Forza Motorsport 3 is for car lovers. That's the message developer Turn 10 hopes to get across to consumers at E3 2009. And they really mean it. The goal of Forza 3 is not to force gamers to play at a higher skill level or even teach them how to become master videogame racers. The goal is to create a game that is accessible to everyone, from a little kid to an old man.
That doesn't mean dumbing down the gameplay for everyone. Instead, Turn 10 simply added layers to the assists, including a replay function and an auto-braking system. In its easiest form, gamers can just hold gas and go. Bump into AI and you'll see some nifty collisions, but it won't really impact you. And if that's what it takes so you'll play and enjoy Forza 3, so be it. Don't worry, the hardest of hardcore racers can test themselves with all assists off and no replays. That's your choice as well. Either way, the single-player career mode carries on. There's no penalty for playing on easy (or using the replay feature to death), but those who play at harder difficulties do get more cash for each race.
Aside from making Forza 3 more accessible, there are a hefty number of additions to get excited about. While Forza's AI has always been good, there's now an AI pressure system. This is an additional layer to the Drivatar system (which learns from your racing style). If you're riding an AI driver's tail on medium difficulty, he may feel the pressure and make mistakes. Yes, you can actually sweat guys now. On the higher difficulties the other driver may not be impacted by the pressure in the same way.
Also greatly improved is the career mode which is ridiculously large. The new career mode features calendar-based seasons. These seasons are controlled by their own AI and are fully dynamic. The game analyzes the types of cars you enjoy racing, the car classes you dig, your skill and more to determine which races you'd like. According to Turn 10, it will take hundreds of hours to exhaust the dynamic scheduling. As for the season mode, it's timed to get you fully immersed with all cars, etc., after about 50 hours of driving time.
Perhaps the most promising area is one that won't be discussed by Turn 10 until closer to release. User-generated content was a big part of Forza 2 and it's going to have a larger role in the sequel. User content is the area Turn 10 is pushing most.
While Turn 10 wants to keep its user-generated content plans under wraps for a few months, we did learn a few nuggets. The idea for this new system is taken from YouTube. Most people aren't out there cutting their own videos, creating something great for others. Instead, the majority scan YouTube looking to enjoy others' creations. Turn 10 will provide the tools for making awesome liveries, but they can't suddenly make you creative. What they can do is make it easier to find awesome custom jobs for downloading.
For this Turn 10 is going to elevate the best Forza 3 creators into heroes. Forza 3 features leaderboards for user-generated content. The more an item is downloaded, the higher it ranks. This way you can start tracking your favorites to see what they do next. It's a pretty cool idea, but it's just one small piece of what Turn 10 has planned.
Speaking of leaderboards, you may be wondering how the new limitless replay system is going to affect leaderboard postings. Hot lap times will always be uploaded. Turn 10 doesn't want to provide tools to help users race and then punish them for using. Yes, this means that you can use the replay feature to get "the perfect lap" if you like. But don't worry. Purists have their laps certified. If you don't "cheat" by using the replay feature, getting pushes, etc., then your lap time gets a special notation and appears above those earned by those who are less than pure.
Those are just a few of the big things coming to Forza Motorsport 3. Far greater detail on the career mode, user-generated content and the under-wraps multiplayer elements will be examined over the coming months. Stay tuned. We will have lots more Forza coming.
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