If have not put in your pre-order you still have time to get in on the rewards. Check out all the details here.

FM3 ODST Beemer courtesy NeoGafs Ayo Jube

Have you pre-ordered your copy of Forza Motorsport 3? If so…you’re awesome and we appreciate your support! If not then you have some work to do if you want to participate in our latest Forza 3 free car giveaway. We’re doings things a little differently this time around to reward everyone who’s picked up a pre-order for Forza 3. How so you ask? Here’s the low down.

To celebrate the launch of Forza 3 and to thank our dedicated fans we’ve decided to host yet another free car giveaway, only this time we’re sending out a pack of slick designs courtesy of our community MVP’s. Basically we want you to e-mail us proof that you have indeed placed a pre-order on Forza Motorsport 3. Below is a step by step on how to do it.

Second is this Crackdown 2 inspired Camaro created by community MVP m0dus.

Official Contest Rules and Submission Instructions

*
You must be an Xbox LIVE gold member to participate.
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Download the Forza Motorsport 3 demo and finish one race (vs. the AI) with the gamertag you want to register by 12:00am PST on Monday October 26th 2009.
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Pre-order Forza Motorsport 3 before Monday October 26th 2009 and be sure to have a receipt which shows the date of your pre-order.
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Write your gamertag legibly in print letters onto the receipt and take a clear photo of said receipt with all printed information visible.
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Email the photo to forzafb@microsoft.com with the subject header “Forza Motorsport 3 Pre-order Car Giveaway”. Include the photo as an attachment to the email, and also include your gamertag in the body of the email. Your e-mail must be received no later than 12:00am PST on Monday October 26th 2009.
*
Do not change your gamertag before you have received your in-game cars from within the game.
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Purchase Forza Motorsport 3.
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You will receive the gift cars on or around 11/4/09 once you have booted up Forza Motorsport 3 while logged into Xbox LIVE. Press the Left trigger to access your inbox and download the cars!

Finally you will be gifted this sleek FM3 style Audi R8 V10 Courtesy of Turn 10's Fred Howell!

There you have it! Get out your digital cameras and e-mail a high quality picture of your pre-order receipt to Forzafb@microsoft.com by following the steps noted above.

Well guys, I got the new fanatec 911 turbo s test wheel in the mail a few days ago, so I figured I would make a review devoted to this one wheel instead of all of the fanatec wheels together. Like all of you I was very excited to get my hands on this wheel, and was thrilled when I saw the UPS man at my door today.

PACKAGING:
The wheel was very well packaged inside of a box, which was inside box, which was inside another box. I really don’t see how anything could possibly happen during the shipping process of the wheel. The first thing I noticed about the wheel while getting it out of the box, was how much thicker and has a slightly larger diameter then it is compared to the g25. I really does feel like an actual cars steering wheel, and the leather is very tight and authentic feeling. All in all it is a great looking wheel.

fanatec porsche 911 turbo s racing wheel

Order your Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel US

fanatec porsche 911 turbo s racing wheel

Order your Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel US

fanatec porsche 911 turbo s racing wheel

Order your Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel US

MOUNTING TO A PLAYSEAT EVO:
I would be mounting my wheel to a playseat so I had ordered the fanatec wheelstand shifter adapter. It worked like a charm. If you have a playseat and G25 adapter already, I would go ahead and order the Wheelstand shifter adapter. You only have to drill 2 holes in the playseat G25 adapter to get it to work. It’s actually pretty solid, and very easy to switch back and forth between the 6 speed and sequential shifters. The wheel required 4 holes to be drilled to the playseats mounting bracket to fit. A drilling template comes with the wheel so it’s no big deal to get it attached.

PEDALS:
I have mine setup currently with my G25 pedals because I haven’t really wanted to take the time yet to mount the fanatec pedals. Tomorrow might be the day that I get around to that, but today was spent just trying out the wheel. It worked flawlessly with the 360 and ps3(via the dongle).

