| Squilliam said: I would say that based on the reviews Forza 3 was the better game of the two, reviewers as a whole were not reviewing simulators but driving games so the standard there was a different one. So whether or not anyone feels GT5 is a better/worse simulator doesn't matter because neither game was reviewed as a simulator. To put it mildly Forza 3 did better than GT5 because it had better prioritisation of development resources. Supposed excellence in driving recreation? Irrelevant to most game reviewers. Having >1000 cars? Doesn't really matter when you have more than 400, heck even 100 is pretty overkill. Rewind mode, better assists, accessibility all matter. Online mode? Matters, apparantly the mode in Forza 3 is better. Menu system? Matters, apparantly the menus are better in Forza 3. Gameplay smoothness? Matters because noone likes slowdowns and it makes the game easier to play. Etc, a lot of points have been covered to death. GT5 has no right to be reviewed for the <10% of people who will play it for the fact it is a simulation, so in this case the reviewers were right to review based on the fitness of purpose for the intended audience. If GT5 is a low selling niche title then it deserves to be reviewed as one, however GT games tend to sell close to or upwards of 10M units. Im not saying that 87% is a bad score or that the 92% of Forza 3 makes it a better game under any and all circumstances. However the reviewers got it right in this case when reviewing the games as games and according to the wishes of the wider target audience and not the narrow hardcore sim fan base.
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I agree with you that Forza is the more accessible game. In fact, some of my friends won't go near GT5 again because it's too realistic, which (they claim) makes it less fun. I hate to admit it, but GT5 just isn't noob-friendly (for the lack of a better term). I guess where this leads to is what Reasonable said.
At bolded: I really don't get your reasoning here... Like you said, GT games do tend to consistently sell in huge quantities, so you'd probably expect the people to know what it's all about by the fifth main iteration in the series. I'm actually fairly certain that the vast majority of the people that bought the game did so because it is a simulation. So it would be fair, and maybe this is what the reviewers ought to have done, to actually review GT5 as a simulation.
