There is nothing wrong with either Forza or GT having multiple personalities. This is what made Gran Turismo the monster hit it is. This is why, when Microsoft wanted a similar splash in the racing game market, they didn't copy Toca, rFactor or GTR. You can't exactly consider Gran Turismo a confused, identity crisis riddled series if you're going to give Forza a pass for doing the same things.
We've tried to plumb the Sphynx-like mystery of why GT5 ended up as it did. I think my speculations have covered about all of the possibilities. Early production options juggled and while pipe dreams were winnowed out like the all-DLC model, others over-complicated the overall concept. Tourist Trophy was a bit of a speed bump. GT PSP was a major problem, demanded by SONY as a killer app for the new PSP GO. Late work on a damage implementation which initially showed promise, ended up being something of a mess and all that work was scrapped and reworked into something very basic. SONY came in once again and insisted that all game code feature 3D compatibility with their upcoming 3D Bravias, and as a result, graphics looked worse in some aspects than Prologue did. The massive online game Kaz spoke of guardedly in interviews evidently wasn't working well with the existing server structure of the PSN. Physics is still different online vs offline, requiring a distinct adjustment to your racing technique. I dislike it so much I've stuck to offline racing against the bots.
Now, somewhere in that above mess, Kaz and the team lost their way in trying to nail down specifically what they wanted to advance over GT4, and how all these advances in gaming style would meld into a cohesive unified experience. If they had that extra year to work on GT5 uninterrupted, I have little doubt that some of the weird things we dealt with in the game wouldn't have been there, or made sense.
What will Spec II mean for all our complaints and wishes? Who knows?
Some people complain that Kaz is too secretive about everything. Frankly, I love the surprises. When did all of you guys want to know every spoiler for a new book or movie before it came out? And they point out that T10 has been very open about Forza 4. Sure... if you look at the span of time between the two previous games in both series, yes, with five years between GT4 and 5, there were many
many months in which we knew nothing. But remember that Prologue gave us a good glimpse into what we'd be getting in GT5 when Forza 4 was just a mention of a title, "4." And when you look at the months prior to Forza 4's and GT5's release, the flow of info was actually much longer in GT5's case. Of course, this was due to a year's delay...
But we should be grateful for that delay. Just think of what might have been left off of GT5 with one year less work on it. Race Mod, time changes, weather, 3D, what little damage there is? What else would be missing?
I peeked into the Forza section, and most of the fans are still so reverential of the series, they speak of it as if no game had issues of any real consequence. I'm not sure what trying to have a dialog in there would accomplish except huge fights. This seems to be a slightly more level playing field. But Forza 4 is going to offer us a glimpse into that other game and the team behind it.
One factor which keeps being brought up is how much larger T10 is over PD, and asking why PD didn't hire more people. But these two studios are managed by completely different companies. While Microsoft is essentially flooded with cash - they don't make much of anything but software, extremely expensive software - SONY is mostly a manufacturer and has massive overhead costs to deal with. They make their consoles. And while the budget for every Forza game is a closely guarded secret, the size of the overall team is large. With Forza 1, the T10 team itself was relatively small, 24, and around 70 contract employees were hired. On top of that, work was farmed out primarily to shops in India and Vietnam, making the overall group number about 200. ama212's detective work reveals that with five other studios involved, more than 400 people are working on Forza 4. Those guys who insist that the solution is simply to hire a bunch more people forget a few salient points.
The biggest cost to any production is the cost of your employees.
Kazunori insists on hiring people who not only are good workers, but people he can trust.
GT5 already cost SONY as much as $80 million in 2010, and still isn't finished! Meanwhile, Forza 4 is estimated to cost as much as $120 mill. Only a company like MS could absorb that kind of bill. This excessive cost may be why they lost the Porsche license, because it's also no secret that Electronic Arts is trying to be the other monopoly in gaming, and hoards the Porsche license tightly, meaning you have to pay a pretty penny to get it. Or not be a threat, which Forza evidently is to the young Shift series.
We're told that Forza 4 is going to be the dream game we've always been waiting for, and in some measure because T10 listens to their fans. What I think is more important is whether T10 will listen to their quality testors, because contrary to what their fans will have you believe, every Forza game has some pretty serious flaws, some of which were ported through the first three games unfixed. However with the success of GT5, it does sound like T10 is taking this threat much more seriously, and want to capture some of the prestige which GT5 lost. And on what's being revealed from YouTube vids and scant hands-on time with the demo, F4 is looking pretty nifty. Of course, most of the bugs bite you when you're playing and using features in the game itself, which no demo will reveal.
Will this threat to GT5's prestige be taken seriously by Kazunori? I have little doubt of that. I'm sure that Spec II is just the first taste of his resolve to regain the respect from disgruntled fans, and while there may be a Spec III, it may take waiting for GT6 to see much of the vision he has for Gran Turismo.
And I only think of firing it up on occasion for nostalgia's sake. I till love it, and the weird pigeon noises one of my car makes, but compared to GT5, it's a relic. If anything, I think seriously of giving GT4 a run sometimes. Then I recall how good the physics are in GT5 and head for it instead.
