Head to Head

[Michael-5]

Halo: Reach

Wow, sales leading 360 exclusive vs. sales leading PS3 exclusive, and it's a pretty close vote. Nice to see some of the better 360 games getting recognition on VGC Forums.

Anyway I chose Halo: Reach mainly because I had more fun with it, and I've played it a lot more. This is the best co-op game ever made, and that's a really important feature to me. Great physics, and a great feel playing this game. Honestly the Halo engine is the best FPS engine, and this game shows it. Addictive multiplayer system, and the concept of multiple spartans really adds to the customization of players online. A fun Firefight mode, rocketfight is voted a little too often, but it's fun overall. Finally a great story. I'm a big Sci-Fi fan, and this was one of the best stories I have ever felt in a Halo game. However that game isn't perfect. The improvements from Halo 3 are fairly minimal, but just because everything is done so well, it's deserving of it's high metascore.

As for GT5, this is also a great game. Amazing graphics on premium cars, and fictional track courses are really cool. The physics of this game are phenomenal, I particularly like how well weight shifting is handled while cornering, however I still feel somewhat disconnected with the track. I say this because when I drive a mid engined car, I only feel as if I'm drifting on sharp 90 degree turns, but I actually do it on any turn, as much as 30 degrees. Other games do tire to surface relationships better. Still an amazing title, great physics, music, and extreme races are moderately difficult. One of the highlights of the game for me is a little history lesson on each car, and the inclusion of concept cars, even if their prices are a little overboard.

However what hurts GT5 is that a lot of my biggest flaws in GT 1-4 are still present. First of all, damage, GT5 needs it at lower levels, and it needs a much better damage engine. Then standard cars...what is up with this? These cars look like HD ports of PS2 car models, what's the purpose of 1,000 cars if 80% of them look this bad, and don't offer in car view (A major must for racers IMO). Also many of these cars have either the same specifications, or nearly the same. I mean there are 13 Honda S2000's, only 4 of them are any different structurally. Also some jumps in this game propel your car over ten feet in the air. Any drop of this magnitude would cripple your suspension. It's far too comical to see jumps like this in a racing sim, this isn't Mario Kart. Finally, I hate the set up of this game. You aren't rewarded too many cars by completing races, and you're often forced to tune your cars to win some of the more challenging cups. I hate this, I know this is a racing sim, but I want to race in more then 30-50 cars in a single career session (100 hours if you do the endurance races, 40 if you don't). This is still a game, I shouldn't have to "work" to race in cars I like. Arcade mode has a nice selection, but I like to race in some rarer cars.

Now, this is my opinion. Don't flip out like MUGEN because you don't agree.