By now, racing fans have probably already made their decision when it comes to their driving game of choice, with Xbox One owners probably flocking to Microsoft‘s Forza Motorsport 7, and Sony owners swearing up and down that Gran Turismo Sport is their dream ride of choice. But the fact of the matter is, there’s more to this choice than just a given platform.
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Of course, there are other racing games to consider, like Project CARS 2, but Microsoft and Sony’s racing offerings are the key choices for the holiday season, providing a ton of realism and some other key features to attract players. But they also have their faults as well, and they’re not as easy to overlook as you might think.
So when it comes to a king of the road, what’s the ideal choice – Forza Motorsport 7 or Gran Turismo Sport? Let’s look at each of the categories and see where we stand…
Visuals
This is probably the toughest category, if only because both Gran Turismo Sport and Forza Motorsport 7 are painstakingly beautiful. No, seriously. Both games vie for a 60 frames per second framerate, with impeccable details on the cars and the tracks. In fact, they look stunning in 4K as well, especially if you’re running Sport on a PlayStation 4 Pro – a console it seems custom built for.
As you can see from the Digital Foundry video above, Sport has a slight bit better detail when it comes to car specifics, but Forza Motorsport 7 actually spruces up its game when it comes to playing on Windows 10 as well – provided your system is up for running it at top-level, anyway. The Xbox One version looks fine as well, and is probably going to have a better performance on the Xbox One X.
So what wins? Well, they both offer track variety, mouth-watering weather conditions (Forza 7‘s rain effects are mind-blowing), and car models for days on end. So this category seems too close to call. But if you really want to judge for yourself, just check out the video.
Winner: Tie
Audio
Well, they sound like racing games, all right. Both Forza Motorsport 7 and Gran Turismo Sport have excellent engine noises for each of their vehicles. Both teams have done their research when it comes to making a Porsche sound like a Porsche; a truck sound like a truck; and so forth. You’ll find no shortage of authenticity here.
However, Forza seems awkwardly quiet when it comes to its racing ambience, with no music going on by default like in, say, Forza Horizon 3. You can play your own, of course, so it’s not the end of the world.
Sport does have some racing music going on, but it’s not of the usual variety. Instead, it sounds like Polyphony Digital put together its own little soundtrack to keep you in a racing mood. Some of it is a little bit on the soft side, but it still strangely works, but doesn’t get in the way of those engine noises.
Overall, both games sound good, but Polyphony’s racer gets a very slight nod, if only because of that music. But feel free to play what you want while you drive.
Winner: Gran Turismo Sport
Gameplay
This is a tough category, because both teams really went all out to make handling a key focus to their racing games. Forza Motorsport 7 has an awesome feel to it, along with a number of driving assist systems that really cater to rookies as well as veterans, so you can nail down your driving experience however you see fit. Gran Turismo Sport has some assists as well, but doesn’t, ahem, go the extra mile when it comes to helping out the newbies. It’s still very accessible, though, and there’s even a driving school if you want to nail down every nuance in mastering your car.
Gran Turismo Sport definitely doesn’t shut out newcomers (like Project CARS 2 kinda does, shame), so players shouldn’t be afraid to jump in. Forza Motorsport 7, however, feels more like the complete experience when it comes to providing a great deal of driving fun, no matter what your skill set. You can also adjust as you go along and get better, so you can earn more XP and cash to open up your garage.
WINNER: Forza Motorsport 7
Online
Online racing is Gran Turismo Sport’s bread and butter. In fact, the whole game is built around the idea of competing with others through the PlayStation Network. It’s here that you can take on drives depending on your skill set, though Polyphony Digital really made the game with experts in mind, since you can really get some challenges completed this way. It’s a good system, and one that caters to fans who have been with the series since the whole thing began on the original PlayStation.
That said, Forza Motorsport 7 is no slouch in the online department. You can challenge friends and take on a variety of activities online as well, adding to your overall total and conquering the world a little bit at a time. It’s built more as a well-rounded game for offline and online play, but the competition we experienced with our online races was nice.
Gran Turismo Sport caters more to its crowd, while Forza Motorsport 7 feels wide open generally. They both win in this regard.
WINNER: Tie
Offline
Now here’s where we have some very stark differences between the two games. Forza Motorsport 7 can be played offline, and offers quite a bit to players in that regard, as they can still earn XP and complete challenges throughout. It’s preferred to play online, of course, but not a necessity.
Not the case with Gran Turismo Sport. If you play offline, you’re stuck in a number of ways. Only a handful of courses are available to you from the start, and you can’t even save your game unless you log in online – a fatal error that’s pissing a whole lot of people off. I understand needing online connectivity to challenge your friends, but just to save your game? Oof. Even with a VR mode – which is gimmicky at best – there’s just not enough to do.
Microsoft’s racer wins in this regard.
WINNER: Forza Motorsport 7
Limitations
Now let’s look at the negatives for each game, in which there are notable ones.
With Forza Motorsport 7, many players feel that the “grind” to earning better cars within the game is not so easy to stand by, forcing them to possibly purchase Microtransactions to move ahead. After our time with the game, we felt this wasn’t entirely the case, though that “grind” is present. That said, though, there’s still plenty to do within the game in order to succeed, and you don’t really need to drop money in the game to “win”. It’s secondary, at best. Still, we could see why some people would be frustrated with this.
But Gran Turismo Sport is even more frustrating. The fact you have to be logged in online to get anywhere – saving your game, taking on certain challenges – is a real pain in the neck. Previous Gran Turismo games let you conquer campaigns and so much more without needing an online connection. Even Gran Turismo 6 did that. But Sport doesn’t, only giving you a light amount of things to do if you’re not logged in. And that’s a real bummer.
Forza‘s Microtransactions may be a pain for some, but, hey, at least you can do more than what Gran Turismo Sport offers.
LOSER: Gran Turismo Sport
Overall
At first, this seemed like a tough call, particularly with the way each game is presented, and how each one plays. But then we get down to the brass tacks in terms of the features that the games are built around, and what’s necessary in order to even get the most out of Gran Turismo Sport.
And that’s why Forza Motorsport 7 wins overall. Sony fanboys may call us out, but the fact of the matter is you can do more with that game online and off than you can with Sport. In fact, if PlayStation Network goes down for a significant amount of time, there’s not so much you can do with Sport at all, whereas Forza has plenty to offer.
Maybe this competition will change once Gran Turismo 7 surfaces – if it surfaces. But, for now, Forza conquers the circuit with ease, just because it’s so damn accessible. And for a majority of racing fans, that’s what really counts.
WINNER: Forza Motorsport 7
