was hard, it was nothing compared to Drift challenges, and I still have absolutely no idea how you're supposed to go sideways round a corner and stay on the track.

So I jacked that in and looked around for something a bit more me. And then I found it. Tag is a game where one driver is 'It' and the rest of us have to crash into him/her to become 'It' ourselves. The winner is the player who has been It the longest.

Finally, I'd found some proper fun. Here I found other players who were only too willing to chat, whereas in most of the other game types I'd tried out there was barely a word uttered, and there was plenty of laughter from all players. I didn't have to worry about the pack shooting off and leaving me spinning on the first turn, because they came straight back, chasing after the latest owner of the tag.

This time, no one got cross with me for crashing into them as everyone was crashing into everyone else continuously. And it turned out that I wasn't at all bad at Tag. Once I'd sussed out what was going on, I managed to be It long enough to start finishing third and fourth. Okay, so at the end of prolonged Tag marathons the overall winner would be on something like 125 points to my 14, but I didn't feel like I was in out of my depth. I actually felt like I was a part of it all instead of a spectator who'd strayed onto the track.

Now I knew I should really have be entering into proper races to improve myself, but the fact was that I just couldn't resist having a bit of a crash fest first, and once I'd started I just didn't feel like stopping.

Best Multiplayer Moments

The Tag games are masses of fun, reminiscent of Destruction Derby from PS2 days, and require almost no skill whatsoever to enjoy. Racing proper is not so much fun as gripping - you won't hear much laughing from your fellow racers if you get in their way but you will wonder where all the evening went.

Multiplayer Verdict

Jumping straight into the game is a little bewildering, but with practice you'll soon get the hang of it. You just need to understand that you're going to do a lot of losing initially.

Written by Sid Andrews

You can support Sid by buying Forza Motorsport 3



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Sid Andrews writes the Multiplayer Gamer column.

"Multiplayer modes are often the only parts of a game a play. Initially this was just because I was short on time, but more recently I've realised these are simply my favourite parts."

Here are the games I've been playing recently:

• Max Payne 3
• NeverDead
• The Darkness II
• GoldenEye 007 Reloaded
• Home