Forza 3 - Insidesimracing's highest ranked game ever

[Mr.BMW]

I can't say I've had any major gripes with my MS wheel - the only problems with it are the D-PAD (which are garbage on regular controllers as well) and sometimes when turning it will trigger face buttons (But this could be my fault do to my sitting position and pulling the wheel down when I turn)

The MS wheel is only $80 in Futureshop (Bestbuy) so alot of people I know are picking it up as it's the same price as a wireless controller basically.

This game really is the real deal if you have any type of passion or enthusiasm for Autos and Motorsport

[Mr.BMW]

started designing and painting my UKGTx BMW series in Forza

[purdie]

Well I'm borrowing a mates XBox and he has the compatible wheel.... may rent the game from Blockbuster, borrow his adapter to put the wheel on my Playseat and have a session this weekend  

I just want the Rothmans Porsche 956!  


....mind you just started playing Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3 and its pretty time consuming too, so I'll probably be single in a fortnight!

[Joss]

MGS4 is awesome on the first playthrough....if you're into MGS games. 
I had a go on forza 3 with the Xbox wheel. It's OK and definately more fun in the slower cars (like production Lambo's, Beemers etc). The feel in the racing cars is a bit odd, really twitchy and I found it ridiculously easy to spin the rears up even with half throttle and you can hold crazy powerslides by just going full opposite lock.

It's a good game and I'll def play it with mates, but sim games are still in a different world for me 

[Mr.BMW]

you need to spend some time in the options to fix the sensitivity on the MS wheel. The throttle and brakes are way way to sensitive - if you go into the real time telemetry and lightly touch the brake pedal, even with jsut your toe, the brake pressure jumps right up to 60+% (which almost always causes locking).

I built an R3 M Coupe, and it has the problem of wheel spin when accelerating in 1-3rd gear anywhere between 4000-8000rpm. Real twitchy and unpredictable like you said. After spending the time making a stable tune (Which still hasn't remedied the problem completely), I went into the game options and spent a few minutes in there screwing around with the deadzone settings - it has made a bit of a difference already, but it will take time (like forza 2) to find the right combo of deadzones.

[Damien Culleton]

The more i play this the more im impressed.
So much so im gonna buy the fanatec wheel just for it.
This is a sim for sure, make no mistake about it.
Id rate its physics ahead of anything else on pc with the exception of iracing but its not far behind and a hell of a lot more fun imo and ofcourse it looks better than most titles on pc only beaten in this department by NFS shift i feel.

[purdie]

MGS4 is awesome on the first playthrough....if you're into MGS games. 

Yeah been loving it! The cut scenes were winding me up... but strangely I treat it like an iterative film now and enjoy it. The story line and twists are quite sophisticated and I'll definitely get the new one 

you need to spend some time in the options to fix the sensitivity on the MS wheel. The throttle and brakes are way way to sensitive - if you go into the real time telemetry and lightly touch the brake pedal, even with jsut your toe, the brake pressure jumps right up to 60+% (which almost always causes locking).

Yeah that's my problem, I will be fiddling with the settings tonight. I'm hooked on Forza 3, I was determined not to be a PC-simracer snob about it and I don't feel let down  Was playing it (a lot) at the weekend I started the career mode and just got into Class A racing.

Can I plug a keyboard and mouse into the Xbox to make painting a car less painful? The MS wheel D-pad takes ages to move any Manufacturing Decals and I'm sure it is missing some shoulder buttons (R2 and L2) and the paddles are R1 and L1 (or the otherway round).

[Mr.BMW]

MGS4 is awesome on the first playthrough....if you're into MGS games.  

Yeah been loving it! The cut scenes were winding me up... but strangely I treat it like an iterative film now and enjoy it. The story line and twists are quite sophisticated and I'll definitely get the new one  

you need to spend some time in the options to fix the sensitivity on the MS wheel. The throttle and brakes are way way to sensitive - if you go into the real time telemetry and lightly touch the brake pedal, even with jsut your toe, the brake pressure jumps right up to 60+% (which almost always causes locking).

Yeah that's my problem, I will be fiddling with the settings tonight. I'm hooked on Forza 3, I was determined not to be a PC-simracer snob about it and I don't feel let down   Was playing it (a lot) at the weekend I started the career mode and just got into Class A racing.

Can I plug a keyboard and mouse into the Xbox to make painting a car less painful? The MS wheel D-pad takes ages to move any Manufacturing Decals and I'm sure it is missing some shoulder buttons (R2 and L2) and the paddles are R1 and L1 (or the otherway round).

I found the settings to make your wheel pedal board work properly

Accelerator Inside Deadzone 0%
Accelerator Outside Deadzone 100%
Decelrator Inside Deadzone 0%
Decelrator Outside Deadzone 100%

this will fix the accelerator pedal to increase and decrease at a realistic rate, so putting just a gram of pressure will not fire the acceelerator to 70%. Keep in mind without TCS these cars will still spin (natrually with 550hp and weighing 1200kg), but now it will react more predictably and will be up to the control in your foot to keep these cars in check.

When painting I use a regular XBOX controller. Do not even touch the Wheel to paint, or take photos. It's missing to many buttons, and like you said, the D-Pad is complete garbage.