TURBO S VS G25:
The feel of the wheel is much different then the xbox wireless wheel. You really can’t even compare the two. It would be like comparing a porsche to a pinto. Once trying the turbo s wheel there is no way you could ever go back to the xbox 360 wireless wheel. A better comparison would be with the G25, but then there are still major differences in the wheels. The turbos s wheel is much, much more quite, and it amazes me how smooth it operates. The belt drive really makes a bid difference. The FF is much much stronger, but yet more subtle at the same time. In GT5p with the FF at 10 I couldn’t even control the car because of the wheels strength with the Fanatec wheel. I had to turn the in game FF down to 8, and the wheels FF down to 33 to get the feel that the G25 has at 10 FF. The independent adjustments of the FF and vibration are a very nice feature, which I didn’t realize was so important until I got to use it with the fanatec wheel. It makes it so much easier to get the feel of the FF and rumble just how you want it. So far I’m liking it over the G25. The smoothness, and strength of the FF is noticeable immediately, and just the overall feel of having an actual steering wheel in your hand is much better.

VIBRATION MOTOR:
The vibration motors are also a nice addition when comparing it with the G25. The wheel doesn’t have the jerking motion like the logitech wheel when it’s trying to simulate vibration. Instead it actually vibrates, which lets the wheel use the FF and vibration functions at the same time. Both the FF, and vibrations are adjustable via the wheel independent of the game. If you don’t like how much the wheel is shaking, you can pause the game and turn down that feature while still playing, by using a button beside the lcd screen and your d pad a the bottom of the wheel. It’s very easy to make the adjustments and something that would be hard to live without once you have used it. It’s might even be my favorite feature of the wheel.

BUTTONS:
The buttons are also very nicely placed, and are well lit with whichever systems buttons you are using. All of the buttons are very easy to see, and fairly responsive. Navigating the XMB, the 360’s dashboard or in game menus are very easy and works well. You can easily reach the buttons when needing to use an e brake, or for making the on the fly adjustments in GT5p. All of the buttons work how they should and has been placed well. The switching of the buttons when you go from 360 to ps3 mode is another small feature that I loved. There’s just something about seeing the lights switch from O,Y ,A, and B, to the ps3’s square, O, X, and triangle. It’s really weird seeing the 360 and PS3 play nicely with each other on one wheel.

fanatec porsche 911 turbo s racing wheel

Order your Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel US
SHIFTER:
The fanatec shifter is something I have really wanted to try. From videos I’d seen it looked very stiff and hard to use. That is not the case. It does have more resistance then the G25 shifter but it’s not overly stiff. It holds itself a little bit as you try and push it through the gears, but once you get it out of the gear it slides easily into the next one. It seems like they found a good line between stiffness and ease of use. It’s pretty believable as being a real shifter once you start racing. In my opinion it’s much better then the G25’s, not perfect but a definite improvement. The shifter does get my largest complaint with the unit. I’ve noticed it on videos and always wondered if the clicking noise was really that loud. Everytime you shift to another gear there is a fairly loud clicking noise when you go in and out of gear. I have almost gotten use to it now, but it was very distracting when I first started using it. If you were trying to play in a room with your wife sleeping it’s not going to work. She will put an end to it fast.

The fist picture is of everything that comes with the shifter mounting bracket that Fanatec sells, but you wont need the plate at the bottom of the picture for mounting to the playseat with the G25 adapter.

fanatec porsche 911 turbo s racing wheel

Order your Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel US

fanatec porsche 911 turbo s racing wheel

Order your Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel US

PADDLE SHIFTERS:
The paddle shifters are one of the weaker points of the wheel. The work very well, but are a bit small. Unless I’m mistaken though I think that there are larger ones coming with the actual production wheel. The ones on my version are just a bit short. I do have small hands, so it might not be a problem for most people, but for me I would like them to be a bit larger. The amount of travel while using them is very short, I would also like to feel them move a little more, sort of like the G25’s, but they are very usable and only one of the few things I could see being improved with the wheel.

fanatec porsche 911 turbo s racing wheel

Order your Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel US

MOUNTING BRACKET ON THE WHEEL:
The mounting mechanism that comes attached to the wheel isn’t that bad. Ideally you want to hard mount the wheel to your setup, but the brackets that come on the wheel work. It does lean forward when heavy FF is applied, but if you don’t want to deal with drilling holes and using bolts, then the wheels mounting brackets could get you by. They are somewhere between the xbox 360 wheel and G25’s in terms of quality. Closer to the G25’s but not that secure. I imagine though that anyone spending this kind of money on a wheel will have theirs hard mounted anyway, so it really shouldn’t matter.

