It’s been almost 5 years since the last iteration of Gran Turismo, considered by many to be the definitive racing simulator. In that time span, all three of the games in the Forza franchise have been released, the latest being Forza Motorsport 3. One of the timeless debates of video games is the battle between these two racing simulators. Racing games do not appeal to everyone, and simulators to an even smaller group, but I happen to be that category of gamer.

So naturally I picked up Forza 3, partially because I enjoyed its predecessor, and partially to pass the time until GT5 releases in March 2010. I ended up discovering, however, that Forza 3 needn’t ride the coattails of Gran Turismo, it is a stellar experience all on its own.

The Evolution of a Genre

If you ever played Forza 2, you know it made a strong case for the series as a legitimate competitor to Gran Turismo, boasting an impressive catalog of vehicles, tracks, and most notably, a cosmetic and mechanical damage engine. Forza 3, of course, retains all of these, and more importantly expands on other areas. One of the most touted new features of Forza 3 is the enhanced damage engine, including rollover damage mechanics. While this is “cool”, I think you will find that rolling your car is almost impossible to do unless you are actively trying to flip it. Its times like these that I wish the Suzuki Samurai were a driveable car in the game. Otherwise, the damage engine feels pretty much the same as Forza 2, and is honestly not enough of an advancement to be worth much note.  I think Codemasters has really raised the bar for vehicle damage with the Grid and Dirt series, although those games typically have a much smaller vehicle selection than Forza, which probably makes it less time consuming to create a more realistic damage effects.

Polyphony Digital, the creators of the GT franchise, are clearly taking a cue from Forza with the announced inclusion of damage into the game, however I can’t help but wonder if it will be better, or more likely worse, than Forza’s. Forza 3 has around 400 cars in it, and GT5 projected to have more than double that number…somehow I doubt a feature that was only announced in the last year of development will end up feeling any better than “tacked on”.

Another awesome feature evolved from Forza 2 is the vehicle customization options, both from a cosmetic and performance standpoint. Forza 3 throws a spin on this by adding a social aspect to the game, in the form of a player-run economy for tuning specs and custom paint/vinyl designs. This allows a player who may excel at creating creative, custom graphics to get noticed and earn in-game money for his designs. It also benefits me, a player who prefers to race rather than get bogged down in design or tuning, to purchase a vehicle, and then search for a player created design and tuning specialization to suit my needs.The Storefront is an excellent example of Turn 10 making the racing simulator genre more accessible to the average gamer.

Finally, The new rewind ability is worth note . Obviously nodding to Grid’s flashback mode, the rewind ability provides a simple way of allowing the player to attempt a specific segment of the race again, if they make a wrong move, brake too hard or not hard enough, etc. I found the rewind feature to solve a major frustration I had with racing sims, where I would screw up on the last turn and lose the race because  of it. Purists may dismiss the feature as making the races too easy, and while I believe this is partially true, it is yet another example of Turn 10 evolving the racing genre for next-gen gaming.

With these advancements in mind, Forza 3 certainly cannot match staggering vehicle selection of Gran Turismo, nor the variety of race types and tracks that Polyphony Digital’s killer app offer, but I feel Turn 10′s latest installment has certainly staked a large claim in the racing simulator market. I personally do not believe it is a matter of either / or, and I think the Forza and GT franchises differ enough to stand side by side, even cross platform (though that will likely never happen). In a few months we will find out if GT5 is worth the five-year hype, but I can’t imagine I will regret my Forza 3 purchase in the slightest. Even if you are only a casual race fan, I recommend giving this simulator a try.