Tagged: racing
Forza Motorsport 3
I do not know many that have not been biding their time waiting for the release of the much anticipated follow up to the super successful Forza 2 racing title. Just released today and already I feel the need to write about it, so take this as a precursor to a final and proper review once I have completed Forza Motorsport 3.
Forza 3 pushes forward that same awesome driving experience that we all know and love, one that makes just about any other racing title seem inferior – Forza’s controls feel perfect. The graphics in this edition are vastly improved if you can believe that, the car models are simply stunning and I’ll never tire of seeing the car roll up to its starting grid slot at the beginning of each race, absolutely gorgeous!
With 400 cars this edition caters for everyone, from out and out race cars to 4×4’s there is something for everyone to enjoy. The new tracks that are included are both great to look at and great to drive, from some made up locations to old stalwarts like Silverstone and Laguna Seca to awesome new additions such as the Circuit de Catalunya (Spanish Grand Prix) and the Circuit de la Sarthe (24 Hours of Le Mans).
Whilst the addition of these new tracks is very welcome I keep finding myself trundling around Maple Valley and Sebring from the original, which is fine now and again but seeing as I just started my career 4 laps around the full Sebring in my Fiat 500 Abarth make for 10 minutes of serious scowling on my part.
It’s not all smiles and thumbs up, the much anticipated in-car camera view which has been around in other games for many a year is rather disappointing, if the developers are going to spend countless hours perfecting the interior of the Bugatti Veyron the least they could do is let me look around the cockpit and enjoy the whole experience as I’m not sure I’ll ever likely sit in one. This is where Need for Speed: Shift I think excelled just a few months ago, the in-car cameras were outstanding and small details such as exhaust flames and backfiring (which is common place in race cars) as well as the heat haze coming out of the exhaust and engine bays were real delighters.
You are still limited to 8 opponents in Forza 3 which has its ups and down, while overtaking is fun I do tend to keep everyone in my rear-view mirror. The unlimited amount of rewinds is also rather generous, first introduced in Grid these are now becoming rather common and while I think they have their place, I do not think Forza (a racing sim) is that. I’ve already found myself relying upon it when in years past I would have simply taken that spin off track on the chin and battled my way through the field again.
Finally, the achievements are, quite frankly, dull – infact, I have already completed 60% of them on the first day! The rest are likely to take a fair bit of time to achieve (and are worthy slightly more) but they really aren’t very inspiring.
All in all, my first day with Forza has heralded a return to the best racing sim on the market and while it isn’t everything I wished it could be, it smokes anything else in this category. Hands down.
Trials HD
Trials HD is a fantastic puzzle racing game that takes place in a 3D world on a 2D plain, it started life as a flash game before RedLynx brought it to the Xbox Live Arcade and boy is it fun, addictive and excruciatingly frustrating all at the same time!
Once you have mastered the controls which appear simple enough, navigating your way across 35-levels of obstacles that on first look appear nigh on impossible to scale, you find yourself immersed in a game that tests the very limits of your patience and your thirst for competition – anybody on your friends list that completes a track even remotely quicker than you becomes the enemy.
After giving the rather limited trial version a run I was in no doubt about purchasing the full game for 1200MSP, the vast array of tracks, additional bikes, customisability and not to mention the rather in-depth level-editor make this Arcade title a well-rounded game. A truly fun and addictive game that has you playing long into the night trying to overcome some of the most seemingly impossible obstacles.
The Achievements are well stacked and fairly challenging, but with a bit of practice and a few restarts later not that unachievable apart from Marathon which sees you face the Ultimate Endurance tournament, 25 tracks in a row – the crux? You can’t fall off once!