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Complete the Achievement to get the listed game score

Car Level 1 (5) – Achieve Car Level 1 in Season Play mode
Car Level 2 (5) – Achieve Car Level 2 in Season Play mode
Car Level 3 (5) – Achieve Car Level 3 in Season Play mode
Car Level 4 (5) – Achieve Car Level 4 in Season Play mode
Car Level 5 (5) – Achieve Car Level 5 in Season Play mode

Driver Level 1 (10) – Reach Driver Level 1 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 2 (10) – Reach Driver Level 2 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 3 (10) – Reach Driver Level 3 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 4 (10) – Reach Driver Level 4 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 5 (10) – Reach Driver Level 5 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 6 (10) – Reach Driver Level 6 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 7 (10) – Reach Driver Level 7 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 8 (10) – Reach Driver Level 8 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 9 (10) – Reach Driver Level 9 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 10 (10) – Reach Driver Level 10 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 15 (15) – Reach Driver Level 15 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 20 (20) – Reach Driver Level 20 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 25 (25) – Reach Driver Level 25 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 30 (30) – Reach Driver Level 30 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 35 (35) – Reach Driver Level 35 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 40 (40) – Reach Driver Level 40 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 45 (45) – Reach Driver Level 45 in Season Play mode
Driver Level 50 (50) – Reach Driver Level 50 in Season Play mode

Year 1 (50) – Complete the first year of Season Play
Year 2 (50) – Complete the 2nd year of Season Play
Year 3 (50) – Complete the 3rd year of Season Play
Year 4 (50) – Complete the fourth year of Season Play
Year 5 (50) – Complete the fifth year of Season Play
Year 6 (50) – Complete the sixth year of Season Play

Auctioneer (10) – Sell a car in the Auction House
Bottomed Out (5) – Jump five feet
Buyer (10) – Buy something using the storefront
Connoisseur (50) – Own at least one car from every manufacturer
Curator (10) – Upload a photo or movie to Forzamotorsport.net
Demon (5) – Travel in excess of 200mph
Director (10) – Complete your first Forza Motorsport movie
Drift Lap (5) – Earn over 100,000 points in a single lap
Drifter (5) – Earn over 1,000 points in a single drift section
Entrepreneur (10) – Sell a Tuning Setup, Design, or Vinyl Group from your storefront
Grease Monkey (10) – Create a car tuning file for your car
Interior (5) – Win a race using cockpit mode
Lapper (10) – Complete a time trial
Painter (10) – Create a paint job or vinyl group
Shutterbug (10) – Take a photo of your car
Sniper (10) – Win an auction by outbidding someone
Solid Gold (80) – Achieve a gold trophy in every single race in the Event list in Season Play mode
Weekday Event (10) – Complete your first weekday event in Season Play mode
Weekend (10) – Complete your first weekend event in Season Play mode
Welcome to Forza Motorsport (15) – Complete the very first race in the game
World Traveler (25) – Race at every track location in the world

I know the Nurburgring can be quite intimidating to some players as it is a huge track, with many asshole corners and curbs which can make you spin out easily, in addition to a really tight track which does not allow mistakes.

I think the most difficult part is trying to memorise the whole track, it will take you maybe even 2 endurance races in order to truely master the track. I always tend to tune my cars and test drive them on the Nurburgring as it is defenitely the best track from an all round perspective: huge straight, very fast corners, very slow corners, huge bumps and jumps, very anal curbs… this track has got it all, so if you got a good tuning set up for the Nurburgring you are pretty much ok for 75% of tracks.

Mastering the Nurburgring is key to your racing evolution, all other tracks will seem much easier etc. But, what is more important, is that your feel for the car increases tremendously, you will even notice when you added 5 kg on the same car.

I will be providing a guide for very fast laps on the nurburgring, my personal best with an Enzo was under mins 6:40, which is not bad at all. This guide will help you with ‘S’ type cars and above, however, not all S cars are the same, and I strongly suggest to go for a less powerful car with greater handling, less weight, etc. Even though the Nurburgring as an extremely long straight, the better handling is much much more important. With ‘R’ type cars the speed can be slightly higher, but still one should watch out for the same hints I will be providing here.

FULL TRACK:

Remember that most curbs on the Nordschleife are extremely malicious, so as long as you are not a master of the nurburgring, keep well away from them. The key is to have a smooth hand and keep the car on the tarmac at all times.

Have a look at the above video a couple of times in order to get a feel for the track, and read the following guide in symphony with the track map above.

TURN 1: Antoniosbuche. After the huge straight this is a left bend under the bridge which is taken at full throttle.

2: Tiergarten. This is the left uphill bend after the sort sraight following turn 1, this is taken full throttle.

3: Hohenrain. This right bend is quite important, you enter the corner at full speed but what to start breaking in order to keep the car stable for the following turn which requires hard breaking.

4: Hohenrain. Turn 4 is the slow right corner just before the pit entrance this bend is taken in second gear and requires hard breaking from a fast fifth gear to second. It is important that you stay in on the inside right as much as possible so to take the following left corner as fast as possible.

5: Hohenrain. -Left bend at the pit entrance. This can be taken at full throttle provided you came out on the right side from turn 4. I do suggest letting go off the throttle on the apex in order to stay left for the following corner which comes immediately.

6: Nordkere. On this tight right corner you want stay as close as possible to the pit wall, and be patient until you hit the second on the exit and then give full throttle.

