Ferrari vs. Ferrari (Forza 3 vs. GT5)

[gamevet]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/upto...5-forza-3.html






When are they going to release Gran Turismo 5? I need to knock the dust off of my GT force-feedback wheel.

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

GT 5 looks phenomenal. I get pretty tempted to get a ps3 bc of this title and a few others. I know less about Forza 3, but I would be very surprised if it can stand head to head with GT 5. I own Forza 2 but I really don't play it very often at all.

[gamevet]

Polyphony Digital is an amazing developer. They've pushed the boundaries of Sony hardware from day one and Gran Turismo has been one of the better looking console racers for quite some time.

Forza 3 looks like a huge improvement over 2. Forza 2 looked like a polished version of the first game and really didn't have graphics that made you think wow.

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

I find myself playing the SEGA title Full Auto a lot more often than Forza 2 for some reason. Perhaps its all the explosions.

[Devil N]

I've spent plenty of time with both series, mostly in the forms of GT3 and Forza 2. While neither of them are perfect, I do have a strong preference for the Forza series. Let me explain.

Polyphony sure knows how to paint a pretty picture, and the GT series has always been on the cutting edge of technology. In terms of pure content, GT is also a winner. The two major problems I have with the series however are fun factor and immersion. The games are presented so clinically and lifeless that they feel more like work than a game. Also, despite the series' acclaimed realism, the games have never actually managed to make me feel like I was really driving a car. For some reason, the tyres are always screeching when I go through a corner, even when I'm crawling at 30 mph. And when the feel is not right, I can never push a car to its limits, and so I can never really get good at the game.

Forza's presentation is also pretty plain, but it is slightly more game-like than GT. Graphically it is not quite up there, but the visuals are good enough. Forza 3 looks like it's going to be a big step up from Forza 2, anyway. My main gripes with Forza is the lack of variety in tracks (i.e. there should simply have been more of them) and the 'punishment' for leaving the track or cutting a chicane is stupid and unrealistic.
But the main thing that made me fall in love with Forza is that for the first time, a game made me feel what it's truly like to drive in a racing car. At one point it just 'clicked', I could feel when I was pushing the car to its limits, and I could reason about how a car would perform on the track both consciously and unconsciously. It may sound vague and it's hard to describe in words, but Forza gave me a taste of realism that the GT series has never managed to.

Above all that is the fact that Forza is going to be in its second outing on the 360 in the next month, while GT5 does not even have a solid release date yet. Wasn't it supposed to come out like 2 years ago? All we got in the meantime is a glorified demo, one that you had to pay for as well.

[0x15e]

the 'punishment' for leaving the track or cutting a chicane is stupid and unrealistic.

I agree with everything you said except this. I'm pretty sure you'd get penalties for getting all four tires off the track in a real event, assuming you didn't just get DNF. As long as you can keep two tires on the track, there's no penalty.

Otherwise, yeah. Last time I played GT in any form, it just seemed like work. Forza has never been like that for me.

[Devil N]

I agree with everything you said except this. I'm pretty sure you'd get penalties for getting all four tires off the track in a real event, assuming you didn't just get DNF. As long as you can keep two tires on the track, there's no penalty.

Otherwise, yeah. Last time I played GT in any form, it just seemed like work. Forza has never been like that for me.

On a real race, there's a team of stewards judging your actions throughout the race. If you cut a part of the track during qualifying, your time is void, and if you do it during a race, you need to give back any positions you gained. If you cut the track too often, you're given a drive-through penalty. That's how it works in Formula 1 at least, other racing series may be different but the idea is similar.

What doesn't happen in a real race is that you lose all traction on the (tarmac!) run-off areas and slow down to a crawl. Nor do you get a time penalty that is proportional to the amount of time you were off track. In Forza, you can still profit from cutting chicanes in some cases without any serious penalty.

I would have like to see them implement a more realistic approach to penalties. It can't be that hard to implement a judging system that dishes out drive-through penalties or even disqualifications when you're in violation of the rules. It would encourage better driving behavior in online matches too.

[gamevet]

Above all that is the fact that Forza is going to be in its second outing on the 360 in the next month, while GT5 does not even have a solid release date yet. Wasn't it supposed to come out like 2 years ago? All we got in the meantime is a glorified demo, one that you had to pay for as well.

I've seen a street date of December 29th. WTF?!

[Devil N]

I've seen a street date of December 29th. WTF?!

Up until now, the only release date that was given was 'Q4 2009'. But coincidence would have it, Sony has just given out a real release date at TGS: March 2010...