First off, if you're looking for dirt, you won't find much here. Both upcoming racers
Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360) and
Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) are sure to be great racing games. That said, I think there's a clear winner here between the two high-profile racers shown on the floor of Tokyo Game Show this year. As you read on, keep in mind that we're not comparing the games themselves as much as we are the demos shown on the TGS floor.
Both were in pretty nifty setups.
Gran Turismo 5 had real-world racing seats built into metal frames. Inside, players sat in front of a high-end Sony display while controlling the game with the GT steering wheel set.
Forza 3 was played on a three-screen setup. They too had racing chairs and a steering wheel controller. Putting all of that aside, though, which was the better game?
Visuals:
Winner: Forza Motorsport 3
While both games look great on the track, Forza's demo featured a polish that Gran Turismo 5's lacked. The rocky hillsides and lush greenery easily showed up the bland, almost clinical-looking cityscape of Gran Turismo. Driving slow in Gran Turismo is like inviting disappointment. I guess they were hoping you'd always be moving fast enough to not notice the perfectly flat tree and pole textures. Plants and trees on the side of the road look like paper cutouts, and the tree trunks are laughably bad. As far as the vehicle visuals go, neither game disappoints. Both supply unhealthy doses of car porn. The tighter racing action of Forza 3 made it easier to appreciate the models of the cars I raced against, but both pull off amazing feats as far as visuals go. Forza's framerate was liquid smooth, making it a bit easier on the eyes than GT5.
Control:
Winner: Forza Motorsport 3
Solely judging from the two on-floor demos, both of which used adjustable racing seats and steering wheel rigs, Forza 3's control won the race. There was something about the balance of control that made it seem especially intuitive. I'd go as far as to say that it felt damned near flawless with the steering wheel rig they had set up at each demo station. Gran Turismo controlled great as well, with the tilt leaning farther away from arcade action and more towards realism. Nothing was notably wrong with Gran Turismo's control. It's just that the seamless feeling that we felt with the controls in Forza wasn't there in GT5.
Game play:
Winner: Forza Motorsport 3
Both games were played on a rather easy track, and both featured racing line guidelines. Other than that, these two games play differently. Forza 3 had me racing against other AI characters that were way too easy to pass, even with the option to set the difficulty. My choice of a medium difficulty looked more like an easy to my eyes. I didn't try the "hard" setting, but I hope it's considerably more difficult than medium was. That said, some of the credit goes, again, to the seemingly flawless control of the game.
As for Gran Turismo, I watched plenty of others wipe out and give up before I played. It looked like people that had never played the series games before sat down and expected arcade racing. As always, Gran Turismo 5 had that realistic acceleration and turning that greatly contrasts to the loose, forgiving controls of other racers (Forza 3 not included, of course). I enjoy the challenge and learning curve, and prefer the rewarding stick-to-your-ribs racing that it provides. Even with that, though, Forza's gameplay was more enjoyable and approachable. It may be a bit more simple than that of GT5, but it still provides ample challenge for white knuckle racing.
If you have to have damage modeling, you want Forza 3. It's just not there in Gran Turismo. While I don't believe that it's a necessity to have damage modeling in a racing game, it is an added bonus. If you play in first-person view like I do, it's fun to see how messed up your vehicle is after a race. Gran Turismo doesn't do that. In fact, side of the road items like cones and tires don't even seem to be affected properly by impact. When I ran into a stack of tires, they seemed to float strangely in front of my car for a second before flying off to the right. I don't need true-to-life physics on these types of collisions, but this looked closer to the movement of a UFO than a stack of rubber tires.
Overall:
I'm a big Gran Turismo fan, so it was a bit of a surprise to me that the Forza Motorsport 3 demo did more for me. Things like damage modeling and background art aside, it was the superb control and high level of accessibility that won me over. Forza 3 was just more fun. More impressive. Of course, this is not to say that Gran Turismo 5 isn't a good game. It will be great, I'm sure, but Forza 3 show floor demo has me wanting to race again. I need to get me one of these three-screen setups too.
Contest:
2:20 PM on 09.24.2009
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...and out come the wolves.
Thank you for enforcing Jim's article and showing that begrudged PS3 fanboys are the worst. >_>
Loving the demo, btw.
I also really need one of those fancy three screen setups. Shame it needs three 360s and three copies of Forza though :(
Btw, I wouldn't mind having a setup like the ones shown either.
You need a job.
Preferably one that doesn't involve fishnet stockings and the streetcorner of Sony's headquarters.
Asshat.
::end rant::
Looks like both will be worth checking out, but I need demo - at least I know the Forza demo is free, and I already paid $40 for my GT5 demo.
I think (hope!) that volatilis was joking.
About the driving, it just feels more organic in Forza. It honestly feels like I am playing a glorified Ridge Racer, control-wise, whenever I play GT, going way back to the PS1.
Yeah, sounds about what I'd expect.
You can literally go faster if you use cars as bumpers through corners in GT: 5P. I hope they changed something to alleviate that problem.
kidding. I am impressed that Forza is the winner of the two in all instances, but it seems very opinion based. good to see that both console exclusives are shaping up well.
All in all though, it's a nice change of pace from the balls hard Forza 2, and I find myself not really relying TOO much on rewind. I've rolled over a few times in cockpit view, and it's a blast. And strangely, I actually find it easiest to play in cockpit view...simulates the real thing pretty well.
to compare this two games head to head is a bit ....
articles like this don't make any sense at all
Top Gear is the reason I am buying GT5. It's rather sad.
@ CHNGX: This makes perfect sense. Why wouldn't you compare the 2? People do it all the time: Halo 3 and CoD4, WoW and any upcoming MMORPG and most of the RTSs are compared with each other.
Really guys? Apply these to your respective posts: different genres? GT5 hasn't had enough development time? Seriously?
This is coming from a long time Gran Turismo fan, and a Kaz enthusiast. Stop wining, accept the possibility that the game you arbitrarily enjoy more than another may not be up to the par the other sets. *gasp* I know, right? That's pretty rough, but based on the experiences of almost everyone who's played both games, that seems to be how things are shaping up. No one's saying GT is bad, quite the opposite, but there seems to be a more complete experience out there, coming out sooner. Oh noes!
GT5 and Forza are in the same league, fair play to that
however to compare a game that is almost ready to go, (forza 3) with one that is at 50% done GT5 (as is told in TGS magazines)
is a comparation that is going to be absolute pointless, at best
I would have no dubts that forza will excel in game modes and online
however the level of detail of GT5 and the "driving feeling" that you get using a logitech g25 would make thngs a bit better on GT5
at the end of the day is about wich console/wheel you got
Did we read the same article?
and giving graphics win to forza 3 over gt5? ahaha dont make me laugh
I see what your trying to say here, but if a game which has been in development for 1,5 - 2 years, is rated better by the consumer (up till now anyway)then a game that has been in development for ?5 years?, it would seem that Polyphony Digital is doing something wrong.