7: Nordkere Slow left corner, break hard into second and stay close to the left curbs. Be patient in accelerating as you don’t want to be dragged on the exit curbs.

8: This is a fast right bend… with warm tires you can attempt to take it full throttle, otherwise simply let go off the accelerator.

9: Hatzenbach. This is the left bend leading immediately to a triple chicane. At the corner entrance break a little bit so the car stays stable for turn 10, for which further breaking is necessary. But if you break too hard on turn 9 you will loose a lot of momentum.

10: Hatzenbach. If you manage to stay stable out of turn 9, 10 is relatively fast right, quickly break and accelerate immediately.

11, 12 & 13: Hatzenbach.This is the triple chicane. The first left turn is full throttle, the second right is a little tap on the break and on the last left you need to break a little harder in order to avoid all curbs.

14: Hocheichen. Relatively fast right corner. Here it is important to keep a good speed for the successive circuit session, break to 3^rd gear and stay close to the right apex.

15. Hocheichen to Quiddelbacher Hohe. Fast left bend, provided that you came clean from 14, this is full throttle.

16. Flugplatz. This is the right bend after the full speed jump (Quiddelbacher Hohe), break to 5^th in order to keep the car on the inside and keep enough speed for the straight to follow.

17. Schwedenkreuz. This is a very fast left bend after the uphill straight (Kottenborn) which requires some guts, it can be taken full speed (and should be) but to get used to it simply let go off the throttle to keep stability and the line.

18. Aremberg. Right bend under the bridge. This requires some hard breaking to 3^rd gear, and do not hit the curbs.

19. This is a fast left turn which comes after a wobbly straight section (Fuchsrohe). Break to 5^th as on the apex the bumps are extremely malicious, and you want you car to remain stable for turns 20, 21 and 22 which are another 3 way chicane.

 20. Adenauer Forst. In fact this first right is a simple tap on the break at the entrance of the corner and quickly accelerate again.

21. Adenauer Forst.This left is the slowest of the three succession corners and should be taken in 2^nd gear, stay left so that you can take turn 22 much faster.

22. Adenauer Forst. This last right is a little bit tricky as it may suggest to be full throttle but the fence comes closer than you wish if you do. Coming out of 21, when you approach the apex of 22 quickly tap the break and accelerate immediately. Avoid the curbs at all costs.

 23: Metzgesfeld. This is a fast left after a full speed section, let go of the throttle to find the line, avoid the curbs on the inside, but on the outside they are benevolent.

24: Metzgesfeld. This is a hard left and should be taken in 3^rd gear. It is important to stay left so that you can take the following bend full throttle.

25.Metzgesfeld. Slight right bend which can be taken full speed if turn 24 was clean.

26. Kallenhard. This is a downhill right bend. It is a relatively quick corner as the key here is to break to 3^rd gear and maintain momentum throughout the corner until you hit the second bump and give full throttle. With a bit of training this can be taken even in 4^th gear.

27&28: Straight after Kallenhard. Fast left right section: let go of the throttle in the first left and you can give full throttle on the following right.

29: a fast right leading to a tight left corner. This right should be taken in 4^th – 5^th gear.

30: Wehrseifen. Very sharp left with a right bend at the corner entrance. I suggest start breaking down to 4^th or 3^rd when you enter the slight right bend before the corner, let go off the break to position you car in the perfect line and then continue breaking down to second or even first. Avoid the curbs!

31: This is a fast right immediately after turn 30, and here let go of the gas to find the line and accelerate immediately. Avoid all curbs!

32: Breidscheid. This is a left bend at ‘the house’. This is taken in 3^rd or even 4^th but it is vital that you do not break too late here because if the wheels lock up you will end up in the fence. Avoid the curbs as they are extremely high!

33: Ex-Muhle. This is a relatively quick right uphill bend, relatively quick that is if you stay on the right side and avoid the bumps and especially the curbs. It can be taken in 4^th but most probably in a high 3^rd.

34: Full speed left bend

35: Berg Werk. This is a slower right bend. You want to break to 3^rd or 4^th and maintain the speed Once you hit the apex accelerate full throttle. Avoid the malicious curbs!

36. Kesselchen to Mutkurve. Throughout this forest section there are a couple of left/right bends which are taken full speed with precise driving. However you will approach a left bend (Mutkurve, name says Guts Corner – says it all) which will require you to tap the break in order to stay stable.

37: This is a fast right, which requires a little bit of adjusting, that is let go of the gas and quickly accelerate again. Avoid the curbs, they will catapult you out of the track!

38: Klostertal. This is a hard right before the famous ‘Karussell’. A relatively hard right, because just the corner entrance is slow, and if you break enough and hit the apex right you will find that you can accelerate pretty early (feeling the bumps). 3^rd to 4^th gear should do.

39: Karussell. The famous ‘Karussell’ of the renown Nordschleife. This is a very tricky corner and you can loose or gain a lot of time. The key is to stay on the inside line, as the inclination will allow you to maintain much more speed. Enter the corner slowly so that you can position your vehicle precisely on the inclined cement part, vital is to maintain the speed and be patient until you feel that you can give full throttle, which should be right at the apex. If you accelerate too early you will be thrown out of the inclined part and you will end up in no mans land. If you are too slow, you are not appreciating the increased speed the inclination allows you to go.

40: This is a fast uphill left, let go of the gas for stability and immediately accelerate again.

