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Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (9/3)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:59:00 GMT

Hello Forza Nation, I’m taking the blog this week while Brian’s away and we’re going to bring you a recap of the production hoppers and some new addition coming down the pipe for the lobbies. I also have some pictures from last week’s Forza Gumpert event here at the Microsoft commons. The event was a lot of fun, be sure to check out the pictures below to see what all of the fuss was about!

Today marks week number 3 of latest addition to the lobby system, the cycled Production hopper. The setting has been a very popular room since hitting the retail servers. For those who have are unaware of what the cycled production is, it’s an online lobby that runs a preset combination of track and unturned car. There are currently over 30 combinations in the hopper mode and this week we are going to be adding a new set of combinations including the addition of The Nurburgring to the list along with a the chance to race with 7 other gamers in a unicorn car. Which is something that is both very rare and exciting for many Forza fans; it is not often that you find a room full of people racing Spirit R’s! That’s the stuff you expected though when we announced the addition of the hopper three weeks ago, here is something new though.

Next Friday we will be rolling out The Featured Hoppers setting which will be housed on the front page with the other settings (Circuit, Road Racing, and Playground). This hopper will be home to new hoppers that will be used to offer new game modes. These will be modes which will be added and removed on a rotating basis, not permanently removed though if something goes up that the community enjoys it will live longer on the service. These are going to be experiments that we will run without needing to bother the placement of the current hoppers.

Image by Shotgunsteve93 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

So here are the modes that will be added first to the new Featured hopper section:

V8 Supercar Showdown
This lobby pits Ford vs. Holden in a showdown. The lobby features races which run from 7-10 minutes and feature simulation damage. Tuning is allowed in this hopper so get your sets ready. The cars included in this hopper are:

Ford-
2009 Ford #1 Team Vodafone FG Falcon
2009 Ford #5 For Performance Racing FG Falcon
2009 Ford #9 SP Tools Racing FG Falcon
2009 Ford #25 Britek Motorsport FG Falcon

Holden
2009 #2 Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore VE
2009 #39 Superchip Auto Racing Commodore VE
2009 #33 Garry Rogers Team Commodore VE
2009 #51 Sprint Gas Racing Commodore VE

Stock Car Circuit Racing
There’s more to stock cars than turning left, and this hopper aims to show that side of these cars. Yes that sound you just heard was community member NoA Ceulemans restocking his entire storefront haha. This is one I’m really looking forward to as I enjoy the feel of stock cars and the thought of going up against 7 others on Road Atlanta just has me amped!

Cycled Production Drag
Similar in design to the circuit hopper that shares its name, the drag hopper will feature a variety of vehicles in stock form and drivetrains. We also have some variants coming down the pike with HP limits; this is just the first one out of the gate.

So these are some of the hopper tweaks that we’ve been working on since the release of the cycled production hopper, the modes are currently being tested and should roll out to you guys sometime next weekend. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback in the cycled production hopper over the past three weeks and posted constructive suggestions and opinions! That is it for us this week, I will leave you with some photographs taken by Christian (VoodooOumo) of the Forza commons event! Have a great weekend everybody!

Community Update

Time Trial: The Loafer Challenge
Any guess as to what this is a tribute to?

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday September 10th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Suzuka Full – 92 NSX-R

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “Apollo Challenge” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by Hoss360- See this in more in the Community Gallery

Forzahunters: BMW Meet
Looking to get some shots of your BMW? Well BkS y0 and Forzahunters have an upcoming BMW meet that may fit your needs. The meet is mainly for getting some nice group shots of the cars but once the photos have been taken you have the choice of what you wish to do next. Check out the official thread for all the details on how to get involved.

Demolition Arena Racing Championship
Much different than the usual race series, the Demolition Arena Racing Championship is more about the crash and less about clean racing. Events such as Car Football and Demo Derby are thrown in with regular events like Drag or Drifting to make this series a little bit serious and a lot of fun. Events run every week so follow all the details by clicking on the link above.

King of Forza Tournament
If you are skilled in both racing and drifting then the King of Forza Tournament is an event you should consider entering. Over 77 million in prizes, including a Ferrari collection are up for grabs to whoever is crowned the King of Forza. Click the link above for all the details on how to enter this event.

Image by Lt Heli - See this in more in the Community Gallery

High Roller Photo Comp
Venturing away from the usual photo comp, Lt HELI has created the High Roller Photo Comp, which showcases the photographer’s skill in creating a story in images. All contestants submit four images and a short paragraph describing the theme or feel of the imagery. Only cars listed in the official thread can be used so make sure to check out the thread before you go snapping your shots.

GEARBOX - S&R Subaru HKS 3D Turbo
Two of the longest running Forza tuning garages have joined forces this week to offer the community a B500 Subaru Legacy. This car features a stunning paint done by rokusho009 and the B500 tune was done by Jeebus Sane. Once you have picked up both the paint and tune there is a photo comp that you can then enter. The details on the release and the photo comp can be found in the official thread.

IFCA Calendar Competition
The folks from the IFCA, better known for their intense racing series, have developed a new photo mode competition. The goal of this comp is to create an IFCA Calendar with photos from the community. Click on the link above for details on how to get your images into the calendar.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (8/27)

phREDESIGN — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:17:00 GMT

We here at Turn 10 are no strangers to high performance cars and last Friday, August 20, we had a chance to share some of the high-speed coolness with the rest of Microsoft. The Forza Motorsport Car Show was held at the Commons--one of the large open areas on the MS campus and near the massive--and massively impressive--MS cafeteria (forgive my awe but I'm still new here!). The event was a great mix of real-life cars and some good old-fashioned Forza 3 racing and here's how it all went down:

First, the cars. The folks at Evolution Motorsports and Max RPM Motorsports brought the goods that brought the crowds--namely six high end racing cars--including four Porsche models, a gorgeous lemon-yellow Ferrari 430 Scuderia and, the star of the bunch, a bright orange Gumpert Apollo. If you own the Forza 3 Exotic Car Pack DLC, you probably know that the Gumpert is a fantastic beast of a machine, and it's even more impressive in person. Microsoft employees and their guests got a chance to take pictures, sit in the driver's seat and even hear the car's massive engine in action for a few minutes.

The roar of Gumpert's engine was a fearsome thing but I have to say that, personally, the car's most impressive aspect was the incredibly wide rear tires--they looked better suited for the Batmobile and quite obviously provide the kind of grip you need in such a powerful car.

In keeping with the Gumpert theme, inside the Microsoft cafeteria, we ran a Top Gear-style time trial for MS employees with the top prize winner getting his hands on a Fanatec Wheel, as well as numerous copies of Forza 3 and DLC codes aplenty. We had a great turnout--with Jube doing a great job of running the tourney and making sure everyone stuck to the rules, which were as follows:

Car: Gumpert Apollo
Track: Mugello Club Circuit
Laps: 3
Assists: All allowed

To keep a level playing field, all competitors drove with the Microsoft Steering Wheel. The top time clocked in at 55.712 which was a valiant effort but it didn't come close to the 53.759 lap turned in by Turn 10's Christian (good thing T10 employees were exempt). The driver with the best time won a brand new Fanatec Porsche wheel, with runners up getting copies of Forza 3, and free download codes to boot.

Image by o Aperture o - See this in more in the Community Gallery

In all it was a great chance to show the rest of Microsoft just how fun Forza can be and I hope we can do something like this again in the near future. Who knows? Maybe we'll be able to get some of you local guys involved as well. Now here's Fred with the rest of the Week in Review.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (8/20)

Mechberg T10 — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:15:00 GMT

Last week, someone asked me to clarify what the job of a community manager is. Here’s what I had to say on the forums:

"As community manager, my job is to figure out ways to better serve the existing Forza community base while also growing the community over time. Communication is certainly an aspect of that--though it should be obvious that there will often be times when the community team cannot talk about certain subjects for various reasons. Nonetheless, listening to the community's feedback is always a priority.

A large chunk of community management is removed from the game (and found here in the forums, blogs, and podcasts of FM.net), but another aspect of the job is helping to figure out ways to improve the social experiences in the Forza series itself. It's an aspect of the job that I relish for a number of reasons, not the least of which is getting to work with some of the most talented developers in the industry."

Image by DUI Fallen - See this in more in the Community Gallery

It’s a pretty straightforward, if not entirely complete, answer. Later, as I was thinking more about the role of a community manager--as well as the role of the community within a game’s ecosystem--I came upon this bit of wisdom from games community blog SixOkay:

"I see it this way – a developer, or publisher, or Community Manager has to act as a government would, and the community will act as a neighborhood naturally would. Community Managers should strive to provide good metaphorical roads, well lit sidewalks, and nice parks for people to congregate in. Make it safe for people to come out of their homes. Once that job is accomplished, it’s the people within the neighborhood who will build the community."

Now that’s a great explanation of the community relationship we strive for here at Turn 10, and nowhere was that more clearly represented than at this week’s Game With Turn 10. This was the fifth such event we’ve hosted and, to say it was a rousing success would be a massive understatement. We had a great turnout from the community and Turn 10 folks as well. Between Landin hanging out in the Playground hopper, Fred getting his drag racing on, Jube driving an ugly, ugly VW Beetle, resident Turn 10 ringer Christian (aka VoodooUomo) handing people their butts en masse, and Yours Truly redefining mediocrity in the Cycled Production Car hopper, there was a lot going on (and lots of unicorn cars up for grabs). I look forward to doing another Game With Turn 10 event soon.

Image by GrahamC216 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Thanks to all of you who took some time to play with us--you guys are truly proof that the Forza “neighborhood” is alive and well. Now, that’s my perspective, but what do you guys think? What do you most appreciate about the Forza community? What appeals to you most about our little automotive home away from home and which aspects of the Forza “neighborhood” do you think could use some public works crews to repair? I’d like to hear your feedback and I’ll be gifting out a few unicorn cars for the best (and most constructive) thoughts.

In other news, I don’t know about you but I’m looking forward to the return of F1--that four-week break between Hungary and next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix has seemed like a miniature eternity, especially considering the epic setting of Spa. If you’re heading out to the Grand Prix next weekend, or if you’re planning on attending any cool motorsports or automotive events in the next few weeks and you’re planning on taking photos, let us know. We’d love to feature some of your photos in a future blog.

Well that’s all for this week. I’ve got a date in the Cycled Production Car hoppers that should keep me busy this weekend…

Community Update

Time Trial: 944 Turbo on Sebring

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday August 27th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Sebring Short Circuit – 1989 Porsche 944 Turbo

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “944 Turbo on Sebring” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Twitter Trivia:
Hey guys, due to a really packed Friday here at Turn 10 there will not be trivia taking place this week. However we will be back on track next week with a new set of questions, picture trivia and of course, lots of unicorn prizes to give out! You can follow us at twitter.com/turn10studios.

Image by Wrytch - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Socks Out Racing: V8 Saloon Racing Series
Socks Out Racing is launching a new B-Class racing series this week! The series will take place over the course of 6 weeks, with races taking place on Thursday nights. The first race kicks off today August 19th, but you must join before Race 2 on August 26th if you do not want to start with weight penalty. Click the link above for further details. Deadline: August 26th. 2010

Image by DB9D9 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Forza Rolex Series
The Rolex Grand-Am Series is back in Forza form with the first race of the season set for next Friday (8/27). If you are looking for close racing with the perennial sports car companies represented, this is the series for you. All cars have been balanced to be unique in their own respects, but still competitive against the competition. More details in the link above, but make sure you sign up this week!
Deadline: August 26th, 2010.

How much drift can you get out of $35,000?
Do you have $35,000 in your pocket? Do you want to enter a drift competition? Well here's your chance! In this event, you are challenged to build a drift car by purchasing the car and upgrading that car with aftermarket parts, all on a budget of $35,000. There is no limit on what car you buy or what you do with your car, just make sure you don't spend more than 35 grand! Once your machine is ready, take it out to the track and show off your machine's sideways capabilities and your drifting skills! Do you have what it takes? Sign up NOW!
Deadline: September 1st 2010.

Nurbracer ADAC 2.4h Rennen Nordschleife
Hey, it's me again. Every year, the Nurburgring holds a 24 hour race around the Nordschleife and a section of the GP track. Hundreds of drivers flock to enter the event, many of them unable to finish. The winner of this event is the driver that covers the most distance in the time given. The rules are as realistic as possible; drivers can only drive for a maximum of 150 minutes at a time (that's about 2.4 hours). So a 2.4 hour race it is, then!

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (8/13)

Mechberg T10 — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:48:00 GMT

I’ve made a public proclamation of it in the forums, so I may as well do it here too: I’m saving up for a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. In the game, that is. Last weekend, a fellow community member asked me, after I made this off-handed comment, why I even bothered. After all, as a Turn 10 employee, couldn’t I just gift myself the required 15 million credits and have the car right away?

Sure I could. But I won’t, because it wouldn’t really be my 250 TR.

Grab the wallpaper here - 1920 x 1200 | 1920 x 1080 | 1600 x 1200 | 1280 x 720

I’ve spent a lot of time in my Forza 3 career glowering at the sky-high price tag for the 250 TR—and it’s not even the highest priced ride in the game—wondering why it is so expensive. Then again, considering a real-life TR sold for $12 million in 2009, perhaps an astronomical price in Forza 3 isn’t that big of a stretch. Still, 15 million credits… and here I sit with just north of 10 million in my FM3 account.

It’s tempting to take the easy way out. A few button presses here and there and that car could be mine. (Before you say it, yes, I realize I can go directly to Free Play mode, hop in a 250 TR and drive to my heart’s content. It’s not the same thing and you know it.)

Here’s the thing: I know that the moment I “gifted” myself a 250, the magic would be gone. Sure, I’d probably take the car out on Le Mans Sarthe or the Nordschleife—I might even turn a few laps in it. But soon enough, I’d pull it back in to my garage and let it live with the rest of my semi-neglected flock. On the other hand, if I take the time to earn 15 million credits in Forza 3 and then decide to blow that entire stash on one car, you’d best believe I’m going to hop in that little gem and drive it to death—and take photos and videos of myself doing just that.

Image by TerribleWone - See this in more in the Community Gallery

That’s the beauty of earning something, be it real or virtual, and it’s the reason car ownership—in Forza 3 and in real life—is such a powerful thing. Why else would people go to the trouble of posting stories about their favorite cars?

Pitpass Podcast Redux

Earlier in the week, we posted the tenth episode of the Forza Pitpass Podcast. The episode is loaded, with Turn 10 creative director Dan Greenawalt talking about Forza 3 DLC, former Turn 10 community manager Che Chou giving a final goodbye (and updating us on where he is now), and Yours Truly wondering exactly how foie gras is made. Questions! Answers! Duck guts! Don’t miss it.

Production Hoppers, Changes, and Circuit Refresh Details

Last week I mentioned a couple of important changes to the online racing in FM3: new production hoppers and a circuit refresh. Today I’ve some additional details for you. The Cycled Production Car hopper offers 30 car and track combos that will allow the community to race where on-track skill (and not tuning talent) is at a premium. With an average race time of eight to ten minutes these races are mid-length and sure to be a challenge. In fact, without skipping tracks, it would take more than five hours to get through all the car and track combinations in one sitting.

A few examples of some of the car and track combinations:

10 laps on Maple Valley Short Reverse in a 2009 Volvo C30-R E268
7 Laps on Road Atlanta Full in a 2006 Ford GT A557
5 Laps on Motegi Full in a 2009 Lotus Evora C423

Each month the Cycled Production Car hopper will be refreshed with a new set of 30 car and track combinations. If this hopper proves to be popular, it’s possible that we might make a second Production Car hopper featuring the most popular combinations from previous month, so be sure and let us know which car/track combos you like.

