For Pete's Sake

Forza 3 Collectors Edition

While release day for the UK isn’t till tomorrow thanks to a postal strike my Limited Edition came early. First off I’d like to tip my hat to whoever designed the box for the LE. It presents the game, the USB stick and the key ring in a very cool yet classy way. What is even better is the game itself is in a sleek black case and not plastered with the usual XBox 360 stuff and the lime green cases. While not a huge thing it certainly ties the whole thing together.

Along with the key ring and USB memory stick you get some downloadable goodies. At time of writing I’ve been able to download everything but the LCE dashboard theme. While not part of the game it was a little frustrating but from what I’ve read on the official forums its absence is simply due to the fact they haven’t uploaded it. So with any luck come Friday, I’ll re-download the pack and it’ll be there. They key ring is a lovely, brushed steel key ring which looks really cool and has the Forza 3 logo engrave on there. The USB stick on the other hand is your run of the mill plastic casing but contrary to some office jibes not a cheap knock-off stick. The make is SanDisk so should be pretty good and reliable though I have not yet used and don’t plan to either.

On to the actual game itself and oh my is it beautiful. The one thing that really struck me is how better looking it is than Forza 2. Maybe it’s just me but everything just seems to have that extra bit of polish, colours are brighter, cars are sharper and the off track scenery feel much more part of the circuit. What is even more amazing is when you think ‘it looks this good and still plays at 60fps.’ This for me is the big plus point as I’d rather have a game that makes you feel you’re going fast than one that looks pretty but at 140mph you feel like you’re doing twenty. Couple that then with some awesome physics and you find you’ve got a top draw sim racer.

The words sim and racer would put a lot of people off however don’t as Forza 3 is really easy to pick up and play. Don’t care about upgrading your car? Forza 3 will upgrade your car for you if it’s not competitive enough to race in the Championship you’ve just entered. Pretty awful at driving? With all the assists Forza has to offer you should find your happy medium. Add to this the new rewind feature which, like in Race Driver GRID, allows you to rewind the race if you mess up, it makes the whole racing thing a less stressful affair (well mostly). It also means that the more someone plays and gets used to how it all handles with the knowledge they can rewind it will probably encourage the “all assists” crowd to turn the odd one off. Personally I’ve played each iteration of Forza without assists, not because I’m amazing, but because you get more cash in-game if you do. At the same time though I’ve felt more a part of the game and find winning a lot more rewarding.

Next on the change list for Forza 3 was the look and feel. The menu system in Forza 2 was okay but not great and at times could get a little confusing. Forza 3 however has a clean white look with minimal menus which are easy to follow and intuitive. The first thing I said about the menus to myself when I played the demo was ‘how very Gran Turismo’ and that’s not a bad thing. Either way the new look interface is welcomed as is the new way to make vinyl groups. Ask any of the painters in Forza 2 the way they made a lot of designs was find the car with the biggest roof and make the groups from there. There is now a stand alone option to make a vinyl group in Forza 3 and it takes you to an area where you have a grid layout. This makes making vinyl groups much easier as you have lots of space to play with as you don’t have to worry about part of your design going off the side of the roof. These groups can then be saved and put on a car later or, if you’re an awesome painter (which I’m not) you can put up for sale on your storefront.

The storefront is another new addition to Forza 3. Here the community at large can check out the best painters and tuners and buy their designs/tunes. For someone like me who was awful at painting and tuning in Forza 2 this is a fantastic addition. Now I can easily find tunes and designs and give something to those who provide them. Right now there’s not much on there as the game isn’t out but I can’t wait to see what the games best painters come up with, especially with the new painting method for vinyl groups. However don’t think that this replaces the auction house as that is still there and seemingly for me, still impossible to win a bid.

Finally then it’s on to the single player game as I haven’t touched multiplayer. The first thing of note is the new season play. One of the biggest issues with previous Forza game was that it was just race after race and a slow progression through every category. Forza 3 introduces Season Play to combat this. Each season you’ll compete in one World Championship which take place on weekends then after each of those you’ll be asked to select a week based competition. It’s definitely a more engaging way to play the game but if you want to slog through just competitions you can still do this and is where I selected my first drag race which to be honest wasn’t as fun as I thought it’d be. There’s also still the usual leaderboards which can be asked for every track and event for fastest lap as well as for drifting, the other newcomer to Forza 3.

Drifting was a community startup with drift teams like Project Blackjack being the forerunners of this sub-community. In Forza 3 it’s an add-on accessed by pressing left on the D-pad but it’s fun sometimes to turn it on and just go nuts. The drift points are awarded in a Project Gotham like way and the familiarity is nice. The other thing to is that it’s not easy or at least I found it hard to get anything good going which makes your respect the drift teams immensely.

So in closing Forza 3 is such a huge step-up from the impressive Forza 2 I almost couldn’t believe it. Forza is a seasoned racer now and the current iteration shows this in the professional look and feel. At the same time however it’s still a serious simulation editor which, with all assists off will bite your head off if you get it badly wrong. What is even more amazing is that despite this it can still be picked up and played by the arcade type racer or those who aren’t big racing players and still be enjoyed. What Turn10 has done with Forza 3 is impressive and sets that bar high now for its competitors namely Race Pro. At the same time though it puts quite a lot of expectation on them for the future. But if Forza 3 is anything to go by they’ll excel under pressure and can’t wait to see what they do next.

