Got my Xbox repaired recently AND my Fanatec wheel just today and I've been driving for an hour or so in both titles. Time for some preliminary comparisons.
First off the wheel is great. I'm getting some intermittent clicking noises and stuff that I think aren't supposed to happen so it'll take more testing to recommend it but it's fantastic as a multi-console owner.
So easy to switch between Xbox and PS3 and both are wireless. When you switch between the two the look of the buttons change due to some nifty LED lighting thing they got going on.
Quick and easy to switch between different degrees. So when I hop into an open wheel car I can switch it to 210 or 250 and when I go into a street car I can go to 900 degrees.
Very quiet wheel but very strong force feedback. Tried out Sega Rally Revo and that game was awesome with the DFP it's even better with this wheel. I can set the degrees to 210 making it an ultra arcade experience with super strong FFB.
Liking the larger diameter and the feel of the wheel along with the quietness adds to an authentic feel. Hearing the 'RREEEAAAARRRR' of the DFP along with the tiny diameter makes it all gamey-like. The DFP and the DF before it gave me great memories and are built very well so I'm not displeased them. Just saying.
There are some issues like the H-shifter being pretty stubborn and the intermittent noises I'm hearing. Other than that if I can enjoy both GT5 and FM3 and all the other racers coming out it's worth the purchase and steep asking price. If I can get an HTPC rocking then I'm all set with only ONE wheel.
D'ultimate said:
You're the only one saying this...over and over and over and over again. That, by no means, makes it a fact.
You can take a look yourself just open up the telemetry and countersteer. The on screen wheel will jitter as you are counter steering. You can also see it on the car yourself from external cams and in replays.
Try fishtailing. Not easy. Due to this whole active steering and the reduced lock to lock steering when hitting a certain speed.
Both things are great for controller users and even users of the MS wheel which only seems to really use 180 degrees in FM3. But not 900 degree wheel users. 900 degree wheel users don't need to worry about wiping out on a straight because of the increased range of motion required to steer into a ditch.
SmokyDave said:
Yup, I was thinking the same thing. It's much easier to push the limits in F3, GT5 keeps me on my toes all the way around the lap. This bit in particular...
Is diametrically opposite to my experiences with both games. Still, different driving styles maybe?
An hour ago I would have posted something along the lines of this and agree with you but now I know why we'd be wrong in saying what you've said...
It's all about tire temperatures. It's dynamic in Forza races and not in the GT5 time trial demo for obvious reasons. When someone is going for a good TT lap in a videogame they want their conditions to be consistent between laps. Same wind direction or tire temperatures or whatever. It's like that in Forza's time trials too but it feels like the temperatures are a bit lower and stay that way.
Like I said I was going to agree with you because I went into a hotlap mode where like the GT5 demo the temps are locked. In there the car had understeering issues and you couldn't get the back end to come out when exiting a turn. When I bought the car and went into test drive mode that is when the temps get dynamic and when the tires warmed up it was just as finicky around the track as the GT5 demo...even moreso as I'll explain.
Goes without saying that for stock tires lower temperatures are a good thing and for racing tires higher temperatures aren't as much as a problem.
When playing both GT5:370z demo and FM3 I've come to the conclusion that both racers are very similar. After one hour of playing both anyways. There are some things about the visible roll of cars in GT5 that I like better but right now it seems to be just a visual thing than a physics thing...I'll explain after.
When you start playing the GT5 time trial demo your tires are at a certain temperature and are behaving a certain way. The temp seems very ideal for maintaining grip when you are cornering so you don't run into too much understeer.
When you start driving the 370z in Forza your tires are relatively cool and you will find yourself understeering initially. Front tires don't seem to have optimal grip.
At this point it is hard to spin your car out because your front tires can't hold grip and you are understeering while losing traction in the rear. You will throw yourself off the track but not spin out.