Image by Bleuprint - See this in more in the Community Gallery

After reviewing the daily hoppers statistics, we have decided to make some changes to several hoppers. Some hoppers have been removed due to low activity while others will receive a track refresh. The track refresh will be only in the Circuit hoppers this time around, but just as we are planning monthly updates to the Production Car hopper, we will also be looking to refresh other hoppers during as well during those updates.

Hoppers that have been removed:

Team Circuit Racing
Team Drift Any Class
Multi-Class R1 & F
Multi-Class R1 &A
Multi-Class R2 & B
Playground Keep the It

Now, I love multi-class racing and I know a lot of you do too. If you’ve got some ideas about which multi-class combos we should feature next, let us know in the comments and we’ll take a look for future additions. We’ll be paying close attention and even gifting a few unicorn cars for the best suggestions.

As for track refreshes, our barometer is skip data; in essence, we judge a track’s popularity by looking at the times skipped versus the times finished. Any track that is skipped over fifty percent of the time will be removed and replaced. For example, Tsukuba Circuit was skipped more than sixty percent of the time in R2, R3, S and A Class RWD. Of course, not all the tracks are replaced, in some cases we’re merely mixing up the order in which the tracks appear. And, as I mentioned above, we’ll be looking at these track lineups on a more regular basis and making more frequent refreshes as we go.

Image by JoeGTR - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Game with Turn 10

In celebration of our new hopper changes, we’re holding our fifth “Game With Turn 10” event this coming Monday, August 16 from 4-6 p.m. PDT. Jump online in FM3 and if you race with any Turn 10 folks—you’ll know us by the little arrow next to our gamertags—you’ll be eligible for fabulous cash and prizes (okay not really… but we will be gifting unicorn cars!) I personally can’t wait to try out the Production Car hoppers and we're looking forward to a good turnout of Turn 10 folks out there to race against—including Jube and Fred—so come on out and get ready for the fun.

That’s all for me this week; I look forward to seeing you on the track on Monday. Here’s Jube with the rest of the community news.

Community Update:

Time Trial: The Testa Rossa
What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday August 20th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Mugello Club Circuit – 250 Testa Rossa

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “The Testa Rossa!” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by DMTR Wolf - See this in more in the Community Gallery

ForzaStats.com HotLap Circuit Week
Forza Stats is sponsoring a competition for hotlappers that ends on Sunday. There are some very expensive cars up for grabs including the Ferrari 250 GTO and the Shelby Daytona Coupe. There is no need to subscribe to anything, just set the fastest times possible – times are being kept track of starting 8/9. Head on over to the thread for more information!

Nurbracer's Nordschleife Track Day
Community member Standaman94 has written a pretty interesting write-up for a new event that Nurbracer is running which I don’t think that I can do justice to, so hear it is “Unless you've been living in a cave somewhere in the Saudi-Arabian desert for the last century, you probably know that the Nurburgring holds track-days that are open to the general public as well as the not-so-general public. People show up in whatever they have and drive for however long they wish, calling it quits only once their bodies can no longer take it.” The next track day falls on August the 18th so if you want to participate make sure to follow the link to the thread and sign up.

Image by Dtouch Mac - See this in more in the Community Gallery

CRS Honeymoon Getaway
The Community Restoration Service is back at it again with a new Race and drift comp on Fujimi Kaido’s famous - Old Downhill. Mitchy7k (Mr. Tattoo) is getting married and has hatched up a series to keep his CRS members, as well as new faces to the scene, busy. The competition has a wedding car theme with plenty of cash prizes and car prizes (two Pagani Zonda R's up for grabs with a one off paint on each)! So stop by and check it out!
Deadline: Sun 22nd August 23:59 GMT-0

Formula D Tournament – 50M credits on the line!
This is one of the biggest prizes that I have seen in a tournament with 50 million credits on the line for whoever has what it takes to finish out this series in first place. All are welcome to the qualifying rounds but only 32 drifters will make it out of that series and into the final push for greatness. Deadline: Sept. 30th

Photomode Tournament - Volume 5
This one is brought to you by forum regular Pebb. One of the longest running tournaments on the FM.net community has now entered the voting stage, but if you think there will be only one voting stage think again! The voting will be in the form of knockout rounds so head on over and see what all the fuss is about! Deadline: 15th August - 7pm UK time (11PM PDT, 2PM EST).

Forza Pitpass Podcast 10 Is Here!

Mechberg T10 — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:59:00 GMT

What’s this? Two episodes of the Forza Pitpass Podcast inside of two weeks? Yes!

Hot on the heels of last week’s episode (which was recorded back in July), episode 10 features former Turn 10 community manager Che Chou, creative director Dan Greenawalt, and Yours Truly talking about a wide range of topics--Forza-related and otherwise--including the past, present, and future of the Forza community, DLC, and... ahem... a surprisingly graphic description of the making of foie gras.

Expect more Pitpass episodes in the future, especially as we get closer to our next big announcement. If you’ve got ideas for subjects you’d like to hear in a future episode, let us know in the comments below. We’ll be sending out a few unicorn cars for the best suggestions, so let us hear from you.

See you on Friday for the Week in Review!

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (8/6)

Mechberg T10 — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:39:00 GMT

My name is Brian Ekberg and I’m a Forza Faithful.

I remember my first hands-on experience with the original Forza Motorsport like it was yesterday. The preview disc arrived on my desk at GameSpot (my former employer), and I began running around the office, looking for an Xbox debug system with a crazed expression in my eyes. I’d been reading about this Forza game for months but hadn’t yet had a chance to play it for myself. When the disc arrived from Microsoft, I jealously guarded it, viciously steering my shoulders away from my curious co-editors, determined to be the first in the office to fire it up and hit the track.

So many vivid memories come flooding back from those first experiences with the series--my first laps at Maple Valley, my beloved blue Subaru WRX STi that I nearly drove the wheels off of (if such a thing were possible in a game), spending ridiculous amounts of time tweaking my car just to see the results on the benchmarking reports, racing against co-workers, some of whom had very different definitions of “racing clean”… the list truly goes on and on.

Image by Enosh Kasra - See this in more in the Community Gallery

I’ve been a fan of Forza and Turn 10 since day one, which is why I’m so happy to officially introduce myself to you fine folks in the Forza community. As the new community manager at Turn 10, I’m stepping into the very big shoes of my predecessor Che Chou, who has skillfully led the Forza community for the past 4+ years (and who once beat me in a race in Forza 2 when we were both in Amsterdam… perhaps a story for another time). I’m also fortunate enough to be working with great people like Javier (Jube), Fred, Landin and the rest of the Turn 10 crew, all of whom have a deep and abiding respect for the Forza Faithfuls.

One thing that has made a big impression on me in my short time here is Turn 10’s dedication to growing its user base while never forgetting the hardcore. That approach was obvious in Forza 3—here was a game that could please a sim-racing fan like me, yet also charmed my five-year-old niece, who refused to give the controller back after I showed her the game’s one-button driving feature last Christmas. Growing the Forza community while simultaneously serving the core is a big part of Turn 10’s mission and I’m happy to be part of it.

Image by Dtouch Mac- See this in more in the Community Gallery

Forza Motorsport recently celebrated its five-year anniversary, and as we move into the second half of the series’ first decade, there’s a lot to look forward to, both for the series and for the community. You’ve already seen a glimpse of some of our future ideas with the Forza Motorsport Preview from E3 2010 but that’s only the beginning. We’re now diving headlong into development of our Next Big Thing and, based on what I’ve seen and heard so far, I absolutely cannot wait to share with you all of the great stuff ahead.

I want to hear from you too. You can reach me on the forums, via private message or XBL message (Gamertag: Mechberg T10), or via e-mail at forzafb@microsoft.com. You can also keep up to date on the latest Turn 10 news through any of the following resources:

Twitter: @Turn10Studios
Facebook: Official Turn 10 – Forza Motorsport 3
YouTube: Turn 10 Studios’ Channel

Now, with the introductions out of the way, on with the rest of the Week in Review!

DLC Update

Since the release of Forza Motorsport 3 in October 2009, Turn 10 has been on the leading edge of downloadable content. From the beginning, we’ve made a commitment to provide the Forza community with great DLC content on a consistent basis; since FM3’s launch, we’ve released regular monthly DLC updates, including one track pack and an astonishing seven car packs. By my math, that’s somewhere north of 60 cars chosen and created specifically for DLC purposes.

With July’s release of the World Class Car Pack, monthly DLC releases have come to a close, as Turn 10 shift its development efforts to our Next Big Thing. While the monthly schedule might be ending, we haven’t forgotten DLC entirely and you can expect more DLC later this year. Stay tuned here for more information in the coming weeks.

Speaking of DLC, if you’re interested in picking up any of our previously released DLC for cheap, this is the week to do so, as a number of previously released Forza 3 DLC packs are this week’s XBLA Deal of the Week. The discounted prices will only last until August 8, so get in while the getting’s good. The full list:

•    AutoWeek Car Show Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•    Hot Holidays Car Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•    Jalopnik Car Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•    Nürburgring GP Track Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•    Road & Track Car Pack, 240 Microsoft Points

Image by CW Mattius- See this in more in the Community Gallery

Production Hoppers and Game With Turn 10

Have you heard about the production hoppers? Jube mentioned them in last week’s Pitpass Report and I can’t wait for them to be up and running. Production racing hoppers have been a long time coming and I’m looking forward to getting in there and putting my skills up against the Forza community. The new hoppers are being tested now and should be live next week so expect a more in-depth look at how the production hoppers will work next week. In addition to the production hoppers, we’re planning on refreshing the circuit rotations in several current hoppers, so be on the lookout for that too.

Once the new hoppers are live we’re planning another Game with Turn 10 event (this will be the fifth by my count) where you’ll get a chance to compete against members of the Turn 10 crew in the new production hoppers and elsewhere. I’m really looking forward to this, my first official in-game interaction with the community, and I don’t expect any quarter to be received (or given!)

Anyway, that’s all from me this week. Here’s Jube to get you guys caught up on the rest of what’s happening in the community.

Community Update:

Time Trial: The Mechberg Challenge

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday August 13th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Silverstone GP – 1991 Honda CR-X SiR

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “The Mechberg Challenge!” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by EZT Prophet - See this in more in the Community Gallery

This week in the community spotlight we take a look at a few events going on right now in the Forza community. It’s been a while since we have had a full on Trivia Friday on Twitter, so expect a lot of questions with a lot of unicorns and credits up for grabs!

R1 Photocomp - Sponsored by Nativ Tuning
Nativ Tuning and Manual clutch are seeking the talents of the community in this new photography competition. This R1-class based competition is offering up 5 million credits to the first place winner! That’s not all; there will be an editor’s choice pick of 500k credits to go with a secret prize of 500k credits. 10 million credits are up for grabs so get your camera and get to snapping!

Black vs. White: The Photocomp: Vote Thread
Last week’s featured photography competition received dozens of entries and they need your help in narrowing down the finalists. To participate, head on over to the thread and post your top 3 picks for both white and black choices.

Image by rokusho009 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Show off your widebody modifications (painters)!
This gallery has had a long run on the forums here and it really deserves a mention as there are some really creative uses of shadows on display. The devil is in the details when it comes to these paint jobs, many of which are so subtle you may miss it on the first glance. I’ve always had an appreciation for this type of livery painting so make sure to hit the thread on your way out of the blog. There are plenty of paints to grab from these painters storefront, and if you are one of these painters by all means share your work. Look forward to seeing more of these down the line.

Top Speed Discussion
Bragging rights go hand in hand with any competitive event. However, this is not an event for prizes but a place to gather and brag to other racers as to who really is the fastest. These guys are looking for a way to spotlight not just thrill seekers but also the top speed tuners who help them get there. They are intent to provide curious newbie’s with a helping environment for those willing to push their cars to limits previously thought of as impossible. If this is something that interests you, stop by and introduce yourself!

IFCA GP2Replica Series 2
Marking its second ever outing at the IFCA is the "GP2 Replica Series", a series aimed at mimicking the format of the popular Formula 1 feeder series where drivers compete in a 2 race format with partially reversed grids. For this series, the AWD 2010 Audi S4 in a spec-built A-532 performance index awaits! The series will begin Tuesday 10th August, with the racing schedule set to 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT (UK) over 8 weeks. Sign Up now!

Forza Pitpass Podcast Episode 9 is Now Live!

T10Studios Dev1 — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:24:00 GMT

Hello Forza Faithfuls! Back at E3 in June, Turn 10 unveiled a sneak peek at the studio’s future vision of the racing genre and its potential with Kinect via a demo dubbed the Forza Motorsport Preview. Last month, former Turn 10 community manager Che Chou sat down with Turn 10’s creative director Dan Greenawalt and design lead Bill Giese for a special episode of the Forza Pitpass Podcast to discuss the Forza Motorsport Preview and look ahead at what’s next for Turn 10 and the Forza series. Today, we’ve got that podcast for you to check out.

In this episode, Che, Dan, and Bill cover a wide range of Forza-related topics, including a discussion on how Kinect shaped the content that was shown, the extensive new technologies that went into the on-track and showcase demos that made up the preview, and what Turn 10 is working on in 2010 and beyond. Also, Bill talks about Turn 10’s “desire wall” and the whole crew picks their favorite Kinect game from E3 2010.

Enjoy the episode and we’ll see on you Friday for the week in review.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (7/30)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:21:00 GMT

Welcome to July 30th, 2010 and this is your week in review. There’s been a lot of work happening here behind the scenes and I am very excited to bring you an update on a few things planned for you guys in Forza 3. We have a look at an upcoming new update for the hoppers, a pair of VIP cars and a look at SEDC Pro Am from the eyes of community member, o9k Chocobo. There’s lots of ground to cover so let’s get started.

Image by Duekacer- See this in more in the Community Gallery

So let’s start off with a bit of news many of you will find very exciting. Last week Fred teased on the boards that a new set of changes was soon coming to the hoppers. While it was too soon to give specifics in the blog last week, we’ve reached a point where we can go ahead and reveal more specifics on the new rollout of changes and additions.

The biggest piece of the set is the introduction of a lobby that a lot of you will be happy about: the Production/Stock car lobby (name is not final). While tuning is a very big part of Forza Motorsport so is having a race against people on a more level playing field. In Production races, it all comes down to how well you hit your corners and how consistent you are around the track. Having this option is something we are very excited about, and something that will allow anyone to get in and race without opening your wallet (after all, tuning can be expensive). This lobby features a nice range of specific car/track combo in its rotation, ranging from a stock Aston Martin DB9 on Silverstone GP to racing alongside eight Honda NSX-R GTs on the Suzuka GP.

Image by Enosh Kasra - See this in more in the Community Gallery

The rotation is currently pre-set and will feature all types of cars, and over the next few weeks we will be tracking which combinations are doing well and which might need to be replaced. On top of that new lobby will be revisions of existing lobbies. That includes the removal of unused hoppers and the introduction of new track rotations into circuit lobbies.
These changes are being tested and we will have more information on these in the next pitpass.

Picking up from our requests the past two weeks in regard to motorsport event photographs and impressions, here is a look at Forzatographer “O9k Chocobo” who has taken his interest in Forza Photography and developed it into a serious interest in real life photography. These pictures were taken at Gresham Motorsports Park last month during SEDC Pro Am. You can view his Flickr gallery at this link.