41 & 42: Hohe Acht. Fast left – right section. You need to break enough for the first left, so that the following right can be taken very fast in synchronisation with the bumps, the curbs on the turn exit are basically nonexistent.

43:  Hedwigs Hohe. This is the start of a series of ‘dodgy’ corners, all decorated with interesting graffiti on the tarmac. This dodgy right is taken in third gear and it is important that you stay right.

44&45:  Wippermann. Dodgy fast right left combination. You need to tap the break on the first right, accelerate and tap the break the same way for the left turn 45.

46. Eschbach. This is a dodgy but fast right bend. It is fast if you manage to break just enough to stay on the right apex.

47. Eschbach. This is a dodgy relatively fast uphill right. Break to 3^rd or even 4^th and maintain the speed staying on the apex, careful with the bumps when accelerating. The curbs on the inside are well crap.

48: Eschbach. This is a fast 3^rd gear left bend.

49: Brunnchen. This is a right bend. This is quite fast because the corners on the outside will allow you to accelerate early.

50: Brunnchen. This is a similar turn as turn 47. A fast right bend which needs to be taken cleanly in order to keep momentum.

51: Eiskurve. Slow left, break down to second gear.

52: Sprunghugel. This is the double right bend after the jump (Pflanzgarten). This is where your suspension set up really shows, a good set up will allow you to take the jump extremely fast and still be able to break in a stable position. It is a fast double right but you want to have 4^th or 5^th gear in order to stay on the track.

53: Sprunghugel. Left bend after the double right. Very, very fast bend however you will need to let go of the gas for better stability.

54: Full speed uphill right bend

55: Leading to Schwalbenschwanz. This is a slight right bend which immediately leads to a hard left. At the corner entrance you can maintain full throttle but once you feel the centrifugal force dragging you out, start breaking, otherwise you will not be in a clean line for the following left turn.

56. Schwalbenschwanz. Relatively slow left turn, break to 3^rd or 4^th  gear, on this corner you can accelerate pretty early preparing for the second left hand ‘Karussell’.

57. Schwalbenschwanz. This left hand ‘Karussell’ is much faster than the previous one. You can enter relatively fast but need to break hard just before the apex in order to stay on the inclined side, once you hit the apex it’s full throttle again.

58: Galgenkopf. Fast right hand bend, tap the break down to 5^th or 4^th gear.

59: Dottinger Hohe. Last right bend before the eternal straight. This simply requires a gentle let go of the gas in order to keep the inside line and immediately accelerate again in order to maximise you speed on the straight.

 

 

Tuning your car can be a lot of fun and despite all the frightening comments on the net, it is relatively easy. Quite frankly you just need to stop and think logically.

What I will be providing here, is a guide how to start tuning your car without doing any damage to your racing experience.

First of all, I am a Ferrari fan, so this tuning will mainly help you with rear wheel drive and front/middle engine. Second, this tuning applies to those players who are unfortunate not to have a race wheel.

Let’s start off with the basics. Remember that different tracks require slightly different tuning and each player has a different feel of how comfortable he likes to get through corners. What is most important for game pad player is to have excellent handling, hence this tuning guide will help you maximise your handling and grip with very basic set up.

Tire Pressure: I normally recommend to leave tire pressure as it is, however in endurance races you don t want your rear tires to heat up quicker than the front, as this leads to uncomfortable few laps until the front tires reach temperature and in the long run your rear wheel tires will wear out sooner than the front ones. Again, depending on the track, slightly increase the rear tire pressure a few notches in order to justify this disequilibrium of tire wear, it will not balance out completely as it is a rear wheel car we are talking about here.

For increased grip, slightly decrease both tire pressures, but avoid extreme as the car will start to wobble in fast bends. WithFerraris the rear pressureshould be slightly lower than the front.

Suspensions: Once you have a racing suspension, notice the standard tune. Suspension will help you a great deal on different tracks. Remember that with a rear wheel car you want your rear suspensions to be harder than the front once as you want more traction on the real wheels, but if you feel that when you accelerate the car under steers too much, or when you break hard, the nose of the car dips in too much, increase the stiffness by a few notches and you will notice a great difference. On tracks such as Suzuka, you want a generally ‘hard’ set up, but don’t exaggerate otherwise when you hit the curbs the car may result in unexpected behaviour and may break out. On tracks such as the Nurburgring, Maple Valley or the Amalfi Coast you want a softer set up in order for the car to absorb all bumps and still keep traction: this will result in much greater handling and grip than a hard set up.

A ‘hard’ set up means that you increase the parameters by the same proportion as the standard tuning, whilst decreasing by the same proportion if a ‘soft’ set up is required.

Note that with ‘R’ type cars, the suspensions can be set up slightly harder as the cars generally absorb bumps and curbs much smoother.

 

Tire Alignment, Camber, etc: As a basic set up, I would leave this alone as this is very different for every car and track. These set ups are already for the professional tuner, hence I would suggest the Forza 3 online tuners for custom solutions.

 

Down force: If it is not an oval race, I would strongly suggest for all game pad players to increase down force drastically on the car you are driving. Do not worry about the loss in speed as the increase in corner speed will definitely make up for it. Once you start enjoying the increased handling you can start playing about with the down force in order to increase the top speed. This is particularly important on tracks like Catalunya or Mugello, where you want enough down force to be fast in the corner sections but not too much in order not to loose too much speed on the large straights.

