You just slammed your Audi R8 into the racetrack wall. But it's cool: In Forza Motorsport 3, you can rewind time.
Videogames are all about do-overs. When Mario makes a misstep, he can try to save the princess again if he has an extra life. But extra chances aren't common in racing simulators. Screw up in Sony's Gran Turismo and you'll have to start the whole race again, spending another 20 minutes because of a single missed turn.
Microsoft's Forza Motorsport 3, to be released Oct. 27 for Xbox 360, takes its inspiration from games like Prince of Persia and Braid, allowing racers to rewind time. Skid out of control, trade paint with another car or botch a turn in this new game and there's a quick way out: Rewind to the moment you made your big mistake and give it another go.
Let the hard-core gamers scoff. They don't have to push the button if they don't want to.
Time in Forza Motorsport 3 is malleable, but not infinitely. Press the Rewind button and the race reels backward for exactly five seconds. Close is often good enough.
Forza 3 packs even more optional cheats for the casual racer, like the "autobrake" driving assist and a glowing guide that shows the suggested path and speed a driver will want to take through each of the game's 100 real-world race courses. Forza 3 has three standard difficulty settings — the hardest takes fuel and collision damage into account — and a handful of sliders and switches that allow players to customize the game's difficulty to their particular needs.
Customization is a core value with this videogame series. Forza 3 continues the tradition of allowing players to paint and decorate their cars, then sell, share or trade their designs online. And the tools are quite powerful: I was able to re-create Stuntman Mike's custom '69 Dodge Charger from the movie Death Proof in an afternoon. There's already a car decked out with the Ghostbusters logo available for sale in the game's marketplace. And you can be sure there will be more than a few replicas of the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard for sale as soon as the game launches.
Developer Turn 10 Studios plans to launch a website where Forza players can share the clips and photos they create online. An option to kick the videos straight to YouTube, as you can in Noby Noby Boy, would have been nice, though, and it's a shame the tools for creating videos aren't as detailed as those you find in other games. Skate 2 and Halo 3, for example, offer would-be filmmakers much finer control over the angles and editing of their shared clips. I'd like to see Turn 10 add better tools as downloadable content.
But these perks are all secondary to Forza Motorsport 3's main mission: to deliver a realistic racing experience with more than 400 licensed cars and 100 real-world tracks. Consider that a mission accomplished – or at the very least rewound and nailed again on the third go-round.
WIRED Rewind races to retry tricky maneuvers; lots of customization.
TIRED Hard to share custom cars and movies with those who don't own the game.
$60, Microsoft
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