You on live Purd? Add me: Jebstone

I wanna see you do the time trails, see what kind of times you put up - then race your ghost So far i've done the Alfmani Coast TT in the Lancia Stratos. Just a smidge outside the top 100. I'm confident a another 30-60 mins of lapping it should put me around the track in the 1:00 mark that the top 10 are getting.

[purdie]

I found the settings to make your wheel pedal board work properly

Accelerator Inside Deadzone 0%
Accelerator Outside Deadzone 100%
Decelrator Inside Deadzone 0%
Decelrator Outside Deadzone 100%

this will fix the accelerator pedal to increase and decrease at a realistic rate, so putting just a gram of pressure will not fire the acceelerator to 70%. Keep in mind without TCS these cars will still spin (natrually with 550hp and weighing 1200kg), but now it will react more predictably and will be up to the control in your foot to keep these cars in check.

When painting I use a regular XBOX controller. Do not even touch the Wheel to paint, or take photos. It's missing to many buttons, and like you said, the D-Pad is complete garbage.

You on live Purd? Add me: Jebstone

I wanna see you do the time trails, see what kind of times you put up - then race your ghost So far i've done the Alfmani Coast TT in the Lancia Stratos. Just a smidge outside the top 100. I'm confident a another 30-60 mins of lapping it should put me around the track in the 1:00 mark that the top 10 are getting.

Great stuff cheers mate, I'll use them tonight.

Not live yet mate, just moved and have a (loooong) two week wait for the internet. It's my mates Xbox but i've got it for a while, his ID is 'plazone'

I've just started season 3....and have entered an R3 championship.... bought the 997 RSR and won the first round. Have it on hard and have to keep the driving line on for most tracks since I don't know them.

My main cars have been a Diablo VT (because it looks the nuts) for the S-class racing but it was not nimble enough for Amalfi and the other twisty tracks and most of the A-class races I did in a 997 GT2 (fortunate enough to drive a mates ones in real life and the game does a good job at the physics.... ridiculously quick in a straight line but understeery).

Will try the Amalfi coast in the Stratos  ... is it completely standard? and there isn't a rally version of the car is there? That track is very hard but I found the handbrake button yesterday so that may help for the tight hairpins 

[Mr.BMW]

this time around they pre-tuned each car for each Time Trial track (which imo is a good thing) - it is a bone stock version of the car on each Time Trial. I think it's the Stratos SC that they use.

I tend to use braking line only when racing SP, just so i know when a corner is comming up. I turn off the lines when time trialing though, as if you use them as a crutch it will actually make you slower in the long run.

Also, you can race the ghosts of the leaders of the leaderboards.

From the main menu, goto Leaderboards, then on the left side bar scroll down to Time Trials. There it will give you the overall time trials for each player. From there on the left sidebar you should see each track name, highlight the track, then highlight the top guy from the overall leader board per track, press A on his name and you can race his ghost.

[Damien Culleton]

MR BMW would you recomend the microsoft wheel?
I cant bring myself to pay for the Fanatec but am tempted to get the MS wheel.

[Mr.BMW]

MS Wheel works for me. It's an obvious downgrade from my G25, but for Forza it works.

I can't steer for nothing with an analogue stick, but the triggers on the controller are great for the accel/brakes. Overall, though, I would never be fully competitive with a controller.

I highly recommend using the settings I posted for the deadzones, though. Otherwise, the accelerator and brake pedals are just too frustrating to deal with(Super sensitive brakes lead to unpredictable locks, which then lead to uncontrollable spins).

Be gentle with the paddle shifters. My right paddle (Up shift) is kaput. It pops out of place when I press it, and I have to actually press it near the base for it to recognize my input, 2/10 times (currently using the face buttons to shift). Luckily I have an older model that was part of a safety recall. So I scammed a new wheel under recall, and the packing slip is on it's way. When the new one gets here, I'm going to press it as light as a feather, as I don't have any spare recalls to claim this time around 

[Damien Culleton]

Once its playable and a big improvement over the pad i might go for it.
I might work on that mod that lets you use G25 pedals but id rather not if i could get away with the MS pedals.
Thanks again.

[purdie]

Yeah the left paddle on mine has started getting 'notchy' but does work.... at least for the time being. You begin to realise the value of a G25 and the quality of Logitech's years of designing hard-wearing products!

Once its playable and a big improvement over the pad i might go for it.
I might work on that mod that lets you use G25 pedals but id rather not if i could get away with the MS pedals.
Thanks again.

Where's this G25 mod??      sounds good

Just on round 5 of the R2 World Championship. Got an Porsche GT1-98 last night but prefer the Mclaren F1 Longtail ! Those GT500 jap cars are fun.

I still find the cars pretty hard to control with the power oversteer, often detuning the power output to make them drivable. I need to fiddle with the setups more  

[Mr.BMW]

yeah, even with the best settings i can find (the ones i posted), the R class cars still like to spit their back end out for no reason.

One thing I didn't like is that they took out tire choices when you were choosing Racing Slicks, now you just go with one main brand per manufacturer (BMW uses Michelin for example) - I miss my super grippy Avons