BTW, patch 1.02 is up now.

Currently downloading it.  It weights 133MB.

is that the patch  for the damage and improved performance??

This patch will address some online features:

"We received a lot of demands for having more regulations placed on the online play. We're going to perform an update on the 27th that will include things like max power restrictions and weight restrictions."  Yamauchi said.

The patch that will improve performances is supposed to come out on December 1, and will address this:

* More physical damage to axels, bringing leaning to left/right
* Damage in arcade mode
* Reduce the minimal framerate dips

So waited a year later to release GT5 to steal Forza 3's ideas and on top of that it doesn't perform as well as Forza 3? Wow Sony, you're slacking and lucky that GT5 is a brand name. 

Damage in arcade mode? B4 the patch there was already damage.......I thought it was more of improving it?

LOL!!! wake us up when Forza is even running on 1080p has weather effect,day and night cycle, 16 cars on the sceen and has better graphics than GT5 prolog. till then dont even speak.

At first Forza 3 damage sound good yet with time most notice is almost nonexistance. Even ISR admitted they rated Forza 3 too high especially when it came to damage. Cars are hit the wall full speed and come away without any damage. If Gt5 graphics  were overated then truely Forza 3 damage is even more overrated. That is unless you love "George of the Jungle" damage. George hit tree, bark flies off tree. Car hit wall, paint flies off car.

 The reason there is little damage to console sims is to make the sim more forgiven to less serious sim racers. Forza did add some damage then turn around and gave unlimit rewind feature which removes all mistakes; thus a build-in cheat.

I don't know what game you're talking about. You hit the wall on Forza 3 at full speed and your car not only is damaged, but you also aren't going more than 20-30 MPH the rest of the race. The only thing that could make what you said possible is by turning the damage off.

The rewind button is about as much of a cheat as the "restart race" button is.

I'm not the only one who notice this. It's more like hit and miss. ISR noted this as well which why Forza cars take a hit in damage compared to Rfactor cars in Top sim cars.  (even clutch damage sound good at first yet all the clutch required was pushing two buttons at the same time to shift instead of one and never damage the clutch.)

you do know the difference between rewind and restart right? Restart is starting over.  Also it's unlimited rewind.

Gran Turismo 5 offers the visuals and all the licensed cars in 1080p. 1000 cars and realistic tracks with all the turns. GT5 is the ultimate driving simulator. If you want a fun Arcade racer Gran turismo 5 is not the game series for you. Need for Speed and countless other Arcade race games are available. Gran turismo series is a hard core racing simulator emphasis is on real physics associated with driving cars on different track and weather conditions. 

Gran turismo 5 is like String theory of a racing game with all the realistic physics. But is that fun for the average pick up and play casual gamer? Mario Kart or one of the countless arcade racing games are fun for casual gamers.

Hard core gamer or Casual gamer? Driving simulator or Arcade style racer?  Game purchase decisions are very straight forward.