Images by 09k Chocobo

Reminder - Get your Microsoft Points ready because this coming Monday is August 2nd and that means that previously released Forza DLC hits as the XBLA Deal of the Week! The packs will go on sale starting Monday for 240 Microsoft points; the sale includes the Nürburgring GP track to go with the Road & Track, Autoweek, Hot Holidays and Jalopnik car packs. This will only last a week so make sure you get in on this while the offer is still hot!

•    AutoWeek Car Show Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•    Hot Holidays Car Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•    Jalopnik Car Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•    Nürburgring GP Track Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•    The Road & Track Car Pack, 240 Microsoft Points

VIP car by Phredesign with tune by RSI Rotax Stig- Coming soon!

There is a new VIP car going out next week from Phredesign which will feature a tune from the winner of the last tuning competition. The paint job is a graffiti-inspired design on the B-Class 2003 Toyota Celica SS-I which will be sitting on a grip tune from “RSI RoTaX STiG”, built for Amalfi. You can see the new VIP car in the picture above.

While on the topic of VIP cars, I am really excited to finally announce that we are rolling out of our brand community VIP car program. This is a program which will bring in original race liveries painted by community painters and also tuned by garages in our community. The first car up is the #18 Takata Dome NSX and it’s from a painter a lot of you may know, artist DB9D9 and tuning club Autoart. It’s a beautiful Fujimi Kaido-inspired livery featuring a stylistic take on Mt. Fuji and the car should hit inboxes in the next two weeks. This is something we plan to continue down the road with different artists so be on the lookout for more of these in the future. If you think you know of an artist who would be perfect for this type of program shoot me a Private message and hit me with the scoop!

Another week down, another one to look forward too! Hope you’re excited for what’s coming down the pipeline, have a safe, fun weekend! I look forward to racing against you guys once this hits the servers.

Community update

Time Trial: When Panda’s Attack!

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday August 6th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Motegi East circuit – Toyota AE86

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “When Panda's Attack!” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Upcoming VIP design by DB9D9 tuned by AutoArt

Classic Car Photo Comp
The newly-formed Modern Muscle Car Club is hosting their second photo comp over at Forza Central. This weeks photography theme is based around classic cars (pre model year 1980). Car choice is not restricted to Muscle cars but you will be eligible for the 250K credit bonus prize if you use one. 1st prize is a 1969 Camaro SS Unicorn car (donated Turn 10) and 2nd place through 6th place will be receiving gift cars from me (all listed in the thread along with the official rules). Deadline: July 30th 10pm EST

Weekly Cars and Credit Give Away!
Does a complete lack of funds have you down? Are you tired of million dollar supercars whizzing by you around every corner? Here's your chance, these guys are going to give members of our community a chance to upgrade their current ride and step into something a little more luxurious (and fast!). Every week three people will win a vehicle selected by the community, which will be gifted to members of the community.

Image by Quilam94- See this in more in the Community Gallery

Big Bro Tuning & Design (BBTD) 10m CR Livery Photo Contest
The good work over at BBTD continues with their second photomode competition. This competition features one of the largest credit pools to date with a 10,000,000 CR prize fund (doubling the previous contest). As an extra bonus incentive, there's going to be one lucky entrant walking away with a 1m CR random giveaway prize! There's also a special 2 million CR "Editor's Choice" prize for the cream of the crop! Deadline: Extended to August 2nd

IFCA GP2Replica Series 2
Making its second ever outing at the IFCA is the "GP2 Replica Series", a series aimed at mimicking the format of the popular Formula 1 feeder series where drivers compete in a 2 race format with partially reversed grids. For this series, the AWD 2010 Audi S4 in a spec-built A-532 performance index awaits! The series will begin Tuesday 10th August, with the racing schedule set to 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT(UK) over 8 weeks. Sign Up now! Deadline: Sign-ups close 16th of August

Black vs. White: The Photocomp
A duel of colors, the goal here is simple - Forzatographers must post 1 shot of a black car and 1 shot of a white car which will be entered to win in one of the two categories. A final battle will be held to decide which photo is the ultimate best. Deadline: July 31st, 2010

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (7/23)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:29:00 GMT

Another week of summer down, the time really is flying by, I can’t believe E3 is already a month behind us! This week has been head down full steam ahead, so the blog is a little shorter than usual. Wrapping up the week of 7/19 and leading into next week is a look an upcoming sale for Forza 3 DLC and an interesting read on what one of our community members has been up to in the last few days. I just finished going over the comments from last week’s blogs and I really want to express how awesome the feedback and the contributions were. I have randomly sent out a few gifts to people who shared in comments last week so be on the lookout for those in your Forza inbox.

Image by Manual Clutch - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Major Nelson announced this week on his website that select DLC packs from Forza will be going on sale the week of August 2nd. The packs will go on sale for 240 Microsoft points; the sale includes the Nurburgring GP track to go with the Road & Track, Autoweek, Hot Holidays and Jalopnik car packs. It’s a great time to pick up some packs you don’t have at a great deal. This sale only lasts a week so make sure to get in on the deal. If you were on the fence on any of these packs

•   AutoWeek Car Show Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•   Hot Holidays Car Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•   Jalopnik Car Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•   Nürburgring GP Track Pack, 240 Microsoft Points
•   The Road & Track Car Pack, 240 Microsoft Points

The weekends are usually a stressful time for my PM Inbox , but this weekend was particularly busy and for good reason. Last week we featured a picture from community member Pebb who shared some photographs he took at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, I asked photographers in our community to please send any shots they had my way. Wow, It seems we have a rather large group of photographers here in the community who want to share their artwork with the community. Sharing is an important part of any community, its how they grow, and this allows us to get a glimpse of many shows that while we (all of us) would love to attend, but are unable to.

Again, a gigantic thank you to all of you who sent me links and photographs of previous car shows and events, if you have any more photographs, feel free to send them to me. We're looking for fan coverage of events, car shows, rare sightings. Pretty much anything cool related to car culture. We will be running these spotlights in future week in reviews and possibly as mini-blogs in the weeks to come! Already in the pipeline I have some shots from Formula Drift and Formula 1 that were sent in which I will be posting next week.

Image by KTLR - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Community member MitchyK7, who many of you may recognize from the Big Brother Tuning program and the CRS, has gone and done something equal parts awesome, crazy, amazing, insane and glorious. Curious as to what it is I’m talking about? Scroll down just a bit, its okay I will wait… Ok, your back now, pretty awesome huh? Mitchy went ahead and got the Forza Motorsport logo tattoo on his shoulder. Here’s what Mitchy had to say:

“With the BBTD and the Boys YMCA, Asmodeous has helped engage kids using Forza Motorsport 3 as tool for both rewarding and teaching. This game is great, this community is greater! This game is great, this community is greater! I'm proud to be a part of this community, for this game, and in 30 or 40 years time, when my grandchildren ask me what the red and black thing on my shoulder is, I’ll be able to tell them of the days when video games were 'just on a screen, with a controller you had to hold, there was none of this mental control enhanced reality nonsense in my day kids, and I remember when this was all fields, cars ran on petrol, tomatoes weren't just a picture in a history book, the united empire of America was just a country, and my bladder worked!'

So, no, I won't regret this, other people may if they'd had it done, but I will not, because of the history and wider scope they convey, to me they're not 'just a game logo'”

Image courtesy of MitchyK7 - Forza Motorsport Tattoo

Thanks to Mitchy for sharing his story with us, neat little way to cap out the week in review. Lots of options this weekend, it’s a packed motorsport weekend, Formula 1 over at Hockenheimring, NASCAR over at Indy mixed in with IZOD Indy car; that pretty much settles it, I will be indoors the majority of this weekend. Load up Forza tonight and have a safe, relaxing weekend guys!

Quick note: If you have not sent me a prize car selection for weeks 22,23 or 24 please do so as soon as possible. All of these prizes should be in your Forza inbox today if you have not yet received them. Also the new Time Trial will be up shortly.

Community Update:

Time Trial: Corvette Vs Atlanta!

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday July 30th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Road Atlanta Club Circuit – - #4 Corvette Racing C6.R

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “Corvette Vs Atlanta!” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by CW Mattius - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Interested in getting featured in the community update?
The community update is a great way to get one of your upcoming events, leagues, competitions or giveaways noticed. Do you want to get your event featured in this section? Head on over to our brand new community events section and promote your items. Content featured in the community section will be pulled from the events thread.

Black vs. White: The Photocomp
A duel of colors, the goal here is simple - Forzatographers must post 1 shot of a black car and 1 shot of a white car which will be entered to win in one of the two categories. A final battle will be held to decide which photo is the ultimate best. Deadline: July 31st, 2010

Glitter paint tutorial - Mind of Mjolnir
This is a quick tutorial that definitely deserves a second look this week! Looking to add a new tool to your arsenal? Check out this tutorial by MoM which shows a very clever way to simulate paint flakes. Kudos to MoM for posting this walk-through, the results are just as advertised.

Image by VitoRRo - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Big Bro Tuning & Design (BBTD) 10m CR Livery Photo Contest
The good work of BBTD continues with their second photomode competition with a 10m CR prize fund (doubling the previous contest!). Forzatographers are invited to shoot their choice of BBTD designs and show off their best work. As an extra bonus incentive, there's going to be one lucky entrant walking away with a 1m CR random giveaway!

Ultimate Drifting Championship
I don’t know how I would top VVombles introduction to be honest, so I’m just going to let him take it away “Think you've got what it takes to beat the best, pass the test. Do you dominate drift? Do you slide with pride? Do you know your speed better than Usain bolt, hold your angles better than Pythagoras, do you have more style than Brad Pitt doing a burnout in a Bentley? If so, then this is the challenge for you!” Like I said, there is no topping that description.

Nurbracer: Kings of the Castle
Yet again, Nurbracer are back with another of those speedy-race things they do oh-so well. This time around we celebrate the best of the best of the best (of the best). Think you can match the 599XX times around the ring? Well come on in and sign up, let your driving do the talking! Deadline: 27th July, 7:30pm GMT.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (7/16)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:44:00 GMT

Hello Forza Nation, welcome to another week in review. Today we have a look at the first week of results from the World Class car pack, a Game with Turn 10 recap and a special look at the Goodwood Festival of speed from one of our community members.

The introduction of ten new vehicles in this pack brings Forza very close to reaching a pretty cool milestone, 500 cars. We went over this list last week but just to recap; this month marked the debut of the highly requested McLaren MP4-12C along with the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, CL 65 AMG, Citroen DS3, the Kia Forte Koup, the Fiat Punto Evo, the CTS-V coupe, the Acura TSX and this month’s sample car, the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart. What were your surprises? I’ve read a lot of excitement over the Citroen and the Mazda 2 in terms of performance levels at the lower PI and the painters were quick to hop on replicas for the McLaren, which meant I was quick to hop on the storefront to grab them all! I’m not sure what to do with all of these McLarens, but they sure do look awesome. My first week impressions with the retail pack have been pretty fun and the weekend will help me (as I'm sure it will many of you) to really get down and dirty with my cars. My current favorite has to be the C63 (although the DS3 is up there), great kit options, awesome sounds and just a clean, mean look to it. I’m trying to find a home for it right now, leaning towards A at the moment. What did you guys think of the new Forza wings available on some of the cars?

Image by Mc Kane - See this in more in the Community Gallery

This past Saturday was Game with Turn 10 number 4, a day where the community team here at Turn 10 took to the hoppers to play against members of the Forza community. Familiar faces from the forum, Twitter and Facebook were all over the hoppers and good times were had, we personally had a blast. We even ran into a few gamers who had no idea what was going on, funny reactions when they found out. Over the three hours we played with over 200 gamers, I even managed to place first in a few MC races which turned out to be a little mean since the first place winners won codes hehe. We sent out all codes and cars on Monday (7-12) so if you have not received a code please PM me here in case we may have missed some of you guys.This was not a full-fledged game night though; we only had two people playing on our end (as opposed to the 8 the week before). The goal of this was to give players overseas or who were stuck at work on the last game night a chance to shoot the breeze, grab a unicorn car and possibly win a DLC code. If you didn’t get in we do feel bad and hope that you can make it for game night number 5 sometime down the road.

Image by Robert RS - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Speaking of DLC codes I have more to give out this weekend, while there will not be trivia today I will be posting a re-tweet contest on our official twitter page with 5 DLC codes to give away.

Quite possibly the greatest name for a car show, the Goodwood Festival of Speed wrapped up last month in West Sussex, England. Started in 1993, the Goodwood Festival of Speed was the Earl of March’s effort to bring back motor racing to the Goodwood estate. The Festival of Speed is an annual hill climb which features dozens of historic cars and modern day marvels which is host to over 100,000 people every year. Pebb took to the grounds to take shots of the many rare, expensive marvels over the course of two days. It’s very interesting to see the similarities between the shots Pebb and other Forzatographers take in-game compared to their real life shots. You can check out his full gallery over at his Flicker page here.

Photography by Pebb

Keeping up to date on all things motorsports can be a daunting task, (so many events!) so please, if you are planning to attend and photograph any upcoming racing events (Formula D, WRC, F1) feel free to send me a private message about it, we would love to try and fit more of these Forzatography crossovers into future blogs. That about wraps it up for us this week, time to recharge those batteries, and take out a few people this weekend in my very awesome Weld C63 (A-E, be on the lookout for me /flex).

To recap the questions:
What did you guys think of the new Forza wings available on some of the cars?

What is your favorite car from this month’s DLC and why? Was it the one you expected or did it catch you by surprise?

I will be randomly tossing presents around in the comments section while I review what you guys have to say! Have a great weekend guys!

Community Update:

Time Trial: It's a Crossfire!

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday July 23rd at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Le Mans Bugatti circuit – Chrysler Crossfire

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “It's a Crossfire!” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by ACon13 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

July World class car pack – Week one photos and liveries
The monthly photo and work-in-progress thread for Forza Motorsport 3 DLC is up and looking for more submissions. This thread encourages you to post your shots as you take them or your liveries as you work on them. Always a fun thread to read through and definitely a great thread for those stuck at work during DLC releases.

FM3 Community Livery Competition
Designed to bring out the best in the race/replica section, the Community Livery Competition is run by the community for the community. A fair competition and great prizes are the perks of this contest. All race-inspired/replica/original race designs are welcome!

Nurbracer BMW E36 Spec Racing Cup
The Nurbracer series have been no stranger to the community section in past week and they are back, this time with a team event. Spots are limited so if you are interested be sure to do so as soon as possible. Once signed up, you will be able to compete in all of their events.

Image by SnowrasPT - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Willy Wonka's Search for the Golden Ticket - 26 Million Credit/Prize Giveaway
The candy man is back as the search for the elusive golden ticket nears its unavoidable end. FirstHotLap has been putting up a numbered Wonka candy car for 50k cr in the auction house (the entry fee into the raffle). Here's what a description from FHL himself "At the end of each week I will do a drawing and announce (in the OP) the winning number and later the winner of the Golden Ticket. At the end of the fifth week I will draw a Grand Prize winner from the Golden Ticket holders." Deadline: Week 4; Thursday July 21st.

Glitter paint tutorial - Mind of Mjolnir
Hey painters, looking to add a new too to your arsenal? Check out this tutorial by MoM which shows a very clever way to simulate paint flakes. Kudos to MoM for posting this walkthrough, the results are just as advertised.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (7/9)

phREDESIGN — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:05:00 GMT

Quite a busy week here this week in the turn 10 offices and for the community team but as always an exciting one. The preparations for the upcoming DLC car pack contests, Game with Dev, on top of the normal daily duties have made for a busy week but one that’s been quite a bit of fun.