I am very happy with the product that Fanatec has put out. It is a high quality wheel that feels very strong and durable. It’s not to often that anything exceeds my expectations, but fanatec has with this wheel. So far I couldn’t be happier with it. I doubt my G25 will be with me much longer. I already have a friend that’s offering to buy my G25, and after getting some time with the turbo s wheel there’s really no reason to keep it any longer. I also noticed that they are now making the wheels so you don’t need the ps3 dongle. I thought that was a great idea, but after using it I really like it and will probably use it instead of the usb cord connection. It’s just one less wire to worry about when trying to clean up your setup.

I’m going to go ahead and post this. I’ll add more later as I get more time with the wheel, and do a better G25 and Turbo s wheel comparison.

I know my pictures are huge but it’s the only way I knew how to post them without doing them as attachments, and the attachments just weren’t working out. If anyone can tell me how to make them smaller let me know and I will. People with slower internet connections are going to hate me if they stay like this.

I’ll talk about the pedals when I get some time with them. I need to drill a few holes to mount them and just haven’t wanted to take the time for that yet.

All in all I would say that this wheel is a must buy for multi console sim racers. I really can’t see how anyone couldn’t be happy with it, The only things I could find at all to complain about were the size of the paddle shifters(but that may be being fixed for the actual wheels that will be shipped) and the clicking sound of the shifter. Other then that I think they did a great job balancing looks with function.

Only 2000 units of this edition of this high-end wheel for Xbox360 will be produced,order your Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel US through Fanatec webshop now before they are gone.

These steering wheels will be available in limited quantities (just like the cars themselves, although the steering wheels definitely number less that the vehicles on the market), with the 911 Turbo S Edition being limited to just 3,000, while the Clubsport Edition is numerically less at 2,000, with the Pure Edition being the most common at 5,000. All these steering wheels have been licensed by Porsche Lizenz- und Handelsgesellschaft mbH and will come with special pricing when you place a pre-order today – Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel , Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel – Clubsport edition and Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel – Pure edition will retail for $250, $400 and $150, respectively.

Porsche 911 Turbo S Racing Wheels will all feature a 900° steering angle and boast a 6+1 shifter. In addition, they can also be used on platforms other than the Xbox 360 including the PlayStation 3 and PC. You can use it in tandem with whatever existing Microsoft or Logitech pedals you own, but for a greater degree of realism, there is the Clubsport Edition, which features high-end pedals that are fully made of aluminum and feature a load cell pressure sensor for the brake. Time to burn some asphalt!

Only 2000 units of this edition of this high-end wheel for Xbox360 will be produced,order your Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel US through Fanatec webshop now before they are gone.

Dirt 2

DiRT 2 barrows many ideas from another one of their racing game, GRID, and enhances them with the all important polish and production value. To add variety, this isn’t just a rally based game any more. Now there are land rushes and other off-road racing styles to conquer. To ease you into the game and the new modes you encounter, you can adjust the difficulty with the only penalty being you don’t make as much money to purchase new in-game cars. Since most of the racing happens off the pavement, it will take some skill and finesse to properly compete in competitions. Once you become comfortable with strategic breaking you’ll start knocking out races one-by-one. The real test of skill is seeing if you can claim first place in all the races. The single-player is one that will keep you busy but that is just the beginning with a more aggressive approach to the smoothed out online system compared to the last DiRT effort.

DiRT 2, in total, is an amazing piece of software. The racing mechanics find the nice medium between sim and arcade as you whip around corners at insane speeds. The level of spit and polish that went into creating this game top to bottom is really incredible and pushes the already lofty expectations for the franchise further for any future iterations.

What’s Not
As far as criticism goes, DiRT 2 has it easy. The core game is so well tuned that the only faults are design choices, no technical problems to speak of.

