Forza 3 Career Mode: Start Your Engines
We guide you through the first season of Turn 10's promising new racer.
by Hilary Goldstein
Forza Motorsport 3 might end up twice as good as its predecessor. It's certainly twice as big. The Career Mode has been completely redesigned in an effort to make the experience accessible to Forza's hardcore fans but also casual racing game players. As developer Turn 10 admits, the Career Mode in Forza 2 was too broad and too easy to get lost in if you weren't a core gamer. Over the next three days, we're taking you in-depth with Forza 3's spankin' new Career Mode. Why three days? There's just that much going on.
We're kicking things off with the basics. What follows are the nuts and bolts of Forza 3's Career Mode. Tomorrow, we'll dig deeper and look at tuning, the progression of your career and more. For today, let's just stick to what you can expect in your first season.
Your time in Career Mode is guided by a voice over from your British mentor. It's somewhat like how Travis Pastrana talked people through Codemaster's Dirt, only there's a little more hand holding here. Don't worry experienced racers, none of this has to slow you down from powering through the menus to get into a race. But what Turn 10 has done is put the entire Career Mode on a single button. If you don't know what to do first (or ever) just press A. It will always get you into the next recommended race. You don't have to read menus, search for the right race, worry about tuning or even figure out which car to use. You can always press A to launch into the action. Sure, there's plenty to do if you want to scan the menu, which we'll talk about tomorrow, but the entire career can be boiled down to that single button. Press it and go.
The first season is more linear than what you'll experience as you go further in the Career Mode. Things begin with a simple question: What kind of racer are you? Currently, Career Mode has three choices (Casual, Regular and Serious), but Turn 10 is considering adding another choice between Regular and Serious. The choice you make is in no way final -- you can alter your selection before any race. What you select determines your default settings and adjusts the AI from easy to medium to hard. You'll know if you've chosen correctly right off the bat. Before you get into Career Mode, Forza 3 places you behind the wheel of the new Audi R8. Before you even touch the surface of the new Forza, you get to test out some mid-level content, giving a taste of what can be yours for playing the Career Mode.
Your first race should, hopefully, give you the thrill of victory. Sadly, the Audi R8 won't be making it into your garage right away. It's just a tease. What comes next is perhaps the most important decision you'll make in your career. Seven "gift" cars are offered. You're not only choosing the car with which to launch your career, but you're telling the AI what you like to race. Though the cars aren't on the high end, there are some nice options. The Ford Fiesta is actually a good little racer and won't make you feel as if you're driving in slow motion. None of these initial cars will prove unwieldy and really, you don't have to know anything about cars to make a proper choice. Choose what seems to suit you and let the new adaptive Career Mode do the rest.
These seven cars offer seven paths to the start of your first season. Forza's Career Mode is dynamic, changing week-to-week based on what cars you own, what types of races you like to drive and how you drive. But in the first season, the calendar's AI is still getting to know you. So most of the dynamic elements in season one come from your initial choice. The car you select determines not only the first set of races available to you, but begins to shape the rest of your season. It also has an impact on the cars gifted to you as you progress through your career.
Did someone say gifts? Hell yes. Forza 3 showers you with presents. Like the previous Forza, racing rewards you with Driver experience and XP for the car you race. Your Driver level is the sum whole of everything you've ever done in Forza, while your car level is specific to that vehicle and earns you discounts on parts and more. The main difference from Forza 2 to Forza 3 is that with each of the first 50 levels achieved as a Driver, you're given a free car.
There are no set cars given to players. That is to say, not everyone gets the same car at level 2, 3, 4 or even 50. Remember, your first gift car comes at the start of the Career Mode when you pick from seven options. The calendar fills up with events based on the cars you own and your preferences and that same type of logic helps determine the cars you're gifted. Each level has its own behind-the-scenes performance ranking and pricing index for what can be given, but that still leaves plenty of variety.
If you're worried that picking a European car at the outset means you're only gifted European cars for the rest of your career, relax. One thing Turn 10 wants is to entice gamers to try new types of cars. So while a lot of gifted cars may be in line with what you've gravitated towards in your races, there are still going to be some free cars meant to give you a brand new sensation. Even if you hate your gift car, you can always sell it back. And if there's a car in the showroom you really want, go ahead and buy it. None of the gifted cars are "exclusive" as presents. Anything given to a racer can also be purchased from the showroom if you have the cash.
Expect to get quite a few cars in the first season. Some possibilities over your first few levels are the 2010 Fiat 500, Abarth SS, the 2009 Alfa Romeo Brera Ti, the 2008 Volkswagen Scirocco GT, and the Mazda MX Roadster. Also, if you're a fan of Achievements, expect to bathe in them over your first season as well. It's like hitting a win streak in Vegas. You keep playing and the Achievements keep piling up.
As you progress through your first season, you'll find a selection of new events offered. Typically there are three from which to select. There's no possibility of having an event you can't enter, because the dynamic calendar only offers those you qualify to race. There are some simple tags at the bottom of each event offering advice on which to choose. It might say one is perfect for your current car or that another is if you want a bit of a challenge. Or you can just hit the A button a few times and let the game decide.
Your first season consists of five events. Each event is two weeks long and can have quite a range of races. In the first year, you can expect most events to be three races long, with a few having upwards of six races. At the end of every other weekend, there's a Weekend Championship. These are the backbone of the calendar and the one part of Forza 3 Career Mode that doesn't dynamically change. It's in these weekend events that you truly measure your skill as a driver and the progress of your career.
At the end of the season, you're given a cash bonus and a stat tally for the year. You'll see your total cash winnings for the season, experience earned and a few other nitty-gritty stats. As you progress further into your career, the seasons get longer as do the events. There are 220 total events in Forza 3, each made up of multiple races. That's more than double what was in Forza 2. There are more than 400 cars to collect, tuning to perfect, multiplayer to test out and an advanced livery editor. We'll discuss those in more depth over the following two days.
Forza Motorsport 3 ships in North America on October 27 and in Europe on October 3 23 (lucky bastards).