  It feels like yesterday that we unveiled the Summer Velocity car pack to the community and eventually released it on the Xbox Live servers. This month's car pack brings the current DLC car count to 80 vehicles available through 8 packs. I know a lot of you are really excited for two cars in particular, the McLaren MP4-12C and the Mercedes-Benz C63. The McLaren speaks, what can you say about it? Its an absolutely beautiful car, one which many of us can only dream of driving around the ring (you can do so Tuesday). I've played with it over the past few weeks and well ya, I think you guys are going to really enjoy it. The other car, the Mercedes C63 is one which was teased during Jalopniks studio visit a few months ago. It was shown on the dyno while we grabbed samples for the game (it sounds mean.. you can check the video out here).

McLaren MP4-12C  from the World Class Car Pack.

The sample car for this pack is, one of my favorites from the pack, the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart. I'll be looking for some tunes this week for this one; I'm a fan of cars that can dart in and out of corners and this one starting out at E-class has me looking forward to new multi-class options.It doesn't stop there though, we have the CL 65(with an optional Brabus kit), the CTS-V coupe and the Fiat Punto Evo SPORT.  

World Class Car Pack 

2011 McLaren MP4-12C 
2010 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG 
2010 Mercedes-Benz CL 65 AMG 
2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe 
2010 Fiat Punto Evo SPORT 
2010 Kia Forte Koup 
2011 Citroen DS3 
2011 Mazda 2 
2010 Acura TSX 
2010 Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart

The World Class car pack rolls out on Tuesday the 13th for 400 Microsoft points. The Facebook contest has wrapped up, you can get a look at the winners here and you can view the hub for the car pack by clicking here.  

This Game with Dev is coming off the heels of a recent Xbox Live sponsored Game with Dev, while we usually space these out, we really wanted to give international players a chance to get in to play with us at a more convenient time zone. The day kicks off tomorrow, Saturday 7-10 at 12:00 PM PDT (8pm UK, 9 PM Rome, 4 PM Brazil, 3 PM US EST) which will last for two hours. These are always a lot of fun, the format we will be using will be identical to the one we used on the first two Game with Dev sessions. If you're new to this or if the last Game with Dev was your first experience here is the format. Tomorrow at 12 PM PDT a group from Turn 10 will hit the multiplayer lobbies. We will be dropping hints all over the place, on our boards, on Twitter and on our Facebook.

Image by EsPeHil85 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Last week was pretty busy, so I do apologize for the lack of questions during Trivia, however I do have a set of questions ready to go for tomorrow so be on the look out from 12pm PDT to 3 PM PDT as trivia will randomly hit our feed, as usual they range from picture guessing games to standard trivia. We have a lot of fun prizes including in-game credits, unicorn cars, and DLC codes for the July World Class car pack. If you have not participated in trivia yet but want to this is what you need to do. You will need a twitter account (which you can get here, its free). Once you have a twitter account you can follow us over at @Turn10studios.  

That wraps up the week in review for the first week of July, Formula 1 at one of my favorite tracks, Silverstone and Game with Dev this weekend will be taking up my time.

Have a safe weekend FM.net!  

Community Update:

Time Trial: Maple Valley SLR

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday July 16th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Maple Valley Full Reverse – 2005 Mercedes-Benz SLR

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “Maple Valley SLR” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by JRDN31 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

BTCC Style Racing Series  
Late last month Williams F1 09 posted the details for 3 new series starting on July 13th, Clio Cup, Porsche Supercup and a BTCC style series. Currently all three series still have openings but the BTCC style series spots are closing so you most register fast to get into the action. Registration is simple, all you need to do is post your gamertag and the series you wish to run in the official thread and be ready to race on July 13th.  

A class TM Tuning Championship  

GSW SK15kev has started a new Tuning Championship this week, the idea behind this comp is to find out who can create the best tune with a level playing field. In each round of this comp GSW SK15kev will provide the tuners with the car and the specified build for that round. Details on the round one car have been posted along with a poll on what the settings for the round three car should be, if you are interested in following along with the action, check out all the details in the official thread.  

Zin Spec S5 Super Coupe  
This week jfiler and raudi decided to take one of raudi’s paints and strip it of all the manufacturer logos and begin to build the Zin Spec S5 Super Coupe. The clean design that came from this colloboration of jfiler, Raudi and DCV is really something. No details yet on the sales of this car but if you are interested in picking one up check out the thread in the tuning marketplace for info on this beauty.  

Image by Y ASMODEOUS - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Are You A Star Paint Comp
The entry deadline for the Are You A Star painting competition has come and PID1969 will be posting a community vote thread on Saturday July 10th for everyone to choose the winner of the first part of the comp. Once the winning car has been picked, PID will post the details on the HLC. Follow the official thread for details on both the community vote and the HLC.  

Nurbracer TOUGE challenge  
The Nurbracer Touge Challenge will be a two round head to head battle in tournament style bracket. The battles will take place on 3 different sections the Nürburgring track. Each driver must build their own car to the specified requirements to fight for two competition titles, “Touge Champion” and “Touge Hero”. Monitor the weekend action by checking out the official thread in the Public Car Meets.

  Nurbracer's Classic Supercar Cup
Relive the sixties in the Classic Supercar Cup from Nurbracer. This event consists of two races of three laps each in D Class, that may seem like torture but this is an endurance race after all. Spots are still available so if you are interested in a challenge then head over to the official sign-up thread to get your name end before the deadline.

Game With Turn 10 - July 10th

phREDESIGN — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:38:00 GMT

Time has come for another Game with Turn 10; a lot of the devs who participated in the last one really had a blast so you may see a few more people show up this time. We decided to go back to our usual method of finding us in the hoppers to allow more people a chance at winning.

Winning what you may ask? Well, everyone who finds us in the Hoppers get a Unicorn car but a select few will get a code for the World Class Car Pack, coming out next Tuesday.

Event Details

Who

Turn 10 Studios

When

Saturday July 10th

12:00 PM to 2:00 PM PST

How to Game with Turn 10

First, make sure your Gold Membership is current. Then go to Go Race then to Multiplayer. Once in the Multiplayer Lobby go to Find Race, then it is up to you to find us in one of the hoppers. We will be roaming around in Playground, Circuit and Multi-Class Circuit. The easiest way to find a Turn 10 gamer would be to follow us on Twitter or look for our thread in General Discussion. We will be updating both with hints at where to find us so stay tuned.

Gamertags

phREDESIGN

Ayo Jube

???????? Don't worry it will not be Greg, I know he scared a lot of people last time.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (7/2/2010)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:31:00 GMT

Greetings Forza Nation. Just over 4 years ago, I walked away from a career in videogames journalism for an opportunity to work on one of my favorite games (and genres) on the development team responsible for the franchise. The opportunity, of course, was the chance to build the Forza Motorsport community and harness the incredible passion here at Forzamotorsport.net. Those of you who have been around the block with me through thick and thin will remember those exciting early days when the site was more of a wild west featuring a collection of random content pages with practically no structure of UI to speak of. Then came E3 2006 when we debuted Forza Motorsport 2 with a teaser trailer. The site was cleaned up into an early blog-style format, and I began writing about anything that would get folks talking about Forza – seemingly unrelated automotive stories, teaser bits about the game, and everything in between. Out of those early days came the “Pitpass Report”, a weekly update type of entry I swiped from my colleague and then-community manager of Bungie, Frank O’Connor, who started the tradition of a weekly update with the Halo community.

Now, 4 years, 3 site face redesigns, and 2 games later, here we are. The Forza community is noticeably different; not just in the way Forzamotorsport.net has evolved with more site features and a better overall design, but also in the size, tone, and collective output of the community (i.e., all of you). And as I look back on my recent trip to E3 a few weeks ago, the folks I met from the community down in Los Angeles blew me away with their Forza passion and general hospitality. The Forza community today is a different place not because we’re all playing a different game (granted Forza the game has gotten more sophisticated via many new features, but the core driving experience remains essentially intact), rather, the collective here have matured along with the franchise. And with that maturity we’re seeing much better liveries, photos, and other types of user-generated content, such as videos, intricate car tunings, and more. Moreover, this collective maturity has created a community here at Forzamotorsport.net that I can proudly say, is one of the best online gaming communities around. With the help of the team I’ve assembled over the years, Landin Williams, Fred Howell, and Jube, Turn 10 continues to believe in the power of community and the value of the hardcore.

So with that preamble, it is bittersweet for me to announce that today will be my last day here at Turn 10 Studios and I will be moving on from my post as Forza’s community manager. I’ll be transitioning onto another first-party Xbox 360 team to work on another exciting franchise. Fortunately, I’ve hand-picked my replacement, cut from the same cloth as I was years ago before coming to Turn 10. The new community manager will start in the next few weeks – and when he does, I’m sure he’ll introduce himself via the Turn 10 blog with a Forza state of the union. Until then, Fred and Javier have the helm and will steer the community during the transition.

It’s an exciting time for racing fans, no matter what platform you’re on and what games you prefer. The truth is that the racing genre is healthy and burgeoning with goodness, be it arcade racers, sim racers, or something in-between. Then in 2011, the next Forza Motorsport experience arrives and all will be well with the world again.
Take care everyone, and thanks for all the years of your support!

Image by Enosh Kasra - See this in more in the Community Gallery

A word from Landin
“When Fred asked if I was interested in dropping some science in this week’s weekly update I found myself reminiscing to the beginning of my time here at Turn 10 Studios. Some of you may remember me as Che’s backup community mouthpiece leading up to the launch of Forza 3, writing blogs about random backyard project cars, the latest hit videos and of course our very own vibrant community. Since then I’ve transitioned into an artistic production role, working on visual development, cinematics and cameras. But enough historical data. This right here is all about the man himself…the myth…the legacy. Che Chou.

I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Che over the past three years, and besides his amazing personality and love for all things video game, he’s really helped me grow as an employee and a person. I’d like to take this moment to send you my thanks Che. You’ve really been my mentor since I arrived here at T10 and considering you took a chance on me and my crazy Blackjack drifting videos back in 2008 I’m forever in your debt. Even if your first introductory e-mail to me was almost deleted in my junk box before I actually read it (yeah that actually happened)!

Anyways without further ado thanks for everything Che, and good luck with whatever you decide to pursue. I know you’ll bring the same intelligent thought and understanding of the industry (and everything else) wherever you go. Hold it down! Peace. Landin.”

Image by gamefanhasxlive - See this in more in the Community Gallery

A word from Fred
The one thing I will always remember about working with Che is his incredible ability to spit out amazing ideas in a matter of seconds; it’s like a superpower. Much like when you brought Landin on to the Community Team, you gave me a chance to work for the game that was a huge part of my life, and I thank you for that.

I know you will be successful in the next adventure, and you always have my graphic design abilities at your hands, until of course you find another person who paints your face on a car. Thanks again for everything Che, I wish you the best.

A word from Javier (Jube)
Interviewing for Che in January was a pretty interesting experience for me, being a long time EGM/1up reader and a Forza player; it was just weird to be talking to Che in person. Add to that the red eye flight which led straight to the Turn 10 office and the usual nerves that accompany an interview and well, Luckily Che is one of the coolest people I’ve come across, even though he keeps making fun of my android phone.

I don’t think the three of us will ever be able to say thank you enough, not many people get to work with something that they love every day, and it is an opportunity I can safely say none of us take, or will take for granted. Thanks Che for trusting us and allowing us to grow and learn as employees in an industry that was foreign to us, yet one we were very passionate about. Thanks dude.

Image by TokenBlackGuy4U - See this in more in the Community Gallery

The updates for this week in review will be a little shorter than usual, so I am going to get right to the point! We have a lot of stuff which will start next week, a new twitter contest, a VIP car, new stuff up on YouTube and last but not least, July DLC spy shots!

Let's start with July's DLC spy shot series. You guys already know how these work. The contest this month will run on the Official Turn 10 Facebook, running from Tuesday the 6th until Friday the 9th. We have lots of DLC codes to give out for this pack, as well as some other goodies to give out. I'm going to make these shots as hard as possible, so good luck to all of the participants!

The new VIP car will be rolling out on Tuesday as well, the car will be a surprise but the livery will feature everybody's favorite agent from Crackdown 2. The car Fred painted during E3 is also still on the way, we will hopefully have new info on that for you guys next week.

Image by BDD Kaido - See this in more in the Community Gallery

I almost forgot, next week we will have another Game with Dev! This will be smaller in terms of devs, but will be on Saturday again, from 12:00 to 2:00 PM PDT. We know the last time we set ran a little late for European and Japanese gamers so hopefully we will see you at this one. This will be sponsored by us, so the normal rules will apply. The Turn 10 devs will hit the hoppers for those two hours handing out unicorns and maybe a DLC code or two to gamers we run into.We will be dropping hints to Dev locations all over our social networks; you can follow us on our forums, Twitter or on Facebook.

Last but not least, a new podcast will hit the website next weekend which will feature Che, Landin and Dan Greenwalt chatting it up on all things Forza and of course, Che's last day. This is a Holiday weekend, so we will be back on Tuesday with a super busy week in front of us. Happy 4th of July to everyone stateside, to all of our international gamers you guys have a great one as well. Have a great weekend guys - Jube

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (6/25)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:14:00 GMT

The week is winding down and we are only several hours away from Game with the Developers night here at Turn 10. Retail kits have been plugged in, friends have been accepted and Cockpits have been prepared. This event is different from the ones we usually host, as this one is through Xbox Live and Xbox.com. The eight players each have their preferences when it comes to online multiplayer, so expect games modes ranging from Circuit racing, Drifting and Multi-class down to Cat & Mouse and a Virus Tag. We do apologize for spots filling up so fast; the event is featured on the community section of the Dashboard, so friends lists filled up really quickly, even after removals. There may be a few more openings right before the start of game night as we clear out final duplicates.

Image by Eiscafe123 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

To recap, for this event we have set up eight gamertags that will be taking place in the Game with Developers on June 25th, unlike our other events you will not have to find us in the hoppers. All you have to do to get in on the fun is send a Friend Request to any of the gamertags we have listed below and be ready to race on Friday. You can view the game with Devs blog here which contains more information regarding the event.

Now, we hinted a few weeks ago we would be stepping up the activities in other venues (YouTube and twitter) and I’m excited to detail what that will entail. Our YouTube channel will continue to feature Trailers as we release them, but in addition to those we will be uploading new sets of original content. To start we will be rolling out a set of tutorials (similar to the ones you have seen on my YouTube page) in HD which will cover a variety of different topics, from painting realistic work, shading, and layout out a full design to more basic tutorials such as carbon fiber, racing stripes and font creation. Expect to see these roll out in the coming weeks so make sure to subscribe if this interests you. We will also be giving out prizes randomly (such as DLC codes, unicorns) to our subscribers there as well.

The second part of this involves a new contest on twitter which will run really soon (more information early next week, details are still being finalized). In place of the unicorn car will be custom designed for that user, which means limited to 1 of 1. The winner will work with either Fred or me (your choice) to come up with a design that they are happy with. The design will be placed on the car of the winners choosing. So stay tuned next week, we will be posting more news about this contest.

