E3: Forza Motorsport 3

That kind of dedication is an overriding memory of Forza 2. Hugely involving in its handling, tuning and customisation, the game was more of a war of attrition in terms of its career mode content. Boiling down simply to vast tracts of circuit racing under various class, car and tuning restrictions, it was easy to get lost in its breadth, or weary of its lack of variety.

Turn 10's aiming to fix this with a "season mode". Although the main career will still present an overview of 200 events, season mode boils these down to three at any moment, populating your calendar with events based on your preferences, performance, what you've raced in the past and which cars you buy, and then feeding these through to you as necessary. As for variety, we're told to expect oval racing for the first time, as well as drifting and drag racing. It's a much-needed overhaul; here's hoping it goes deep enough that Forza's long-term structure can match its superb moment-to-moment racing.

On the multiplayer side, we're teased with an "emergent" multiplayer game type that will tie into Forza's philosophy of user-created content. On that front, Forza's adding a comprehensive video editor to its paint and tuning suites and photo mode, to give another set of creative car fans another outlet - two, in fact, since it will give drivers a chance to show off, as well as budding Top Gear directors. Forza has been incredibly successful in fostering community activity in the past, with Forza 2's car marketplace doing brisk trades in exclusive tuners and liveries, and this time Turn 10 is adding scoreboards for the most successful and famous creators, as well as the fastest drivers.

Microsoft has three tracks on show, all originals, all set in a vertiginous, rocky and green alpine setting. A road circuit, a test circuit and a Formula One-style track, they are relatively fast and sweeping with some interesting bumps and camber changes - and pretty, too: lush, crisp, colourful and brightly lit, just like the cars, which sport full damage-modelling (cosmetic, simulation or intermediate) and can even roll. Forza 3 looks a little less clinical that its predecessor - but still quite clinical, and despite Turn 10's confidence that it has the best-looking racing game in the world on its hands, it can't quite match GT5 Prologue's near-photorealism, GRID's bustling track drama or Need For Speed Shift's thrilling in-car view.