1) AI racers in Forza actually race you. In GT they just go around a train track. it is TOTALLY game breaking and TOTALLY ruins the singe player game making it, for all intents and purposes, pointless to play. The ONLY reason to play single player is to get credits to buy cars to take online, and thats such a shame as it could have been the best single player game on PS3 if it executed it properly.
2) No matter what car your in, Forza will dynamically generate a race to enter which fits that car. In GT your forced to buy a Europian NA or a 1980s US car or whatever, I just wanna race my latest creation dammit. This tiny feature is very under-rated and I really miss it - I dont want to be forced to race what the devs want me to race in, I just wanna race my latest toy without having to do the same event over nad over like GT.
3) Tuning. Forzas is infinetly better and far more detailed, take engine transplants for example, they are amazing fun, droping an RB into a 240z is always going to be made of win. GTs is massivly limiting. When you really sit down with some cash in the bank in Forza a new car feels like a blank canvas (which ironicly with the painting it litrally is) and you can tune it in so many ways, in GT it just feels like your adding one bit after another, it just lacks the variety and options.
4) Customization. In Forza you can pretty much do anything, in GT you can pretty much do nothing. In Forza, every car has many stypes of unique wings, skirts, etc including both fictional ones but also ones from real manufactures. You can quite literally see a car in Jap Performance and go and build something which is 99% identical (even down to specific manufactuer parts) in Forza. In GT your stuck with a tiny handfull of mods that the developers give you.
5) Online. The online mode on Forza is infinetly better, it has far more play modes, the way to interact with friends, create parties, setup teams, etc is vastly superior in Forza. GTs multiplayer is endicitive of PSN, it works but its not been particually thought out. I care about this less as online is about playing with mates and sadly most of JPOC still play GT so ill play that with them.
6) Car Selection. The standard cars in GT are pathetic, no interior view, no decent models, they look like something on PS2 which amusingly they are. Whilst the premium cars do look great, the standard cars just suck and as the standard cars vastly out number the premium youll end up playing with crappy looking cars more often than not. Whilst the premium cars on GT are slightly better than Frozas, Forza has the HUGE advantage that EVERY car is premium.
7) Damage. GT's damage is a joke. Ive put in a fair few hours now, im upto level 17 and I still cant unlock damage. I just have no idea what its all about. Why the hell cant I crash? It adds a HUGE amount to the gameplay to be able to smash a car up, to have pannels laying in the road from an AI crash that you didnt even see,it just makes it all feel more reel. And this links to the previous point, even when the patch comes you wont be able to crash the 800 non-premium cars on GT. Ruins the feeling of making it feel like a real race.
8) User Interface. The user interface in GT is terrible. Its not game ruining, after all its just menus, but it just sucks and is full of bad design choices at every step of the way. Forzas is far from perfect, but it does feel much more polished and doesnt wind you up every time you turn it on.
9) Community. The market place in Forza is brilliant. On the forums you have teams who specialise in setting up cars for specific tracks for specific tasks, a really well setup drift car for example will sell for a fortune. People can request a specific paint job and pay someone for it all outside of the game, there is a great community thing going on that just isnt there in GT becasue GT doesnt offer any community conent other than gifting someone a car that they could just buy themselves.
10) Painting. Personally I love painting cars in Forza, it is a very powrefull tool and some of the better creations out there are mind blowing. I understand why some folk dont like painting and thus dont think it matters but it really does. When you tie it into the previous point about community, having the ability to buy custom paint jobs (bespoke or off the general market) made by other real people adds epic variety. When your online you will see thousands of different car designs, it makes it so much better than the generic 'here is anohter GTR' that GT has.
I could go on, the sound is crap, it has crashed on me three or four times, the loading times suck, etc
Its so frustrating as underneath it all is the basics of what could be a really good game, but its just not, it falls short on so many basic things
