Well? Loved FM1 on the original XBox but FM2 was a disappointment. FM3 is getting some 9+ in the independent review websites. Tried the demo today and thought it looked pretty good.

Anyone tried it? What do you think?

I've got it seems good. I hav'nt played any previous editions though.

Had it for a week now and its the best incarnation yet.
The cars handle so much better 'out of the box' than they did in 1 or 2.

I managed to get the Ltd Ed version for £39 delivered from blockbuster.

Sounds good – I'm not sure about the endless tweaking with cars though – heard there's a one-button autotune feature. Also hearing bad things about online multiplayer? What gives on those?

Yep, I've got it.

First off, when it's going it looks fantastic, the external car graphics are amazing. Tracks look brilliant too. Handling is superb. On the hardest settings it's hard, I've actually come one step back and I've turned the gearing from 'gears with clutch' to just manual gears because I was finding that too hard.

Bad points then. It's a bit buggy to say the least. The sound will sometimes just not change for about ten seconds so no matter what the car is doing, all you'll hear is this monotone hum. Sometimes the track will disappear for a couple of seconds too. Some of the menu items don't appear until you've selected them. It's MASSIVE, two disks, one of which you have to preload onto the hard drive and even then, loading times are long. When the car hits something, the whole bonnet instantly turns into this completely broken peice of metal, quite off putting. Car interior graphics are very poor.

And I don;t like the way you're forced down a rigid progression path unlike Forza 2 where you could pick and choose which race you did next and could also pick which upgrades you wanted to apply. You can select which upgrades you want with forza 3, but it's not as obvious or as simple, just a small point.

That said, it's an excellent driving game and I'd still say get it, I assume they'll send out updates for the bugs shortly.

yes, there is a one button auto tune function. You'll like that bit, I don't.

The big Q = IS IT BETTER THAN SHI(f)T ???

it's the bomb. as i believe young people say. if anyone wants to add me my gamertag is the same as my user id here.

not played on-line, need to get my connection sorted and claim my free cars n tracks.

The auto tune is good but it take some of the fun out of it for me .
I'm not a tweaker but I like to select my mods.

I'm a big fan of the Forza series but i really do thing this is the best yet.

No bugs when playing mine (yet), could your Xbox be playing up?
what sections of the game are giving you grief?.

I'm finding OF: Dragon Rising nigh on impossible and fancy a good racing game. Looks like it'll be on the list then.

just manual gears

Respect!

The big Q = IS IT BETTER THAN SHI(f)T ???

Is it?

I've got it too, pretty good as far as racing games go. If anyone wants to add me, gamertag is zosim

Yep, have it too. Best racing game i've played. Not a massive difference to the last one, more of an upgrade from froza 2 but you'd expect that.
AI is pretty good and car handling is ace. Needs to be played on full sim mode to really appreciate it. Deffinately worth getting.

I'm finding OF: Dragon Rising nigh on impossible

Just curious, why ? – I am playing this game and so far the only thing annoying is that the autosave doesn't save during completion of tasks on long missions – otherwise found it quite good (its filling my time in anyway).. COD out soon so hope to complete by then.

Well, not impossible, I'm just dying waaaayyy too much. I need one good day at it and tbh, need to go back and do the tutorial section again.

I am finding that I get involved in a mission – just getting the upper hand and the mission suddenly ends saying I have failed ? bloody annoying as it is a difficult game and the current mission I am on is 2 kliks to the action – WHATS THAT ALL ABOUT ? – any way good game but I would like to kick the programmers in the nuts for the irritation caused.

The menu red icons don't load till I've moved to the next one down and then moved back up again.
As I say sometimes the sound just locks, normally just for a few seconds but sometimes until I restart the box.
The track only disappears once in a while but it means a reboot if it does.

These are all only small problems but they're annoying. I have absolutely no problems with any other games I play, all heavy games like red faction, moto GP and skate 2.