James Elterman, who many of you are familiar with for his Takata Livery contests, has been killing it this season in Redline Time Attack. Well James Elterman and LIC Motorsports have a little surprise for us, they have been documenting their journey. The first episode of “The Underdogs” was released yesterday, in HD, on their website. I highly recommend checking it out; there is a lot of HD racing footage as well as great behind the scenes stuff showing how the Subaru was built and its journey to ButtonWillow raceway (in which James took 1st in the super session). Check out the trailer or better yet head on straight to the site and download the episode (it’s free). www.theunderdogsdoc.com

Image by Novux - See this in more in the Community Gallery

A few weeks ago, in this very blog, we posed the question “what car inspires you, and why?” The answers in that blog led to the start of a little community project, which resulted in the Community Inspiration wallpapers (which you can check out here). We would like to do a few more since everyone seemed to enjoy them (both our side in creation and your side in participation) so, here we go again. If you can, tell us why a car inspires you, it could be a car a relative owned, your first car. Whatever it may be, feel free to share. If it’s a car featured in Forza Motorsport 3 we might be able to turn it into wallpaper, but either way it’s a fun way to share your story.

Trivia on the Turn 10 Twitter page returns this week after taking a break last Friday. Expect questions surrounding the upcoming F1 GP to go along with the usual motorsports trivia. If you are unfamiliar with how this works, it’s pretty simple. From 2pm PDT to 6 PM PDT trivia will randomly hit our feed, they range from picture guessing games to standard trivia. We have a lot of fun prizes including in-game credits, unicorn cars, and DLC codes. If you have not participated in trivia yet but want to this is what you need to do. You will need a twitter account (which you can get here, its free). Once you have a twitter account you can follow us here @Turn10studios.

Image by PrimoLoz - See this in more in the Community Gallery

How fast the week went by, to the gamertags who made it into the Game with Dev we will see you tonight! Everyone else can find me, as usual, in the Multi-class lobbies throughout the weekend (A-E). Have a great weekend, the practice for the 2010 F1 Telefonica Grand Prix kicked off today in the streets of Valencia, Spain! It should be an awesome event; to recap Barrichello took the 1st place podium last year with Hamilton right behind him. So what do you think forum? Will Barrichello find his way back to the podium this year or will Hamilton continue his performance from the Canadian GP?

Community Update:

Time Trial: Saleen on Road America

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday July 2nd at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Road America – Saleen

Image by Gtown25nick - See this in more in the Community Gallery

The Music Challenge
If you feel music is the soundtrack to our lives check out this new competition. The concept is simple; you partner up with a Forzatographer and pick a song which will set the tone for the photographer. The Forzatographer will then posts a 2-3 shot set of car which he thinks will best suit the song.

Dougyt40's B-class Road Atlanta Tuning competition
The idea behind this one is simple, Tune a B class car which will be driven for 1 warm up, followed by 5 flying laps by Dougyt40 at Road Atlanta and fastest single lap wins. Currently we have 7 million in-game credits as prizes. Full details at the link.

Monkey's competitions:
User “Me Monkey 8 Me” is no stranger to hosting community contests. This week, it’s time to guess the layer! The prizes will all be cars from UK manufacturers packed with upgrades (excluding DLC cars), the top prize will also gets a 250 GTO. Each contestant is allowed three guesses, so you have the chance to win up to three cars!
Deadline: Closes 26th June

Image by Djrds - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Willy Wonka's 26 Million Credit/Prize Giveaways
The Candy man is back this week with the continuation of the Golden Ticket giveaway. At the end of each week, painter extraordinaire “FirstHotLap” will unleash his pure imagination to host a drawing. At the drawing, FHL will announce (in the OP) the winning number and later the winner of the Golden Ticket. At the end of the fifth week FHL will draw a Grand Prize winner from the Golden Ticket holders (no chocolate factory here though). Check the link for more info.

Interested in getting featured in the community update?
The community update is a great way to get one of your upcoming events, leagues, competitions or giveaways noticed. Do you want to get your event featured in this section? Head on over to our brand new community events section and promote your items. Content featured in the community section will be pulled from the events thread.

Regarding Comments:
Going forward, the DLC car requests in the comments section will be removed from the blog. I understand there are cars you would like to see in the game, we all have our favorites, however the posting of those in the comments kills any discussion opportunities that we can enjoy.

2010 AXF-24 Challenge Results

phREDESIGN — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:42:00 GMT

I arrived early at the Audi Forum NYC to begin setting up each of the racing stations for the AXF-24 Challenge. The beautiful showroom atmosphere of the Forum is right in the heart of Manhattan. Once everything was setup, I took the chance to demo the game for both the Audi Forum personnel and the catering crew who were waiting for the food to arrive. Everyone who sat down in the Forza Motorsport Playseats was really impressed with the realism of diving in Forza 3.

Around noon our first competitor, GLR BRIZZO, arrived at the Audi Forum, travelling all the way from Little Rock, Arkansas, he was ready to compete. TRC Greekman, a veteran of the last AXF-24 and SP33D RAC3R 28x arrived soon after and the three racers began to get accustomed to their racing setups. Once the doors to the Audi Forum opened the spectators began to arrive and since the racing setups were facing the large open windows of the Forum, there were many curious onlookers who would spectate from the outside.

The AXF-24 Challenge was to be three 45 minute sessions where the drivers would run using Time Trial rules in the 2009 Audi #2 Audi Sport Team Joest R15 TDI on Circuit de la Sarthe. The winner of the event would be the driver who had the lowest average time for all laps competed in the three sessions. As the first session began the three racers were mainly in a feeling-out mode with each one not really hitting his stride until midway through the first session. As the first session closed, SP33D RAC3R 28x had a solid lead on the competition an average lap time of 03:17.212, TRC Greekman was in second with a time of 03:18.027 and GLR BRIZZO rounded out the group with an average time of 03:18.445. The second session is when all the racers really began to hit their marks; each driver would go on to beat their first round average lap times. SP33D RAC3R once again came out on top with an average of 03:16.853 and BRIZZO began to narrow the gap on Greekman with an average lap time of 3:17.658 compared to Greekman’s 03:17.953.

As the third session began it was clear that with his excellent showing in the first two sessions, SP33D RAC3R was in the lead and barring a catastrophic third round he would win the event. The real action of the third round was the battle for second place. A poor first lap in session three had Greekman feeling the heat from BRIZZO. Greekman’s average lap time had moved up from 03:17.990 to 0:03:18.171, dramatically narrowing the gap between him and BRIZZO. The second lap of the session actually saw BRIZZO move in to the second place over Greekman and from that point forward it was unclear who was going to take home second place since the two racers were battling back and forth for the rest of the session.

In the end, there was no catastrophic crash for SP33D RAC3R 28x as he walked away from the Audi Forum with first place and a 1-day R8 Audi Sports Car Experience package in Sonoma, CA, new Xbox 360 Elite, Forza Motorsport 3 Playseat and a Microsoft Racing Wheel. TRC Greekman did finally edge out GLR BRIZZO to win second place and a Custom Painted Xbox 360 Elite and the Forza Motorsport 3 Playseat. GLR BRIZZO did not leave empty handed, he got to keep the gear, he got to take home the Xbox 360, the Playseat and the racing wheel. Congratulations to all the competitors. Special thanks to AAR Pvt Donut for his pictures and to the Audi Forum NYC for hosting the event once again this year.

Game with Developers - Turn 10 June 25th

phREDESIGN — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:55:00 GMT

The time has come for another edition of Game Night with Turn 10, the difference this time is that we have a lot more of the Turn 10 staff that will be hitting the racetrack this time around.

Now for this event we have set up eight gamertags that will be taking place in the Game With Developers on June 25th, unlike our other events you will not have to find us in the hoppers. All you have to do to get in on the fun is send a Friend Request to any of the gamertags we have listed below and be ready to race on Friday.

Event Details

Who

Turn 10 Studios

When

Friday June 25th

4:00 PM to 6:00 PM PST (the current time on Xbox Live is listed incorrectly)

How to Game with Developers

First, make sure your Gold Membership is current and send friend requests to the Gamertags listed right away. Then, be ready to play at least one-half hour before the event starts. Don’t forget your headset, so you can ask those burning questions about the game. If you get a game invite, get ready to Game with the Developers!

If the friend list of the gamertag you selected is full keep trying we will be narrowing down each friend list to make sure we get as many people as we can included into this event.

Gamertags

T10 phREDESIGN
T10 Ayo Jube
T10Studios Dev1
T10Studios Dev2
T10Studios Dev3
T10Studios Dev4
T10Studios Dev5
T10Studios Dev6

We look forward to seeing you all out on the Track. By the way watch out for our man Greg, he is ready to crush anyone who gets in his lobby.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (6/18)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:24:00 GMT

Ah E3, my favorite time of the year, just barely behind the winter holidays. Take it from me; it’s a close race between those two. This E3 was pretty full of exciting things too, from the announcement that the next Forza will support Kinect, to Harmonix getting gamers excited about dancing. A lot of Turn 10 staffers made the trek down to LA to the Electronic Entertainment Expo this year to demo what Turn 10 has been busy working on.

Image by O9k Mudkipz- See this in more in the Community Gallery

“The Forza motorsport preview is a select peek at one aspect of the future of the Forza Motorsport franchise, both in terms of the way Kinect has empowered Turn 10 to create a revolutionary way to interact with virtual cars. Once inside the cockpit of the Ferrari 458 Italia, Kinect will track the player’s head movement, allowing seamless examination of the ultra-high detailed interior, which includes everything you’d expect from the real 458 Italia – from buttons and digital gauges, to the stitching on the leather trim of the dashboard – it’s all there with impeccable attention to detail. This is as close as you’ll get to the real thing – all without the need for a controller. The next full Forza Motorsport experience, which utilizes some of the ideas presented in this demo, will ship in 2011.”

The amount of media that comes out of E3 can be overwhelming, among all of the content released several backstage demos of Kinect have found their way to many gaming sites which have show the Kinect demonstration in a lengthier fashion. Destructoid put up a great video showing Dan and Bill walking the press through the new technology behind the Forza preview which you can check out here. In addition to what was shown in the keynote, you also get a look at new points of interests on the Ferrari 458 Italia as well as different ways to utilize familiar options such as color selection. Another link definitely worth checking out is from 1UP who posted a video as well, the video shows the same demo from a different backstage presentation and also with a different camera perspective (this one focuses more on the user). Check out 1ups lengthy 16 minute video here.

Image by Manual Clutch - See this in more in the Community Gallery

E3 was trucking along on all cylinders Wednesday, as the Turn 10 Forza party kicked off to a room of fans, friends and select media. Turn 10’s own Phredesign was on hand to paint a very special car designed by John Chase of Dstroyr. The blue 370z featured clothing company “Dstroyr’s” headhunter logo, which was accompanied by a hand drawn skull illustration. The event was a blast, the E3 preview was shown off and visitors got a chance to check out the 458 up close and personal. Next to the virtual 458 were a real Ferrari 430 and a Spyker c8. Destroyr took a bunch of great pictures of the event which you can check out here.

Forza community, are any of you guys looking forward to Crackdown 2? If you are unfamiliar with Ruffian’s open world sequel, Crackdown 2, check out this video. The sequel to one of the most popular 360 games is back, Crackdown 2 hits stores July 7th. Ok, now I’m sure you’re asking yourself “Jube, I know Crackdown has cars, but what does that have to do with Forza?" Well, we have 20 early demo codes to give away, which we will be giving away via a Time Trial. The top ten times will each receive a demo code along with ten random players. This time trial is available to everyone so if you want a shot at winning simply follow the instructions below (in the Time Trial area). Phredesign had to wrestle these out of my hand; I really wanted to keep one for myself as Crackdown is just pure awesome burnt to a disc. There will be a car to go along with this as well which will be sent out in closer to the games release. Time trial ends tomorrow so be sure to get your time in ASAP before it ends!

Image by Enosh Kasra - See this in more in the Community Gallery

The Audi Forum was rocked this week as the second annual AXF-24 event kicked off last Saturday during the legendary 24 hours of Le Mans. What a 24 hours it was for Audi too, the German manufacturer took the top 3 spots in LMP1, holding off the heavy favorite Peugeot. The three fastest times in the AXF-24 Qualifier took to the cockpits and went to work. 4 hours of hot lapping by the three amigos. Speed walked away with a cockpit and a trip to California to take an R8 around the track.

That marks the conclusion to another "week in review", and what a week it's been. E3 has come to a close, Le Mans was fantastic, the US beat England (a tie is a win in my eyes!) and we also wrapped up AXF-24 and the E3 Forza party. It is going to be a wonder weekend of reflection as we soak in everything that happened in the past 7 days. Hope you guys have another great, safe weekend. Viva the games!

Community Update:

Time Trial: Crackdown 2 TT

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Saturday June 19th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: New York – Lamborghini Reventon

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “Crackdown 2 TT” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by Takafumiar1sawa - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Willy Wonka's 26 Million Credit/Prize Giveaways
If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it. Anything you want to do it.
Want to change the world? There’s nothing to it. Follow the candy man down in search of the ever elusive golden ticket. At the end of each week, painter extraordinaire “FirstHotLap” will unleash his pure imagination to host a drawing. At the drawing, FHL will announce (in the OP) the winning number and later the winner of the Golden Ticket. At the end of the fifth week FHL will draw a Grand Prize winner from the Golden Ticket holders (no chocolate factory here though). Check the link below for more info.

YouTube Submission Thread
Turn 10 is always looking for new media to feature here at Turn 10 both in our “Week in Review” and Youtube pages. If you have a video you would like to share, head on over to this thread and post your video along with a short description and maybe you will see your creation on one of those pages. Thanks to everyone who has submitted a video over the past few months, you guys bring a lot of enjoyment to fans of virtual motorsports.

Reminder about the community update
the community update is a great way to get one of your upcoming events, leagues, competitions or giveaways noticed. Do you want to get your event featured in this section? Head on over to our brand new community events section and promote your items. Content featured in the community section will be pulled from the events thread.

Image by evomunk - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Smashtastic Demolition Derby
This is a demolition derby tournament taken to the extreme. They will be running 8 heats, with 8 players. TPoints will be awarded for the order in which you go out. Last man standing gains the most points. The person with the most points at the end of the tournament wins 800,000cr.

SIMRACING HD Formula Indy Grand Prix Series - Round 2 Qualifying
The Formula Indy Grand Prix Series features the R1 Acura ARX-02a for our Formula Indy class, and a R2 Radical SR8 Supersport for our Formula Indy Lights class. Drivers will compete on some of the most famous Grand Prix circuits from around the world, with F1-style knockout qualifying and real world track conditions for each round in the race season. Here is a video of highlights from their last race http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpPbitS5z4A

F vs B tuning contest.
Carlalsford is hosting a competition this week revolving around two tunes built around 5 different tracks.The builds are set in the F class and B class categories. Prizes will be awarded to the overall winner, second and third, along with fastest tune in each class around each track.

The Future of Forza at E3 2010

chespace T10 — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:41:00 GMT

Hello Forza Faithfuls! This morning, amidst all the fanfare of Xbox 360's Kinect reveal and new console redesign, Turn 10 unveiled a vertical slice of its next major project. Currently dubbed "Forza Motorsport Preview", the demo was equal part a look at how Kinect can equalize the racing space and allow all car fans, whether casual or hardcore, to enjoy racing action on track, as well as a glimpse into how Turn 10 is using Kinect to bring you closer than ever to your object of desire -- i.e., a super-detailed virtual car you can interact with totally controller-free. If you haven't checked out our official statement on "Forza Motorsport Preview", you should get caught up here.

