"Forza 3" Catch All

EvilDead wrote:

Now I just need to learn to drive like this.

Crazy driving skills

Great video, but I just had to laugh when I realized that the song was the exact same one that's prominently featured in DiRT 2!

Coincidence?

EvilDead wrote:

Now I just need to learn to drive like this.

Crazy driving skills

I was wondering why it was getting such a low rating until a made the mistake at looking at some of the comments. "Forza Sux, GT5 is so much better".

I'm starting to wondering if the GT5 community made entirely of trolls. Its hard to find anything about Forza 3 that doesn't have a bunch of morons talking about how they loved paying for their GT5 demo.

Colour me impressed with the demo!

Looks like a big leap forward visually from Forza 2. Driving feel somehow felt a little less squirly than Forza 2 too - a little harder to screw-up. Maybe the cars in the demo are just well tuned.

I particuarly enjoyed how driving the same course with the slowest car and the fastest car almost felt like a different track.

With that glowing praise out of the way, I'm still not convinced that I'm going to pick it up. For me, it's a victim of how good a game Forza 2 is. I've still got *loads* of unplayed stuff in that game, and for the foreseeable future, if I want to tool around in a car, that'll do me fine. I daresay I'll pick up F3 at some point next year when it's cheaper, I'm richer, and Forza 2 is a little more completed.

MisterStatic wrote:
Nimcosi wrote:

So those with the 360 wheel (which I just picked up), what the hell do you do with the pedals? Mine are sliding every which way (on carpet). I try to hold it down with my left foot but that does little to help...

Like I said in my previous post, they are made to "notch" your heels into that slot which naturally prevents the pedals from moving, left on brake, right on throttle. I have no issues with it and I know several other people that comment on that advantage of the 360 wheel as well.

Who brakes with their left foot?

I'm in on day one for Forza 3 btw.

Farscry wrote:

Who brakes with their left foot? :?

Umm...race car drivers possibly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-foot_braking

Farscry wrote:

Who brakes with their left foot? :?

Other than race drivers?

LiquidMantis wrote:
Farscry wrote:

Who brakes with their left foot? :?

Other than race drivers?

Forza players

Actually, for the 3 days I had the Microsoft wheel (before it broke), I did the whole left foot braking thing. Surprisingly easy to get used to.

LiquidMantis wrote:
Farscry wrote:

Who brakes with their left foot? :?

Other than race drivers?

I used to do that when I switched from driving manual to automatic.

Did anyone feel like all the demo cars had 20+ degrees of caster?

d3p0 wrote:

Did anyone feel like all the demo cars had 20+ degrees of caster?

I didn't feel it. Did you turn the assists off?

Edit: Also what car were you driving. The Audi is the only one I put a few rounds in with.

Yeah, assists off. I drove all of the cars and had the same reaction.

EvilDead wrote:

Now I just need to learn to drive like this.

Crazy driving skills

I was wondering why it was getting such a low rating until a made the mistake at looking at some of the comments. "Forza Sux, GT5 is so much better".

Never read the GT comments. I recently saw them slamming Blood Bowl for not being like Madden.

RE: The Demo:

FINE I'M PRE-ORDERING ALREADY SHEESH

Ran a few laps with the mini and got to within roughly half a second of Lupus' time

Oh how I missed Forza.

Wow, I honestly never knew anyone used their left foot for braking!

The EVO is really, really easy to drive.

Farscry wrote:

Wow, I honestly never knew anyone used their left foot for braking!

Racers mostly. Not recommended for daily driving. A technique you can actually use daily is heal and toe. It was this technique that I was attempting to use with 360 pedals and got frustrated with the unit sliding.
Either technique will work. However in my opinion, learning how to have both the brake and throttle pushed at the same time with different appendages is a recipe for disaster. Heel to toe performs a balancing act that ultimately means that at some point you must commit to the brake or throttle, thereby reducing the risk.

Nimcosi wrote:

However in my opinion, learning how to have both the brake and throttle pushed at the same time with different appendages is a recipe for disaster. Heel to toe performs a balancing act that ultimately means that at some point you must commit to the brake or throttle, thereby reducing the risk.

