I have never played either (except GT HD) so I will get my first experience when Prologue comes

Well I admitted as much in a previous post, but I did a Youtube search on Forza crashes before posting that, to be sure that I wasn't talking out of my ass.  :)

I think I would agree with a lot of your points on progression through the game and car customization.  Like I said, I hope Polyphony hired a Gameplay Engineer to tweak these and other elements of the series.  I would also agree that there are a lot of fanboys just saying GT this and GT that without attempting to make any meaningful comparisons.

Also, and this isn't fully directed at you RP, I think there are two types of realism: realism for the sake of realism, and realism for the sake of fun.  IMO, simulation accuracy is realism for the sake of fun, but damage is not, for the reasons pointed out by PooperScooper.  When gamers tout GT's realism, they're referring to the realism of the way the cars handle.  Saying Forza is "more realistic" because it has car damage is not necessarily a plus for everyone.  GT players want to know if the simulation is more accurate.  I'm willing to believe that Forza 2 could be more accurate than GT4 if only because of the CPU power available, but that's entirely dependent on the programmers.  I haven't heard from anyone who has played both games with a racing wheel setup, and I haven't done it myself.

 however, u should really judge it when u play the real thing

HAHAHAH

If your going off that, i better NEVER hear that halo sucks ever again.

Yeah, that's kinda what I meant by GT this, GT that.

See, I love to race competitively where exploits are used endlessly and damage prevents one of the most annoying exploits overused in every GT game except GT2: the brake, slide, and slap. Trail your opponent, brake late while kicking it sideways, cut inside, push him off the track and take his spot. Easy as pie. Forza royally f***s you for trying that in a race because you'll take so much damage that you'll never win the race.

Unless Polyphony does something about that in GT5, the online component is gonna suck because we know how online players hate to use exploits. /sarcasm

While I can see how some of you dislike damage, it's a nice feature to have for those of us that like to race cleanly online. Besides, there is always the option to turn it off in-game (just like almost every other option in Forza including auto trannys, tire replacement, modifications, weight class, horsepower, etc. etc.).

In short, options = good. No options = not good. 

What I don't get is; why compare a PS2 game from years back to a 360 game from last year, its hardly a fair comparison.
There's almost unlimited hardware possibilites on a 360 compared to the much inferior PS2, and the difference between Forza 1 and 2 was huge!
Probably as huge as the difference between GT 4 and GT 5 will be, which is backed up by the testament of those who have played the beta.

Really, I don't see a fair comparison until GT 5 arrives, so the two are on matched hardware with matched possibilities at the very least. Otherwise, it'd be like comparing Half-Life to Call of Duty 4 or some such, where Call of Duty would win every category easily because of the tremendous hardware advances.
Whew, sorry for the rant, but I've always maintained that comparing games from last gen against current gen is plain wrong when you try to draw conclusions such as this.

Most of my comparisons work just as well for Forza as they do Forza 2. But you're right, comparing different generations to each other doesn't make much sense.

Then again, it doesn't make sense to compare Forza 2 to GT5 when Forza 2 might be two years old when GT5 releases. If not two years, it will be well over a year and a half old. 

^
Then we'll wait for Forza 3!

GT5