It's been an exciting road to E3 for Turn 10. We debated long and hard on whether this E3 was the right time to show the world what we've been working on for the past 6 months; with the reactions we've been getting so far from the press, it looks like this decision definitely paid off for Forza. Scanning our own forums as well as others, it appears there are plenty of questions about what "Forza Motorsport Preview" actually is. At this point, we're not saying a whole except to confirm the following facts:

The Forza Motorsport Preview we showed during the Xbox 360 keynote was all running in real-time and in-game. Yes, the gorgeous Ferrari 458 Italia you saw is testament to the prowess of our new graphics engine and the overall power of the Xbox 360.
The demo we showed is not additional DLC for Forza Motorsport 3. This will be Turn 10's "next big thing" and will be a full-fledged Forza Motorsport experience launching in 2011.
The future of Forza will be enhanced by Kinect. We are creating a game that will truly be accessible by audiences of all racing pedigrees. That said, we are not leaving our core players behind. There will be plenty here for both newbies and veterans. It's Forza Motorsport. We know what we do best.

To give you another look at the Forza Motorsport Preview Ferrari 458 Italia experience, we will be releasing a video later this week on Forzamotorsport.net. In the meantime, I'm off to join Dan Greenawalt and Bill Giese in hosting the games press coming through for a behind-closed-doors look at Forza Motorsport Preview tonight. Expect to see various hands-on impressions come through later this evening and all throughout the week.

Talk to you soon.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (6/11)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:04:00 GMT

The Le Mans of the video game industry, E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) marks the biggest day in the video game industry. The event spans 4 days and features game developers from all over the world, and brings with it four days of new trailers, demos, announcements and reveals. E3 is always an exciting time for gamers; it’s an event that is driven on the strength of the games featured. In fact the only bad part about E3, in this gamers’ opinion, is the wait after the conference ends to play the games. It’s a great week to be a gamer.

Image by Eiscafe123 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

This has been a really busy week around the offices; people are gearing up and getting packed to head down to Los Angeles. We will be at E3 this year enjoying the atmosphere and the festivities over at our E3 party. Dan, Che and Fred will be down there as well as few other Turn 10 staffers. I’ll have lot of pictures for you guys next week from both the Forza event and AXF-24, there will be live hot lap challenges going on, live painting and lots of Forza 3 kiosks on display. After posting the memo on the boards, Twitter and Facebook, we received a large amount of emails regarding the party invitations. Check your email over the weekend, if your name was selected you will receive a confirmation along with further information. Phredesign will be heading down to LA next week to attend the party and take part in a live livery painting. That car, which will feature a custom paint from a local LA artist, will go out to VIPs the week after E3.

Also, Game Night with Turn 10 is back! Yes, we’re back again this month with “Game with Dev #3”. T onJune 25 with our largest turnout yet! On that Friday, eight Turn 10 staff will hit a combination of lobbies and cars. Please note that we might mix up the way we host the lobbies this time along with possible prizes we may give out. I will have more concrete details as the event date closes in. I for one really enjoy these events, especially when I am able to win a race here and there haha.

Image by Acon13 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Four days have now passed since the release of the Summer Velocity pack, a release which has brought a lot of content to the storefront as well as some possible contenders into the hopper classes. A slew of original and replica liveries have hit the storefront, as is par for the course on a new car release, but these are great because you get to see these stock cars in a different light. I’ve seen quite a few awesome Ford Fusion liveries already. The Morgan Aero Super Sports race livery is a prime example of this; it goes from a classy, retro automobile to an absolutely gorgeous race car. My personal favorite of the pack however has been the Lotus Evora. I love how in control I feel inside that car; it’s pretty quick, attractive and can get really aggressive on the turns. We have two threads running where painters and photographers are posting the work they have put in over the past two weeks.

And now a regular section of our blog, the Twitter trivia reminder. There will be trivia again this week and it will continue a trend we touched on last week; the 24 hours of Le Mans. If you are unfamiliar with how this works, it’s pretty simple. From 12pm PDT to 5 PM PDT trivia will randomly hit our feed, they range from picture guessing games to standard trivia. We have a lot of fun prizes including in-game credits, unicorn cars, and DLC codes. If you have not participated in trivia yet but want to this is what you need to do. You will need a twitter account (which you can get here, its free). Once you have a twitter account you can follow us here @Turn10studios. Once you are registered, when you see a question posted on our page you can hit reply and post a “tweet” which will be seen by our (T10) twitter account. If you are using an application (tweet deck, twitteriffic etc) you can type in @Turn10studios with your trivia answer. Hope that helps, if you need further assistance you can drop by our twitter discussion thread with your questions.

Image by JoeGTR - See this in more in the Community Gallery

That about wraps up this week which leads up to a very exciting weekend. As all of you know, this weekend marks the start of quite possibly the greatest race on earth, the 24 hours of Le Mans! Who do you guys think is going to take it, Peugeot looks pretty strong out of the gate, let me know your predictions in the comments! We can't forget, there's also the Canadian Grand Prix to tune into on Sunday as well, I better get that Tivo ready! A busy weekend for Turn 10 globetrotter Phredesign, Fred is packing his bags and heading out to New York for AXF-24 this weekend. If you sent an email to RSVP you should have received an email yesterday to confirm your attendance. Remember this event is 21 and over, so do not forget your ID's.

We can't forgot another monster sporting event (outside of motorsports though), the World Cup! I can’t wait to see USA upset England this weekend (yes I said it, and I'm not taking it back haha)! I am personally in full hype mode,E3 rumors, the World Cup launch, the Canadian Grand Prix, and of course, the 78th running of the 24 hours of Le Mans. Have a great, weekend guys!

COMMUNITY UPDATE

Time Trial: GT3 on Maple Valley

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday June 18th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Maple Valley Short – 911 GT3 RS (997)

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “GT3 on Maple Valley” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by SnowrasPT - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Looking to get featured in the community update?
Do you want to get your event featured in this section? Head on over to our brand new community events section and promote your items. Content featured in the community section will be pulled from the events thread.

T.A.S.C. - Trans-American Sedan Championship
The Trans-Am Series is an automobile racing series which was created in 1966 by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Originally known as the Trans-American Sedan Championship it has evolved over time from its original format as a manufacturer’s championship for modified racing sedans to its current form as a drivers’ championship open to GT style cars. Forza Racing League has decided to carry on the Legacy to a virtual format and will kick off their series on June 5th carrying over to June 26th. This is a 4 race event with the all goodies. Sign Up Today @ ForzaRacingLeague.com

'The Hangover' - Where's Doug?
Find Doug! The FPT crew has been driving around Vegas for hours and still has had no luck finding Doug. They're starting to get worried and need your help! Write up a story telling us about your journey to find Doug. Have fun, be creative and remember anything goes! Prizes: S&R Limited Edition paints by ABGRAPHICS and Fat Pig Tuning Limited Editions by KCTigerfan.

Image by DIS Pointguard - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Summer Velocity pack Livery thread -
A collection of week one liveries created for the vehicles in the velocity car pack. Our community really stepped it up this week in both fantasy and race replica categories. Make sure you stop by if you are in the market for new art or have created a livery. The more work posted here is definitely the merrier.

Summer Velocity Car pack Photography thread –
The other half of the content creation thread, Forzatography, is also up in the media section with a host of fantastic photographs featuring cars available in the Summer Velocity pack. If you have any images to contribute feel free to hop in and post your work.

On Her Majesty's CRS service.
The CRS is proud to announce a James Bond themed competition, with various bond replica prizes handed out over the course of competitions that run over the next two weeks. All prizes have been donated and painted by CRS member Karavanhead. This competition has something for everyone, whether you're a great driver, or spend most of your time in the sand traps, come on in and give it a go! Deadline: This ends tomorrow; there is still time to get your submission in!

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (6/4)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:36:00 GMT

The beautiful thing about cars is that everyone, regardless of interest level, has a car that inspires them or that they think of fondly. Whether it inspires them to work hard (to afford said car), drive faster, driver better, or simply dream a little bigger, there is a car out there that connects with us. Regardless of how deep into car culture you are willing to dive into you have your car. It may have been inspired by a childhood movie like back to the future, Bullit, Le Mans, or maybe even 2 Fast 2 Furious (kidding). It may be a car that your father owned, or simply a car that turned your head as it drove down the street.

Image by AsR Sponsor - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Two weeks ago I threw a question out there; the question was “what car inspires you?” The replies were great, over 60 out of the 100 comments were gamers sharing their story, some of the replies were short but a few had a lot of meaning behind them. It was a great comment section to read through and I want to thank everyone who shared a story. I guess it’s only fair I share mine.

My inspiration for cars comes courtesy of my cousins. Being ten years younger than they were meant we shared few interests but they did have one thing, a set of cars that I really wanted to play with. This was not just any collection of model cars, this was an awesome collection of model cars (60-70 cars), after days of begging and pleading they finally bought me a kit, it was a Boss Mustang (I completely butchered the stickers it came with). Which while being an awesome car isn’t my choice, but it did lead me down to what I decided on. It’s the Peugeot 206 WRC. I was drawn in by its shape, but what resonated most with me was the livery, the white and blue with the Lion on the hood. That car inspires me.

Image by o9k Chocobo - See this in more in the Community Gallery

The quote below was posted by community member “LEGEND OF KYOTO”; it was one of many stories which we will be attaching to wallpapers throughout the week. If you haven’t visited the thread yet, you can check out the “What cars inspire you” wallpapers here. Now, let’s get to Kyoto’s story.

"Out of all of my favorite’s cars, the one I think inspired me to get into engineering in the first place would be the Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT Apex (AE86). I like to tune a 4-cylinder engine and tune it so it can compete with cars with more power such as V8's. I always picked a lower powered car and put my time into it so it would become my own vision and set up the car based on my tastes such as steering, ride quality, power, and handling. I got interested in the AE86 since I was about four years old. My passion for the eight-six grew when I found out about Initial D even before the Manga and anime was released in the US. I remember asking my family to order me the VCD's, VHS tapes, and Manga imported from Japan for my birthday presents. I also taught myself some Japanese from this. I would like to import an RHD model from Japan- the color panda Trueno (black/white/black). I am also checking for updates on the new FT-86. I am already saving my money so I can get this car when it’s released. I am a big fan of the 4-AG engine especially the TRD silver top version ‘Group A’. After the eight-six, my next favorite would be the Supra. I like/enjoy cars from any auto maker; they are all engineering marvels to me. - LEGEND OF KYOTO"

Image by The Shadow Edge - See this in more in the Community Gallery

This month we are releasing a new car pack onto the marketplace labeled “The Summer Velocity” pack. The pack rolls out with a wide variety of car types from boutiques to SUVs to production tune ready vehicles. The Facebook contest has wrapped up, you can get a look at the winners here and you can view the hub for each car by clicking here or one of the links below.

Summer Velocity Car Pack
•    2010 Lotus Evora Type 124
•    2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8
•    2010 Ford Fusion Sport
•    2010 Legacy Subaru 2.5B
•    2010 Morgan Aero Supersport
•    2010 Mercedes Benz SLK 55 AMG
•    2010 Bertone Mantide
•    2010 Mazdaspeed 3
•    2010 BMW X6 M
•    2010 Peugeot 308 RCZ

Finally, as we wrap up yet another busy week in Forza land, Twitter trivia is back, this time with Summer Velocity car codes available as prizes. The trivia will begin at 1:00 PDT (9pm London, 4 EDT). We will be giving out plenty of codes on the forum, YouTube page, twitter and even Facebook over the next few days, so there are plenty of chances to win in the next 5-6 days.

That’s it for this week Forza Nation; let’s end it with a new question. What race are you looking forward to the most this year and why? Also, feel free to hop in on a previous question we asked, what car inspires you?

Community Update

Time Trial: Who’s the Boss
What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday June 11th at 12:00PM PDT

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Road Atlanta Club Circuit – Mustang Boss 429

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “Who's the Boss” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by Sean0 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Looking to get featured in the community?
Do you want to get your event featured in this section? Head on over to our brand new community events section and promote your items. Content featured in the community section will be pulled from the events thread.

SIMRACING HD Formula Indy Grand Prix Series -Round 1 Qualifying (Catalunya GP)
The Formula Indy Grand Prix Series is a set of races that features the R1 Acura ARX-02a in a Formula Indy class setting, and the R2 Radical SR8 Supersport for their Formula Indy Lights class. Drivers will compete on some of the most famous Grand Prix circuits from around the world, with F1-style knockout qualifying and real world track conditions for each round in the race season. Click the link above for more information.

On Her Majesty's CRS service.
The CRS is proud to announce a James Bond themed competition, with various bond replica prizes handed out over the course of competitions that run over the next two weeks. All prizes have been donated and painted by CRS member Karavanhead. This competition has something for everyone, whether you're a great driver, or spend most of your time in the sand traps, come on in and give it a go! Deadline: Saturday 12th June for all comps.

Image by ChiefPillo - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Guessing Game Competition
The rules are simple, depending on the picture, try and guess the 'exact car model' or the Exact number of layers (or to nearest 5). The 1st person to guess correctly wins, 700,000 credits are up for grabs in this week’s competition. Deadline: Rolling until person guesses correct car for this current competition.

Forza Motorsport Drift League returns (currently in sign-up process)
A team based drift event in which teams must compete against each other in a competative 3v3 style drift battle (no points included). The Idea behind the league, is that every person involved gets something out of it,whether its fun, bragging rights, or social interaction.

Drift 64 Man Drift Tournament
A tournament based on 1v1 style drifting, in which 64 drifters will battle each other in knockout rounds. Do you have the skill and the composure to reach the final bracket and win?

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (5/28)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:36:00 GMT

If there’s one thing I need to work on in my personal game; it’s keeping my composure when I’m in the lead. Unfortunately, trying to maintain a lead while half of Liverpool is yelling at you makes keeping that composure all the more difficult. This past Saturday we held a second game night early in the day, a lot of European and Asian Forza players showed up and it was quite the experience. I’ve never been a part of some many discussions, in so many different languages in one sitting; it was a very cool affair.

Game with Turn 10, for those who missed out, is an event where Turn 10 employees hits the online multiplayer lobbies with DLC codes and unicorns in hand. The games lasted about two and a half hours and covered 8 different arenas. They ranged from Multi-class circuit racing, Drag and Stock car racing to Cat and Mouse modes. We saw many familiar forum faces, including NeoUnbalance, who translates the twitter posts into Japanese for us (he also has a very impressive 3 Cam stream setup worth checking out). He was there with a very competitive crew of Japanese Forza players.

Image by Leoram - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Throughout the night we had a lot of memorable interactions with gamers from the Forza community and while many names stand out there is definitely one who will not be forgotten. The award for most enthusiastic gamer of the night goes to Greekboy, whose yells of “Ohhhh, OHHHH, OHHH” spurred on a pretty long laughing fit for Phredesign. Thank you Greekboy, your speaker bursting enthusiasm will be remembered.

R1-F class racing was a hopper that I admit, was new to me. I prefer A-C class racing so at home, I never really ventured out into that series before. I got to say though; this is a Forza experience that everyone needs to try, even if it’s just once. There is nothing in Forza like the sheer terror of driving an F-Class Hatch at 70 mph while an R1 monster, which is too low to see clearly in the rear-view mirror, roars past you at 200 MPH’s. The screams of terror every time an F-class driver was lapped in game chat, was absolutely hysterical. It eventually became a meta-game with R1 cars deliberately doing flybys as close to our F-Class cars. It’s like being in the middle of a car chase scene in a movie, you driving at 70-80mph only to see 4 cars zigzag past you at 200. It was a pretty hilarious and awesome experience overall.

