It's not until recent times that I truly became a man. This isn't because I was prepubescent a year or two ago, on the contrary, I've been growing facial hair, amongst other things, for as long as I can remember. Up until recently, women hadn't appeared on my radar, shoes that I have to polish were never desired, and cars were something that people with testosterone only lusted for. When my balding driving instructor shook my hand and said congratulations Dexter, you've made me proud; some of his mannerisms were transferred, albeit only the positive ones, I've still got a full head of hair. I bought a pair of Hush Puppies, I found women if they didn't find me, and I bought a new Peugeot in the rather stirring colour of orange, or as the French say; Une orange Peugeot - translated only because Peugeot are a French manufacturer, something that the readers yet to become men may miss.

As a result of only just recently discovering I was a male, I have only just become interest in things like racing games. Need for Speed Shift eased me into the sincerity of the racing genre, Colin McRae Dirt 2 put a nice spin on things and now finally, Forza Motorsport 3 has propelled me into a reality that I never knew existed, one where time flies by and so do Alfa Romeos. Before they break.

A warming voice filled my bedroom, a friend, somebody who I felt I had known for years. "Welcome to Forza Motorsport 3" said my new friend, over some soporific, futuristic percussion, a combination that felt like I was indeed part of virtual reality. My new friend, who calls himself Announcer, guided me into the game and treated me somewhat like a beginner; indeed I was, he was so attentive to my needs. He helped me pick a car to get started with, he even talked me through the menu options and how to select a difficulty and before long, he was congratulating me on my first win.

Perhaps it was Announcer who made me feel right at home, or maybe it was the fact that you could tailor the difficulty settings to fit your suit with the Assists option. Beginner or absolute expert, you can select a master template that changes various difficultly variables such as the auto-break and the driving line that tells you when to slow down and where to speed up. However, as opposed to selecting a template such as medium difficulty and leaving it there, I tweaked the individual variables myself. Traction control on, anti lock breaking on, car damage on, and transition set to manual. Everything you select that creates an element of increased difficulty gives you a percentage, and that percentage determines the extra credits you receive after racing with the difficulty variables you selected. Ka-ching!

Something that makes Forza 3 so accessible and playable this time around is the rewind feature that is relatively new to the racing genre. I say relatively new because Codemasters with their Racedriver Grid and Colin McRae series incorporated a limited rewind mode; Forza 3 allows you to limitlessly rewind until you get things right. You're speeding along a big stretch of straight track in your Chevy 07' doing 130mph and leaving the opponents a precious 769ft behind. It's in the bag practically, and you can almost taste victory - and the prize that comes with it. For some reason, you got a little bit carried away, conceivably you could have been looking in the rear view mirror and muttering trash talk - after all, nobody is watching you play, and you're a real man now - you could have been admiring the graphics, looking at the rev counter in your cockpit, or listening to your upgraded engine roar like a wild animal in pursuit of prey. Or maybe, just maybe, you bit your tongue while chewing on some gum - like I did.

Your new motor goes flying off the track, onto the grass, and into the wall; you can see the damage through your cracked windshield, and it's not a pretty sight. What's worse is that valuable gap you managed to accrue has now been thrown out the window, along with your dignity, as you now find yourself in last place without hope of recovering, as the flag as already been waved and the Mustang took the gold. Imagine the frustration if this wasn't a top drawer game by Turn 10. Imagine if you'd spent five minutes racing like a pro, only to be taken down by a lapse of concentration on the final stretch. Oh dear.

Fortunately, you can rewind and correct your mistakes - spit out your chewing gum, swear, recompose yourself and try again. By pressing the rewind button, the game backtracks to where it thinks you may be able to rectify your mistake, but if you need to go further back, press the button again. There seems to be around about a two minute limit to rewinding which I feel is a generous amount - I even managed to rewind back through the pit, taking back my car damage so I could avoid that turn and keep racing a broken Alfa. Obviously you can't come to expect to use this feature online; there you must rely on skill or your opponents' lack of it - but more of that later.

Season Play is the meat and potatoes of Forza 3, it's where you'll find many races to compete in, leading up to fortnightly World Champion events where the serious competitors race for serious credits and prizes with four wheels. You get to fill your calendar with series of races that you can choose from; for example Asian Manufacturer Open is a series of races over two weeks that only allow cars made by Asian makes, such as Toyota and Honda, where as the Mid Engine Elite races allow any class car from any manufacturer, so long as they are sporting mid-engines. The series events that you can choose before the mandatory Champion Events give players enough flexibility and choice to keep things fresh. For example, you may need to buy a new car for one event, where as you may already have a perfectly fine tuned up vehicle for another - but the other event offers much more of a considerable amount of credits, so buying a new set of wheels doesn't seem like such a bad move after all.

The choices you make aren't overbearing, in fact, Turn 10 have made things as simple or as complicated as you want them to be, depending on your approach to the game. For some people, upgrading your car can be a dream come true, whereas others like to race, and not spend so much time under the hood, wondering about that super charger, and what the long term benefits are. For those people then, there's an option called Quick Upgrade, which, when selected, automatically finds the best parts to suit your budget, to bring it up to speed with the other cars found in the event you're racing. This can be particularly useful for uninterrupted high octane super adrenaline charged spurts where racing is the only thing you want to be doing at that moment in time. Not now darling.

