A rip off that worth playing.
It's not like Forza is bad, actually it does a lot of things even better than any GT game up to date. The car categorization and race restrictions are a lot better. It's more tight, which is good. Motivating tools for playing it on more challenging settings are cool with aids turned off gaining more money and ideas like that. (Too bad money is not necessary that much to go on.) I have to admit I truly liked those ideas, especially in the beginning. But driving physics and overall playing experience was below what any GT game has to offer. Track selection is too small, got pretty old pretty fast. AI seems to be fair and challenging first but after a while it turns out to be a knock off contest on braking. AI drivers also drive like the player wasn't there at all. If I had a dollar every time they pushed me out... So it really gets kind of tedious and annoying after a while. Godzilla-size annoying...
But aside from these small differences Forza is nothing else but a copy of GT3. Take a look "Complex track" which is one of the most direct and huge rip offs of GT3. And the list is endless. It really feels like an American remake of a French movie (or Japanese in this case) that happens quite often. Like okay, this is good, but it's not American. Let's re-do it our way. And so they did...
Bottom-line: Forza is a good game, but it's a copy. A good copy but still just a copy.
My advice to all of you: If you have access to one platform only then it's easy to decide which one to pick. Both games definitely worth playing. If you have access to both PS2 and Xbox platforms and like the easier a touch more arcadeish racing sim then pick Forza. If you want to see the original and still the best, then please play Gran Turismo. It really worth it. Or if you are a racing maniac like me, then play both and decide for yourself which one did you enjoy the most.