VS. 
Now that each next-gen platform holder has burned rubber, it’s time to evaluate the critical reception of their exclusive racing entries. Which console should gearhead gamers turn to for the ultimate driving experience.
Metacritic gives Xbox 360’s Forza Motorsport 2 the edge in numbers at a cool 90% overall across all outlets, putting Playstation 3’s Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in second place with a respectable 85%.
Car Handling: Positive feedback for both Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Forza Motorsport 2. The latter throws 360 frames-per-second physics telemetry into the equation for extreme realism.
Visuals: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue takes the trophy here, especially with its detailed cockpit view. Critics lamented over Forza Motorsport 2’s bland visuals and rampant jaggies.
Sound: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is commended for unique sounding vehicles and enviroments, while Forza Motorsport 2 has admirable sound design, but was not recognized by critics as anything to write home about.
Artificial Intelligence: AI can make or break the single player component of a racer. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has been harped on for having some iffy, “rail-car” AI, while Forza Motorsport 2 has dynamic AI that forms rivalries with the player. Pole-position goes to Forza Motorsport 2 on this one.
Content: Forza Motorsport 2 has more variety among cars and tracks than Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, but Prologue does feature a cockpit camera in each vehicle. Look for many meaty hours of gameplay from each.
Online: No contest here. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has some online difficulties, which is where Forza capitalizes on its rival. In Forza Motorsport 2, look for online tournaments, a photo tool that uploads images for the world to see, an auction house to buy and sell cars, and a variety of quickplay events – all integrated with the game’s website.
Overall: If you’re looking to play online with the world, or you’re in artist looking for a sweet paint tool, Forza Motorsport 2 is the way to go. If you’re an audio and visual fanatic who likes their games pretty, you may want to consider Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. They each have their shining points, and it’s up to you to prioritize and decide what’s important.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
I really don’t like metacritic/gamerankings. Both sites take scores from tons of different websites that use different rubrics to determine a score, so the final score on the aggregate is almost worthless.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:50 pm
The thing is, you could have 100’s across the board, and then one site with little to no recognition but enough to be included on metacritic could give the game a 50 and the average just shot down.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:31 am
IGN, OXM, and 1up all share three drastically different scales… And that’s just a few of the included sites. What happens when you get 30 on one game?
April 24th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
That’s what an average is. A happy medium based on all the sites that are participating. Metacritic’s score is just as good as any other site’s, as long as you are comparing review scores on Metacritic *ONLY* to other game scores on Metacritic.
Every site out there employs different personalities. As a consumer you really have to learn which writers like the same sort of games that you do to really trust their reviews. Just because Zero Punctuation says that Brawl is a horrible game and IGN says it’s the best game ever doesn’t make either of them wrong. It’s all opinion.
Metacritic is just a guide, not the be all and end all of game ranking sites.
April 28th, 2008 at 6:48 am
I would like to see Metacritic drop the lowest and highest scroes to balance the results. Half of the sites i’ve never even heard of and when i visit them, they look quite unprofessional.
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:34 am
The very least I can say about the “critical reception” article that is being posted here is it’s biased.
I used to be a huge GT series fan, and hope I’ld still be one when the full GT5 version will be released (if it ever is…). But for now, it is an absurdity to compare the Prologue version of GT5, with all it’s flawes to a complete and polished game like Forza 2. Or at least, if you want to compare the two together, be truthfull and state that Forza 2 is worth a 90 and Prologue merly a 50 or 60 since it is an unfinished and unpolished game and it shows.
My two cents…