It's hard to talk about Turn 10's newest racing title, Forza 3, without mentioning its forthcoming competitor: Gran Turismo 5. Turn 10 even went out of its way to say that it created the better game at E3. For the console die-hards out there, these reviews and bullet-point lists are going to be argued over for some time, because this isn't just a battle of racing games. For some, it's a battle of consoles.

Of course, the "battle of consoles" idea is ridiculous; both systems are now $300 or less, meaning the current-generation has never been more affordable. No matter which console you choose, you're going to have a first-class racing experience. Having said that, now that I've spent a good amount of time playing Forza 3—our review copy of the game came in the same day the demo went live—Gran Turismo 5 has an insanely tough act to follow when it launches. If Polyphony Digital can't match or beat what Turn 10 has put together, there is a new king of racing games. If they do even better, than we have one of the best games ever created to look forward to. If it's arguable, then everyone wins.

But the fact is Forza 3 came out first, so it gets to set the level of engagement. Let's begin, shall we?

By the way, get a hard drive

The first thing we noticed when our review package came was that the game comes on two discs. What do those discs contain? The first disc features the game and 300 cars and the majority of the tracks, while the second disc adds another 100 cars or so, as well as three environments. You install the second disc and it adds the content into the game when you put the first disc in. Confused yet?

The 1.9GB of content that comes on the second disc means you pretty much need to have a hard drive to see everything there is to see in Forza 3. If you don't have a hard drive and you play online and see someone racing a car you don't have installed, it will just show up as a generic car that acts like the car they're driving. It's not a very elegant solution, but unfortunately you're going to see more of this sort of thing on sprawling, beautiful games. This is the price Microsoft pays for not making the hard drive standard.

So to sum it up, when you open the game, you'll put it in disc one, be prompted to put in disc 2, install a little under 2GB worth of data, and then put disc one back in. The process goes by quickly, but remains a pain in the ass. If you don't have a hard drive, you simply won't be able to access those cars, except as generic character models in multiplayer, and the three environments will be completely closed off to you.

Everything is open

What's fun about all the cars included with Forza 3 is that none of them are locked. You'll be able to buy any of them at any time... if you have the credits, of course. Each car is modeled beautifully, both inside and out, and you'll be able to tweak each one to your heart's content.

Or, you can skip that. The beautiful thing about Forza 3 is that anyone can play it. Turn on some assists, put on the racing line, turn off damage, and you'll be able to play the game like a more arcade-y racer and have a good time. Dial the difficulty up and the assists down and you'll be able to enjoy a technical racing simulation. Or you can land somewhere in the middle. The game also gives you the ability to rewind the race at any time, allowing you to retake a trouble corner to practice it, or to avoid a pile-up that cost you a race. The hardcore won't like this feature, but if you don't like it, you don't have to use it. For those of us who like a more laid back experience, it's a great feature, just as it was in Dirt 2.

If you don't want to deal with tweaking, you can have the game give your car a set of upgrades automatically in order to be competitive in the next race. If you have the skill to drive on the simulator side of things, you'll be gaining more money and your driver level will increase at a much quicker rate. As you race you'll be given experience points that level you up, and at each level you'll be given a car. Take part in some events, learn to drive well, and very soon you'll be enjoying a nice stable of vehicles to experiment with.