I think this is a very cynical viewpoint. I think Hun is probably right - there is some convoluted reason for needing to title it this way.
There's certainly a reason to rename the game, but I just disagree with the name they've chosen. It seems to imply there will be additional content, and given the broken promises about the number of cars in the game and regular DLC, I don't think it's unreasonable for people to feel like System 3 owe them something. This might make people (such as a few people in this thread) think there's new content, as did I before I read the linked article.
As far as what the game is worth: I've had more enjoyment out of FC than GT5P & about the same amount as F1CE.
Since this post is pretty long, I'll paraphrase this bit: You've had more enjoyment from FC than GT5P, unfortunately I haven't. I don't mean to sound rude or anything, just trying to make this post shorter!
The interface is a bit "primitive", there are a number of glitches, but the AI is pretty good, certainly far better than GT5P's. I would be interested to know how much time you have spent with the game so far, & how many of the different cars you have tried? You may not have had the opportunity to fully explore the online game yet - again, not without some issues, but still, overall, the best online racing sim experience on the PS3 at this point.
I guess the interface and glitches (as none are game-breaking, as far as I've experienced) are minor issues. The AI frustrates the hell out of me, though; the way they move out of your way so you can't draft them then rejoin the racing line means it is pretty much impossible to predict where you should be on the track so you don't get a face full of a car that's hard on the brakes earlier than you were planning to be. Then when you inevitably ram the thing, it brakes even harder (even harder than is actually possible in the game, might I add). I guess that's fair enough but I've never in my life seen a real racing driver do any of that, so I don't see how that makes the AI better than GT's, after all, they seem to be following a set pattern (move out of the player's way on straights, stick to the same line through corners and occasionally dive up the inside of the player and occasionally make a mistake) just the same as in GT, only it involves annoying the player no end whereas GT's is just boring.
So far in the game I've done the Italian Challenge, all of the Trophy series, the time trials and the first two Arcade difficulties, so I've driven all the cars and tracks to death, or at least it feels that way, so I'm not exactly new to the game. However, I have only played online once - I got into a lobby with 6 people in it, before the end of the first lap 3 had dropped out, by the third I was racing by myself. Honestly, not something I want to dedicate much time to.
The thing is, I think you have to cut small game developers a bit of slack - they just don't have the big budgets that PD or EA have to spend. Eliminating them from the market will leave sim racers entirely at the mercy of one or two major players.
That is true, but I find it particularly hard with System 3. I understand they don't have a big budget, the question is, do
they? They must have known whether or not regular DLC updates would have been feasible with the money they had, but went ahead and said they'd definitely do that, then didn't. They must have known before that, surely? What annoys me the most about that is that they could have easily not promised it, then delivered it anyway. The only reason I can see for them not doing that is the sales they got from people excited about that (there must have been some), and so they were effectively, perhaps accidentally, falsely advertising.
Then there's the 'typo' on the back of the case that says the game has more than twice the number of cars it actually did. Big budget, small budget, still a very basic and potentially ruinous error. What if someone had decided that was illegal? It could happen... Surely? I presume the only reason it wasn't a problem was that it wasn't a huge release and those who did buy it weren't too bothered, but it's still incredibly cheeky and I really don't think if GT5 said 'over 1,600 cars' on the back of the box (twice the rumored 800) that PD would get away with it.
So in my eyes it's not a case of cutting them a
bit of slack any more, they've taken things a bit too far. It seems as if they're disorganised (the typo on the case and mistakes in the booklet) and don't have a large enough budget (the broken DLC promise), but are trying too hard to act like neither of those are the case. To me, this is another string to the 'I don't want to buy anything from System 3 ever again' bow, particularly after reading how little new content SCC will have.
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