My last game of the night was also my favorite race, which would be because I came in first place. Stealing the glory at the last minute as one car driving in reverse took out the entire pack chasing me was glorious; the groans were music to my ears. If you guys have any feedback on how to spice up the game nights let me know in the comments, this is not a monthly planned event but it is something that was a lot of fun and may happen again down the road.

Image by HJoeyTMalR - See this in more in the Community Gallery

The time trial qualifier is wrapping up today and AXF-24 is right around the corner, if you are interested in attending the event please get your emails in to forzafb@microsoft.com (Subject is "AXF-24 NEW YORK, include your name, age, address and email) to secure your spot at the event. It’s going to be a blast, HD TV’s will be displaying the 24 hours of Le Mans, music, food and drinks are all part of the attraction. The party is on June 12th in Manhattan, NY and you must be 21 years of age to get in.

Switching to a different social note, In an effort to make it easier for players to stay connected to the Forza community we will be revamping the social network sites currently used for Turn 10 and Forza. This will cover the official Facebook and YouTube pages that we have running. The YouTube page will also ramp up in the coming weeks with new original content and prize giveaways. Expect new video tutorials, replays and community videos in the coming weeks as well as exclusive trailers and content on the YouTube blog. All of these new additions will lead back to the forums in terms of discussion threads and news posts. This go-around we will be hosting the spy shots on our Facebook, the format will be the same only we will unveil the same day if the cars have been guessed correctly. Simply post your answers/guess in the picture/wall post, the first three correct answers will win a copy of the June DLC. The First car will be posted at 11:00 AM PDT with the second shot following at 3PM PDT. Due to Memorial Day on Monday being an off-day here in the States, the Spy shots will begin on Tuesday, June 1st. Tuesday and Wednesday will feature 3 cars with two being shown on Thursday and Friday. A lot of codes going out next week on the forums, facebook, youtube and twitter, which means a lot of chances to pick up a free pack :)

Image by accident 198 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Finally, last week’s car battle will mark the end of the regularly scheduled car battles, but NOT the end of VIP cars. Car battles will mark their returns for special occasions and events, so they are not gone for good just off the 2 week schedule. Don’t fear though, there will be still be new VIP cars hitting inbox's each month only in a different format.

That’s it for us this week; again this is a long weekend here in the States so we will see you on Tuesday for the new spy shot contests. I will be going over the comments of last week's blog and sending out a few cars here and there, I read quite a few already and there were some great stories posted. What do you guys have planned this weekend, anyone hitting up any local car shows or have special plans for the Indy 500? Cya guys next week!

Community Updater

This weeks video: The Essence of Drift

Time Trial: Lotus on Tsukuba
What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday June 4th at 12:00PM PST

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Tsukuba Circuit Full – Lotus Elise 111 S

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “ Lotus on Tsukuba” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by The 360 Gremlin - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Big Bro Tuning & Design (BBTD) 5m CR Exotic DLC Photo Contest
The guys over at BBTD continue their series of events and community activities with a special 5,000,000 CR photo competition. Forzatographers are invited to shoot their choice of the Exotic DLC cars and show off their best work. Any Exotic car, any livery, and any situation - the choice is yours. As an extra bonus incentive, there's going to be one lucky entrant walking away with a 1m CR random giveaway prize! Deadline: Friday June 4th 2010

Virtual Prodrift Series for Ireland & UK
The launch of a European Virtual Pro Drift Series is here. The initial sign ups are open to UK and Ireland’s time zone, but don’t give up hope as they may extend to other European gamers if enough interest is shown in the near future. This will be a friendly competition for people in the same time-zone.

Image by djrds - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Monkeys Ferrari garage giveaway
Another contest makes its return this week. Simply guess the total number of layers in Monkey’s design (pictures of all sides included). Prizes are from the entire Ferrari garage (not including DLC). You get three guesses which gives you a chance to win three cars. Anyone is allowed to enter. Deadline: Friday 4th June

D.A.R.C. [Demolition Arena Racing Championship]
This DECATHLON is a points-based competition series that includes 10 different race types over the course of approximately 2 hours. It’s a light hearted event focusing on the lighter, playground modes of Forza 3. Prizes vary from week to week, but all winners of ranked events will get at least 100k CR each. The league runs events every Wednesday and Sunday evening.

25,000Cr. Budget Challenge Series
In this challenge, contestants are invited to build and tune a car to a budget of 25,000Cr. This budget is the main theme and is meant for beginners to improve their tuning skills in a competitive environment without bankrupting themselves. The series has already run 4 successful rounds, but we are always looking for new contestants as well as anyone who wishes to help, whether it is donating a prize or offering their services as a test driver, anyone is welcome to join in. Deadline: Round 5 is OPEN NOW to anyone who wants to join in and submissions close on the 30th of May so don't delay

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (5/21)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 21 May 2010 01:56:00 GMT

We have some pretty cool news this week with the return of the AXF-24 Competition which debuted last year during Le Mans. Also the second Game with Turn 10 night begins tomorrow at Noon PDT, so a busy weekend ahead of us; let’s start with the AXF-24 Competition.

The AXF-24 is a celebration of one of the biggest races in the sport, the 24 hueres du Mans. The event will feature a lot of activities including a 4 hour hot lap challenge on the virtual Le Mans track in Forza 3. The AXF-24 challenge is back in New York this year and we have a special invitation for any gamers who are able to make it out to festivities in Manhattan next month. AXF 24 will be held at the Audi Forum again which will feature screens running the 24 hours of Le Mans. It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by since AXF 24 2009, but its back to celebrate Le Mans with awesome prizes and a new hot lap format as well. If you live in the NYC/Tri-state area or are willing to make the trip to NYC, you can join us as we celebrate the 78th 24 hours of Le Mans on June 12th!

To secure a spot to race at AXF-25, a qualifying time trial has been posted today. To clear up the qualifier, there are no physical prizes for this Time Trial qualifying event. For those of you gamers who can make it to the event and are interested in competing for prizes your journey begins today. The vehicle you will be driving today will be the #2 Audi Sport Team Joest R15 TDI which you will race around Le Mans La Sarthe. The three fastest drivers will be invited to compete in the AXF-24 Challenge, (again this is a local event so be sure you can make it if you decide to enter the qualifier). If you plan to attend you must be able to get to the event on your own and you must be 21 years of age. The event will have catered food, feature an open bar, DJ and Entertainment and a chance to explore the Audi Forum Showroom. There will also be prizes and souvenirs at the door. It should be a very memorable time with at a lot of laughs to be had. If you are in the Tri-State/Area or can make it to Manhattan we will have a sign-up sheet later in the week. Check out the full story here.

Image by vT Genera1Rul3s - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Game with Turn 10: Part Two kicks off soon, the second go around will launch tomorrow at 12:00 PM PDT (3 PM East coast, 8:00 PM London, 9:00 PM Italy and 4:00 PM in Brazil). The last game night was a lot of fun. We will be updating the location of current Turn 10 gamers via Twitter, Facebook and on our message boards, so you have a lot of ways to check it out. Turn 10 Employees can be identified ingame pretty quickly, just look next to their name and if you see a Turn 10 logo you’ve found one.

This Saturday we will be roaming the Multi-class, Cat & Mouse, Tag and Drag racing lobbies in search of more good times. Over on the Playground expect activity in Tag Virus, Cat & Mouse, Drag racing lobbies. On the circuit side of things you might the Turn 10 logo hanging out in the Multi-Class lobbies’ races going on in the A-E, S - D and B - F class hoppers. So be sure to stop by the hoppers, we will be giving out unicorns and DLC Codes for this month’s exotic car pack to racers that we run into. There were many games played last month in which we gave away hundreds of codes and cars, so here is another shot at the elusive unicorn cars. Although to give more people a chance to grab a car we will be limiting each user to one unicorn car each. When we did this last month I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was a really great time, I even managed to win a race!

Image by Novux - See this in more in the Community Gallery

It’s been a month since we started putting out twitter trivia and there is more on the way today! The trivia has already started and questions begin at 12:00 PM PDT and run at the start of every hour until 5. You can follow us here at @Turn10studios, if you have any questions on how to reply or play along check this thread out. Also the community event thread we opened last week has been a great addition to the pitpass; the community updates featured below were all picked from the events thread this week which can be found here.

As the week comes to a close, I have one question for you guys. what car out there inspires you and why. Everybody out there has a favorite car, regardless of how into cars they may be. What is yours and why? I’ll be checking the comments and randomly handing out some in-game goodies to the interesting replies.

Community Update

Special: ARX-24 TT Qualifier– A special time trial for the AXR-24 competition next month in New York City.

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday May 28th at 12:00PM PST

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Le Mans– #2 Audi Sport Team Joest R15 TDI

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “Road & Track Time Trial” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

Image by O9k Rattlehead- See this in more in the Community Gallery

25,000Cr. Budget Challenge Series
In this challenge, contestants are invited to build and tune a car to a budget of 25,000Cr. This budget is the main theme and is meant for beginners to improve their tuning skills in a competitive environment without bankrupting themselves. The series has already run 4 successful rounds, but we are always looking for new contestants as well as anyone who wishes to help, whether it is donating a prize or offering their services as a test driver, anyone is welcome to join in.

Nurbracer Nordschleife 1 Hour Weekly Endurance
Nurbracer" is a "Nordschelife-Fun-Fan-Group". All skill levels are welcome from beginners to veterans. Their Endurance Events vary in Classes/Cars/Rules every week accompanied with a friendly atmosphere with fair drivers. Outside the weekly Events, members meet very often to drive at the "Green Hell" just for fun. Feel free to join the Group & keep checking our thread for upcoming Events!

A [600] Spyker C8 Laviolette LM85
Another hot lap challenge that 'xI Jakk Ix' and Quilam are running which will feature the new Spyker C8 Laviolette LM85 that released with the new DLC. The competition closes May 29th so you have a week to get your submissions in. Click the link below for full details!

Image by DFR DEVOS - See this in more in the Community Gallery

CTCC (Classic touring car championship)
An interesting event from the Entrants will be required to buy and tune a car over 25 years old, put own custom design on and have a race plate with their personal number on it (I can provide race plates if needed). All of the car assist and race restrictions/ rules can be viewed by clicking the link.

Exotic Car Pack Photo Contest
Want to win an Xbox Live 12 Month card? The guys over at forzamotorsport3.fr are hosting a new photography competition. The task is simple, take a nice photo on Forza Motorsport 3 and join the Photo Contest on FM3.fr.

Apex Racing League Race Days
Race Days every week dedicated to fast, clean, competitive racing. We have been running race days on Forza 3 for a few months now on weekdays and weekends, in identical cars to prove who the fastest driver is. Each Race Day has its own ranking, with everyone being added onto an Ultimate Driver ranking. Head over to our site to get involved!

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (5/14)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:41:00 GMT

As the excitement over the Exotic car pack DLC reached its peak this week and the cars hit the Xbox live marketplace, I started to argue with myself over what my favorite car of the pack was. When I first looked over the roster I thought it would be immediate what my favorite would be but I had a tough time narrowing down a top five let alone my single favorite. Was it going to be the Radical? A beautiful and violent mechanical wizard, famous for setting the fastest production time around the Ring, or was it going to be the SSC Ultimate Aero? It’s a tough choice that’s for sure, the SSC is fast, scary fast and surprisingly nimble (especially considering how many horses are pulling this carriage!). That’s only two of the cars; I haven't even gotten to the Spyker, Mosler, Joss and the Gumpert which have to be considered! So which one of these ended up being our favorite? I’m going with the car that surprised me the most; the Noble M400 based Rossion Q1. I love this car. It feels perfect to me, I can zip in and out of corners and hold my own on the straights and it even netted me a few wins last night in A-class.

Phred has taken a shine to the Weismann whose retro styling and interior hand built appeals to his refined tastes (Phred races the MF5 the same way he drinks his tea, with his pinky raised). The car is awesome though, it’s powerful, controlled and classic so I can definitely see why he likes it.

Image by Eiscafe123 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

It’s been interesting to see what kind of influence this pack would have on the hoppers, the introduction of the Radical, SSC and Mosler have brought a new mix to the R3-R2 hoppers including the Multi-Class hoppers. I’ve raced against many tuned Spyker’s and Rossion Q1’s in Multi-class A-E this week and loved how competitive the races were. I’m curious what S-D will look like for me this weekend. So there you have our favorite cars, now that you have had some time to play with them, which are your favorite cars?

The first game night was so much fun we had to do it again. While not a monthly planned even we did want to do another one that would grab as many Forza players as possible. So, our second game night will be rolling out May 22nd at 12:00PM PDT (8PM London). We will be handing out unicorns again as well as codes for the “Exotic car pack”. The first night was a lot of fun, so we’re really excited for another go. I’ll do my best to twitter the locations again but being out of office for this one might make that a little tough. Either way next Friday I will have concrete details on where you will be able to find us.

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The first qualifier only time trial is now up and we can reveal the time trial setup. Those of you who put up a time up on the Time Trial are now invited to compete in a special time trial event this week. This time trial will be split into three groups according to your performance in qualifier. The three groups will be classified as Professional, Semi-Pro and Amateur, you will be notified via an in-game message as to which time trial you are qualified to run. This won’t be the last set up we will run using this format but we will continue to mix up how we divide the user-groups going forward to keep it interesting.

The Turn 10 car team contributed to some really tough questions last week including the toughest to date. This was a question so tough only 15 people submitted an answer to it, as opposed to the 400 minutes prior to an easier question. Today we are back with more questions ranging in difficulty levels from easy to enthusiast. No codes this week but a lot of unicorn cars and credits to give away. If you have not participated in trivia yet but want to this is what you need to do. You will need a twitter account (which you can get here, its free). Once you have a twitter account you can follow us here @Turn10studios. Once you are registered, when you see a question posted on our page you can hit reply and post a “tweet” which will be seen by our (T10) twitter account. If you are using an application (tweetdeck, twitteriffic etc) you can type in @Turn10studios with your trivia answer. Hope that helps, if you need further assistance you can drop by our twitter discussion thread with your questions.

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Over the past few months we have featured spotlights from our community in this very blog but there are usually too many items to feature in one week. Starting Monday we will roll out a new section on the forums where users can promote their events for all to see. We will pick submissions for the week in review from that selection. This way even if your event does not make it to the week in review feature your item will still be visible to others.

The Alan Wake VIP car rolls out Monday on the winning OPEL OPC Team Phoenix car. Alan Wake is a psychological thriller created by our friends over at Remedy! They’ve been working on this one for a while and it looks brilliant. We have a new VIP Car battle going up Monday as well, this time it is the McLaren #41 Team McLaren F1 GTR Vs. the Saleen #2 Konrad Motorsports S7!

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Regarding the winners of the Road & Track contest which wrapped up a few weeks ago, everyone has been contacted and the prizes have started to go out. The messages have been sent out, so if you won a prize and have not received a message over Xbox live send me a PM here. With all of that being said, enjoy the weekend guys!

Community Update

Week 18 – Romeo, Oh Romeo TT

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: until Friday May 21st at 12:00PM PST

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Mugello Club Circuit – Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “Road & Track Time Trial” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

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Exotic car pack 1st week Photo and livery thread
One of my favorite threads each month, this is a collection of photos taken over the week, a look back at the Exotic Car Pack launch week through the lens. Almost a hundred images can be found here with shots of every exotic car in the pack. There are some really amazing photographs that can be found in this thread share yours or just stop by for a quick look.