With Ferraris I suggest to increase rear and front down force, but the front down force should be a few notches lower than the rear, this is to avoid that the rear breaks out. On ‘R’ type cars I suggest the opposite, the front down force slightly higher than the rear, this will help you tremendously when entering a corner. If you would apply this to a standard Ferrari, the front comes in the corner faster than the rear which may result in over steer.

 

Breaks: Depending on the track, you want your break balance to be slightly biased towards the front. The front break is the most efficient in deceleration, but extreme set up will result in immediate wheel lock up which drastically reduces your break energy. I normally suggest between 51-55% max. and when you do break and see that the ABS signs come on, you want to ‘pump’ the break button, that is quickly let go and immediately press it again… this requires a little bit of training, but will greatly improve your breaking ability.

Break pressure should be increased to something like 135% for game pad players, a setting which does not apply to ‘R1’ vehicles, but again remember that this setting may result in premature wheel locking, so again let go of the break button and immediately press it again (this action must be performed as quick as possible).

 

Differential: The great option with this is that you can convert your four wheel drive to rear wheel drive (great for me as I hate four wheel drive cars). Anyways, for standard Ferraris it always works to increase the acceleration differential a little bit. If you notice that the car slips a lot, or is unstable when breaking, increase the deceleration differential as well.

 These are very basic settings which will introduce you to the world of tuning without creating damage to your car.

In order to get  a perfect start, one needs to think how Formula 1 cars start off: LAUNCH CONTROL.

Many players choose to give full throttle at the start, which only leads to useless wheel spin and time lost, not to mention if you have the traction control switched off! Other believe to wait until the light hits green to give full throttle, which is also time consuming as the engine needs to get up to revs until enough power is at disposal.

The best way is to simulate an electronic modern launch control. Each car is a little bit different as the different engines deliver maximum power at differente revs. Hence, it is important that before you actually start your race, you try a couple of starts giving full throttle and obsvere closely at exactly which revs the engine seems to ‘lock in’.  Once you understood that the Ferrari Enzo’ perfect revs are 8,000 rpm for example, at the countdown before the race you gently give throttle and hold the throttle very sensibly at the desired rev and when the light hits green it’s full throttle! It may take you a couple of attempts to get used to the throttle sensiblity and holding your finger, or foot, until the light hits green.

 The ciritcal moment is when it hits green light, you don’t want to be accelerating too early as to get into the eternal twilight of traction control and you don’t want to be accelerating too late, as you don’t want the engine revs to diminish….

 

Whether it’s an exotic sports car like the new Audi R8 V10, a classic American muscle car like the Ford GT or a hot Asian import like the Nissan 370Z, everyone has a dream car. Now you can drive that dream with Turn 10’s latest racing epic. Launching this October exclusively for Xbox 360, “Forza Motorsport 3″ unites the racing game genre, making it possible for everyone to experience the thrill of the world’s most exotic and exquisite cars. Live the most realistic racing experience ever as you take the wheel of more than 400 of the most-beloved cars on over 100 renowned real-world tracks and exotic road courses from around the globe. With breathtaking high-definition graphics and the most advanced vehicle performance modeling in a video game, “Forza Motorsport 3″ includes a host of driving assists and adjustable skill levels to make the game a gripping pick-up-and-play experience for audiences of all ages and skill levels.

Your escape into the world of car culture in “Forza Motorsport 3″ doesn’t stop at the track. Turn 10 is a proven leader in user-generated content creation in games. “Forza Motorsport 3″ further fuels the imaginations of its already thriving community of painters, tuners and photographers with improved customization tools and brand-new ways to share creations with the world via Xbox LIVE.* Xbox LIVE makes your journey into the “Forza Motorsport” community and the world of user-generated content easy and fun.

A love of cars lives in all of us. “Forza Motorsport 3″ is the automotive playground we’ve all been waiting for.

Features:

Top features include the following:

• Where dreams are driven: The cars and tracks. Featuring the latest and greatest production offerings as well as the world’s fastest and most exotic street cars, “Forza Motorsport 3″ offers more than 400 fully customizable and tunable cars from over 50 of the world’s leading manufacturers. Whether your passion is classic American muscle cars, European roadsters, purpose-built race cars or high-tech Asian imports, “Forza Motorsport 3″ puts you in the cockpit of the cars you love.
In addition to the return of world-famous tracks from previous “Forza Motorsport” games, including Suzuka, Nürburgring Nordschleife and the Sebring International Raceway, “Forza Motorsport 3″ invites you to conquer the corners on more than 100 tracks, including some of the most beautiful road courses in the world. New environments like the gorgeous mountainous Montserrat region in Spain, the rugged Amalfi Coast in Italy and the American Southwest are presented in such majestic detail that you might find yourself pulling over just to take it all in.

• The look and feel of a modern racing game: “Forza Motorsport 3″ is the definitive racing game. The appreciation of the automobile in “Forza Motorsport 3″ is due in large part to the team’s attention to detail. This is why automotive engineers from manufacturers like Audi and champion race teams like Peugeot as well as experienced computer graphics specialists from across Microsoft Corp. have all teamed up with Turn 10 to make “Forza Motorsport 3″ the most beautiful and realistic racing game ever made. All 400-plus cars in the game have been built with more than 10 times the amount of polygons as “Forza Motorsport 2.” This includes painstakingly researched cockpits and interiors for every vehicle. But realism isn’t just about pretty graphics. Turn 10 takes realism to new heights, leading the industry with the most advanced physics model, artificial intelligence and damage calculations. Whether it’s the differences in how each car handles through the corners, how the engines sound at top speed or how different tires and upgrades impact your car’s performance, you’ll find yourself leaning into your turns as if you were really behind the wheel of your favorite ride.

