Leading up to the official release date of Forza Motorsport 4 (October 11, 2011), the latest Xbox game to compete with Sony’s Polyphony Gran Turismo, a new dramatic trailer filled with true automotive enthusiast passion is released into the wild. In the new trailer, Jeremy Clarkson, host of Top Gear – as if you didn’t know, narrates what is probably one of the best car video game trailers ever called “Endangered Species”. Sure, as Clarkson puts it, it is all about safety and mpg’s but in the confines of your living room you have a safe haven where we can push the laws of physics without negative consequences. Enjoy the video below!

Like many other gamers, I bought into the hype surrounding Gran Turismo 5. I bought a Sony PS3 just for that game (although I told the wife it was for the up-sampling BluRay player), and patiently waited two years for the game to be released. When GT5 hit the market, after a countless series of delays, players began to notice certain flaws. The physical damage, which Polyphany Digital assured us would be just like real life, wasn’t (at least not initially). The detailed images of cockpits and controls were limited to premium cars, which represent a fraction of the total cars available. Even the content seems a bit disjointed: by trying to be all things to all racing fans, Polyphany essentially let down rally fans, NASCAR fans and even TopGear fans. What’s the sense of including the Top Gear test track, when you can only drive it in “special” events?

At this week’s E3 event, Turn 10 released the teaser video below for the upcoming Forza Motorsport 4. If the images from the video are any indication, then all hail the new king of driving games. The visuals are stunning, including lurid detail of both cockpits and engine bays. Turn 10 has scrapped the physics engine from Forza 3, and thanks to a partnership with Pirelli, now has perhaps the most realistic driving experience of any game on the market. Via Microsoft’s Kinect, a camera will track the movement of the player: want to look left? instead of hitting a button on the controller, you simply look left. Just like driving a real car, only without the ridiculously high cost of gas and the paranoia involved with trading paint. Take a look at the video below to see what I mean.

I’m not selling my PS3 just yet, and I can’t afford an X-Box 360 unless I sell a real car or a few duplicate body parts. I’ll be watching the release of Forza 4 (set for October 11th) with some interest, and if it turns out to be as good as the hype, it may be time to start selling blood plasma. Any readers need a new kidney? I may have one for sale.

(Source: IGN Entertainment YouTube Channel)

Someone had to do it, so why not ask a few of my gaming buddies what they think about the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 when put up against Forza Motorsport 3 or vice-versa. Obviously, if you own an Xbox 360 you are partial to Forza Motorsport and then if you own a PS3, then you would naturally take a liking to the Gran Turismo franchise.

Considering how tight money is these days, many video gamers and car enthusiasts are going to make a single choice between Gran Turismo 5 and Forza Motorsport 3 instead of buying both of them, not to mention, more than likely they only own one of the mainstream video game systems.

Now take me for example, I own both a PS3 and Xbox 360 and I have played Gran Turismo 5 Prologue till my fingers were blue. Now, I ended up trading in Forza 2 for another game because it was not my thing although you could not compare the online game-play to GT5P. I will give Forza some serious kudos, it is a bad-assed game and something that I may consider purchasing just to do a direct comparison of Forza 3 and GT5.

Forza Motorsport 3, hands-down, has some of the best looking car-graphics seen in any video game. I do not think you can argue this case much as Turn 10 is utilizing the full capabilities of the Xbox 360. You thought your Xbox 360 ran hot before, wait till you pop in the Forza 3 disc. Forza Motorsport 3 incorporates over 400 cars and 100 real-world tracks around the world. Other racing games such as Gotham, were able to bridge the arcade gamer into a “real driving simulator” but Forza 3 is far from this with the exception of its ability to allow a racer with any skill level jump-in and drive. Before, some racing games were so difficult to the point that the hard-core gamer became somewhat frustrated. Forza Motorsport 3 is pure automotive enthusiast driven with a lot of heart of the same genre put into the creation of this game. You have everything from drifting, customizing the looks, tuning, to online multiplayer, driving assists, HD graphics and more.

Gran Turismo 5 is also a race-bread game that is nothing short of Forza Motorsports 3’s heart-felt love of the sport. Accuracy and detail of cars was something perfected by the Gran Turismo franchise and everyone else followed their after. All the Japanese originated company Polyphony had to do was build on top of an empire that pushed the envelope in racing and simulation video games. Gran Turismo, marketed as “the real driving simulator” was just that, something that felt and looked real. To be critical of GT5 I have to dig up the fact that it never had car damage or the online multiplayer gaming capabilities to compare to that of the Xbox 360’s Forza Motorsport games. GT5 is supposed to fix a lot of this and therefore, it will be an all-out duel between Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5 once they both hit the market. That leaves the question of whats-up with the Nascar images for GT5?

I asked my friends which one they would like the best and the majority said Forza Motorsport 3. I asked about 8 of my buddies and out them, 2 exclusively owned a PS3, 2 owned both an Xbox 360 and PS3, and the remaining 4 exclusively owned an Xbox 360. 7 of them have played both Forza Motorsport 2 and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue at some point and time and the one loaner has only played Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Out of my friends asked about both games, none of them liked one game as much as the other. It was either Gran Turismo 5 Prologue or Forza Motorsport 2. 5 of them choose Forza Motorsport 2 and the other 3 liked Gran Turismo 5 Prologue better. So what does this say about the upcoming Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5? Sorry to say, but it means the ultimate racing/simulation game is Forza Motorsport 3…. If you own an Xbox 360…. Or… the best racing game is Gran Turismo 5…. If you own a PS3. We really wont know for sure until we get to experience both of these marvels in front of our own HD screen.

Forza Motorsport 3 is due to come out October 27, 2009 and Gran Turismo 5 is estimated to be out on December 30, 2009.

For now, you can vote for what you think is the best racing game. Forza Motorsport 3 or Gran Turismo 5?

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