Forza Tuning applications for smart phones
Forza iPhone and Android users so of you are already using, if this is all news to you be sure to check out your phones marketplace for these free tuning apps. These apps are great for helping you figure out a base tune for your cars and a good app to help you understand tuning.The discussion thread is located above.

Side-2-Slide School for the Newbie's [Idea]
DRFR Socal plans to start up a school for “Drifters who can't slide good and want to learn to do other stuff good too”. If you’re interested and have the time to help out fellow newbie drifters in trainers stop by thread and sign up to become a teacher!

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Me Monkey 8 Me layer competition
me Monkey 8 me, a very talented and very oddly named member of our community, is throwing a layer contest. I’ll let him describe it to you “this contest is a chance to win 3 cars from the complete Porsche garage (excluding dlc cars).” You have 3 attempts to correctly guess the amount of layers he used in creating his livery, winner gets a prize.

Special Time Trial Event Discussion Thread
The discussion thread for the time trial, which began on Tuesday. If you entered a lap in the qualifier this is the discussion thread for you, lots of tips, discussion and friendly competition to be found here.

Exotic car pack DLC Livery Round up:
Now that you’ve broken in the leather seats in your DLC cars take some time to stop by this thread and see what the race replica community has been up to. The replica scene is stronger than ever and with a pack of cars this fast the painters are working overtime! There are a lot of really strong designs in here from the Forza community, many which are free, all of which deserve a quick look.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (5/7)

Ayo Jube — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:40:00 GMT

I have to admit, it is really hard to read the discussions that go on during the spy shots contests each month and not be able to join in (don’t want to give anything away). There is a level of excitement in these threads that is really infectious, from the wish lists before a reveal as to what dream cars people are hoping for to the debates that rage on later in the week, from these observations I can already tell that the Bugatti Veyron Vs. SSC Ultimate Aero will be a popular subject on the forums. I'm sure the Gumpert Apollo will be a very popular around the boards as well. I'm really excited to see the race liveries for the Mosler MT900S and I really can’t wait for the Bugatti vs. SSC races that are sure to happen, community hosted team racing series anyone?

So far eight of the 10 exotic boutique cars have been revealed over at IGN.com. In the past four days they have revealed the SSC Ultimate Aero, Spada Codatronca TS, Mosler MT900S, Gumpert Apollo, Spyker C8 Laviolette, Devon GTX, Joss T1, and the Rossion Q1 with only two more cars still shrouded in mystery. The last two cars fit very well with the phrase "last but not least" as they are nothing to sneeze at. The last two spy shots are tough, but I think they are definitely worth the discovery!

Image by OCTANE 65 - See this in more in the Community Gallery

The pack has some real superstars in it this month, some you know and some cars you may not have heard about until today (codawhonow?). This pack is home to the Ultimate Aero, whose younger brother (previous version) holds the record for the fastest top speed by a production road legal car (257 mph). All we need now is a road long enough to test it on! Also in the stable this month is another reason for Aussie’s to rejoice (oy, oy, oy! I could do this all day) with the Joss JT1. The JT1 is Australia’s first concept car which is scheduled to hit production next year after years in development, a gorgeous car with a rear that will be home to many Forza photographs this week I’m sure. Finally the Gumpert Apollo, which along with the GT-R, has been requested for a long time on the forums and over the internet since Forza 3’s release. What it lacks in name sexiness it makes up for in power, handling and vents... Lots and lots of vents.

I hope you guys had as much fun this week as I did with the spy shots guessing game. We had our biggest discussion thread yet, the discussions were fantastic. We're interested in feedback regarding the spy shots, were they too easy, were some too hard etc. Drop us a line in the comments below and let us know what you think!

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The DLC Time Trial Qualifier that went up on Wednesday is entering the home stretch this weekend; there are a lot of credits being sent out into the hot lapping universe. If the speed of the top 250 racers is something that intimidates you, I encourage you to give this time trial a go. This is a great time trial to get your feet wet in when it comes to learning the hot lap ropes. For one, the random 500 prizes we do weekly are higher than they have ever been at the half a million credit mark. The second twist this week? The random prizes are not limited to 500 people, for every 1000 users that hit the leaderboards we will add 500 random names to the pool. If the leaderboards close at 8000 users, that will mean that we will random off 1500 names who will each receive 500,000 credits. The exotic car park hitting next week this is a great opportunity to supplement your credits! This time trial closes on Tuesday, remember to qualify (be eligible) for next week’s DLC time trial which will feature the sample car from the Exotic Car Pack.

Now an update on this week's leaderboard cleanup. As part of our ongoing efforts to keep reviewing the leaderboards, the second wave of our planned cleaning concluded earlier this week. I wanted take some time today to clear up some confusion over what was done. Over the past two weeks we ran a scan over our entire leaderboard time setups to identify and remove times recorded with the transmission glitch. Over the scan we identified and individually removed times found to be using this method. A handful of users during this scan unfortunately kept showing flagged times, a few had so many flagged times that their times were removed completely. The biggest point of confusion that I want to clear up is that no one was banned, a handful of users had their times removed due to excessive amount of flagged times. The amount of users who showed up multiple times was a small group and that group will be able to post times again. If you have had a time or all times removed and are having trouble posting new times send me a private message here.

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I hope you have your car encyclopedias and trivia books ready, the third week of trivia twitter kicked off this morning and will go throughout the day featuring a host of motorsport questions ranging in difficulty levels. There are unicorn cars, credits and a couple of codes for this month’s “Exotic car pack”. We had a few people who were confused when it came down to answering the trivia so here’s a quick breakdown. You will need a twitter account (which you can get here, its free). Once you have a twitter account you can follow us @Turn10studios. Once you are registered, when you see a question posted on our page you can hit reply and post a “tweet” which will be seen by our (T10) twitter account. Any tweet with @Turn10studios will reach our twitter account.

The latest VIP car battle has concluded and the 2003 Opel #5 OPC Team Phoenix V8 is the victor over the other new entry, the Cadillac #8 Remington Shaving CTS-V. I’m glad I am not a betting man; I was really sure the Cadillac had this one! Thousands of votes came in over the week with a lot of support towards the Opel, which walked away with 56% of the votes. A pretty impressive victory for the #5 car. This car will feature a very special paint that is being painted and primed by Turn 10’s own phRedesign and will feature a custom Alan Wake livery. This livery celebrates the release of MSG family Remedy’s psychological thriller. The time trial for this one will begin on Monday (due to the DLC TT qualifier) and run throughout the week. The paint and car will be sent out next Friday so be on the lookout for that.

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Last but not least, the 28th Annual Golden Joystick awards kick off soon and we need your help! Forza is up for an award in two categories best racing game of the year and Ultimate Game of the year. The Golden Joystick awards are voted on by the fans and fans alone. The first round of voting closes on May 27th, 2010 and you can place your votes over at www.goldenjoystickawards.com. That wraps up another fun filled week in Forza land; I hope you guys have a great weekend. Next week looks to be a fun one as well!

Community Update

SPECIAL WEEK – DLC TIME TRIAL QUALIFER
No new time trial this week, the focus will be on the DLC TT Qualifier

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: until Tuesday May 11th at 12:00PM PST

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Sebring - Porsche #16 Dyson Racing RS Spyder Evo

Image by CRjakeFAN - See this in more in the Community Gallery

Official Turn 10 Contest: Race Replica
Our contests usually feature some awesome submissions but this week in race replica was brutal, dozens of fantastic submissions that are begging to be downloaded. Such an impressive turnout guys, great job. Judging this week is going to be extra difficult!

Shadow Motorsports 2010 Desktop Calendar
Shadow Edge is still at it, bringing the community monthly gorgeous wallpaper stitches featuring painter liveries from all walks of Forza. This is a thread that definitely needs more views, if you are new to the thread or haven’t visited in a while be sure to drop by.

RaceCar Magazine?The FANATEC Nürburgring 2.4 Race Report:
Check out this awesome write up from Eddie Exhaust of the Nurburgring 2.4 which was sponsored by Fanatec. This series consisted of a grueling two hour race over The Ring that was host to “Fight4her” racing club member F4H Nikrox picking up a win at the last second over Daveyskills. Congratulations F4H Nikrox, enjoy your Fanatec racing wheel.

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4 The Love tuning comp thread
ECT racing team is looking to reach out and touch someone with the 4 the love Tuning competition. ECT is looking at pairing up individual painters and tuners who have never worked with each other before. The results to this contest should be very interesting

Chromed Competition - Winners
A few weeks ago we spotlighted a competition titled Chromed. The focus of chromed was to show off the chrome work in Forza 3 in stunning and unique ways. The community came through this week and voted on these stunning chrome showcases. Drop by and check out some of the winners.

[ETCC] Season 14 starts May 30th
A new ETCC league season starts in a few weeks, sign ups are up and open to the public. Now entering its 14th season, the ETCC is a great place for drivers of all skill levels to meet up and partake in fun, clean competition.

Forza Motorsport 3 - Week in Review (4/30)

phREDESIGN — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:43:00 GMT

Last night was an absolute blast; we got to hang out with a lot of great racing fans and boy were there a lot of you guys. It was great to see new faces and also hop in with forum regulars that we recognized. I hope you guys had fun, and I’m sorry to the players that didn’t have a chance to join in on the fun. We got a lot of cool messages throughout the night and I will be uploading pictures from the night in the discussion thread which can be found here. If you have any cool or interesting pictures like Phredesign stalling out at the strip while typing, or me running wide on Mugello at the final turn(I thought I had that one) please share them, fun night overall. For Euro Forza we’ll have something to get you guys in next time we had to do this after work this week so the time was limited to after work hours. Here’s a little recap of how the night went for us.

You guy’s figured out pretty quickly where I was going to be hanging out in as I’m currently hooked on multiclass racing. So I started out heading straight to B & F for my multiclass experience, ran into a couple of UK and American gamers (thanks for showing up Euro-Forza, we know it’s crazy late where you are) and actually managed to come in first in my B class Holden. That didn’t last long as the next set of Multi-class rooms saw me getting whooped around for 4-5 laps.

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After spending the first hour in Multi-class I ventured into Cat & Mouse, ran into a few forum regulars (porsche9146, Slab of Bacon) and we were paired against a racing club (HDR). The game was long but intense as Slab and I ganged up on HDR Mopar while Porsche blocked our mouse with his 2-11. Great fun and great clean racing (aside from the cat and mouse games haha) all night, sure some accidental hits and crashes but all in all a wonderful time. The absolute highlight of the night for me was racing in multi-class, after lagging behind Johanp78 for 3 laps on New York I made up enough time on the final two turns to edge out a win, the battle cry I let out sure got a lot of weird looks around here haha.

If you didn't run into me last night then you probably ran into Phred, Ayrton2222 or Turntenstudios. Phred was all over the hoppers last night picking up wins and according to some people, a couple of losses as well (we need proof)! Still it was all for the sake of fun and he had a great time playing last night. You might have run into him if you were in the Drag, stock car, Circuit D & E or tag rooms. He spent a lot of time shooting the breeze in the drag and stock rooms trying to race as best as us painters can!

Landin was the mystery staffer playing under the Gamertag “Turntenstudios”. Sticking to Tag tonight the yells from his office were hilarious to listen to, lots of noise going on over here throughout the night and a lot of laughter both here in the studio and in game chat.

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This event is separate from what we did with the Turn 10 game night, but the Xbox Ambassadors will be playing Forza Motorsport 3 online next week. If you are new to Forza or are looking for some friendly competition you join the Xbox Ambassadors this Tuesday. The Xbox Ambassadors are community members who have been around the block and enjoy showing new members around. They have Ambassadors in over 18 countries speaking more than 30 languages. If you’re interested you can check out the blog post here for more information, this event kicks off on May 4th.

It’s been a long (but fun) road for this month’s Road & Track DLC. The pack brought along with it a slew of contests and a car pack which came equipped with fan favorite Holden HSV W427 and the Ford Taurus SHO. Two weeks passed and over 500 art submissions and 8 thousand lap times were set on the Mini coupe concept racing over Laguna Seca. The time trial was really intense, thanks to the guys over at Fanatec we gave away four Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S wheels, 3 of which went to some of the fastest times to grace Laguna Seca. Forza Racing club V12 secured two podium spots in the time trial, V12 BackONE AbS RSI, Motorsport, V12 SGATTO. Congratulations guys, we know you will make great use of your new Fanatec racing wheels!

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The turnout for the Fantasy Cover, Photo Mode and Livery Design competitions was impressive. The folks at Road & Track had a tough time choosing between all of the entries especially in the Fantasy Cover competition. In the end they did finally narrow down the winners in all three competitions, to see if you were one of the winners you can check out the Official Winners Announcement over at roadandtrack.com.

VIP car battles are back after a break and will resume on Monday, May 3rd with a special Alan Wake livery from Phredesign. There is another change in schedule allowing for more time at the polls. Voting will begin on Monday and go throughout the week closing on Thursday with the special time trial going up for it. Car’s will be announced on Monday, be on the lookout for a discussion thread and news article (with the poll) then.

This week we rolled out a storefront change you may not have noticed but one many of you have requested. Effective now, tunes, pictures, liveries and layer groups must now be viewed or downloaded for the rating to count. There is no warning message that pops up, but rest assured the rating is not counted. The days of someone rating your item a zero for no reason other than to do so are over. This will hopefully get rid of the problem some of you have experienced with unfortunate abuse wreaking havoc on your storefront items.

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Last night we confirmed via twitter that May 11th's DLC is indeed a car pack. Unfortunately that’s all the reveal that we have for today but I can say it is quite a unique pack. As usual, we will be running a spy shot contest for this set of ten cars. As Che mentioned on twitter this car pack is crazy, I already have a ton of favorites that will definitely be in my garage rotation, I can’t wait to take them the online track! That brings this week in review to a close, hope you guys have a great weekend! See you online!

Week 17 – 911 GT1 on Catalunya

What: Official Turn 10 Featured Time Trial Challenge

When: Now until Friday May 7th at 12:00PM PST

Where: Time Trials in Forza Motorsport 3.

Track and Car: Circuit de Catalunya – Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion

How: Navigate to the “Leaderboards” menu and scroll down to “Time Trial”. Scroll down to “Road & Track Time Trial” and “Press A to Start Race” at the top of the leaderboard. Set your best possible lap time!

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REPLICA Painter's Competition - Voting Thread
This painting competition we have featured before has come to a close and needs your help in securing votes. The submissions are in place and a verdict is required. Check out this thread to vote on this very interesting paint competition.

Muscle car cruise
Take a joyride in classic muscle with friends in search of good conversation, photographs and enjoyable scenery. Everyone is invited; if this is something that you think may interest you, check out the thread here.

Painters World Series final 12
This competition is no stranger to the community update section of our Pitpass and makes a return as the Final 12 entries have been chosen. The end is near for the community organized World Series. A lot of great work inside definitely worthy of a look.

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IFCA GP2Replica Series 1
Racing on Tuesdays, drivers will race in spec-built cars with limited tuning across a 2 race format with partial reversed grids, giving you that extra chance for a great race result! The racing will begin on the 11th May and run for 8 weeks. Check out the thread here.

IFCA JGTC Series 10
Racing on Sundays, the high speed world of the Japanese SuperGT is brought into your homes! Limited assists racing in authentically liveried R2 cars has never made the experience so involving! The series will begin 9th May and features 8 rounds! Check out the thread here.

Silhouette photo comp
The multimedia section usually has great events and competitions going on and this idea is no exception. The contest revolves around snapping a shot of your cars silhouette using the in-game Photomode. A lot of great submissions in the thread so far, the competition just opened up so there is still time to get in on the fun.