Didn't Dan say something about dusk so that could be interpreted as night racing?
Anyway back on to physics. I was surprised how poor Forza 3 was when I played it in that department in terms of grip and steering feel, it felt very controlled. There is insane levels of grip available when driving with no driving aids especially for super cars. A few days back, I decided to get my Xbox 360 back out from the box. I looked for Forza 3 but couldn't find it and found Forza 2 instead. Forza 2 seems a step up and a step down to Forza 3 in some areas of physics. There is less grip in Forza 2 but there is also a problem of drivability in terms of driving using the full track. In Forza 3 you can position the car better. Maybe it is due to the views or the floaty feeling I get from Forza 3 but it allows better car positioning. I think maybe the permanent active steering aid on could be a reason or better grip levels but not sure.
Anyway I found Forza 3 in the end and was surprised it collected dust inside the case. Maybe it is due to different covers for the Collector's Edition cover but I haven't played it since the first week I got it so it has been a while. I was hoping my first impressions before was maybe a bit harsh but again it felt the same. I only played in Arcade Mode so don't know if the tyres they use are the best in the game but I tried a big variety of cars. I found again that I could get away with more or less going full throttle straight away or go 90% and no spin of wheels. No oversteer too. I was driving a huge range of Ferrari's and Porsche's. Anyway the main time you can lose the rear a bit is if you go over the curbs.
The AI are very aggressive I must say. They will run you off the road, like the last F1 race Buemi and Heidfeld. You are approaching side by side and I noticed especially when you on the outside, they will run you off like you are not even there but when you are on the inside they are a bit more calm. Once you are ahead and in first it is quite easy to pull away. I don't know what AI difficulty is on Arcade Mode but once you are in the lead you can pull away at 4 seconds a lap even if you don't know the track that well I found so they are not fast by any means. The braking physics feel a bit strange, it feels like the engine is about to stall and is about to conk out and even with ABS it does that feel to a lesser extent. GT5 feels reasonably well as expected with ABS, but with no ABS I have not really tried as when I first time I tried it, it felt like my brakes had gone. I might try it again as I never lowered the brake bias. The best braking physics I've experienced is with Ferrari Virtual Academy, that feels just right but it is only for one car.
The real world tracks in Forza 3 don't look like the real deal. I don't get why they have to ruin the track surfaces of many tracks by giving an impression, the tracks have been used as drag strips or something. The curbing does not feel accurate and they seem to be very generic in terms of size in most tracks. Suzuka in FM3 is not as accurate as the one in GT5. The best real world track I found is probably Circuit de Catalunya.
It is amazing how much FM3 was talked up (
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news/news-3603-Turn-10--Nothing-on-the-Market-is-Within-Years-of-Forza-3.html), they are talking about the tyre physics again this time and good to hear the tyre data in FM3 is very different to real world data as I would be surprised if it wasn't. It looks like they made a huge step up looking at the videos of FM4 over FM3. That is most liking improving the tyre data so that it has realistic grip levels from real world data and removing the permanent steering aid. People who like FM3 physics might be in for a shock at how Forza 4 feels, I think it will more like GT5 but a bit different. They think they are years ahead of PC sims and console sims with FM3, I wonder how far ahead they will feel with FM4. GT5 for me is the game that has handling characteristics of cars done very well and lives up to the the real driving simulator tagline. I can relate to it well from what I hear from video reviews of cars and I find what the reviewers find with the car. The real life tracks look like the real world ones in terms of layout and look. Like the recent Nurburgring GP, the GT5 version looks close to spot on in terms of look, curbings and layout. The physics is very versatile as it has a big variety of cars and does the sim aspect well but the best thing is they are at the point where they don't have to drive the cars to find out how it feels. The physics engine does that just from data of the car. That is impressive as I remember when Kaz was getting interviewed and they said how do they know how the car drives for say cars like the Miura. Forza is yet to get to the level of being able to handle a wide variety of cars and I'm sure they will get there soon, maybe even in Forza 4.
I thought I'd mention the GT5 Nights trailer song was in Forza 3 already, it was strange to hear it as I associated it to that GT5 trailer.
