Here’s my make-believe stock car, custom paint in Forza 3. It’s more fun than I had thought it would be.

They knew the game had problems before they released it. It was offered for $40 via pre-order, as compared to the usually fixed-price of $60. That’s why I’m not surprised that the game has issues, but I went for the pre-order despite this.

They did a good job for a driving simulator. I can’t comment on how realistic it is, as I’ve never raced in real life, but I’m not sure that matters. But the AI and their private physics model kind of ruins the single-player for me, turning it into a hot lap exercise. I hear the multiplayer is a lot of fun, but I can’t really try it yet given that most players are way ahead of me in unlocking cars. I’ll stick with it at least that far just to see.

So far, it’s been worth my time just in the sense of a break from Forza, some new tracks and new cars. That said, I’d rather be playing a Forza expansion pack with the new tracks and the open-wheel cars.

There’s a bigger issue that really bugs me about racing games in particular. They don’t seem to be getting better, with the exception of graphics, and RacePro falls short even here. Perhaps its my background via my day-job, but I can’t help but think that it’s due to the proprietary nature of game development. Each game has to re-invent the wheel. And industry pressures mean that companies producing good results get new projects in other genres, for example DICE and Rallisport Challenge.

I have no experience with PC-based games, perhaps it’s different there. Maybe this will change with business models, where these games go the way of WOW, a dedicated subscription service, and these monolithic console sequel releases are a thing of the past.