Once your tires warm up after a few laps it behaves very much like the GT demo physics wise with a few more intricacies that come with dynamic tire temperatures. Like how when you start to throttle out of a turn and you do manage to spin the tires a bit you do warm them up quite a bit and it will give you even less grip. You want them to cool down a tad before trying to accelerate again. These are stock street tires and those high temperatures are not ideal. You aren't understeering as much because the front tire temperatures get better grip but the rear tires can get very hot when spinning the tires too much.
So we can't really compare the two properly at this point. I understand why this time trial demo needs to keep tire temperatures at a certain point.
Once GT5 proper comes out it will have the dynamic tire temperatures in effect during test drives and race and we can see how things are at that point. Hopefully a detailed telemetry accompanies the game so we can see how hot things are.
Still the whole steering assists thing does give the game a different feel despite the car physics reacting very similarly between the two games. If I was going down a straight and wanted to fishtail my car in GT5 I can because the game gives me full control whereas in Forza the steering is locked 40% to the right and 40% to the left at high speeds making it easier to stay straight for controller and MS wheel users. And unfortunately 900 degree wheel owners. It's not a problem when racing because you do slow down to corner and you get back your full steering lock to lock at that point. But not good for general fooling around which is something I like to do with those great benchmark tracks.
And then there's the active steering which does make regaining control of your car very easy during drifts. Not so much during spin outs if you throttled up too much out of a corner...but during most sorts of drifts.
Even after playing for a small amount of time there's a few things at this point I really wish GT TT demo had from Forza and vice versa. I know I'm comparing a demo here but there's some basics I wish it had...nevermind things like tuning or a detailed telemetry.
Wish GT had:
-removable HUD or like in Forza a 'choose what you want HUD' and options to get rid of the suggested gear
-hood/bonnet view...VERY important bumper cam doesn't cut it because I like to see from behind my front axle not in front of it. It affects how you control your car.
-adjustable FOV for cockpit view
-lightening fast user interface...in comparison it seems slow and sluggish but that's only after going back and forth between games. Loading isn't bad because I think the demo loads much of the track when you first start it up.
-better ghost car effect...way too distracting in Prologue and here. Just do what Forza does
When I go back to Forza I wish it had:
-mixture of metric/imperial for units instead of all of one or the other
-brightness/contrast settings in-game
-no active steering or reduced lock to lock steering when reaching a certain speed. Using the same wheel for both games gives you the benefit of switching between both and when I'm racing the experience is similar but when I'm fooling around there is a world of a difference.
-remappable buttons. In GT5 trial I've mapped my look left and look right to natural positions on the wheel. I've removed the functionality of the back/select button because I sometimes hit it accidentally when driving. In Forza I accidentally hit it and I'm rewinding mid turn!
There's a lot more I'm sure this is just superficial stuff from playing both back to back...you miss these features as you go from one to the other. I'm not expecting a telemetry for the GT5 demo but I am expecting more camera views like a hood view or a removable HUD.
About body roll...you can feel it in Forza and use it of course. You can feign drift and snap back whenever you need to. But when you view it all from replays it really looks understated. Compare it to any other racer and I think Forza doesn't portray it very convincingly from a visual standpoint. I can feel it but I don't see it. I also think it's a bit overdone visually in older GT games and in LFS...but that's another story. Looks just right to me in GT5. Having your car spin out or drift or snap back into a balanced position looks perfect in replays to me. Seeing my racing replays in this demo didn't excite me but seeing my car behave during all this reckless driving got me giddy. Looks so good.
Really liking the Fanatec wheel. Was going to try it with Prologue but after playing FM3 I couldn't really touch Prologue again. After playing GT5 TT demo it seems very comparable to FM3 and so I have a good feeling about the full game. Could be better or worse but at this point it doesn't seem like a big difference as was the case between FM3 and Prologue. There are some things that we can't check now like tire flex modelling because we can't change the tire pressures or rims for different sidewall sizes...we'll have to wait and see.
Still getting used to racing with the P911T. I could get 1:51:XXX with the stock 370z consistently with the DFP and I feel I could even go further with it but after trying a dozen laps with the P911T I'm stuck at 1:52:XXX and I feel that I've hit a plateau. Could be because of the different feel of the brake or the larger diameter of the wheel.
