By Brian Ekberg
Design by James Cheung

White Flag: Introduction

This is the year of the console driving game. 2005 has seen the release of not just one realistic driving game but three: Gran Turismo 4 on the PlayStation 2, Enthusia Professional Racing on the PlayStation 2, and Forza Motorsport on the Xbox. The release of just one of these would be enough to carry some virtual racing fans for the entire remainder of the year. However, we've been lucky enough to see all three land on store shelves in the past four months.

Of course, this embarrassment of driving riches brings up an important question: Which driving game is the right one for you? The easy answer is "all of them," as all three are quality titles, and all three are ones that can provide you with plenty of entertainment lap after lap. Unfortunately, buying all three games is not necessarily a viable financial option for everyone. Besides, it's obvious that each one has specific strengths and weaknesses. But does one game provide enough thrills, challenge, and bang for the buck to make it the best of the bunch? That's the issue we'll tackle here in our 2005 Console Driving Roundup.

How We Rated Them

In addition to presenting the facts as we see them for each game, we've rated Forza, Gran Turismo 4, and Enthusia in four separate categories: presentation, content, racing, and intangibles. The presentation category takes into consideration the overall look, sound, and feel of each game; from the car models, to the backgrounds and environments, to the background music, to engine sounds, and to the environmental soundtrack. Also, in games that feature massive car rosters, huge track lists, and multiple game modes, menu organization is a big factor. How well does each game present the immense amount of information found in it? All these factors are taken into account when considering our presentation rating for each one.

In terms of content, all three games are winners, so no gamer will be at a loss for things to do in any racer featured here. That said, what do we mean by content? For one thing, quantity counts--such as the number of drivable cars, how many tracks there are to drive, and how many opponents you can race against. But sometimes quantity can have a direct effect on quality. Point-to-point racing in Forza is a lot of fun, for example, but the relatively short list of point-to-point tracks means you won't be spending much time in that mode.

The racing score may sound obvious, but it actually takes into consideration a large variety of factors, such as: How well does the game capture the feel of the cars on the road? Are the cars too difficult to drive, too easy, or somewhere in the middle? How does the game convey a sense of speed when driving? Furthermore, we'll go over each game's artificially intelligent opponents to give you some perspective on which ones will put up a tough, fair fight and which ones see your car as yet another tasty hors d'oeuvre to be speared at the apex of a tight curve. Where appropriate, we'll also take a look at how damage models or other penalty systems for sloppy driving fit into the overall mix for each game.

Finally, we'll delve into the world of each game's intangibles, which are those aspects that didn't quite fit anywhere else in our ratings categories but still warranted inclusion here in our roundup. How useful is Gran Turismo's B-spec or photo mode? Is training up a drivatar in Forza worth your time? Should you spend a lot of time working through the driving revolution mode in Enthusia?

After you've taken a nice long look at each game under the microscope, it's time to pull back to position them head-to-head. We've assembled a handy chart that will give you a quick one-stop look at the major features of each game. Just for fun, we've even thrown in some comparison time charts for several real-life racetracks that appear in two or more of the three games discussed here to give you an idea of how the tracks (and cars) compare.

Gamers, start your engines and we'll see you at the checkered flag!