There needs to be something said about the quality of the iPhone/iPod games. However, not all of them are without flaws, and some are just not worth the money.  I decided to share three games that I have been playing in my limited spare time.  If you like these three game types in general, you will enjoy playing these three games. I have picked one game from sports, strategy and music. They are all from EA publisher.

Forza Motorsport 3 (FM3) finally came out on October 27th, 2009 after years of development. There are few games that I have been more personally excited about. For the Xbox 360 console, there just was not as solid racing game as Grand Tourismo until Forza Motorsport 2. Forza 2 featured hundreds of cars that were upgradeable, realistic tracks and solid racing simulation.

In summary, Forza Motorsport 3 builds on FM2 by adding more tracks, more cars, more car customization, superior graphics engine, improved driving simulation, improved Xbox live capabilities, more single-player game options (drift/drag,etc) and interior driving views of every car.

First Thoughts:

Right out of the case you will notice the game features two disks. The top disk is the play disk, which you will use each time you want to play. The bottom disk has installable content for your Xbox 360, including the full list of the games cars, tracks and customization options. You will need to install this content to take full advantage of all the games abilities.

This content requires 1.9 gigabytes of room on your Xbox 360 hard drive. I know because I had to delete a number of demos to make room. The content takes between 2 and 4 minutes to install and the game designers were nice enough to include some music and a car slide show. You will be prompted when it is finished to insert disk 1. I should mention during the process your Xbox does not reset.

First Hour of Play:

So you have your content all installed and you’re eager to play!  Fear not, the next step is a race in an Audi R8 to determine what “assists” you need, aka skill level. This map is the exact same map as the Forza Motorsport demo, so it should be familiar. After this, you can finally begin the game. All this set-up time took me about 20 minutes.

The game forces you to then select in the E class from a pre-set list. You start broke as a joke. These are all E-class cars that are slow and boring. In any case, I selected the Honda Fit for it’s slightly better handling rating over the Ford and went racing. I swear the Fit sounded like it had a John Deer lawnmower engine in it but it got the job done. In typical Forza fashion, the game awards you cars as you win races. So I quickly earned an Alpha Romeo X and started racing with that. After a few more races I earned enough to buy myself a Toyota Supra.

If you a strapped for cash buy the Supra and perform the following upgrades: Full weight reduction, improve tires to Pro, Pro Springs and Dampeners and install a single Turbo.  This worked wonders, I was killing the competition for a while on hard. Earned enough money to invest in a BMW E46 M3 and performed similar upgrades. And that took me through the first few hours of very enjoyable play.

Customization Options for Cars: As in FM2, FM3 offers many ways to customize your vehicle.

For engine, one can choose street, pro, and race for intake, exhaust, ignition, camshafts, values, heads, forced induction (turbo/supercharger), engine/oil cooling, inter-coolers and flywheels.

For handling, one can modify tires/rims (including size and profile), weight, install roll cage, springs/shocks, front/rear anti-roll bars, and limited slip/locking differentials.

For drive train, one can modify all from gear boxes to crank shafts. Using complete drive train replacements it is possible to make rear-wheel drive cars all-wheel drive on certain models.

Finally, another shinning light in the Forza Motorsport series is the complete engine and now separate drive train replacement options. If you have a S14, who would not want to drop an R34 Skyline enginge in it to replace the pos stock power plant? Or why not make that 700+  horsepower Supra all wheel drive so it can dominate all. You get my point, I think. Needless to say the customizations options for performance will keep you in the upgrade and tuning zone for a while.

Tuning:

On tuning, one can adjust everyone one could in FM2. This includes things like camber angle, toe, ride height, gear ratio, bump stiffness, tire pressure, braking pressure, etc. The maximize performance I found myself messing over and over again with the tuning options. Also handy once your done is the “benchmark” option that tells you 0-60 times, top speed, and the very important lateral G’s you car is capable of.

Body Customizations include kits and rims/wheels from a variety of common and popular manufactures. Each car has something different minus the rims. In Forza fashion, one can always purchase the Forza adjustable body kits.

