So I finally made the next gen jump in June 2010, when I bought my Xbox 360. I didn't have a great deal of games, but, Guitar Hero aside, I put quite a few hours into Forza 3. I got up to nearly the end of the game. I put a lot of my spare time into the game. It was one of the most delightful racing games I've ever played. There was a good variety of real world race tracks and original race tracks. Car customisation was great. Tuning your car is easier than recent iterations of Gran Turismo, but I don't think there's as quite as many options to choose from (although there's still a great deal).

But of course, at the heart of any racing game is the racing. And in Forza, it's solid stuff. After about 80 hours, though, it's become a little stale. But it's not like I think any less of it. Every race, be it a couple of laps or a huge endurance race, is thrilling stuff and if you can find a preowned copy for around $10, I'd highly advise the purchase. It's easily the best game in the series. Forza 4 is still great, but it almost feels too much like 3 and so if you're not sure which one to go with, or you'd only play one of them, go with Forza 3, solely for the fact that you'll get it cheaper.

It's not the greatest racing game ever, in my opinion. That honour would go towards Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, particularly if you take into account how good the game is for its time. I've always said that the Forza games are better than the Gran Turismo games, but not according to the game's release date. What I mean by that is that the first Gran Turismo came out in 1998, and it was the best racing game, bar none. No competition. I was reading through some old Playstation magazines I found last month and they said those exact words. Gran Turismo 2 did all the same things its predecessor did and more. It's still my favourite game of all time. And yes, I do believe that your favourite game and the game you think is the best game ever can be two different games.

But when Gran Turismo 3 came out, everything changed. It came out within twelve months of the PS2's launch and I still believe it's one of the most entertaining racing experiences. I think it still holds up well today, I've been playing it here and there recently. There's a good list of cars to choose from, and you'll drive a good portion of them. While some people didn't really like that there were less than 200 cars compared to GT2's 600+, you have to take into account how much detail has to go into the car. That's why when Gran Turismo 5 came out on the PS3 with over 1000 cars, many of them were simply the same as the models used in Gran Turismo 4 with improved textures. Supposedly the figure of PS2 models was around 800. I think Sony should've done the same thing with GT3 here. I'd have thought nothing of a game with 250 highly detailed cars, rather than the PS2 approach. Gran Turismo 4 rectified it anyway with almost 750 cars, and if GT6 is actually coming out on the PS3 like the rumours state, well, they could've done the same again. It seems like they're going for two per console cycle.

Gran Turismo 4 just seemed like the complete package. There were so many cars, plenty of events, more real world tracks (unlike GT3, which only had two, from memory). Now there were sixteen, I think. It was at least a dozen. Tuning was better than ever. Just the one complaint over the game (a pretty big one, though). The events weren't all in the one place, unlike all previous entries in the series. Beginner Events, then to Professional. Oh, you're not at the 25% Complete mark, you can't do Endurance Races yet, etc. It made that World Map feel too clustered and there were too many things to choose from, even though most were the same thing. But the racing was still top notch.

I don't even know why I'm going backwards, though. I began this blog still in 2010, talking about my memories of Forza 3, and my GT fanboyism comes out and suddenly we're back in 2006. But no more going back. We must press on. Back to 2010. 

If you were to ask me which of the two were better games, I'd almost be split down the middle. I'd most likely go with the Gran Turismo series, solely because of how much time I spent playing the games as a kid. Like I'll always have those moments where I put many sleepless nights into GT2, earning all that cash, upgrading all those cars. That's another thing. I feel that the tuning system in Gran Turismo is more comprehensive and rewarding. I think that doing up a car from scratch in GT, turning it from a stock road model into a race spec machine is far more rewarding in Gran Turismo than in Forza. It seems like in Forza it's too easy to tune any car. Heck, as a joke, I tuned one of the weakest cars in the game, an old VW Golf. It took me less than 10 minutes for me to tune it so it could do 0-100km/h in under 6 seconds. That's where I think the flaw in Forza's tuning is. There's no reward for effort. Tuning in GT feels like careful consideration must be taken into account to create the car of your dreams.

This seems like a GT vs. Forza blog, so I'll probably just keep at it, I'm almost at the end of it anyway. I might even wrap it up here. I think you could go either way. Both have their ups, both have their downs. I think GT has always been one step ahead of Forza, but Turn 10 just seem to get better and better. I think if you've got an Xbox 360, go pick up Forza 3. You'll love it, trust me. If you own a Playstation 3, wait for the upcoming Gran Turismo 6. It'll be the best racing game the world has ever seen. Although with Turn 10's track record (no pun intended, trust me on that one), Forza 5 could well earn that honour. It just remains to be seen whether Polyphony Digital can fully utilise the power of the PS3, just go for one last big score before the series moves to the PS4.

Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport: what's the better series? Let me know in the comments section below.

Contents:
Part 01 | Part 02 | Part 03 | Part 04 | Part 05 | Part 06 | Part 07 | Part 08 
Part 09 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15