• It’s easy to go for a spin: “Forza Motorsport 3″ redefines the racing genre. Simulation games can be too hard for some players. “Forza Motorsport 3″ rises above the distinction between simulation and arcade games. Using a myriad of cutting-edge driving and gameplay assists such as auto-braking, gameplay rewind and auto-tuning, “Forza Motorsport 3″ delivers an experience where everyone can have fun behind the wheel, regardless of your skill and dexterity. Whether you’re a newcomer or a seasoned racing game pro, “Forza Motorsport 3″ caters to how you drive and evolves with you over time as your skills increase.

• Express your car passion: User-generated content and Xbox LIVE. Painters and tuners will once again be able to showcase creativity through the celebrated Livery Editor, Auction House and deep tuning garage in “Forza Motorsport 3.” The car is literally the artistic canvas as some of the world’s most creative car painters and designers find new layers of depth and freedom to create shocking visual masterpieces before sharing them with others over Xbox LIVE.* Each car in “Forza Motorsport 3″ is fully upgradable, allowing gear heads to take on the challenge of turning a Honda Civic into a supercar killer. New Xbox LIVE Leaderboards celebrate not only the greatest racers but also the most prolific car tuners and painters in the community.

• Play your way: New game modes. “Forza Motorsport 3″ is an epic racing game featuring more content and more ways to play than any racing title today. An innovative single-player season mode puts you through a completely personalized racing calendar that includes more than 200 different events, including Circuit, Oval, Drag, Drift and Timed Events. No two calendars are the same; they react to the cars you love and the races you enjoy most. In addition, the online multiplayer mode* gains an all-new game rules editor. This gives players a never-ending variety of ways to play with friends. Whether you’re a speedster, dragster, drifter, painter, tuner or just a lover of cars, “Forza Motorsport 3″ is the definitive racing game for you.

 

 

WORD OF WARNING: if you are trying to find a way to upload your pictures on Forza 3 on the internet, forget about it! It is all ART. Dedication, skill and a hell of a lot of free time! Have a look at the video above and you will understand what it means to get a great design on your car.

Forza 3 has officially launched in North America, and just as in 2007, the Internet has exploded with custom paint jobs. There’s livery for every taste, from sports to anime to, of course, gaming, and many of Forza 2’s most popular community artists have returned for the sequel.

New for Forza 3 is the storefront feature, which allows artists to sell their designs for in-game credits. Some designs may go for free, others may go for 10,000 credits, but it’s an interesting way for community artists to get even more recognition than before.

To give you an idea of what’s out there, we rounded up some of the best designs from around the Internet, with themes ranging from Zone of the Enders to Transformers. Check them out below, and if you like them, it’s not hard to download them. Before you know, you too will be driving a stylish Okami-mobile.

 

 

First off, if you’re looking for dirt, you won’t find much here. Both upcoming racers Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360) and Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) are sure to be great racing games. That said,  I think there’s a clear winner here between the two high-profile racers shown on the floor of Tokyo Game Show this year. As you read on, keep in mind that we’re not comparing the games themselves as much as we are the demos shown on the TGS floor.

Both were in pretty nifty setups. Gran Turismo 5 had real-world racing seats built into metal frames. Inside, players sat in front of a high-end Sony display while controlling the game with the GT steering wheel set. Forza 3 was played on a three-screen setup. They too had racing chairs and a steering wheel controller. Putting all of that aside, though, which was the better game?

Visuals:
Winner: Forza Motorsport 3
While both games look great on the track, Forza’s demo featured a polish that Gran Turismo 5’s lacked. The rocky hillsides and lush greenery easily showed up the bland, almost clinical-looking cityscape of Gran Turismo. Driving slow in Gran Turismo is like inviting disappointment. I guess they were hoping you’d always be moving fast enough to not notice the perfectly flat tree and pole textures. Plants and trees on the side of the road look like paper cutouts, and the tree trunks are laughably bad.  As far as the vehicle visuals go, neither game disappoints. Both supply unhealthy doses of car porn. The tighter racing action of Forza 3 made it easier to appreciate the models of the cars I raced against, but both pull off amazing feats as far as visuals go. Forza’s framerate was liquid smooth, making it a bit easier on the eyes than GT5.

Control:
Winner: Forza Motorsport 3
Solely judging from the two on-floor demos,  both of which used adjustable racing seats and steering wheel rigs, Forza 3’s control won the race. There was something about the balance of control that made it seem especially intuitive. I’d go as far as to say that it felt damned near flawless with the steering wheel rig they had set up at each demo station. Gran Turismo controlled great as well, with the tilt leaning farther away from arcade action and more towards realism. Nothing was notably wrong with Gran Turismo’s control. It’s just that the seamless feeling that we felt with the controls in Forza wasn’t there in GT5.

Game play:
Winner:  Forza Motorsport 3
Both games were played on a rather easy track, and both featured racing line guidelines. Other than that, these two games play differently. Forza 3 had me racing against other AI characters that were way too easy to pass, even with the option to set the difficulty. My choice of a medium difficulty looked more like an easy to my eyes. I didn’t try the “hard” setting, but I hope it’s considerably more difficult than medium was. That said, some of the credit goes, again, to the seemingly flawless control of the game.

