Forza 3 Updated Impressions

If there's one thing that the Forza Motorsport 3 development team understands--other than cars, that is--it's community. The Turn 10 folks have been fostering their community of diehard racing fans ever since the original Forza was released in 2005, and with the upcoming Forza 3, the community aspects of the game have been given a new face-lift and some impressive functionality that look to make Forza 3 something more than a place to record hot laps. Earlier today, we had a chance to see a new build of the game and how it's coming along before its October 27 release.

Our last look at the game introduced the storefront concept, which will let you browse the creations of other Forza 3 players. Everything from paint jobs to tuning sets will be available here, and creators will be able to either give away their creations or set prices (and even the amount of stock available for sale) for anything they create. The "front page" of the storefront will highlight featured creators chosen by the Forza community team. And players will be able to rate any creations in the game, allowing the truly talented Forza 3 creators to rise to the top. You'll even be able to bookmark your favorite creators so you can easily return to their pages to see what they've done.

Building on that concept of creation in Forza 3, the game will also feature leaderboards for practically anything you can do in the game. Naturally, you can expect to see leaderboards for the fastest drivers in the game, as well as the best drifters, and so on. But there's more to Forza 3 than simply skill with the sticks--creators will be rewarded with their own leaderboards for such categories as design, video direction, car tuning, graphic artistry, and photography. Indeed, it seems that if you can do it in Forza 3, you can be rewarded and recognized for it.

In terms of new content, the Forza team showed off a new track in the game: Fujimi Kaido. Longtime Forza fans will recognize this as a returning track from the original game. However, this time, the winding mountainous road that was a point-to-point road has been extended to a 10-mile behemoth circuit and twists through the hills of Japan near Mt. Fuji. The scenery surrounding the circuit is gorgeous--thick trees line the road and then open up to a vista overlooking a beautiful lake. But natural beauty aside, Fujimi Kaido is a demanding track--extremely narrow and chock-full of turns (more than 100, in fact).

Fujimi Kaido is a drifter's paradise, and in that same spirit, Forza producers also revealed that players will be able to toggle a drift meter at any time if they're looking to keep track of their drift skills. With the drift meter toggled on, you'll get a point total that will measure any drift you engage on a track. Interestingly, even with the drift meter turned off, the game is always measuring your drifting ability, and your results will automatically report to the aforementioned drifting leaderboard after each race.

With just over a month before Forza 3 is due on store shelves, our anticipation grows each time we see it. We're hoping to have preview code in our hands in the next few days, and we'll be reporting more on the game leading up to its release.