This may be your opinion, but it's rather factually incorrect, remember that they largely had 2 years to do FM3 in, they added plenty to the game for the more hardcore, you are really being irrationally harsh with your spin on things.
- They massively improved the private MP game setup to allow creation and enforcement of various regulations, it was a huge step from FM2, it's not perfect, but a lot of work clearly went into it. the level of detail you can setup a race is very advanced.
- Please clarify race environment, because all the hardcore sims I've played have very little of it at all, I'd say hardcore gamers want to race above all else, I think you speak for the people who like the 'show' of it all, which is just a cross section of all types of people, not limited to hardcore or casual.
- Weather would be nice, but only if done well, considering all they had to do in 2 years, and how painful GT5 development was, I think it's OK to not include every feature possible in 2 years, it would have been half-assed, and I don't think technically on the graphics engine it would have been so easy.
- You forget the auction house / tuning / livery aspects, this is one area FM has forged a solid community, it has brought about an organised system to promote people who want to 'tune' cars, and people who like to paint cars, all essential aspects of real world race teams etc, it's a very good synergy that others should copy.
- GT5 now has barrel rolls, so what? have they also sold out? do cars in real life not roll in races? I'd say it kills two birds with one stone.
- I have asked myself has it taken things further in the racing department, and the answer is, an incremental yes.. they certainly haven't gone backwards, they've improved several areas and added stuff, drag racing, touge, extensive race setup (MP), better tyre flex (even if not that visceral) to name but a few. There is loads of room for more, however, again, I have to use the 2 year dev cycle to put some perspective on what can be done in the time frame.
- On the 'active' steering issue, honestly, we all know it's there, but only casual people really moan about it, very very very few more hardcore/quick people even register it exists, because it doesn't bother them. Put it into context, all physics engines are flawed, they all require filtering/tweaks/special conditions, look at all the flaws of many games over the years. The game developer will add little things to the engine to overcome flaws, or to get a particular handling trait, the only issue with FM3 is that you can 'see' it in the telemetry, I bet if they hid it from the telemetry, people would not have batted an eye-lid, cars still wildly over-steer, plenty about the physics engine works as expected, it's odd how the people who see the videos come on and say how it ruins the game for them, and how they 'feel' the intervention so badly they can't play etc., oddly, they are almost exclusively rubbish at driving in the game, and largely describe side effects that can't even possibly be from this. If you actually play with it, you realise it's largely trying to stop snap over-steer, which may have been too aggressive in their physics model and had no time to sort out. I guarantee that any other racing game leaning towards simulation has numerous physics engine 'fixes' that if you knew about would create an equal reaction. End of the day, drive competitively in FM3, and the physics seem very good indeed. What does need improvement is having a more 'visceral' aspect to the physics, make it more edgy/harder to control, give people more 'reward' for effort etc, but that may mean making things a little exaggerated in places, and possibly not that realistic in terms of handling response, but it would feel more 'real' to the average joe.
Finally, no one is ignoring the flaws, that's just not true, we all see what is out there to see, however I don't think everyone is inclined to make a mountain out of a molehill, and have realistic expectations of what any developers priorities are, and what is realistically achievable in the time frames they have.
I honestly don't get how jaded you can be, you would think the game was rubbish/flawed and very unworthy according to your opinion, and all you can find to back it up is idiots on youtube, and of course, naturally you get some people that don't like it, however they are in the vast minority. Many of us really enjoy what was a very well received game, it takes a lot of skill to be competitive, and it's a lot of fun being part of the more organised communities.
I hope GT5 shakes it all up, I'm eagerly awaiting it, however, I'm still having fun with FM3, but then I play the game, not sit there in isolation with my 3 monitors and Turbo S just looking for the next thing to criticise..
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kinda makes it pointless getting some great awesome steering wheel only to have the game limit you.