Once you have decided upon the look and style, it is time to paint. The game offers the ability to paint the hood, rims (if not chrome), mirrors and body all different colors. The game gives you 3 paint styles, metallic, special (color-changing effects) and standard gloss. In addition, you can stick on vinyl graphics from a host of manufactures, letters, and graphic styles. Some graphic styles include racing, tribal, stripes, flames, nature and tears. I found myself loving the tribal themes. Once chosen, the game allows you to adjust the color, size, transparency, skew and move it to where you like.

Graphics:

The graphics are some of the best I have seen on the Xbox 360. The 60-frames-per-second graphics engine features lush detail on every car, interior and out, insanely realistic skies and surrounding terrain and life-like simulated damage. I can’t say enough about how the engine looks and just how smooth it is. I’m viewing it on a 37 (60hz) 1080p L.G LCD with HDMI out and it looks fantastic. Really surprised me how smooth it runs.

The interview views on the cars our picture perfect to exactly how the manufacture’s designed them. Even the gauges work just like they are supposed to. So when your turbo boost kicks in you’re going to see that gauge needle spike. The outside detail is even better, especially the way the game renders light. Speaking on light, don’t be surprised to be blinded by the sun coming around a concern from time to time.

The graphics featured on many of the tracks that are based off of actual tracks is practically photo realistic. I mean it really can’t get much better considering the Xbox 360’s capabilities. In general, I would say FM3 maxes out the 360’s capabilities in every way. But, as I mentioned, the game runs smooth as a warm knife through butter.

Game Play:

Forza 3’s game play is just incredible. I have played just about every racing simulation game that has ever called itself a racing simulation game and FM3 tops them all. The cars react very life-like. In fact, the game features so many details that no lap will ever feel the same. In addition, no car handles exactly the same so literally each car features unique handling and upgradeable tuning shifts that need to be made for maximum performance.

The difficulty options can suit anyone playing. I let my girlfriend jump on the steering wheel and she was able to race around the track and get third place. She had all the assists on including auto braking, traction control, stability control, anti-lock brakes, easy opponent difficulty and the speed-up-slow-down line indicator. For me, I play with no assists except anti-lock brakes and opponent difficult depends on my vehicles upgrades and tuning. One note on Auto-braking- makes the game extremely easy to pick up for beginners as the car literally slows itself down for each turn and to regain control in none-sticky tire situations.

Online Play:

This is another area where Forza 3 Motorsport is polished. First, there is a lobby where you choose which mode you would like to race in including the drift, drag, oval, circuit, etc. Next you connect into a lobby room and then select car, assists, modify game options like manual/automatic and speak with others in the room. The game room allows players to vote to skip tracks as well as kick players. Generally the wait time between games is a 1 min. 45 seconds, but it can range as I experienced.

I enjoy drift mode so for this review I entered a full room. After speaking with the players for a minute I selected my garages Toyota Supra or Nissan S13 (picture below) with no assists except anti-lock brakes with manual (no clutch). You are allowed to choose any car in the game from the 400 car list. Good luck finding a stock game car that will win you first place.

The load times for the map are about the same as single player and during this time you can chat with players in the room or just listen to the retarded jokes from immature players. The game loads and your placement in the line is random. Sometimes I started first, sometimes last, sometimes middle of the pack. The countdown begins and off we go.

The first turn in drift is frustrating because between 5 and 8 cars sliding close together generally spells disaster. If one car crashes the whole lot does which was generally the case. But this is also where Forza shines. If a car crashes or in some way can interfere with your game play the game makes them a ghost until they recover. Although it is NOT perfect as a spin out without a crash does not ghost the car. This is where defensive driving and quick reactions come in handy. In addition, this does not mean that it will ghost a car if you are pulling off a big drift and they happen to hit you making you lose your points. Trust me it happens often and is frustrating. But that is part of the game and is even across the board.

After playing for a few hours I found myself completely addicted. Although I never placed first in a single drift event I was having a blast learning how and laughing with the other players. There was zero lag which absolutely blew my mind and it ran smooth the entire time. I experienced very few glitches and not one freeze. I could not be more impressed with the drift online experience considering there has not been one update to date.

Also worth mentioned is the Xbox Live Forza Motorsport 3 auction area. This is where you can auction cars you own or have modified. It also allows you to sell custom artwork you have created as well as buy artworks from others. It works well but I did not see any real deals when I looked. At one point someone was trying to see a Buygatti Veyron for 5,000,000 credits? That is a few million more than one can buy it in game…

The Cars:

The game does feature 400 cars right out of the box. This is sometime like 100 more than Forza 2 features upon release. These cars are divided amongst the two disks. To view which ones are on each disk click here.

