No other game on the Xbox 360 seems to instill the same kind of fear in gamers as the Forza Motorsports series does. Just mention the name and watch people either flinch or exclaim, “aw, I can’t play those games with all the tuning and stuff”. It’s understandable, Forza’s reputation for really accurate modeling of real world elements of car racing is well-earned at this point. Everything from engine tunings down to tire performance to road surfaces to aerodynamics to weight balance to etc., etc., is recreated to an amazing granularity, and it’s easy to see why gamers might get worried. That can be a lot of stuff to keep track of.
But gamers really shouldn’t be afraid of the SkyNet-like superbrain making all these computations under the surface. All that stuff is meant to be perceived unconsciously; you’re just supposed to feel like it’s the real thing. And yes, if you know a thing or two about parts and tuning, to the extent of the things you’ve learned from video games, you can get more out of the game with the slew of customization options. But Forza Motorsport 3 does a lot to make the game “unscary” for everyone else by making it super easy to fine tune your assists. That’s accessibility.
For a game series than began life under accusations of being a Gran Turismo clone for Xbox fanboys, the Forza series has come a long way. Some might say it has even surpassed the legendary PlayStation-exclusive racer from Polyphony Digital, though most of that is colored by bias in the great Sony vs. Microsoft turf war. What is for sure though is this latest edition in the series is the best-looking and most accessible one so far. Will that help them attract a new audience?
Driving assists are nothing new to simulation racers like Forza. There’s a reason they hire professional drivers in real life: high-powered automobiles are not for amateurs. But in the non-judgemental world of video games, everyone is assumed to be an amateur. So you get a little help. If you don’t want any help though, you can turn those on and off at the beginning of every race. It will also save your settings, but being able to toggle auto-braking and traction control and some other magic god hands to keep you from spinning out and hurting yourself, or rather, your car. If you don’t like them, turn them off.
The one assist to rule them all though is the rewind button, a function you don’t have to build up with a meter and can use whenever you want, as many times as you want. I don’t care how good you are, sometimes you wish you could take back mistakes. That’s why the rewind button is so rad, you might be a quarter mile from the finish on some awesome hot lap where you’re going to break your own personal best, and you take a curve a little too wide and clip a wall. I don’t see any shame in rewinding time to a point before that happened, and creating a new alternate reality where you prevent it from happening. Time-space continuum be damned.
Personally, I’ve been playing with auto-brake off, anti-lock, stability control and traction control all on. What? A lot of cars have all that stuff in them now. Ok, a lot of luxury cars, but so what? You can race with those too. For a little added boost to my XP modifier, I change the suggested line to braking only. Anything you can stand to make a little more difficult will pay off for you in experience points, one of the most precious commodities of the game.
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