Forza Motorsport 3

Not as responsive a racer as Rally Sport Challenge 1 for the XBOX, but still a worthy game. Graphics are quite good, but not as good as what the XBOX 360 is capable of. It suffers from the unfortunate use of heightened contrast levels which seem to plague most modern games. The irony is that, by cranking up the contrast, the advantages of a 24-bit color palette are diminished. Areas that should fall into gradual shadow are reduced to black. This is what the post-production film/television business calls "crushed black levels" and is not a good thing.

The gameplay is quite good. However, the handling on the cars is generally quite sluggish. Not until a sizable amount of virtual coin is spent on upgrades do the cars begin to respond the way they should. There are a few cars that tend to fish-tail and spin out much more easily than they would in reality. Furthermore, some vehicles move like electric cars on a toy track.

Gameplay appears to have been a bit of an after-thought, in favor of supplying more cars. It isn't more types of cars that players want, it's more tracks and a very refined level of responsiveness to the actual driving experience. The cars should handle in such a way that they are fun to drive. Even the original Pole Position handles better that the cars in Forza 3. Again, look at Rally Sport Challenge (XBOX) or Flag to Flag (Dreamcast) for reference for how cars should handle in modern racing games. Having said this, I should state that the handling for the cars in Forza 3 is much better than games like Project Gotham, Total Immersion Racing, or SRS.

As for the interface and menu system, it's somewhat tedious. Part of it stems from the also modern trend of forcing the player to adhere to a calendar and schedule or set events. While not as annoying as the weak attempts to create a story like in the over-rated Dirt series of games, the navigation from course to course is initially a patience-tester. In the 1980s, this type of laborious method of track selection would have docked the game marks in the review stage. Surprisingly, this is now becoming the norm for all types of genres of video games (Virtua-Fighter 5, Dirt, Virtua-Tennis 2009, ...). Ideally, developers should be less concerned with forcing players to progress though games the way they want them to. The best approach is to let the player choose any track, any car, and any upgrade whenever they feel like it. Some may recall the old arcade and ColecoVision skill level selection system. There's a reason why that system was successful. In fact almost every 70s and 80s arcade machine includes skill level settings. Even the 1982 TRON arcade machine has 9 selectable skill levels and a level skip feature).

The real show-stealer in Forza 3 is the soundtrack. The music is remarkable and represents one of the few times since the C64 that composers actually put their heart and soul into the music. The tracks are professionally composed, mixed, and pre-mastered. The hooks are excellent, and the instrumentation choices are brilliant. It's obvious that a conscious effort was made to ensure that the music was pleasing while still suggesting a sense of speed, right down to the choice of kicks that have been placed low in the mix, rather than at the front. Arpeggiators and sequences have been given center stage with the synth pad hooks and chord progressions. All of this works to enhance gameplay and makes the lengthy load times tolerable.

If you've surmised that I'm no stranger to video games, you're correct. I've played thousands of video games in my time and have done development work for companies like Nintendo. There are lessons that all developers can learn from the past. Go back and read the issues of ZZap!64 and Electonic Games magazines that are posted for free on the U.S. Archive.org site and read what the reviewers have to say. Apply it to modern games and you'll reap the rewards. So too will the players.