As for Gran Turismo, I watched plenty of others wipe out and give up before I played. It looked like people that had never played the series games before sat down and expected arcade racing. As always, Gran Turismo 5 had that realistic acceleration and turning that greatly contrasts to the loose, forgiving controls of other racers (Forza 3 not included, of course). I enjoy the challenge and learning curve, and prefer the rewarding stick-to-your-ribs racing that it provides. Even with that, though, Forza’s gameplay was more enjoyable and approachable. It may be a bit more simple than that of GT5, but it still provides ample challenge for white knuckle racing.

If you have to have damage modeling, you want Forza 3. It’s just not there in Gran Turismo. While I don’t believe that it’s a necessity to have damage modeling in a racing game, it is an added bonus. If you play in first-person view like I do, it’s fun to see how messed up your vehicle is after a race. Gran Turismo doesn’t do that. In fact, side of the road items like cones and tires don’t even seem to be affected properly by impact. When I ran into a stack of tires, they seemed to float strangely in front of my car for a second before flying off to the right. I don’t need true-to-life physics on these types of collisions, but this looked closer to the movement of a UFO than a stack of rubber tires.

Overall:
I’m a big Gran Turismo fan, so it was a bit of a surprise to me that the Forza Motorsport 3 demo did more for me. Things like damage modeling and background art aside, it was the superb control and high level of accessibility that won me over. Forza 3 was just more fun. More impressive. Of course, this is not to say that Gran Turismo 5 isn’t a good game. It will be great, I’m sure, but Forza 3 show floor demo has me wanting to race again. I need to get me one of these three-screen setups too.

Unlockable: Cars
The following cars can be unlocked by performing the actions below:

Driver Level 01 – 2010 FIAT Abarth 500 esseesse
Driver Level 02 – 2009 Alfa Romeo Brera Italia Independent
Driver Level 03 – 2009 Volkswagen Scirocco GTI
Driver Level 04 – 2003 Renault Sport Clio V6l
Driver Level 05 – 2009 Ford Forcus RS
Driver Level 06 – 2004 Vauxhall VX220 Turbo
Driver Level 07 – 2007 Ford Shelby GT500
Driver Level 08 – 2008 Maserati GranTurismo
Driver Level 09 – 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS
Driver Level 10 – 2006 Lotus Exige Cup 240
Driver Level 11 – 2009 BMW Motorsport M5 E60
Driver Level 12 – 2009 Lexus IS F
Driver Level 13 – 2007 SEAT Leon Supercup
Driver Level 14 – 2005 Honda NSX-R GT
Driver Level 15 – 2009 Ferrari California
Driver Level 16 – 2009 Jaguar XKR-S
Driver Level 17 – 2002 BMW Motorsport M3-GTR
Driver Level 18 – 2007 Peugeot Super 2000
Driver Level 19 – 2007 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione
Driver Level 20 – 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro
Driver Level 21 – 2005 Ford Ford GT
Driver Level 22 – 2009 Mercedes SL 65 AMG Black Series
Driver Level 23 – 2005 TVR Sagaris
Driver Level 24 – 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 (997)
Driver Level 25 – 2008 Lamborghini Reventon
Driver Level 26 – 2002 Nissan MINE’S R34 Skyline GT-R
Driver Level 27 – 2006 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
Driver Level 28 – 2006 Lamborghini Miura Concept
Driver Level 29 – 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR
Driver Level 30 – 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Driver Level 31 – 2009 Holdon #2 Commodore VG
Driver Level 32 – 2006 Ferrari #62 Risi Competizone F430GT
Driver Level 33 – 2008 Porsche #45 Flying Lizard 911 GT3-RSR
Driver Level 34 – 2009 BMW Motorsport #92 Rahal Letterman Racing M3 GT2
Driver Level 35 – 2005 Ferrari FXX
Driver Level 36 – 2007 Chevrolet #4 Corvette C6.R
Driver Level 37 – 2008 Nissan #23 XANAVI NISMO GT-R
Driver Level 38 – 2006 Aston Martin #007 Aston Martin Racing DBR9
Driver Level 39 – 2008 Lexus #6 Eneos SC430
Driver Level 40 – 2008 Konigsegg CCGT
Driver Level 41 – 1997 McLaren #43 F1 GTR
Driver Level 42 – 2005 Maserati #15 JMB Racing MC12
Driver Level 43 – 1998 Porsche #26 AG 911 GT1-98
Driver Level 44 – 2003 Saleen #2 Konrad Motorsports S7R
Driver Level 45 – 2008 Porsche #7 Penske Racing RS Spyder Evo
Driver Level 46 – 2009 Mazda #16 Dyson Racing B09/86
Driver Level 47 – 2006 Audi #2 Audi Sport North America R8
Driver Level 48 – 2009 Acura #66 de Ferran Motorsports ARX-02a
Driver Level 49 – 2006 Audi #8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R10 TDi

Driver Level 50 – 2009 Peugeot #9 Peugeot Sport Total 908

Along with improved physics, better graphics, more cars and tracks, Forza also sports a brand new Career Mode. In the following we will dig deeper into tuning, multiplayer, the new leaderboard system and more.