DiRT 2 trips over its own style in a few spots. The main menu is something that is eye pleasing. You are in a “first person” mode where you select all your options, “walking” to different parts of your campsite. There is a lot of charm and personality associated with it but from a usability standpoint, it’s more flashy than functional. A menu tree might not be exciting but it is standard for a boring reason, to get to the options you want quickly and efficiently. The other area is the voice work during the racing. The few choice sound bytes from the computer opponents are nice the first time, okay the second and annoying by the third. More spoken lines or variety would have smoothed out the audio.

There is a scatter-shot approach on the modes. There isn’t a primary focus on the rally racing, which you would assume for a game with it on the box art. You race dune buggies and trucks in addition to the rally cars. With so the different classes to race in, you’ll feel shortchanged in the rally racing department even though the game is packed full of polished gameplay and variety. The variety helps more than it hurts, however, it just would have been nice to see more of what the series is renowned for.

Final Word
Truth be told, DiRT 2 is a lot like GRID. And that is perfectly acceptable. The off-road action and polished gameplay are enough to make this a real winner for racing fans. DiRT 2 walks the fine line between simulation and arcade racing with a great acrobatic routine that keeps each style in a harmonious balance that is fueled by adrenaline and high-octane gasoline. With the most polish and highest production values yet, DiRT 2 should be taken out for a test drive by everyone.

Ferrari FXX

A fresh car everyday till Forza 3 launch? Yes please! Check out the first Car of the Day “COTD” article here.

And so begins our final march towards Forza Motorsport 3’s official launch. With under a month left to go we’ve decided to celebrate in style with our brand new “car of the day” articles. Every day from now until launch, we will be uploading a short article on some of the coolest cars in Forza 3. The first article in this series it already up, so check out some sweet shots of the 2008 Koenigsegg CCGT here while you read about its history.

The first of many super short gameplay videos has been uploaded to Turn 10’s recently revived youtube page (http://www.youtube.com/Turn10Studios). I’ll be using youtube to host these community oriented gameplay videos that showcase random hotness in Forza 3.

Ferrari FXX gameplay video

Check out the Ferrari FXX’s rear view display screen in action on the Turn 10 youtube page here!

Like the interior of the Ferrari FXX for instance, complete with a TV screen as rear view mirror. Yeah it’s pretty sexy, so make sure to check out the footage on youtube here and subscibe to stay up to date on the latest videos. I’m cooking up a bunch of different videos that will showcase various features of the game, laps around some of our new tracks and more. Of course I’ll be posting a new blog entry to accompany each one, so check back often!

We caught up with Turn 10 lead producer Brian Lockhart to talk about what’s new for Forza this year. One such feature is auto-braking, which Lockhart explains thusly:

“If you have auto-braking turned on, it’ll control the speed of the car into the turn; all you have to do is steer. So for someone who’s kind of getting their fee wet, and wants to see how you get around a track, that’s an assist you can turn on, and really ease your transition into a sim racing game.”

Watch the full interview below to find out more about what racing fans can expect from Forza Motorsport 3:
Forza Motorsport 3 TGS 09 Interview

Latest prototype of the Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel for Xbox360, PC,PS3

Its demo day folks! First things first…if you haven’t already downloaded (and rated) the Forza 3 demo on the Xbox LIVE marketplace then you already know what you need to do. Load up the box and get to it! Here’s a quick rundown of the demo’s contents:

Playable Track: Camino Viejo (Full Circuit)

Playable Cars:

- 2009 MINI John Cooper Works
- 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR
- 2009 Ferrari California
- 2010 Audi R8 V10
- 2007 Porsche #80 Flying Lizard 911 GT3-RSR

Racing Modes: Quick Race and Hotlap mode.

Note: To access the free run style Hotlap mode where you can race an unlimited number of laps without opponents, access the in-game Leaderboard by hitting “Y” at the track select screen. From here you can hit “A” at the top of the screen to begin a free run with the selected car!

Check out the all-new Forza Motorsport 3 Premium Theme, available over Xbox LIVE now!

As you can see the demo features a robust leaderboard that tracks your best lap times and drift scores for each of the vehicles above. Compare your best times/scores with the rest of the world and your friends. The competition has already started heating up, and everyone here at Turn 10 has been following the action to see how we stack up against our community. Go Forza!

