I've been playing a lot more Forza 2 lately and have had an epiphany

[kn]

Morgyn said:
Sorry, if you believe Forza 2 is better than any of the GT series, you are misguided. Damage is irrelevant unless you want to suffer blood boiling frustration as the computer takes you off the road for the 8th time when you stray off the line by one iota. The AI, if you can call it that, in forza 2 is purely on rails, failing to react to any manoeuvres you make.

I can't believe people still rate this game.

 And from your comment I can't believe you have spent any time with this game.  It is currently the best driving sim on the market... by a longshot... period.  The OP opened a can of worms with his thread, but it is accurate.  The simulation aspects and play quality of the game are both exceptional and currently top dog.  Yeah, the graphics are photo-realistic, but they are damn good.  Apparently you must be thinking of another game's AI because the AI in Forza 2 plays quite well.  If you try to force a position on the track where you don't have the line or the right-of-way, you will bump.  Imagine that -- you can't just push AI cars out of the way or expect them to always yeild the right of way.  Unlike other racing games, you can't force it -- you have to use finesse.  If you are in the proper line and have right of way, the AI cars WILL avoid banging you and as far as I have seen, the AI in Forza 2 is currently the best there is in simulators.

As an "overall" game, Forza 2 delivers in spades.  Graphically it is quite good and the 60 fps framerate makes the game silky smooth.  The simulation aspects are extremely well done.  While the damage modelling isn't "real world", it is pretty good and adds quite a bit to the game.  All in all, those who think this game "sucks" or "hate it" (that like driving sims) are clearly fanboys who haven't spent any time with it because the game is solid.  Period.  Read the reviews... 90 on metacritic.  Same on gamerankings.

That brings us to this question:  Will GT5 be a better game?  At this point it seems likely.  They are stating 1080P at 60fps with a much higher polygon count on the cars.  Early screenshots look promising.  In the end, however, the game will have to have a phenomenal physics engine to surpass that of Forza 2.  We'll see where the game is headed with prologue soon enough.