Once you’ve finished the first season in your career, you might be thinking it’s time to go a bit deeper with Turn 10’s sim. Where Forza 2 was a hardcore sim only, this time around Turn 10 has split the audience. They’ve created two ways to play Forza. The casual crowd can ignore tuning altogether if they like or follow up on some friendly tuning options. At any time, you can select a car from your garage, select the level you want it upgraded to, and let the AI do the hard work. Have a C-class car you want in the A class? Choose it and the AI will automatically spend your cash, buy the parts and tune your car accordingly. You can check what was added in case you want to learn how to upgrade a car, but you don’t have to ever get grease on your hands.

This may be a wise option for many, because the alternative is a tuning set so hardcore it may frighten some casual gamers. Tuning has been made about as deep as possible. Where Forza 2 never really punished you for poorly tuning your car, that’s not the case in Forza 3. You can, in fact, tune your car incorrectly for the track you’re racing. The more you fiddle, the deeper you go into the tuning, the more you’re going to need to know about cars. There are plenty of helpful hints along the way, but in order to allow master tuners the joy of rigging out a car to its optimal settings, consequences had to be added.

This doesn’t mean that the average gamer can’t tune their car. Just be aware that with up to 175 upgrades (about 50% more than Forza 2) and more tuning options than anyone’s ever seen in a racing game before, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The good news is that at the start of any race, you can auto-tune your car for the current track. This offers a general calibration to ensure that any harmful work you might have done for a different track isn’t going to slow you down.

The depth and the risk/reward nature of tuning in Forza 3 ties directly into one of Turn 10’s major objectives. They wanted to create a new type of skill and put tuners on par with the bad-ass painters that grew out of Forza 2. Just as master painters became famous in the community, so too will virtuoso tuners. And helping that along is the all new system supporting user-generated content.

User-generated content is separated across six different scoreboards. Among those are picture and video scoreboards which anyone can easily dominate. Only true experts can hope to get atop the tuner and livery scoreboards. These scoreboards are leaderboards for certain skill types and are linked directly to files uploaded through Forza 3. Since only the best tuners will get high ratings (and downloads), it’s going to be easy to know who to trust. You can even mark users as favorites and follow them to see when they post new items. This works for those who themselves are great tuners as they can track their rivals.

The scoreboards are tied into the brand new Storefront. The Auction House from Forza 2 still exists, but it’s for selling single versions of cars. The Storefront is more like Amazon.com. You set the price for your file and you determine how many to sell. Re-created the Mona Lisa on a car? Maybe you only want one person in the entire world to own it. So only sell one. You can try to sell it for a million credits if you like and if no one buys it, you can always lower the price. Or maybe you just want to help people tune their Audi R8 for the Nurburgring? Sell 1000 for 50 credits. It’s up to you. This is a free market economy, baby!

It should be noted that all sales on the Storefront are for in-game credits. No one will get rich in real life, but they can amass in-game wealth if they’re talented.

Turn 10 admits that they really aren’t sure what’s going to happen when Forza 3 is first released. It’s going to take a bit of time for the great tuners to be sorted out on the scoreboard. Unfortunately, you can’t test a tuning file before buying it, which is going to make the first week on the Storefront a bit like the Wild West. After that, expect things to settle down and for the great tuners and artists to rise to the top. The fakers will get bad ratings and quickly disappear from the scoreboards.

If you’re currently devising a master plan to sell your Penis-Mobile for 100,000 credits a pop, think again. All user-generated content is policed by other users. Anyone can file a complaint and a moderator looks into each potential issue. Users who make valid complaints get what you might call a Police Ranking. As they become more trusted, their opinion takes greater merit among the moderators and their Police Ranking increases. If you go around complaining about all of your friends’ files just to be a jerk, you’ll soon find that your opinion gets ignored.

Now that you have paid some credits for the perfectly tuned car and a Mario and Princess Peach wedding mural livery, you’re ready to plow through the full Career Mode.

As we told you yesterday, your season calendar fills in dynamically, but there are a series of weekend races that don’t change. There are six “standard seasons” in Forza 3, meaning that there are six full seasons with these specific weekend championships. Each season gets longer and harder as, hopefully, you also get better. By the end of the six season, you’ll have completed 55 events (some with more than 10 races!), reached level 50, earned all of your gift cars and spent about 60 hours racing. But it’s not over. There are still more than 150 unique events to race. And though the weekend championships won’t be any different, there’s hundreds of hours left if you want to truly complete Forza 3.

Remember that the AI, which looks at the cars you owned, the cars you drive and the tracks you race, determines the majority of events in your first six seasons. If you ignore Drag Racing events, eventually they go away. After all, why offer something you don’t want to race? If you stuck with American cars the entire time, there are going to be a number of European and Japanese racing challenges ahead of you once you finish your sixth season. Though you might have mastered all the championships, by the end of season six, you’re only a third of the way through Forza 3.

At any time, you can ignore the season calendar and bring up a master grid of all 220 events. This grid is very similar to the career mode in Forza 2. It lists every open race and, at any time, you can race those. These also feed into the dynamic calendar, because, after all, they are races you’re choosing. Never worry that you’re going to miss something in Forza 3. There is always an option to break free of the dynamic calendar and race any event for which you’re qualified.

Finishing every event isn’t the only goal in Forza. This is still a game about collecting cars. Sure, you get 50 gift cars, but there are more than 400 total in the game. Most you will have to buy. Here’s the crazy part — all 400+ are unlocked from the beginning. If you have the credits, you can buy any car in the game at any time. Of course, you start off fairly broke and must work your way along, but none of the cars are locked based on your experience level.

