I bring to you Conan
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
My Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5 comparison
Being a big fan of console sims and owning pretty much every console racing sim since 2005 from Enthusia, Forza, Forza2, Gran Turismo 3/4/5p/5, Race Pro 1/2/3 I would like to share my opinions on Forza3 and Gt5 as an avid fan of console racing sims.
To start of, lets talk about Forza3, oh how the fanboys are thirsting for blood on this one.
I want to say one thing about Forza3 and it's that it has charm like Shenmue or Metal Gear, you just feel the developers went out of there way to put in features that possibly didn't need to be in the game. Some could say that Forza3 is just a checklist by corporate execs scheming to dethrone Sony's Gran Turismo(GT) series, but that is not how I see it. Forza3 is definitely a game that builds loyalty by the way it treats it's players with the endless visual customization possibilities that make owning your car a very personal experience like a good RPG. However with all they got right, I would say it's a mixed bag with the physics and graphics.
Forza3 plays like a great Sim when using a XBox360 controller but misses when using a wheel. Let me explain
(Note: all driving is done with all aids off including ABS set to off or zero in GT5)
When using the controller, the cars react and behave like they should, push the gas too quick and be prepared to fight oversteer or understeer depending on the car. Brake early or miss your apex and screw up your hotlap, All is good in the Sim world here. Driving is a skillful dance like it should be.
Now we switch to the MS Wheel to boost the immersion but sadly we are greeted by a strange driving aid that can't be turned off bringing that skillful dance to a halt . You scratch your head and think maybe you have attain the status of RACING GAWD, but reality bring you back to some logical pondering and you realize, "Hey!" something is wrong here, I think the game is helping me turn. That's right, it's like the game doesn't know if you are using a wheel or a gamepad controller, so the aids needed to help gamepad users do not turn themselves off when you plug in your wheel. As natural and invisible the aid are when using a controller it becomes very apparent when using a wheel.
Here is a video of the aid in action (Video by Gek54) who was able to record his experience for youtube
Is this flaw a death blow to an enjoyable racer sim? Certainly not, but it is death blow to dethrowning Gran Turismo but more on that later, the fanboi veins are really pumping now.
Lets now move onto graphics which I will start of by saying, it's good, nope not jaw dropping, exceptional or video game porn, but it does the job and at certain times almost reaches that video game porn level. Forza3 has a wierd cartoony factor to it's textures but at the same time it looks a lot more 3d and vibrant then the stale, lifeless but photo realistic quality of GT5. It's like they said hey, we'll make that tree using 3d polygons and totally FAIL at making it look realistic but it really looks like it exist in that 3d space, where as GT5, you get a lot of 2d texture tricks that although look photo realistic when you are not concentrating on them, look very 2d and lifeless when you do give them some cognitive attention.
Forza3 also has weird toy like quality to the car models. It's almost like the cars were modeled after diecast models because everything just looks a tad too thick. Possibly it's the lighting engine that gives this effect, but the cars in Forza3 just can't compete with the life like models in GT5.
So what about GT5?
With all the hype surrounding GT5 as the end all and be all of racing games this console generation. It couldn't be helped but have a little disappointment set in when first encountering the lacking of damage (even though officially it was suppose to be there), strange shadow artifacts, missing old tracks, cockpit view only available in some cars, and a small downgrade in graphics from Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.
However this initial disappointment is overcome once you start to see that spark only the GT series seems to have. It just feels so right to drive. It's like you don't have to switch to video game driving mode when you sit down with GT5 vs real life driving. The feel of the G25 wheel provides all the right feedback, it's just intuitive.
There is also an accuracy of the racing line that GT5 has over Forza3 that is hard to pin point. It's like the physics and tracks are so accurate to there life counterparts you can spend hours on end mastering one corner where most other console racers missed that detail in deviation of how the car can reach the limit at a corner.
An example per say in Forza3 is at the S curves of Suzuka, you can go into the corner reach understeer, lift off the gas and control the car fairly easily on the racing line out of the curves.
In GT5 you have to enter the S curves perfectly so you can connect the line into the S curve or risk understeering for the next 2 corners unless you decide to slowdown loosing more time. It is also a tricky acceleration dance to maximize the time on acceleration out of the last corner controlling the weight shift from front to back to maximize grip to the front tires on acceleration and weight transfer back to the front tires on deceleration.
And just like Forza3 there is that Charm, that the developers went out of there ways to push as many features as they could into the game, but there is an aura that is different from Forza3. If I had to compare Forza3 and GT5 as food, Forza3 would be like a dinner at Mc Donalds, where you enjoy your food, but you know it's not refined, where GT5 feels like a dinner at a medium to high end restaurant where they specialize in a certain dish you can count on to be perfect even though everything else on the menu might just be okay.
So you probably figured out, I'm a siding with GT5 over Forza3 but does it mean you don't need to buy Forza3? Why do we buy Shift 1&2 Grid, Dirt1&2 because every game offers something little different from tracks to features to graphics. Because you own GT5 doesn't mean you need to take Forza3 off your Radar, it still contains interesting tracks like Road America and charm that is different from GT5 that is deserving of enjoying.
