Forza Motorsport 3: Hands On

It didn't seem to matter whether I was sitting in the fancy bucket seat with its surround sound, high-tech steering mechanics and full pedal kit, or at the helm of the rather less glamourous Xbox controller... I still managed to suck pretty hard. But even when you slide in behind the controls for the very first time, with Forza Motorsport 3, you know you're playing something pretty special.

At a press conference with John Wendl from Turn 10, a plucky member of the vast media contingent here covering GCA 2009 asked - "How is this better than GT5?"

"For one," said John, "it's shipping in October!"

But his tongue-in-cheek retort wasn't all he had to say about the title. He waxed lyrical for quite some time about the game's amazing environments and fully dynamic (there's that word, Luce!) damage system. The car breaks up under the control of a poor driver like a chicken's egg entering Earth's atmosphere. Glass breaks, naturally, but the kind of graphical interpretation the developers have included to show off your lack of skills is... skillful. Torn metal and cut paint are the least of it.

I played one track on the triple screen, seat-and-wheel set up, and one on the regular controls just to ensure a truthful impression. Both were equally impressive. The cars are wonderfully realised to the last detail, and the tracks are spectacularly fun to drive. The grass will suck you in, the corners will spit you out, and the other drivers on the track have absolutely no mercy.

The game is packed with the latest cars - over 400 from 50 manufacturers. If you've dreamed of driving it, now you can. Busting through the PR machine for this game, I simply see a racing sim that needs no hype. This game is going to hit with plenty of force come release time, and as for buzz words like "redefining" or "cutting-edge" - Forza 3 doesn't need them (although the press release is full of them).

I disagree (although maybe not entirely) with their assertion that the game is for both sim fans and arcade types: auto-breaking and a few other techniques that have brought the difficulty level down don't do enough to shift this title from being a simulator. The game is not going to disappoint even those who sit on that fence, but for the Mario Karters of this world, it's a no.

Wendl made much of the game's customisable content, citing uploads and downloads as one of the ways that Forza will go on delivering well after you've cracked the box. Artists from around the world can put their creations online - this will include sharply captured screen shots, custom paint jobs and other finery - that can then in turn be downloaded, for a price. Gamers' creations can also be locked, so that others can't mess with them.

This is a game I will be going back to while I'm in Singapore. One simply can't be expected to catch everything on two run throughs, and if anything major has been left out of this snippet I will be sure to rectify it. There are more than a couple on the NZGamer.com staff who are keen to get their hands on review code and thrash out a more in depth look, so all going to plan you can expect that in the next couple of months.

From Suntec in Singapore - this is one to watch.

Kia Ora to Leipzig Messe for the choice hook ups.