Click here to view all 400 cars: http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/forzamotorsport3/carlist.aspx

Cost:

The original game costs 60 dollars. If you did happen to pre-order the game, look below for the exclusive preorder cars per location. I  received the Audi 5.2 Community Edition.

Exclusive Preorder Cars:

2009	BMW Motorsport	Walmart M5 E60
2009	BMW Motorsport	GameStop M5 E60
2009	BMW Motorsport	GAME M3 E92
2009	BMW Motorsport	MicroMania M5 E60
2008	Mitsubishi	GameStation Lancer Evolution X GSR
2010	Audi	R8 5.2 Community Edition

I hope you enjoyed my write-up. If you would like to share with me tuning setup’s or images of your cars I will be happy to share them on my site. As I progress in the game I will update some of my tuning set-ups to help my fellow gamers.

Best regards gamers,

Adam “gaminsincebirth” Faragalli

This review is by a “gamer” and not a professional video game reviewer or writer. The article was written solely because I wanted to share my experience with one of the greatest racing games to date, Forza Motorsport 3. If you liked this article, please let me know in the comments. You can find me on Xbox live under the name gaminsincebirth.

The Playstation blog recently reported that Netflix is coming to the PlayStation 3 next month. Considering NetFlix has been on the Xbox 360 for the past yea and it works really well from streaming movies to watching TV shows, not huge news.  But in any case now the 9 million plus Sony PlayStation 3 enthusiasts have something else to get excited about. If only the Xbox 360 played Blueray movies it would be by far the best system in my opinion. You just can’t beat games like Gears of War, Halo, and now Forza Motorsport 3. Though the PS3 does have some solid titles.

In any case if If you want to get a head start on your PS3 Netflix experience, you can sign up today at http://www.netflix.com/ps3.

Cheers gamers,

Adam Faragalli

First and foremost, I have a soft spot for good old video games, especially racing Simulation games. Over the past 15 years I have played every worthy racing game from start to finish. However, if you own an Xbox 360 like me, your racing titles unfortunately do not feature the awesome Sony only Grand Tourismo line. However, racing fans rejoiced when Forza Motorsport 2 was released for the Xbox 360.

Forza 2 Motorsport featured out of the box 300 cars, over 25 tracks and customization galore. One could change and customize the cars from paint job to any and all engine, drive train, handling and tire replacements. But, in the customization department, Need For Speed Underground Most Wanted for me stood above in the “body” category. In any case, Forza Motorsport 2 was in my opinion a fantastic racing simulation game. Although very hard to learn with the Xbox 360 steering wheel, with the controller one could have some fun and actually win a few races.

Now, after years and years Forza Motorsport 3 is almost here! The Forza Motorsport 3 Demo is available right now on Xbox Live. It is a 1.25+ gig demo featuring 5 cars from Porsche, Mitsubishi (Evo), Ferrari, Audi (R8) and even a Mini Cooper. The demo track is a fictional track in Spain with photo realistic graphics. The new 60 frames-per-second graphic engine just trips with detail and I had absolutely no lag or motion blur on my LG 1080p TV.

First Thoughts on Forza Motorsport 3

The new features most obvious of all is the “in-cockpit” view featured on ALL 400 cars out of the box. The detail is spot on 100% percent accurate with the gauges moving just how the manufacture designed them. Even the turbo and oil gauges react realistically! Next, the graphics and lightning is much improved. On a hi-def 1080 TV the detail is so clear and crisp, just beautiful.

Now, the most important part of any realistic racing game is the racing simulation. I felt the racing simulation is where Forza Motorsport 3 excelled. The designers stated that the tire simulation has be recoded to take into consideration sideway size, rubber compounds, tread design and even weight distribution and speed heading into corners. I have to say, driving the Porsche over 100 into the large open left turn in the demo and instigating a massive drift and holding it was just awesome. Even overtook a few competitors doing it! Thus, I was blow away by the control and feel of the cars. I have yet to try it out with my steering wheel but will this weekend and update the blog.

Another very interesting new feature is the “rewind” ability. Basically, with the touch of the select button on the Xbox 360 controller one can rewind back if they made a mistake heading into or out of a turn, for example. The car actually goes back in time following the exact line you just were on, very cool!

