Toronto Thumbs

E3 Impressions - Forza Motorsport 3

During my time with Toronto Thumbs, I have never reviewed a racing game. And while that’s partly due to the fact that I simply don’t play very many, it’s also because I’ve never felt there was much to be said about the genre – at least anything that needed me to say it. One of Microsoft’s greatest strengths is a razor-like focus in discussing their games, so much so that I felt the need for space between meetings to recalibrate my thoughts on everything I was being shown. And after a very long day at the airport, I still find myself thinking about Forza Motorsport 3, largely owing to the impression Turn 10’s Game Director Dan Greenawalt made when I was fortunate enough to listen to him discuss the project.

He was eager to field questions about the game, and I felt rather guilty that I didn’t immediately have any. I said that I really needed time to absorb what he had said, because it’s impossible to not be taken in by his passion for the work. Initially he hit upon the bullet points, including the number of cars, tracks, and features that he believes will make this the greatest entry in the series to date – he’ll talk about the individual LEDs that are visible within a light. His goal was to make a racing game that captured the craftsmanship going into these vehicles within the real world, but that was also at all times accessible, as inviting to a six year old player as it will be to a sixty year old. One of the elements introduced with that aim is the ability to rewind the action, should the player wish to salvage a race following a critical mistake. Admittedly, I winced at the idea initially – games are meant to be challenging after all. But Greenawalt anticipated the reaction, and focused more on the idea of not punishing the player for a mistake by providing the feature. He reminded us that there was a time when people resisted the idea of allowing players to even restart a race, and that now every racing game made includes that feature. And with that example, he firmly believes that every racing game will include this newest feature from Forza in the future. In listening to his justifications, it was hard to ignore the possibility that he might be right, and that Forza 3 will manage to bring a more enjoyable racing experience to players – focusing on the real item of importance, driving the multitude of cars the game offers.

He had plenty to say about visual effects, driver AI, and threatened to talk about physics all day if time permitted. But his thoughts regarding user generated content was where he really made an impression upon me as an innovator in the industry. He discussed the idea of UGC as currently stands, which has essentially resulted in studios throwing editors and creators at players only to have them seldom used at all and very rarely used with any level of success. He laid it out rather bluntly, but truthfully when he said that the majority of user created content isn’t very good - because players aren’t designers. What Forza offers as an alternative is the means for those that are talented at tuning cars, painting, or movie capturing, the opportunity to rise within a real community - in fact he hired people from within that community to improve the tools for Forza 3.

Now on one hand I don’t want you to misunderstand me, because I haven’t suddenly become a disciple of the racing game. It’s quite possible that the genre won’t receive any extra attention from me for the foreseeable future. But I will say that with Greenawalt behind the series, there is a great deal more to discuss than I had previously imagined. And for the community that embraces the game, as well as those that are brought in by the increased accessibility being introduced, Greenawalt is undoubtedly a key figure in bringing the racing community an essential title, as well as someone giving as much back to the community as they deserve for supporting his work and creating a real network of gamers.

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Posted in E3, Xbox 360 |