Forza Motorsport 3 Microsoft Press Conference Impressions

Turn 10 shows off some new features from the latest Forza at the Microsoft conference.

During Microsoft’s E3 press conference, Turn 10’s Dan Greenwalt took to the stage--accompanied by Audi's slick R8 V10--to show off a few new features from the latest in the Forza series of racing games, Forza Motorsport 3. Greenwalt made sure to emphasize that Forza 3 is the definitive racing game of this generation and then proceeded to show a video of an in-game R8 taking some laps through a track surrounded by lush greenery. We then got a glimpse of an impressive cockpit view where the driver took a few seconds to look over to his right and left. Shortly thereafter, one of the other cars in the race collided into the guardrail and careened into the other driver, including the Audi, which then caused the R8 to flip over on its roof and skid for a few feet. That poor Audi's not so pretty no more.

After the brief video, Greenwalt went on to explain that Forza 3 features a brand new engine that lets the game run at 60 frames per second. Additionally, he said that the game will have up to 400 cars from 50 different manufacturers. Some other new features were briefly touched upon, such as the new one-button driving assist and the gameplay rewind, which would seem to indicate that you might be able to enact a mulligan in case you're involved in a major collision out on the track, but that's purely speculative. As far as Forza 3's Xbox Live interaction is concerned, customizing and modding cars will be just as prominent as in previous games--a video showed how various people have made a hobby of creating a variety of visual designs for their cars. And, of course, people will still be able to share these cars, as well as HD videos of Forza 3 races, with each other.

The presentation closed with another video showcasing what's possible with Forza 3's video editor. We got to see some pretty amazing drifting (which also shows off some of the nice driving physics in the game), as well as some spectacular stunt driving that looked as though it came straight from a Michael Bay-directed racing sequence. One scene showed two cars sliding into place and another drifting in between them for an especially impressive bit of driving. Overall, it was a decent top-level demonstration of features in Forza 3, but we're eager to see it up close and personal as soon as possible. Forza Motorsport 3 ships this October.

38 Comments

  • SQUALL20XX

    Posted Jun 9, 2009 1:04 pm PT

    Visuals look great

  • SSBFan12

    Posted Jun 6, 2009 7:28 pm PT

    I might get it I am still thinking about it though.

  • blackace

    Posted Jun 6, 2009 8:08 am PT

    Gotta go and pre-order this after work. Must have. Looks like GT5 just got owned. Doesn't even look like that game will come out in 2009. lol

    ***********************************************************************
    dinkle41

    GT4 had 730 cars, including about 50 skylines
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Many of those 730 cars were the same car, but a different year. The changes from say 1991 to 1992 were very minor. I'm sure these 400 cars will all be unique and special in their own way.

  • asian_pride69

    Posted Jun 3, 2009 10:14 pm PT

    400 cars!?! awesome. With an engine that runs at 60 frames per second, this game will definitely look sweet.

    I like the new camera in the car. Now that's racing.

  • PSFreak1

    Posted Jun 3, 2009 6:58 am PT

    looks nice........

  • pakhair

    Posted Jun 3, 2009 2:19 am PT

    Looks Nice...........

  • Junior_AIN

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 4:43 pm PT

    That game's gonna be neat.

  • gmax Site moderator

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 10:27 am PT

    More press conference coverage. There was a lot in that press conference.

  • blink-jfg

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 6:30 am PT

    Got the other two games day of release. Definitely gonna get this one. Awesome

  • Phaselinear

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 7:17 pm PT

    I love driving games (have the complete wheel set up and wide screens to match) and I love F2. Now, can these guys put out a top notch Formula1 game to match this?

  • earthnuggets

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 6:50 pm PT

    Awesome! New damage modeling sounds great; I can't wait to actually see it in action.

  • borninvincible

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 4:53 pm PT

    looks nice...

  • ultralesus

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 4:17 pm PT

    Can't wait. Forza 2 stole months of my life... there was just so much to it, besides racing it had the car modding stuff and community aspect. Is spent a month on just one design.

    I was hoping for news on GT5 but you know what... I'm not really bothered anymore. Unless they have the damage and crash physics Forza has.

  • dark_being

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 4:11 pm PT

    A lot of ppl hoped for some news about this one. Glad they got their much needed racing fix.

  • rbrwebber

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 4:06 pm PT

    brilliant job by the turn 10 guys! Not enough good racers yet but this is a good one.

  • shinian

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 4:04 pm PT

    The graphics looked great. And yet they did run in 60FPS. Kudos to Turn10

  • dinkle41

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 3:45 pm PT

    GT4 had 730 cars, including about 50 skylines

  • Gigagamer2

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 3:43 pm PT

    GT4 might have had over 500 cars, but not many supercars, and if i recall, rediculous amounts of similar models, 10 types of skyline and lots and lots of japanese cars, so the two games balance out

  • Gamer4Iife

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 3:39 pm PT

    "The DEFINITIVE racing game OF THIS GENERATION." Seriously.. how many times did the guy repeat that line? I honestly lost count.

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