Amidst the hype surrounding the demo, we can’t forget about the major showing for Forza 3 at TGS this week. Along with “officially” revealing that the legendary Fujimi Kaido has made its return to the franchise, we’ve also released a brand new trailer showcasing some tandem drifting from Team Blackjack. You must watch now!
Our group program manager Korey K. sent back some Day 1 TGS Impressions and here’s what he had to say:

“Compared to E3: TGS is smaller, but WAY noisier. People in the booths have bull-horns that they use to shout as you walk by. The show is busy, and the Forza 3 line has been busy all day long. They’ve actually added extra chains to grow the line for the motion pod. Overall Forza is being very well received, and the weekend promises to be insane when the public is allowed in.”

Check out our man Korey K. representing to the fullest at TGS!

Sounds like they’re having a great time so far and we’ll be sure to post more impressions from Korey, Che and Jun as they roll in.

All in all this has been a very exciting time for Turn 10 Studios on so many levels. All of our hard work has really cumulated nicely in the past few weeks, and we couldn’t be more excited about this project. For now sit back and enjoy the Forza Motorsport 3 Demo as we continue to reveal more details right here on Forzamotorsport.net!

T10’s Jun Taniguchi at TGS!

I’m off to try my hand at snatching the number one drift spot on Camino Viejo!

Peace

Landin

More Forza Motorsport 3 Hotness has arrived! Today Turn 10 announced plans to make the all-new Ferrari 458 Italia available for download this Holiday season. It’s been an exciting process working directly with Ferrari to start the long process required to bring this car to life in Forza 3; a process still underway in fact. What you see in the videos and screenshots is a result of clever planning to make sure we had the required assets in place to load-up the 458 to create this in-game trailer.

Yep it’s 100% in-game folks, so the hotness you see is the hotness you’ll get this October. If you haven’t already checked out Turn 10’s hommage to the new Ferrari 458 Italia stop by our media gallery here and have a look!

Che rests safely in Japan and is no doubt preparing for an awesome showing at TGS. We’ve got another “multimedia presentation” if you will…dropping very soon, so stay tuned for that. And of course…the Forza 3 demo that will be available for download in just two days! Yes exciting times for racing fans across the world indeed.

I’m off for now, but again the blog is back in full effect so check back often. I’ll be using this space to not only give studio updates, but also to publish more community oriented Forza 3 gameplay videos. For instance today I just put together a super quick drifting demo that shows off our always on drift scoring system. Look for this video and more of its kind in the coming weeks.

Peace!

Landin

From Maranello with Love – Check out Day 2 Coverage of our Ferrari Collection Reveal here.

Yeah things are really heating up as we march towards October. Game Director Dan Greenawalt grabbed a plane to Europe early last week while Turn 10’s Content Director John Wendl headed to Asia. Both of them involved in a pretty serious touring schedule dedicated to spreading the Forza word far and wide. Back home we received the amazing news that Forza 3 has officially “gone gold” and is headed for production. It’s only a short while before you can experience firsthand what makes us so passionate about what we do here at Turn 10.

In the mean time you can all look forward to the Forza Motorsport 3 demo that will be available to the world on September 24th! Yep only one week left before you can all treat your eyes and ears with a dash of Forza awesome courtesy of Camino Viejo and some burly rides. With a global leaderboard that tracks your best lap it’s going to be a fight for the top slots.

A Panoramic view of Camino Viejo, the track featured in the Forza Motorsport 3 Demo. Available Sept. 24th!

The release of our demo also coincides with the Tokyo Game Show (TGS), and while I won’t be making my pilgrimage to the land of the rising sun, Che has promised to document his trip well. He’ll be sending us blog updates and photos to publish all next week, so check back for that. Of course for those of you in the area Forza 3 will be playable on the show floor, accompanied by our extravagant Hydraulic triple screen. If you missed E3 and happen to be in Japan make sure to give it a shot. There’s no better way to experience Forza Motorsport 3!

And with that I’m off. You can expect to see much more action on our blogs in the coming months so check back often. As always you can follow us on Twitter (@turn10studios) for a quick fix!

Peace

Landin