Overall: I've always liked Ford and the Ford Racing games have been a great way to try out all the cars I can't have. I've played FR3 for about 20 hours now and have got about 50% of the way through. It's a great game and is fun for all ages. Great graphics and great control but can't say much for the sound but I've taken care of that by using my music recorded on my Xbox harddrive. I enjoy it and have fun trying to beat the AI. It's not GT4 but it's definitly a fun game at great price. You can't beat $14.99 as a price for a brand new racing game. Lots of cars in this one too. Plenty of things to do and try. Pick it up if you get the chance! Gameplay: I'd have to say this is an improvement in some area's but there is a couple of disappointments too. The control is good, you can do better controlled slides like in RR, except for some of the trucks, too much slide sometimes. I found myself upside down at times or facing the wrong way on the off road tracks due to sliding. Plenty of racing types to beat, drafting, seconds out, relay (a really great idea by the way to transfer from one car to the other by drafting), time attack, overtake, duel, boost, racing line, elimiation, driving skills and the standard race.
I really like what they did to racing line. The change in this is now you need to drive on the line on the track to power up your boost so you can pass other cars. Great change here. I did have a problem with the tracks being a little too contained, I guess I would say. They just seemed to be narrower than the tracks in FR2. FR2's tracks seem so much wider and better spaced. All in all very good except for the truck sliding and track space. Graphics: The visuals as usual are fantastic. Tracks have plenty to look at. Homes, buildings, trees, bushes, everything really looks great. I like the Asuka Battle tracks with the Japanese backgrounds. The Harbor tracks are fantastic with the water, boats, trees and all. Really, really good. I would have liked to see more activity in the background though. Things that come to mind are the waterfall from FR2's Lost World tracks, the hangliders and volcano too, the trains from the City Limits tracks, etc. There didn't seem to be as much in FR3 as in FR2. May be it was a necessary change but I think that there could have been more activity in the background. Sound: The sound is okay. Not fantastic but okay. Most of the cars sounded great except for the newer Thunderbirds. I swore I heard what sounded like a lawnmower engine in the background. I don't know what that was but they just didn't sound right. Birds, rushing water in streams, tires squeeling all were good. The music sound track is okay but the ability to change the sound track to one of my tracks on the harddrive is still the greatest option. Please leave the announcer telling you where you are in the menu off next time. She's still annoying to me. The only good thing about that is I can turn her off if I want to, one of the first things I did by the way. The sound could use some improvement guys. Suggestions: Please no annoucer for the menu's and do more research on the cars engine sounds. The Thunderbirds just didn't sound right to me. I would like to see the original tracks from FR, FR2 and FR3 included in the next one, if possible. More activity in the back ground too. I still think that FR2 had more to look at in the background than this installment.
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