So out on the track, high octane super adrenaline charged spurts are exactly what you get. In fact, it's probably less spurts and more prolonged enjoyment, as Forza 3 is like a cocktail of some of my favourite flavours, a blend of cutting edge graphics with the utmost realism, engine sounds to make you ever so slightly moist, some of the latest fast paced rock tracks, and racing game play that I don't believe any other game could hold a candle to. Garnish with a strawberry, and serve ice cold? Yes please.

As you would expect, that's a rather tasty package - and it always leaves you wanting more. It's the sheer addiction of levelling your driver up after coming first on a World Champion Event. It's the dedication you make to get your experience up with a certain make of car, so that you can receive discounts on their parts for future upgrades. It's the feeling you get when you overtake an opponent because you timed your corner perfectly, or the sheer amount of smugness when you accidently clip them on the bumper, and they lose control and spin off such a realistic way, leaving them for dust while glancing in your rear view mirror. It's the calming feeling that you experience when you're miles ahead, or the intensity that you feel when it's just too close to gauge. It's the decision you have to make between the car you keep and the one you sell, and the memories of all the races you won with either model.

Forza Motorsport 3 puts you behind the wheel of pretty much any sporty vehicle that you can think of, and for me, that's half the fun. After driving on the road for real, you value things that you once couldn't imagine yourself appreciating - such as the time it takes to get to 60, or how a certain model takes that corner. Of course, I wouldn't know how a Bugatti might handle, or a Porsche Carrera GT accelerates, or how any of the Ferrari Competition cars feel when launching from the starting line - but I do believe they're as near as damn. And damn is the only word that I can think of, in the American context, when I'm driving any of those four wheeled beasts. I mean, they look accurate, and I'm assured they sound just as they're meant to, so I come to believe that this feeling may be the nearest I'm going to get to driving those unattainable supercars. Although that said, I'm so tempted to just go get a bank loan.

The feeling of simulation isn't always a good one, if it was, we'd all have girlfriends that could be deflated with just your finger and thumb, ones that you could pack away under the bed when we're in the hour of need. However, some simulations are good. Great in fact. This game is one of them.

Customisation is limitless; you can paint your cars any colour of the metallic rainbow, colour the tire rims, and create logos out of vinyl shapes and patterns that you can apply to any part of your motor. You can literally pass hours pimping your ride, some of us will do this for personal enjoyment, others, like me, will take pride in creating something aesthetically pleasing, only to flog on the auction house. I go by the old rule that if it looks good, it will sell. And it's a rule that proves itself over and over. I've sold many labours of love for a decent profit; I even created an Xbox Red Ring of Death decal which I'm selling for modest 1000 credits a pop, stick it on your bonnet (or hood) and let the good times roll. Let me tell you, it's one thrill being out there on the track racing around at high speeds, but it's another bidding against somebody for a desirable car with your hard earned credits, bidding in hope that you can bag a bargain, or a victory since you've invested your time - or better still, watching others bid on your car knowing that you're already in sweet profit!

Racing your customised beauty against others online is something of an independent joy as well. As if there wasn't enough already, honing your skills and putting your practise to good use against other equally matched players takes the game to a whole new level. Don't get me wrong, the AI in the single player Season Mode is pretty smart; it's spontaneous, responsive and proactive, but playing against real people is unprecedented exhilarated fun for the most part. Real players employ a little bit of cunning that sometimes the AI can leave out - you'll find that online players might cut a corner, or intentionally crash into you. Frustrating, perhaps, when you're on the receiving end, but highly enjoyable when you're the man with the master plan who intends to win at all costs. With a massive online community, encouraged with many online achievements, an ever-changing auction house, and thousands of cheap or free decals to download, this one will keep its online dominance for quite some time.

Picture postcard sceneries surround tire marked tracks, pieces of bumper are airborne and fall to the floor before they jump back into the air and weld themselves back onto car in slow motion when the rewind button is pressed. High definition metallic textures wrap themselves around 100% accurate models of all the vehicles found in the game and you can clearly see what make you're tailgating as the high resolution car badges stand out proud on the luscious bodywork. Engines roar in different tones, almost like a harmony of finely tuned instruments - if you believe what Honda tell you in their adverts. Screeching tires leave the aforementioned tracks, along with clouds of dust and blurs as you drive at blistering speeds in high gears, sounds to accompany the drive-faster music from Pendulum and other similar artists. It doesn't get much better than this.

And when you've said that, you've said it all. Forza Motorsport 3 is your own personal showroom. Not only that, but it blends massively multiplayer elements into a single player experience that will keep you busy for as long as you love cars. The auction, the user generated designs, the multiplayer modes, and then the desire to earn experience and credits to buy new motors and new upgrades will keep this title funky fresh and roaring to go. Why wait for your midlife crisis only to settle for a second hand Boxster when you can have it all right now? Buy this game. Enough said.

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).