Can you spot the difference?

Info from Playstation: TOM:

- Deformation for every car in the game although race cars will see even more damage, no more bumper cars like Forza 3
- First screens of GT5′s night racing
- 1,000+ vehicles, all with modeled interiors, superior to Forza 3
- Up to 16 players online, more than Forza 3
- Indy cars and tracks will be included
- Head tracking is reconfirmed and it’s for use during racing
- Multi display is back (using 3 PS3′s for a wider view)
- HD uploads to YouTube
- Weather
- Night racing for all tracks
- Destroying Forza 3

More Info

- Over 950 cars
- Over 20 locations and over 60 variations
- New Physics engine
- Damage
- Cars can be flipped over
- Movable objects on the tracks
- The newest Hybrid and electric cars
- Night racing
- Custom Soundtracks
- Dolby 7.1
- Head Tracking with Playstation Eye
- NASCAR, WRC and SuperGT licenses
- Cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti and Tesla
- Transfer cars from GT PSP to GT5

Arcade Mode
- Single Player
- Two Player Split Screen

GT Mode
- World Map
- My Garage
- Car Dealer
- Tuning Shop
- Championship Race
- License Test

Online
- Open Lobby
- Text / Voice Chat
- Private Room
- Online Photo Album
- Online Replay Album
- Export of replays to YouTube

Photo Mode
- Photo Drive
- Photo Stage

Gran Turismo TV
- Improved UI
- Export of video to the PSP
- Progressive downloading

Current Track List

Confirmed
- Indianapolis
- Nurburgring
- High Speed Ring
- Daytona
- Suzuka
- Fuji
- Tsukaba
- London
- Madrid
- Rome
- Eiger
- Tokyo Route 246
- Rally Toscana
- Top Gear Test Track
- Unnamed 458 Track
- Unnamed FT86 Track
- Unnamed Ferrari California Track

Wow.  I’ve never seen a backlash against a game this severe.  Could this be the last Forza in the series?

[Update: Video no longer works]

Due to the massive influx of mail we’ve received since SDF 2.0′s takeover of the gaming media we’ve decided to reopen and revamp our mailbag section.  Here are just a few of the hundreds of letters we’ve received in the past few days alone.

From Rempager:
Hey,
first of all, i love SDF. And here you got a awesome forza gif. If you post it on sdf, please greet HighCaliber . He made this gif. btw “edel” means noble it is german.
sorry for my bad english, i am from germany. and we defending Sony and the Playstation on consolewars.eu 

Thank you for the kind words Rampager.   We are here to provide unbiased gaming news for the world and I’m glad you are fighting the good fight when and where you can.  We encourage all of our readers to spread the truth about Sony and what’s really going on in the video game industry.   Special thanks to HighCaliber for the fantastic animated gif.  If anyone has anymore animated gifs they’d like posted in future posts, feel free to send them in!

Our next letter is from an Xbox fanatic:

From MasterCheif:
lol wtf ur so bais how can you give forza 3 a 1/10???  greenburg and turn 10 said it wuz the definiate simulate racer out there and i belive dem over a sony sight like you lol stop posting go away

Turn 10 is trying to sell you a product of course they are going to spew hyperbole like “definitive racing sim.”  That’s why you need to go to unbiased gaming resources, like SDF, to get the truth.  And no, we won’t stop posting until the gaming media follows our lead and provides fair and balanced coverage of the video game industry.

Our final letter is from an ex-fanatic:

From Hipporoot:
Hey SDF!
I’m just writing in to thank you for your website.  I used to be a huge 360 fanboy, i paid for live and i even bought avatar clothing (rofl) but after reading your coverage  and revealing the truth to me i gotta say im done with MS.   last week i went out and bought a ps3 slim and ive not turned on my 360 since.   with games like uncharted 2, infamous, god of war 3, gran turismo 5, trico, demons souls and the rest, how could i possibly go back to 360 lol
anyway thanks again and see you guys on PSN!

Welcome to the PSN family!  Thanks for the letter but can’t take all the credit as I believe The Slim Effect™ has also contributed to your conversion.  Sony is making all the right moves as MS and Nintendo continue to stumble.

Well that’s all for this edition of SDF Mailbag.

Not only is Halo 2.5: ODST already being discounted $10 but Forza 2.5 has failed to gain any momentum despite being weeks away from release and the 360 Elite Modern Warfare 2 “meh-gaton” seems to be a complete failure.

The year of the PS3 continues…

Keep your eyes on SDF throughout the holiday season for unbiased, real-time sales data.

“Forza 3 is easily outclassed by the excellent damage modeling of DiRT 2 and even Need for Speed: Shift. Specifically, cars tend to sport the same generic “scratch” and “scuff” textures when they’re hit, and dent deforming seems limited, as well.” – 1up

“For a game so dedicated to all things automotive to slip in the cockpit is seriously disappointing, and part of what I see as a larger problem with presentation.” – Gamespy

“The achievements in Forza 3 are frankly quite boring. Easy, but super boring.” – Xbox 360 Achievements

“The game comes with a second disc filled with 100 more cars and 29 new tracks. That’s nice. However, it requires a 2GB install. Those without HDs are screwed…” – Games Radar

“Visual car damage might also be an issue for some, with the damage model used here nowhere near as dynamic as that found in the likes of Burnout Paradise or DIRT 2″ – VideoGamer

“Cockpit views are modeled for each car, but they aren’t quite as stunning as in Need for Speed SHIFT.” – GameTrailers

“The car interiors too, disappointingly, look a bit too grey and plastic-y. Forza 3 certainly doesn’t live up to Gran Turismo in the in-game visual stakes.” – CVG

Apparently the 1 million polygons promised are located beneath the car?

After a solid week of playtime I feel the Forza 3 Demo is ready for review.  I’d like to start off with the bad because I want this review will be generally positive and free of bias.

The Bad:
- The graphics have not been upgraded at all from Forza 2.  In fact I had to double check and make sure I didn’t download the Forza 2 demo by mistake.
- The UI is actually worse in Forza 3  as it’s much, much more cumbersome and takes awhile to get used to.
- The driving model is far more arcadey than I’d like for a sim game and it felt very stiff and sluggish.  Imagine playing Rad Racer for the NES but all the cars were underwater and it looked like a Saturday morning cartoon.
- The much hyped “tire physics” left a lot to be desired.  And by “a lot to be desired” i mean non-existent.
- Only 8 cars on screen all of which have very, very low polygon counts.
- Aliasing and shimmering across the board.  Think Forza 2 but with a more stale color palette.
- Sounds are muddled and not realistic at all.

The Good:
+ It was free.

The Conclusion:
Perhaps the final game will come with an entirely new graphics, physics and sound engine before it’s released.   If not, Turn 10 has still built a very competent Xbox 1-era sim racer but I’m not sure if that’s enough anymore.  With GT5:Prologue (PS3) and NFS:Shift (PS3) out right now it’s hard to even justify the free download.

SDF Score:  1/10

Forza 2.1 confirmed?  Is this an overpriced expansion pack ala ODST?  SDF will try to get to the bottom of this.