No More Dynamic Car Gifts in Forza Motorsport 3

Forza Motorsport 3 from Microsoft for the Xbox 360 home gaming console has been scheduled to arrive on October 23 in Europe and four days later in North America, but it seems that the developers working on it are still making pretty significant changes to the way it will be played. The driving model is in place but some fiddling has been done to the way gamers earn new vehicles after they reach a new level.

The game creators at Turn 10 initially chose a pretty interesting progression system based on the first car players chose, with the game then dynamically generating the other rewards they received for new levels gained.

This system allowed for different gamers to get various cars and created a certain replayability value for Forza 3. Now, this more risky system has been scrapped and representatives from developer Turn 10 told IGN that “This feature was changed during the 11th hour by the Turn 10 design leads due to balancing issues. Basically, based on the initial car you picked, certain gifting paths would throw off the overall balance of progression during season play. The feature was cut for no other reason than to ensure design balance as players progress through the game.”

On the one hand, it makes sense: if players who had different progressions, based on the dynamic gifting system, went head to head in multiplayer, the experience might be unbalanced and would lead to some complaints on the part of the weaker player. Giving everyone the same cars ensures equality when it comes to racing hardware and makes sure that pilot skill is the only element making a difference in the results.

On the other hand, Turn 10 and Microsoft seem to be afraid, not innovating and erring on the side of caution. It would have probably been better to offer players the option of whether to adopt dynamic gifting or go for the more linear one.