This is true. On the racetrack it makes sense. Your entire focus is on driving, what your feet are doing, the shifter, and what you're doing with the wheel. In your everyday driving I don't know anybody whose mind doesn't wander on occasion to what they're going to have for dinner or whether they should wait a few hours to call their girlfriend. All it takes is one "Oops, wrong foot!" moment and you've caused an accident.

Thin_J wrote:

The EVO is really, really easy to drive.

Are you complaining about this?

I don't think you are but thought I would use this to address an issue I have with racing games overall.

Modern race cars should feel easy to drive, especially an AWD like the EVO. Take all the assists off Forza and you have a very unrealistic simulation of modern cars, IMHO.

It drives me nuts when some make the assumption that insanely difficult to drive = simulation.

Now RBR is my favorite race game, which would seem to counter my statement. But, RBR is a case where the vehicles are pretty easy to drive once you learn to drive them correctly.

Not to say some masochists don't learn to love Forza with ABS and TC completely off.

I love the feel of Forza 3 versus Forza 2. The cars have limits but I really feel like I can push those limits in a realistic manner.

MisterStatic wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

The EVO is really, really easy to drive.

Are you complaining about this?

I don't think you are but thought I would use this to address an issue I have with racing games overall. Modern race cars should feel easy to drive, especially an AWD like the EVO. Take all the assists off Forza and you have a very unrealistic simulation of modern cars, IMHO. It drives me nuts when some make the assumption that insanely difficult to drive = simulation.

Rather than going point by point and disagreeing with everything... I'll focus on this.

The driving model has changed very little since Forza 2, at least in feel. But then.. I'm apparently a masochist. I play with all the assists off. That said, the cars in Forza are not insanely difficult to drive whether the assists are on or off. You just have to learn to drive them. Easing into the throttle coming out of turns, carefully pumping the brake pedal instead of jamming on it, braking before a turn and not into or during it... those aren't just things you have to do in so called sim racing games. You have to do all of it in real race cars too.

And actually I'd argue that Forza's simulation of true race cars is too lenient. Hunt down the video of the guy on Top Gear driving an F1 car and watch how much more is involved in driving that than any regular car. Then get on Forza or any other racing game and hop in the fastest track only car like that the game offers. See if it puts up anything remotely like that kind of difficulty. It does not. Period.

And Forza's modeling of AWD cars has always been more lenient than those same cars are in real life. My direct experience of this is with the previous generation WRX. It's definitely a confident easy to drive car on a twisty road, and it will take care of minor mistakes and help you out in a way that no RWD or FWD car will, but it gets a good deal more unruly a lot faster than it does in Forza 2 when you push it. I've not driven the new EVO so I can't say if Forza 3 has fixed their modeling of AWD cars or not. That car may very well handle that way in real life. I don't know. But look around online for impressions from real drivers that take their cars to autocross events and actually hit the track. They'll tell you over and over that Forza 2's physics don't really handle AWD vehicles correctly and the game is easier for it.

I am not complaining about this. I like the game better than every other racer I've ever touched. It's quite a bit closer to realistic than any of the Gran Turismo games have ever felt for me and manages to be fun to play too. It's a minor quirk in an otherwise stellar game. No sim racer until the Forza games has ever managed to capture my attention. Even with that.. I'm not going to argue against people who know more about it than me, and all those people agree that the AWD cars are more forgiving and easier to drive in the game than they are in real life.

Yeah the physics modeling in these games isn't totally perfect yet, but damn is it ever good.

This demo really blew me away - this game is really almost everything I could ask for in a racing game. I fired it up yesterday and called my buddies over. When the track loaded the number of "ooooohs" and "ahhhs" in the room was sky-high. It's really a stunning game to look at, and to see it run at 60FPS knowing everything else that was going on under the hood was enough to leave me really impressed. I don't know how they managed to get it to run at 60FPS - it just looks like it shouldn't be possible when your watching it. I think with this game Turn 10 has cemented their position as Microsoft's most talented internal studio. As good as the new NFS and Dirt are, I doubt that either one of them will be much competition for what looks to me to be the best racing game of the year.

Thin J

I've probably missed this somewhere in the thread, but are you using the steering wheel? I remember you being a beast at Forza 2, just wondering if it's possible to be good without it.

Went back shaved some time off my laps for each of the cars. The R8 is decidedly my least favorite of the bunch, but I'm sure I'll be able to "fix" it in the retail version by shifting more of the torque to the rear wheels.