Now here is what we know the official Forza Motorsport 3 game will feature. New modes, including drift and drag racing. Customization galore, including the ability to modify any and all parts of the body and engine. Literally 400 cars out of the box with many more planned for download on Xbox Live. Xbox Live online community with racing and the ability to track and sell cars to any members. Official Leaderboards tracked and ranked on Xbox Live. More tracks (100 to be exact) than Forza 2, from the usual crowd of real-world tracks to fictional tracks from the designers. Improved AI in single player with varying degrees of aggressiveness and easiness depending on difficulty selected. Players on Xbox Live will have the ability to create there own races and own rules, although details are still a bit sketchy.

So now that you are excited, here are the Forza Motorsport 3 official release dates that I have heard.

Forza 3 Motorsport Official Release Dates:

United States: October 27th, 2009

Europe: October 23rd, 2009

Australia: October 23rd, 2009

Japan: October 22nd, 2009

I’m very excited and can’t wait to spend many enjoyable hours mastering this game. Until then!

Best,

Adam “gaminsincebirth” Faragalli

Introduction: GH Metallica builds on the same proven Guitar Hero formula. The game features many of the most popular Metallica songs including “Battery”, “One”, “Blood and Thunder,” “Enter Sandman”, “Master of Puppets”, “Fuel”, and “The Memory Remains”. In addition, songs from System of a Down (“Toxicity”), Alice in Chains (“No Excuses”), Lynyrd Skynyrd (“Tuesday’s Gone”), Slayer (“War Ensemble”) and a few select others. The band members of Metallica selected many of these additional songs because of personal preference.

Click here to see the full set song list for Guitar Hero Metallica, from Wikipedia.

The goal still remains the same, get as many points as you can through “star power” and note streaks. Always aim for the 5 star maximum score. Last night, I scored a 97% on expert guitar and only managed to receive a four star. Thus, achieving a five star is not without some added challenge.

“Guitar Hero: Metallica“ is based on the band approach presented in Guitar Hero World Tour. This means this game also features parts for lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. “Lead
developer Alan Flores has stated that the difficulty of the game is much harder than previous games and is designed to challenge the hard-core player,” according to a source from WikiPedia.

Online game play is available for both the Xbox 360 versions and PS3. I have a chance to get on Xbox live last night and Guitar Hero Metallica online play works very well. I even managed to win a few rounds. Although, I discovered many individuals were playing on easy or medium and achieving a higher score through note steaks. I say, go expert or go home!

An interesting development about the Double Kick Pedal from WikiPedia: “During the game’s development, the team encountered problems trying to
create the drum tracks. Flores noted they normally try to map a note for every drum beat but could not easily replicate it for the double bass often used in Metallica’s songs. As a result, they decided to create a splitter for the bass drum pedal and offer a second pedal with the game to allow the double bass kicks to be retained.”

Fun Factor: 8.5 out of 10 I found myself really enjoying Guitar Hero Metallica. The Metallica song list is rather extensive and the additional songs are some of my personal favorites. If you are a fan of Guitar Hero then this addition will provide you with hours of enjoyment. Although, you will have to enjoy Metallica’s music. I will say that this game rates higher (for me) in fun than Guitar Hero Aerosmith.

Graphics: I play on an Xbox 360 with an HDMI cord going to a 40 inch LG 1080p TV. The graphics look great and unlike Guitar Hero Aerosmith, the background band graphics actually resemble the real band. I was really impressed with the facial detail and general movement of each band member. You can tell that Neversoft spent time focusing on the details.

Tweet this from WikiPedia, “Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo performed six songs and band and audience chatter for motion capture for their in-game avatars; the detailed motion capture included the band’s lip syncing to the lyrics and the motion of Trujillo’s hair braids.”

Final Thoughts: I recommend this game to all fans of the GH series and Metallica. The game does a solid job of capturing the essence of Metallica and really provides a nice challenge. I have played every Guitar Hero game from beginning to end, and this ranks as my second favorite addition behind GH 2. So, go rent it and give it a shot.

More Information at Neversoft’s Main Web Page, click here.

You can find me on Xbox live: gaminsincebirth

Best,

Adam “gaminsincebirth” Faragalli