Well, anyone who is actually still reading this or has it bookmarked may be, especially when the last post was back in August. Anyway, I’m still at my current job, despite the odd misgiving here and there. At times it’s not that bad, others.. well let’s just say I have bad thoughts. Either way it’s employment and I should be grateful for that. So that’s work summed up, short and sweet really.

Life in general is going pretty well despite the odd worry but then they’re nothing more that what everyone else probably worries about. It gets me down and recently it’s got me down more than it usually does. The other thing that keeps bugging me lately is I have this feeling that things are just passing me by. I don’t know if they are or why I have this feeling but even as I sit here now I just thinking I could or should be doing something more. Fact is I probably could, I even started writing my part of a story I’m doing with Legionary, hopefully I’ll write more soon. Cat is doing well in her job though right now she’s worrying and stressing about her dancing exam which is approaching far too quickly! Our holiday to Iceland is booked for next year, just a case now of saving the money and damn it’s expensive but there you go, what in this life isn’t?! Still it’ll be worth it and I really can’t wait to go. On another life note, my birthday is approaching again, I tell you it must be improving its ninja skills as it really did sneak up on me this year.

One cool thing though that happened recently was my attendance, along with my good friend Carl, to the NHL ice hockey game in London. The atmosphere and venue (The O2) were superb and the game wasn’t half-bad either. It’s certainly got me buzzing and really excited now about attending the NFL London game for which the tickets turned up the other week. I also managed to get my hands on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition. It’s a seriously cool special edition and, in my opinion, worth it.

Sports wise it’s an up and down start for my teams. The Steelers are doing well in the NFL with their defence really looking the business this season. United have only just started to get in to gear and as far as the Penguins go; such a stark contrast to last season. I won’t mention anything about the Pirates’ baseball season as, apart from the odd surprise win there’s nothing to talk about.

So there you go, 3 months zipped up.

So, Man Utd played Chelsea today, in what most over-the-top pundits were touting as the match that could decide the league. It was an entertaining match and, for a little while at least, I thought we (United) may come away with the 3 points. However Chelsea did what they do best and that’s score from a set-piece. In the end I think the result was fair enough, I’d have taken a draw at the start of the day so I’m not too disappointed. I think we had a really good first-half playing with pace and confidence and it was nice to see Saha score; not just because it’s good for my fantasy team but also it’ll help him get over his penalty miss against Celtic. If you want to read a match report, check out the BBC’s.

In other news Cat and I have had a guest staying with us since Thursday. Cat met her when she went to Taize earlier this year. So it was nice to have someone staying over and I also enjoyed showing our guest the sights of Bristol and what have you. Coinciding with this was last nights entertainment which was the stage show Cats. It was fun but not as good as the same production I saw a year or so ago. Some of the leads weren’t as good but there you go. The night was fun and we all enjoyed ourselves, we also stopped by a friend of ours birthday. I’m also looking forward to next weekend when I’m going to visit my brother in Edinburgh. Haven’t seen him since the wedding and since he’s just got engaged to Ruth it’d be nice to catch up on things.

Swinging back to gaming finished another season on FM. Really enjoying the Lower League Management side of the game. Certainly a lot more rewarding if a heck of a lot more challenging. Certainly helps pass the hours and what have you.

Well it’s that time again, yes, The Ashes have returned and it’s seemingly business as usual for Australia (I’m going on the first 2 days, I’m currently watching the 3rd days’ play). It is, so far, quite a carbon copy of how The Ashes started last time. At Lords Australia beat us well and truly but the next 3 games, well, we all know what happened there so I’m not starting to get all depressed about it just yet. However I must say that for me, we shouldn’t be playing Harmison or Giles. I can’t think of a replacement for Harmy so I’ll concede that but I would play Monty over Giles any day of the week regardless of the fact that Giles can bat. Monty gets wickets and I’d have 5 for over 30 runs any day of the week.

In other news United managed to lose to Celtic mid-week and if I’m honest, Celtic deserved their win. The free-kick, although shouldn’t have been given, was masterfully put away. I haven’t seen one taken that well in a long time and to lose, well, I’d rather lose to a goal like that than some goal-line scramble. I mean yes, we had a penalty and the keeper did well to save, but where Saha put it, any goalkeeper worth their salt would have saved it as long as they guess the right way. It certainly puts an interesting spin on the game against Chelsea on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to it because if we win, our lead at the top increases to 6 points, lose and we’re even again. If I was being honest I’d settle for a draw.

Going into gaming (a new topic for the blog) I’ve been playing a lot more Football Manager recently, in-particular doing Lower League Management (LLM). I find it a heck of a lot more rewarding staving off relegation or scraping promotion in the bottom leagues than taking Man United to glory. It’s harder and a true test of you abilities as you have to be canny. I also follow guidelines from the LLM forum at Sports Interactive’s website to make it as close to life as possible. So I only buy players I’ve scouted etc, certainly making the game a lot more fun. You can see how I get on in my current game here or, for future games, here.