Oz Gives His Verdict on the new DLC Track-Pack . . .

And He’s “Not Happy Jan”. . . !

by XboxOZ360:

© 2010 Grant Smythe:

Anyone that follows this site and has read anything related to Forza 2 or Forza 3 knows that the game is a passionate one for me.

I could be like many ‘fanboys’ and agree that the tracks are terrific just to be in the game. Or I could say heaps of great things about the developers Turn 10 for adding the 2 best tracks in the world, that were not in the last game by the way, into their new game.

But I’m not a fanboy, and I’m not one to praise something that does not deliver what the end user wants, and needs to in order to deliver a satisfactory result.

• Nurburgring Grand-Prix-Circuits Come Alive – or does it?

At the cost of 400MSP for just 2 tracks – this is just not on.

Note:

There IS a “work-around” for this, but it means heading into the Multiplayer section of the game. Which Single Player gamers never venture into – of course, which is remember, 60-65% of Forza 3 players. This is the area when playing online in MP, you can fill the gap between your friends with AI driven cars. But, most SP gamers do not venture in there, nor have a reason to. You are also excluded of the other features on SP off-line fucntions such as “Rewind” – “Pause” etc.

The work-around is as follows:

Connect to XboxLIVE, then go to:-

Multiplayer – Private Race – Game Setup – Select Nurb. GP and number of laps – Add 7 other AI Drivers and change race restrictions…

Courtesy of “Yakob,” so many thanks for finding the work-around, most appreciated.

Update – HOWEVER:

As with Henry Ford, who’s T Model you could buy in any colour, so long as it was “Black” . . when you use this ‘work-around’ as shown above, no matter what Class you pick, the Multiplayer AI controlled cars will ALWAYS be R2 Class.

Even if you choose R1, or the lowly E Class, the AI cars will be – you guessed it – R2 Class cars. So, in similar fashion that Henry Ford once said, you can have it in any class you want, so long as it R2 Class.

Now that’s just bloody lovely, isn’t it . . . So you’re even restricted in the AI cars within a Custom Game setting – Good one Turn 10 – just lovely – NOT

Especially when those 2 tracks (ribbons) can only be used in both “Hot Lap”, which is just you and your own ghost car lap after lap infinitum, or in “Quick Race”, which is you racing a standard field of 8 cars of the same class as you, which is great . . . as you can set the difficulty level, naturally. But here’s the clincher . . !!!

Click for full view

Ready for it, here it is . . .  you get just 2 laps that is it – TWO BLOODY laps around Nurburgring GP and the Nurburgring Short Track.

Two laps in any car, in any class on such a track is basically a waste of time, space and energy.

The track is designed for long races that are designed to wear the driver down, get the most out of the car, and for the driver to become ‘familiar’ with each corner, dip, twist and rumble-strip throughout the circuit in order to obtain the best time and of course – ideally – win the race. The track is well known for it’s very demanding 1000km Nürburgring endurance races. and the hugely successful German Grand Prix, which by definition is a Grand Prize for a long race . . not TWO LAPS.

There is no way in gods green earth any racer can do that is just two laps. Especially when you think about the fact that one lap is a start lap, and the second and final lap is the one you have to set your time on . . .

Update:

While many hardened Forza online players might wonder why all the bitching, they forget that a huge percentage of Forza 2/3 gamers do not want to connect tyo XboxLive, nor do they wish to be forced to in order to race a track more than 2 laps. They also want to be able to have the DLC tracks “integrated” into the game just like the other DLC tracks were when the game originally shipped and 10 other “tracks” were added.

This DLC breaks those precedents, precedents that were set in Forza 3 at the on-set, and ONLY offers the 2 tracks (2 ribbons if you must be precise) as stand-alone tracks, and are not even integrated into the excellent “Behemoth” section of Nurburgring. Which, if offered as only 2 laps, would be excellent.

I personally have no qualms with charging for DLC, the developers work tirelessly at producing this content, and Turn 10 have done an excellent job at all the parts of this game so far, and set a levelmany other racing games have to reach.

But I believe the gamer should be rewarded for their work. However, they do need to look at how the game can be enhanced for ALL levels of end-users, not just one faction of those end-users, at the expense of the others.

There are a huge number who want to set times on leaderboards, the borads show that by the numbers seperating the top 1%, the leaderboards are not available with extended laps to clip down times, as these are unavailable when you do a Private Custom Race online.

Many racers around the world do not have access to good broadband online services in their parts of the world, even Robbie Bach, President of Entertainment and Devices at MS acknowledged this at a recent discussion at Sydney Uni only 2 days ago when discussing the limits Australia has with its online services compared to Nth America.

