je colle ici le compte rendu de chunx de simHQ (la video avec la EVO10 page 11) tres informatif
One of the biggest game displays at E3 was Microsoft’s
Forza Motorsports 3.
Arrayed across one entire side of Microsoft’s show area were three
large car simulator cockpits sporting force feedback racing wheels each
utilizing three large-screen LCD Televisions arrayed for a panoramic
view out of the virtual windshield. Flanking the cockpits were
tabletops offering Forza 3 under standard wireless gamepad control.
Swarming in and around the crowd were members from Turn 10 Studios, the
game’s developers, all eager to engage the audience and answer
questions about the game. It was an impressive demonstration that
garnered a lot of attention from the audience — including the SimHQ
team.
While waiting in line to
test our hand at the new console racer, we watched as other members of
the media fumbled their way around the track, typically making heavy
use of the ARMCO barriers to help guide them through tricky corners. We
watched several people attempt to drive their way around a lap of a
twisting mountain circuit while never lifting their heavy right foot
from the accelerator pedal. To our great satisfaction, this driving
technique was utterly inadequate to navigate a car around the track.
Had those arcade race fans only paid attention to the dynamic racing
line colors (the braking and acceleration colors morph depending on
your actual entry and exit speeds), they’d have probably had a better
time at the wheel. Magnum saw one guy drive up the outer wall, rolling
his car on its side and coming to rest on the driver’s side door. While
it was gratifying to see that Forza 3 demanded judicious use of
throttle and brake, we were disheartened when we saw a frail young lady
spin her car through 360 degrees and come out of the spin just as fast
as she’d entered it. Not a good omen for finding a realistic physics
engine, and certainly made us quite skeptical that this latest in the
Forza family could be anything more but another console arcade product.
But first looks can be deceiving. When it was finally our turn to saddle up a road rocket and try out
Forza 3,
Magnum had the first go. He drove it like most of the crowd did —
whatever aids were on for the day were left on. Then Chunx hopped in
and we placed our typical requests with the developer attending to our
sim cockpit:
“Could you turn ALL the driving aids off and put Forza 3 into its most realistic physics mode?” That put a gleam in our dev’s eye, as he too was a fan of hard-core physics modeling.
With
a very short list of street cars to choose from, Chunx selected a
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X MR, a car he’s actually driven (and in a
sporting manner). The MR edition is equipped with ABS, as well as
paddle shifters and a twin clutch arrangement that allows for
clutchless upshifts and downshifts — a very racy combination. The dev
then set up the virtual Forza 3 Evo X MR in the same configuration,
with Chunx using the provided wheel’s paddle shifters accordingly.
Chunx’ top 5 initial impressions of
Forza 3 (in “Hard” mode with driving aids “Off”) are as follows:
<blockquote>
1.
It’s an absolutely GORGEOUS visual game. Astounding and breathtaking
are the words that come to mind when you see the game in action. And
best of all, the game now comes with an in-cockpit point of view. The
vertical view of the dashboard stops about half way down the instrument
cluster, but it’s still a very realistic vantage point from which to
race.
2.
The sounds are very, very good, especially the all-important tire
sounds which convey grip status and compensate for the lack of
seat-of-the-pants feel.
3.
The physics felt quite good. As Chunx drove a 4 lap stint, Magnum noted
some replay scenes in which the tire sidewalls clearly deflected under
cornering loads. Those visual deflections are also part of the physics
engine’s tire model, and are reflected in the handling of the car when
cornering. That’s simply a superb touch for any sim, especially one
made for the console. Power-on oversteer and under steer conditions
were predictable and appropriate for the driving conditions, which is
yet another good indicator of an accurate physics engine.
4. Unlike
Race Pro (
see our review),
straight-line tracking and wheel centering were spot-on, making for
very precise car placement during approach to braking and at turn-in.
But then again,
Forza 3 wasn’t being demonstrated with Microsoft’s Xbox360 force feedback wheel (more on that later).
5.
Say racers, do you often find yourself spinning out in the middle of a
race and stuck against the wall? No problem for Forza 3, which has
lifted from Codemaster’s
“Grid” racing game a feature called
“Race Rewind”. Not a replay system at all, Race Rewind actually allows
a player to go back in time to just before a wreck and replay the race
from a happier time and place, hopefully averting disaster the second
time around. This feature could also be used in practice to help learn
a particular corner more quickly and efficiently than waiting an entire
lap to take another run at it. With Race Rewind, a driver could simply
rewind the practice lap to just before the braking point for a
particular corner, and repeat it over and over until they found the
best braking, turn-in, clipping or track out point. That will make for
a fantastic learning tool — even if it was really meant to keep more
casual racers in the hunt for a trophy.
</blockquote>
After taking
Forza 3on a sim-level test drive, we had a chance to talk to Alan Hartman,
Studio Manager for Turn 10. Alan immediately recognized the SimHQ logo
and as a long time sim racing fan was aware of our site and staff team.
Forza 3is a product designed to make money through massive sales, and thus
must be made appealing to the mainstream console audience. But that
doesn’t mean that the game can’t be scalable towards a higher level of
realism and physics fidelity demanded by discerning simulation fans. In
fact, like most PC racing sims, players can race together while each
applies a different level of difficulty and realism, although with more
aids turned on the power level is decreased to ensure lap times are
higher, and credit scores in championship / campaign modes are lowered
with each driving aid turned on. The goal is to encourage casual gamers
to challenge their abilities and step up to higher levels of realism —
really, to the land of the simulation hobbyist. And that is once again
good news for race sim fans.
Likewise, Turn 10 is leveraging the community support generated by
Forza 2’scustom paint shop and car tuning by taking it to the next level —
internet sharing of talent. Players will be able to upload and share
car configurations, paint schemes and tuned setups via Xbox Live. That
might allow Turn 10 to branch out into an element of race sims that
have given them longevity far beyond those of console games —
aftermarket game mods. It’s a brave new world for racing sims, and the
vector for console racers now seems to be aimed squarely at the
simulation crowd.
Pleasantly surprised by what we saw and experienced at E3, SimHQ is really looking forward to getting our hands on a copy of
Forza 3 in a review later this year. The game is expected to make its retail debut in October, 2009.
What’s that? We didn’t mention the force feedback wheel used in the
Forza 3 demo? Well, race fans, check out this photo and test your racing wheel recognition skills:
No, you‘re not seeing things — that really is a German-made Fanatec Porsche force feedback wheel
made especially for the Xbox 360. Endor gaming’s CEO Thomas Jackermeier
told SimHQ that the Xbox 360 Fanatec wheel should be on the market this
Fall, and will come in three “trim” levels, with lower-end units
capable of using G25 or MS FF pedals and the top-of-the-line model
including an all-metal, three pedal arrangement priced at around $500.
The
Fanatec Xbox 360 wheel itself had a very solid, high quality feel, with
excellent pedal travel and resistance, and a realistically heavy feel
to the force feedback. The on-center feel was precise and aided in
placing the car exactly where you needed it to be on the track for
smooth cornering. The prices are certainly not for those lacking
commitment to the brave new world of console racing sims, but we can
tell you that the quality of the driving experience was really far
better than we expected from this latest installment in the Forza
series. And like
Forza 3, we’re really looking forward to reviewing a Fanatec Xbox 360 wheel in the near future.
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FORZA MOTORSPORT 3
Sujet: Re: Vidéos officielles Forza motorsport 3 
Lun 8 Juin - 23:07
