THSCC Forums

I played a bit online last night. I have also spent just a an hour or two on the career part of the game. So I don't have many cars and have spent little time tuning.

I think the complaint that everyone is having with respect to the online experience is that apparently you can't race in public races with cars that are less than "A" class. Just like autocross, the cars are broken up into classes that range from "F" (stock Honda Fit) up to "A" and "S". Then you get into three "R" classes for pure race cars. The point is that it can be very fun to race cars that don't perform that well. So there is a lot of grumbling about this right now.

I don't understand all of the issues yet, but after trying to read up on some forums, it appears that MS and Turn 10 (the company the made the game) can turn this on in the future, but it's unclear as to what is going on (i.e. why it's this turned on now). This is a feature that was in Forza 2, but so far is not enabled in Forza 3.

However, if you don't expect to play online a lot (or even if you do), so far I am really impressed with the game. One thing I was doing last night (I think you can do this in Forza 2 as well) was test driving a car on one of the "test" tracks. You can drive around and see live telemetry to see what is going on with the car from a data point of view as well as see how the car handles just by driving. You can then pause, go in and tweak things like spring rates, ride height, camber settings, etc. apply and then resume driving. If you have any knowledge of suspension tuning it's great fun to do this and see how quickly you can dial in a car.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

If you want online competition... then iRacing is the place to be IMO. Then again, it's not a console game, so may not really pertain.

The Forza does look good, that's for sure... just not convinced they don't have to compromise on physics, realism, and accuracy (vehicle and track) to get all that eye candy.

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Stacy King
Midlife Crisis Participant

I have no doubt that iRacing is the place to be. It is probably the better simulator and has much more serious racers involved (less guys who are willing to crash into you to win).

But I wouldn't sell short the capabilities of the current generation consoles. They are pretty powerful. And the simulation aspect of Forza is pretty good. So good in fact that the biggest features of Forza 3 has been to add more "drivers aids" to help those who just can't deal with the difficulty of simulators. But with the aids turned off it can be very hard to drive some of these cars fast.

And even if you are racing someone who is using all of the driver aids, just like in a real car, if you know what you are doing, you can go faster with the aids turned off. Due to lack of seat of pants and pedal feedback, the only driver aid I use in the game is ABS. Sometimes in some very high HP cars I use traction control due to lack of fine throttle control.

I intend to eventually get into iRacing, but right now this is a casual thing for me and doing it on a console is the most cost effective way for me.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

Anytime you get humans together, there will be dolts and dumbasses, and iracing has its share, but they are fewer in number and don't last very long...

And I'm really not trying to knock console sims or play-up iRacing... it certainly has its faults and nuances like anything else. My main point was the competition aspect of it. MOST drivers on iRacing do take it very seriously (some maybe a little too seriously, I'll grant you) and I think it shows.

The price will turn people away (although it recently got much cheaper!)... the system and structure is not for everyone (but neither is SCCA or NASA in the real world.)

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Stacy King
Midlife Crisis Participant

Sorry, didn't mean to imply you was knocking consoles. I have not tried iRacing, but I am sure you are right about the competition.

The main problem with online gaming on consoles is that you have to wade through the trash of dealing with 12 year olds who find it cool to use foul language online and generally act like total asses. But, when you do get into a good group who act like adults it can be great fun.

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

I want to get into IRacing but that would mean I need to upgrade my computer and that is not in the budget at the moment. I think it would be the best simulator available because the players take it seriously. I already had XBox 360 so Forza 3 is the best alternative right now. The AI is pretty good and will adjust its line to race with you. I always found in the Gran Tourismo series the AI would slam into you if you brake early among other things.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

I was thinking about buying this game and the Fanatec wheel + pedals to go with it... but then I realized that I'm a broke college student and spending 300+ dollars on a steering wheel for a video game wouldn't be terribly smart.

http://fanatec.de

I'm digging Forza 3. The physics seem MUCH improved. The rumble strips SEEM real, REAL oversteer, the brakes are not a on/off switch. I love in car view.

I got a snipe in on a wheel now

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

wow, what a game

so my friend and I bought i yesterday.

just for chits we bought the 95 civic hatch. got it up to A class in mods. lol. still sucks. what a waste of like 100,000 credits or whatever they use for money

but we just got a free gt500, so now we're up to B class in free cars.

its a very fun/realistic game.

forza 3 and Dirt 2. really good games. Dirt 2 def. gives you the rally feeling. and forza gives you the track sensation.

now all we're missing is the wheel

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'11 RallyX VP
1998 Integra Type R - track fun
1999 Subaru 2.5RS - dirt fun