To start of, lets talk about Forza3, oh how the fanboys are thirsting for blood on this one.
I want to say one thing about Forza3 and it's that it has charm like Shenmue or Metal Gear, you just feel the developers went out of there way to put in features that possibly didn't need to be in the game. Some could say that Forza3 is just a checklist by corporate execs scheming to dethrone Sony's Gran Turismo(GT) series, but that is not how I see it. Forza3 is definitely a game that builds loyalty by the way it treats it's players with the endless visual customization possibilities that make owning your car a very personal experience like a good RPG. However with all they got right, I would say it's a mixed bag with the physics and graphics.
Forza3 plays like a great Sim when using a XBox360 controller but misses when using a wheel. Let me explain
(Note: all driving is done with all aids off including ABS set to off or zero in GT5)
When using the controller, the cars react and behave like they should, push the gas too quick and be prepared to fight oversteer or understeer depending on the car. Brake early or miss your apex and screw up your hotlap, All is good in the Sim world here. Driving is a skillful dance like it should be.
Now we switch to the MS Wheel to boost the immersion but sadly we are greeted by a strange driving aid that can't be turned off bringing that skillful dance to a halt . You scratch your head and think maybe you have attain the status of RACING GAWD, but reality bring you back to some logical pondering and you realize, "Hey!" something is wrong here, I think the game is helping me turn. That's right, it's like the game doesn't know if you are using a wheel or a gamepad controller, so the aids needed to help gamepad users do not turn themselves off when you plug in your wheel. As natural and invisible the aid are when using a controller it becomes very apparent when using a wheel.
Here is a video of the aid in action (Video by Gek54) who was able to record his experience for youtube
Is this flaw a death blow to an enjoyable racer sim? Certainly not, but it is death blow to dethrowning Gran Turismo but more on that later, the fanboi veins are really pumping now.
Lets now move onto graphics which I will start of by saying, it's good, nope not jaw dropping, exceptional or video game porn, but it does the job and at certain times almost reaches that video game porn level. Forza3 has a wierd cartoony factor to it's textures but at the same time it looks a lot more 3d and vibrant then the stale, lifeless but photo realistic quality of GT5. It's like they said hey, we'll make that tree using 3d polygons and totally FAIL at making it look realistic but it really looks like it exist in that 3d space, where as GT5, you get a lot of 2d texture tricks that although look photo realistic when you are not concentrating on them, look very 2d and lifeless when you do give them some cognitive attention.
Forza3 also has weird toy like quality to the car models. It's almost like the cars were modeled after diecast models because everything just looks a tad too thick. Possibly it's the lighting engine that gives this effect, but the cars in Forza3 just can't compete with the life like models in GT5.
So what about GT5?
With all the hype surrounding GT5 as the end all and be all of racing games this console generation. It couldn't be helped but have a little disappointment set in when first encountering the lacking of damage (even though officially it was suppose to be there), strange shadow artifacts, missing old tracks, cockpit view only available in some cars, and a small downgrade in graphics from Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.
However this initial disappointment is overcome once you start to see that spark only the GT series seems to have. It just feels so right to drive. It's like you don't have to switch to video game driving mode when you sit down with GT5 vs real life driving. The feel of the G25 wheel provides all the right feedback, it's just intuitive.
There is also an accuracy of the racing line that GT5 has over Forza3 that is hard to pin point. It's like the physics and tracks are so accurate to there life counterparts you can spend hours on end mastering one corner where most other console racers missed that detail in deviation of how the car can reach the limit at a corner.
An example per say in Forza3 is at the S curves of Suzuka, you can go into the corner reach understeer, lift off the gas and control the car fairly easily on the racing line out of the curves.
In GT5 you have to enter the S curves perfectly so you can connect the line into the S curve or risk understeering for the next 2 corners unless you decide to slowdown loosing more time. It is also a tricky acceleration dance to maximize the time on acceleration out of the last corner controlling the weight shift from front to back to maximize grip to the front tires on acceleration and weight transfer back to the front tires on deceleration.
And just like Forza3 there is that Charm, that the developers went out of there ways to push as many features as they could into the game, but there is an aura that is different from Forza3. If I had to compare Forza3 and GT5 as food, Forza3 would be like a dinner at Mc Donalds, where you enjoy your food, but you know it's not refined, where GT5 feels like a dinner at a medium to high end restaurant where they specialize in a certain dish you can count on to be perfect even though everything else on the menu might just be okay.
So you probably figured out, I'm a siding with GT5 over Forza3 but does it mean you don't need to buy Forza3? Why do we buy Shift 1&2 Grid, Dirt1&2 because every game offers something little different from tracks to features to graphics. Because you own GT5 doesn't mean you need to take Forza3 off your Radar, it still contains interesting tracks like Road America and charm that is different from GT5 that is deserving of enjoying.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)