Note I did not jump into the Forza/GT thing.
I am not an expert, nor do I own either console. Have played them a **little** (like a race or two at stores), both are fun, both are similar and different. If I was buying one, based on reviews, it would be Forza... and only because of online play. Me = online gamer. Me = PC gamer (for the most part... love my Mario games!). So that says absolutely NOTHING about the game engines themselves, only my fanatical obsession with playing other people online (hate AI, especially dumb AI which imo almost ALL SP games have). But I don't have an Xbox or PS2 of my own, I only use friends now and then. (I did buy a PS1 specifically for GT/GT2 though... drool... wasted far too many hours on GT2!) So my opinion on that issue is not really relevant unless I was talking to someone who wanted to play online.
Phil said:
BTW Acert93: Haven't checked rFactor yet... is it good? I guess since I converted to Linux, I'm a bit behind what's actually going on in the PC space....
My bias first:
-Online gamer
-I dislike car games with nitros and such (less Twisted Metal or Mario Kart genres)
-I look more for "balance" and clean control over "accuracy" ... meaning I could find a game a LOT of fun if the tracks and cars really had a great balance of control and difficulty... I would not find a drag racer on a twisty track fun if I could not keep control--even if it was realistic. So I guess I rely on the developer to put realistic cars in realistic situations. I like that. I liked that about GT and could appreciate going 200MPH around a corner was stupid... but don't give me a drag car and expect me to have fun on curves. I say this because some of the old Nascar games were like that... they were more of a CHORE to play than fun for me.
-I have only played the demo
My thoughts: Really fun. I started off at "beginner" where it does a lot of your breaking for you. I have moved the level down a couple times after getting familiar with the track and it really seems to control REALLY well.
The demo car is not really fast, about max 120MPH on the one straight away, but the car seems to have a good "feel" on the track. You feel like you have some real traction. In that regards it reminded me of play GT3.
The car seems "tuned" to turn well on the course, but if you go slow you have a very limited turning radius. Whether this is my gamepad (PS2 DS2 Pelican) or if these cars in real life are tuned NOT to oversteer I don't know. This is only an issue when you fly off the course and need to make a sharp turn at low speeds to turn around.opps!
The game is definately on the sim side. The driving model seems "good" (and a LOT of customizations to tweak it to fit your style... but this is NOT a Rush or NFS game, it *is* a racing game!). It also has a LOT of customizations to your actual car. You can change your fuel loads, the areodynamics, etc...
The game only has 5 tracks, but it is REALLY customizable. It is designed with the community in mind.
Also, as the company who made it is the former company making the EA F1 games they are pretty skilled. Since Sony has the F1 license they kind of are on their own. But the game has both the touring type cars AND F1 style race cars. Have not tried the F1 cars, but I am sure they are good.
Game looks good. Not PGR3 good, but maybe a step under the new NFS2 PC game. DX9 game with a good balance. e.g. You don't get these absolutely drop dead gorgeous cars and ugly tracks. They all seem to "fit". The NFS2 PC game last year looked really good, so it is not quite that level--but I actually like the STYLE better. Very GT IMO.
From what I have read the netcode is drop dead gorgeous [smile] I have not used it yet because I cannot find anyone online with the demo [frown] But it seems the community who plays the real game is REALLY active and has leagues! The AI is only ok. It can beat me if I put it up at 100% and then increase the aggresiveness. Part of that is the gamepad because the game does not seem to measure all the angles of percision (e.g. it is hard to get going exactly straight... close, but not exact). The other part is I am new to the game and make dumb mistakes on the track... because I try to go too fast through a corner[oops]
The game has a ton of options for races. You can do standing start, rolling start, standing formation, etc... There are practice laps, qualifiers, warm ups, and races before every race event. You can skip those if you want, of course, but it has them there.
You have a lot of control over the settings too. How fast time flies, how fast fuel consumption is, how many laps, race based on time or laps or race default, adjust the damage model up or down, etc...
It really is a serious racing game. Kind of confusing at first BUT I am loving it. First PC racer I have played that 1. reminds me of GT2 and 2. has a ton of options and 3. looks good.
If you are a GT fan who wants to play people online I would give the demo a spin. I am sure there are short comings, but I cannot seem to find anything comparable on the PC.
Overall it has a steep learning curve BUT also gives you a parachute. I started off with a TON of help, and have slowly made it more realistic. If the Nascar games of old had this maybe I would have enjoyed them more.
I give it a thumbs up. But try the demo first. Not for everyone, but anyone mildly interested in racers would enjoy.
I am not sure I will buy though. It IS a MP centric game. I worry that other racers online would shun me. Why? Because I don't want to do a 200 lap race (or even 50!) with full realism, etc... I don't have the time, I don't have a wheel, and I don't want to be in last place for 3 hours!! I guess races in the 20-30 lap range with 1 pit stop with fairly realistic settings--but some leway for us without nice force feedback wheels--would be nice. But I don't know if they want scrubs like me playing their sim [smile]
Ps- Runs well on my PC. 6800GT, 1GB DDR400, 2.85GHz P4 w/ 600MHz FSB.