When reading through these forums, I often hear mixed views about Fora Motorsport 3. Even though it was a higher rated racing simulator, and reccomended by many people who viewed GT5, not everyone here considers Forza of the same quality as Gran Turismo.

Some don't even consider it competition, even though it is a 5 million selling franchise (although 1.3 million are likely bundled, and if you follow VGC tracking, it's impossible for the game to have bundled more then 1.5 million as that's how much sales jumped during bundling).

Just one statistic. Ford sells on average 3x as many Mustangs as Chevy sells Camero's, and almost 10x as many Mustangs as Dodge sells Challengers. Do sales justify competition, or does the car itself justify it? Apply this to the games, do sales affect Forza being a compeditor or not?

IMO, GT started the same as Forza, and grew just as fast. Just during the time between GT1-4, Gran Turismo largely had no competition, and was the first of its kind. I think Forza quality has really jumped since Forza Motorsport 1, and I'm excited to see how much better Forza 4 is over 3 and GT5.

I believe that the difference with Forza and GT really boils down to which is newest, and preference. Right now most would say GT5 is best, before GT5 was released Forza Motorsport 3 was the best, and before that it was Forza 2 or GT5: Prologue (preference dependent). Now when Forza 4 comes out, I'll bet a buck that most people will say it's the best racing sim out there.

Am I wrong to believe in this trend? What are your honest opinions about the Forza brand. Has it established itself as a AAA, 9 Plus/10 simulator, and a compeditor to GT5? Or is Forza just an alternative.

P.S. Don't be afraid to compare Forza and GT to other big PS3/360 franchises such as Resistance/Gears and Halo/Killzone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74xZHnCZlS0&feature=player_embedded

I think a lot of people base their judgment on graphics alone. Polyphony has always excelled in graphics especially on the cars but to me the game requires more than that. Being able to paint my car and trade it in for me is already a big win for Forza over GT. The AI is also better and feels more competitive. Forza has better menu navigation, more detailed environments and car damage. Add Kinect head tracking and the ability to view car parts with detailed info on each parts and we have a winner.

I like car games, but even ithough I like Forza a lot I play mostly the Dirt series. A shame Microsoft didn't pursue both PGR and RSC.

Yeah its a competitor.

Forza 3 for me is my favourite racing sim of all time. The way the car's feel and the AI in Forza 3 were superior to GT5 in my opinion but I always felt Forza 1&2 were never up to the quality of the previous GT games. So for me Forza 3 was the only one that challenged and surpassed the GT series.

I'd say Gran Turismo is the better franchise and better currently. Forza is an attractive alternative to people who don't have a PS3 or have one and want to compare, but I still see it as an alternative.

I bought Forza 2, thought the racing was good, but the career path was just too much work. The tracks were not as interesting as GT4's and I ended up only playing the game in arcade mode to unlock all the tracks.

I skipped Forza 3 after playing the demo and reading that half of the tracks were recycled from Forza 2. I preferred GT5p's handling over the Forza 3 demo. There were enough other games to play at that time and pretty much forgot about Forza 3. (kinda figured my 360 would break again and I would get a free copy with a new slim model, same way I ended up with a 2nd copy of Forza 2. The noisy old fat hdmi model is still alive unfortunately)

I'm planning on getting Forza 4 since there should be enough new content since 2 for me. I don't think it will be as great as GT5 for the single reason I'm spoiled now with 1080 vertical resolution on a 92 inch screen. I don't care about the number of polygons in the cars or the trees, but those extra lines of vertical resolution do a lot for making the perfect corner.

The only thing that can stop my purchase of Forza 4 is Turn 10. Stop with the racing is going to be the smallest part of the game nonsense and put up a good demo this time.

Forza is the better game for one important reason. Its more actually FUN and less ultra realistic. Its still certainly a sim racer but it manages to make the racing itself fun at the same time. Gran Turismo 5 was seriously the most sterile game I've ever played, it had zero character and felt like I was part of a bland car commercial.'

Plus I'm a HUGE lover of the insane customization on the painting tools in Forza.

But we are on Vgchartz and my opinion will be in the VAST minority here.

It's better then any GT game and the reviews should prove it. Unfortunately the sales will never be near the GT level.
As I said in the other thread - the new GT will be better then Forza 4 ...
... In ten years when its out.

The team behind Forza is very talented and they know how to make a racing sim.

You clearly haven't played Sea Blade http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox/action/seablade/index.html that game will forever be my yard stick for how bad it can get.

Personally I have prefered Forza since it released, That might have something to do with my brother not having a memory card for his PS2 and so not being able to properly enjoy GT3 that came with it, and not ever having played GT4 or 5 but from my observations Forza is very much competition and Forza 4 looks to surpass it in most, if not all, ways

As a franchise I think its good, I wish they took the racing a little more seriously though. If they put the kind of effort into the racing aspect that they do to all the community and customization stuff it would probably be a better game than Gran Turismo. But because Gran Turismo's focus is on the racing first and foremost and it shows as its far and away the better sim racer it will always be one step behind . And with Gran Turismo getting better community features the gap will continue to get wider.

The perfect game would be Forza's community and customization with Gran Turismo's sim racing.

Also,  The new Chevy Camaro is outselling the Ford Mustang