Just tooling around the track and doing a bit of virtual tourism, I can't wait to play some of the other ribbons for this track. Looks like there may be a version with a good stretch of asphalt to really open up on. The Japanese mountain pass road they showed in those videos should be a blast as well. Just one month to go.

Gumbie wrote:

Thin J

I've probably missed this somewhere in the thread, but are you using the steering wheel? I remember you being a beast at Forza 2, just wondering if it's possible to be good without it.

I have it, but have never put the time in to learn to play with it. Any memories you have of me in Forza 2 were with the controller, and that's likely what I'll stick with on Forza 3. As for being a beast, I would wager that Lupus will be the master in the new one. He's kept up with playing Forza 2 far more often than I have, and it shows in his lap times on this demo. I was really having to think about what I was doing to wheedle off time and get closer to his records, and the only one I passed was the EVO, which I suspect has been topped again by now

LupusUmbrus wrote:

The R8 is decidedly my least favorite of the bunch, but I'm sure I'll be able to "fix" it in the retail version by shifting more of the torque to the rear wheels.

You know, I couldn't quite put my finger on what felt wrong with that car but I think you may have nailed it. I didn't try the Ferrari or the Porsche, but of the lower vehicles I definitely liked the R8 the least too.

I'm having fun with the MS wheel and the demo. Love the demo track, with the elevation changes it seems so different than any of the tracks in Forza 2. Spent some time messing around with the clutch today (mapped to the A button on the wheel), and managed to shave a second to two off my times. Although, that was probably due more to the extra practice time on the track. If the clutch on the fanatec is analog, I may be looking at taking out a mortgage for it.

Anyone know if the 'GWJ Racing Clan' is active, and if it will be the meet up spot for Forza 3? If so, I'll join up if there are slots open.

Is it just me, or does F3 remind anyone of a Stanley Kubrick film? Everything squeaky clean and sanitary shot through hyper-clear optics... The only thing missing is for me is being able to race while looking up from the rocker panel.

I do like it, just ..... Racin is a dirty sport, and not from a NASCAR, lets wreck the whole field perspective.

Thin_J wrote:
LupusUmbrus wrote:

The R8 is decidedly my least favorite of the bunch, but I'm sure I'll be able to "fix" it in the retail version by shifting more of the torque to the rear wheels.

You know, I couldn't quite put my finger on what felt wrong with that car but I think you may have nailed it. I didn't try the Ferrari or the Porsche, but of the lower vehicles I definitely liked the R8 the least too.

The Ferrari and Porsche are my favorites, followed closely by the Mini. The Evo is nice enough, but not very exciting to drive.

My new favorite activity is to jump in my car of choice and run the track backwards. After getting familiar with the track in one direction, doing it the other way around is a nice challenge. A lot of spots where you can't see around corners or over hills (at least in bumper-cam), and it really makes use of the track layout well. Here's hoping it's a legit configuration once the game comes out.

My new favorite activity is to jump in my car of choice and run the track backwards. After getting familiar with the track in one direction, doing it the other way around is a nice challenge. A lot of spots where you can't see around corners or over hills (at least in bumper-cam), and it really makes use of the track layout well. Here's hoping it's a legit configuration once the game comes out.

Head-ons are fun too.

Arrgh.

So, they just posted a list of all 400 cars in the game. And I'm profoundly disappointed.

There are virtually no ordinary cars on there.

You can race any model BMW M car you want, but I don't see a single 325i. Lots of Z06s, but no ordinary base model Corvettes.

The only remotely ordinary looking cars on the list are a New Beetle and a couple of Scions.

There's nothing there for the kid with the beater Civic or the hand-me-down Altima who wants to find out what new tires, a lowered suspension, and a couple of other cheap mods might do for his ride.

Supercars are nice and all, but I don't really care about them. I expect them to perform well. I'm much more interested in ordinary cars. The kind of cars people actually own lots of examples of. I'd like to be able to tweak those cars to see what kind of results you can get out of an accessible, every day kind of vehicle.

While there's no beater civics there's still plenty of Integras, various Type R's, and a freaking PT cruiser. The D class has never looked as stacked as it does now. Looking forward to some mad D class races.