We need to allow all racers access to these functions and allow them to choose, not force them into having to have an area of the game open (being online) in order to access what is already available from previous DLC tracks.

It is a matter of principle, not just the ‘cost’ of the packs, or the quality of the tracks visuals or track surfaces etc . . remember that there was a precedent set with previous Track DLC at the on-set of the game, this was not followed through with this particular track DLC . . . . See my point now?

I can and will set my own “Private Race” online with 7 AI cars, but my son, who has no access to online can not . . . and thus misses out.

No Reverse Tracks!

Click for full view

With all bare 3-4 major tracks within the game currently offering reverse of each track, the two Nurburgring tracks do NOT offer this feature.

And before you go on about them not needing it, or that the tracks don’t have any reverse in games, they were offered in reverse in PGR3 but the two tracks were NOT featured in reverse nor were they featured in Forza 2 – although I wish they had of been available in Forza 3 from the get-go.

These reverse tracks actually offered some excellent racing in that configuration in that ‘other game’. That would have at least given us 4 tracks to play with. An omission that shows no real thought being given it at all.

Sadly, the additional tracks are simply aimed at online multiplayer events only, and have been placed in the Free Race sections as a mater of course.

They could have been added to the Events list as “Special Additional Events” that need not have interfered with the current tracks or races. Simply an additional set of races befitting this great track, and added to the current configuration to make up what is known as “The Behemoth”.

Or, they could have been included in the Season Mode, by being an additional “Special Event” worked into one of the Season as a Feature Event even, which then would have allowed the two tracks to be used in the Events List Mode as well.

But no, Turn 10 have decided that the 60% of Forza 3 players that use the game in Single Player mode do not need a good racing track, and have opted to give the Multiplayers all the glory.

Sorry, but this is just not on.

Therefore, I simply would NOT recommend the additional track DLC to anyone who is keen on Single Player or who is aiming at achieving great lap record times. As by getting the new DLC, you will achieve neither of these goals. There’s no way you can clip the times down in just ONE lap.

As I mentioned before, that is all you really get after the first lap, which is from a ‘standing start’ remember, so you have the last lap..

Which would have to be the “Best Lap” as it would be the only registered lap that could record proper times for a single lap.

I just hope that Turn 10 see the error of their ways, and at least allow the addition of choosing multiple laps within any of the classes – which is something they should have allowed in all of the “Quick Races” from the get-go actually.

Choosing the number of laps was something you could do in Forza 2 by the way, which was another great idea NOT used in Forza 3.

Do not get me wrong, I love the game (well duhh) but this is just not a good DLC. I’m in the top 1% in all but 34 classes on the leaderboards globally. So I’ve invested some serious hours in the game already, but this is not the way you treat dedicated fans of a franchise, no matter how well your game might be selling.

So, the question remains, what does the game get from me, a hardened Forza 3 nut? A big fat 2/10.

Not because the tracks are bad, on the contrary. In fact they are great so I basically gave one point for each track for having now in the game. I gave it such a low mark just because they are not able to be used as they need to be, meaning that they are not able to be “raced” in any real way whatsoever.

I can not even test the tracks full potential to deliver a proper “review” on the actual tracks other than do Ghost Laps, which by the way, does not indicate any type ‘racing conditions’ and a allow for a changing ‘race field situation’ which would occur when set at the maximum difficulty level.

Sorry, it gets a big fat Thumbs-Down from OZ on this one – sorry Turn 10, this is one fan that is not a happy camper, and will think twice about purchasing any DLC tracks in the future.

Cars, are another thing, but tracks are now out of bounds for me. I’ll save my MSP for the next DLC Car Pack thanks.

NOTE: Make sure you read our much more positive review of the last DLC #2 pack, the Detroit Motor Show Auto Pack, full details on all 10 cars in the pack, which is well worth the read. At least that will lift your spirits with regards to DLC Packs from Turn 10.

©2010 Grant Smythe:

• Jalopnik & Turn 10 Car Pack DLC#4
• Last Month DLC #3, The Nurburgring Grand Prix Pack
• The Detroit Autoshow Car Pack DLC #2
• You can check out the first extensive review of the DLC Holiday Pack here as well.
• OXCGN’s Huge Forza 3 Page, over 1500 comments.
• OXCGN’s Forza 3 Career Guide with downloadable Achievement PDF spec sheet.
• OXCGN’s Career Guide Number 1. More downloadable stuff and lots of tips.

“2/10