Unlike Forza 2, which had an unrealistic pricing model for high-end cars, Forza 3 is fairly accurate. You want a Lamborghini? It’s going to cost you. However, you could probably buy a Corvette early on and still get decent performance. It’s a trade off. If you want, you can save cash to get a high-end luxury car earlier than you might normally acquire one. And owning that would change the events that appear in your calendar. A Ferrari GT vs. Lamborghini GT event sounds good to us.

This is where the Storefront can make a real difference. You could be in your first season of Career Mode and be rich thanks to your awesome livery artwork. Or you can try and earn money faster with your driving skill. Post-race, your finishing place, difficulty settings and damage determine your earnings. Turn off all assists and you can earn double the cash. Just be warned: turning off all assists can be mercilessly difficult.

In Forza 3, you’re always earning money no matter where you race. That includes multiplayer. While Turn 10 isn’t fully ready to blow the lid off multiplayer, we have some first details that should make the three-month wait just a little more unbearable.

Forza 3 multiplayer can be summed up quite simply: you make the rules so go do whatever the hell you want.

There are about 60 rules you can set for a multiplayer match that allow you to create just about any game type you could want. Instead of having a gentleman’s agreement at the start of the race to play Cat & Mouse, you can now make someone the mouse. You want capture the flag? You can make it happen. With so many options, the only limit is your own ingenuity.

You can force teams of any size (all against one, three-on-three, whatever you want), give one person the “heavy” car and the others faster vehicles. You can force specific camera modes if you want everyone to play from the dashboard view and even require the use of manual transmission with the clutch (Left Bumper).

No more guessing at scores of games you had to make up in your head. Now you can create rules that are tracked by the game with relevant points. These sets can be saved, of course. For those who hate setting all these options, Turn 10 will create its own set of game modes for parties to hop into. Thanks to the magic of Xbox Live, Turn 10 can keep track of which options are used most, what game types are the favorite and then adjust the official hoppers to suit the community.

 

Tracks:
115+ track layouts in several environments, including world famous race tracks as well as road courses in some of the worlds most beautiful regions.

Amalfi Coast[TBN] (Italy)

Track Layouts:

• TBA

Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello (Italy)

Track Layouts:

• Mugello Grand Prix Circuit
• Mugello Short Circuit

Circuit de Catalunya (Spain)

Track Layouts:

• Circuit de Catalunya Grand Prix Track
• Circuit de Catalunya National Track
• TBA

Fujimi Kaido (Japan)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Track Layouts:

• TBA

Le Mans – Circuit de 24 Heures (France)

Track Layouts:

• Circuit de La Sarthe
• Circuit de La Sarthe without chicanes
• Circuit Bugatti

Maple Valley Raceway (USA)

Track Layouts:

• Maple Valley Raceway
• Maple Valley Raceway Reverse
• Maple Valley Short
• Maple Valley Short Reverse

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (USA)

Track Layouts:

• Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Montserrat (Spain)

Track Layouts:

• Camino Viejo de Montserrat Circuit
• Camino Viejo de Montserrat Circuit Reverse
• Camino Viejo de Montserrat Short Circuit
• Camino Viejo de Montserrat Short Circuit Reverse
• Camino Viejo de Montserrat Club Circuit
• Camino Viejo de Montserrat Club Circuit Reverse
• Iberian International Circuit
• Iberian International Circuit Reverse
• Ladera Test Track
• Ladera Test Track Reverse
• Ladera Test Track Config 2
• Ladera Test Track Config 2 Reverse
• Ladera Test Track Config 3
• Ladera Test Track Config 3 Reverse
• TBA

New York (USA)

Track Layouts:

•  
• New York Circuit
• New York Circuit Reverse
• New York Circuit Short
• New York Circuit Short Reverse

Nürburgring (Germany)

Track Layouts:

• Nürburgring Nordschleife
• TBA

Road America (USA)

Track Layouts:

• Road America

Road Atlanta (USA)

Track Layouts:

• Road Atlanta Grand Prix Course
• Road Atlanta Short Course

Sebring International Raceway (USA)

Track Layouts:

• Sebring Grand Prix Course
• Sebring Short Course
• Sebring Club Course
• TBA

Sedona Raceway Park (USA)

Track Layouts:

• Long Road Course
• Long Road Course Reverse
• Short Road Course
• Short Road Course Reverse
• Oval
• Oval Reverse
• Drag Strip (1mile/½mile/¼mile/⅛mile)

Silverstone (Great Britain)

Track Layouts:

• Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit
• Silverstone International Circuit
• Silverstone National Circuit
• TBA

Sunset Peninsula (USA)

Track Layouts:

• Sunset Peninsula Infield
• Sunset Peninsula Infield Reverse
• Sunset Peninsula Infield Short
• Sunset Peninsula Infield Short Reverse
• Sunset Peninsula Speedway
• Sunset Peninsula Speedway Reverse
• TBA

Suzuka Circuit (Japan)

Track Layouts:

• Suzuka Grand Prix Circuit
• Suzuka East Circuit
• Suzuka West Circuit

Tsukuba Circuit (Japan)

Track Layouts:

• Tsukuba Circuit
• Tsukuba Short

Twin Ring Motegi (Japan)

Track Layouts:

• Twin Ring Motegi Road Course
• Twin Ring Motegi East Course
• Twin Ring Motegi West Course
• Twin Ring Motegi Super Speedway