14 DAY TRIAL // 
The first two games in the series offered a mix of fast, arcade off-road quad racing and a variety of tricks to perform both on the ground and in the air, and have been somewhat successful in their small racing niche, owing to their accessibility. For the third installment, Rainbow Studios has handed the reigns to the racing game-developer Climax Studios, the makers of Moto GP, who stayed true to the established formula and added a fresh layer of polish, but nothing substantial has changed. It feels more like an expansion than a new game.
Gameplay
ATV Offroad Fury 3 offers a number of different modes of play, including Practice, Lap Attack, Single Race, and Championship. The tutorial mode does a wonderful job of explaining all the intricacies of this type of racing, from power sliding that is essential to getting around tight corners as fast as possible, to knowing when to "preload" a jump to keep at top speeds, and pulling multiple tricks in a jump. Each tutorial starts with an explanation and a demonstration of each maneuver, after which you get the chance to try it yourself, and even though failing may happen, a quick reload allows you to get back to honing your skills with minimal downtime.
The Championship mode is akin to the career mode of other such games. You'll need to win races to proceed from one track to the next, but it is important to do it in style by pulling off aerial stunts whenever you can, as these will earn you points that you can spend to unlock new stuff. You can purchase just about everything in the game with these points, including forty tracks across six terrain types, music videos, mini-games, ATV's and parts for them.
The main events in these championships include Freestyle races, where you attempt to perform as many stunts as possible within a given time, and Supercross races that generally take place in tight stadium-like settings. There also are National races and Short tracks races that take place in less-restricted environments, and the open-ended Enduro races that require you to make your way across the countryside through a series of checkpoints. All these events offer both an amateur and pro setting, often taking place on entirely different tracks. There's even an editor included in the game for laying out custom Enduro Courses on any of the existing landscapes, and it is in this mode that you will be spending most of the time when playing solo.
The parts you can purchase for your vehicle range from exhausts, tires, wheels, to nerf bars and front bumpers, but only the exhausts and wheels really have an impact on races, since they directly influence acceleration and grip. Basically it's all about paint jobs and decals in this department. The mini-games you can unlock are very "arcadish," and vary from races to collect the most coins in a level, and king of the hill, to basketball, soccer and hockey... all on your ATV of course.
The biggest challenge in the game is staying in the saddle, and this is where the game gets annoying maybe a little too often. There is a big problem with how collisions are detected. Barely touching an object at low speed, be it a barrier or a sign can send you flying, and a collision with another racer seems to randomly send one, both or neither into the dirt. After you wreck your ATV, you will be put directly in the path of the obstruction that caused the wreck, often stuck on it, or you will be brought very far back on the track. The CPU opponents seem to travel at astonishing speeds and rarely make mistakes, so when you crash, they are miles ahead of you by the time you reappear, and it feels like there's no point continuing, since you've got no chance of catching up.
The game offers the standard LAN and split-screen modes, with both vertical and horizontal modes of play for split-screen, as well as an excellent online mode that is much improved over that of the previous installment. Up to six players can race online, and the game provides anything you could ever want, including Scoreboards, USB Headset Support, Buddy Lists, Clan Support, and more. I found the online mode the most entertaining of the entire game.
Video and Audio
Graphically, the game looks a little better than its predecessors. The ATVs and drivers are surprisingly detailed -- a nice touch is that they get dirty as the game progresses -- and decently animated, although the drivers really look like lifeless rag dolls once the rag-doll effect kicks in. The environments however suffer from bland colors and low resolution textures that stand in stark contrast to the riders and their quads. The game runs smoothly for the most part, but the newly introduced weather effects, while pretty looking, cause some major slowdown whenever they are present on screen.
The game's audio is largely comprised of the ATV engines, which are loud and authentic, on a soundtrack of rock and alternative music, including bands like Slipknot, Good Charlotte and Steriogram. There are thirty one audio tracks in total, and three of them have been done specifically for the game. You can drop some from the playlist if you feel like it, even all of them if you're not into this kind of music.
Conclusion
If you're a fan of the series, other than the online mode there's no standout reason to upgrade from previous editions. If you're new to the series and looking for an ATV game that offers fun arcade-style gameplay, you've found it.
