Drag Racing: GT5 vs. FM4

[acascianelli]

I'm currently a GT5 player, I've been thinking about getting a XBox360 and Forza 4. I have a few questions regarding how drag racing compares between the two games that I'd like answered.

In GT5, there is no official online drag racing. Just line up at a predetermined point on the track, and race to another predetermined point on the track that is roughly equal to 1/4 mile. How does FM4 compare to this?

I know among the GT5 community, the drag racing section seems to be pretty busy. Looking around on the Forza forums, I haven't really found that the following is as large. Is drag racing just not as big in FM4 or am I just not looking in the right places?

 

[Terronium-12]

Moved to appropriate section.

 

[X-Power]

There are drag racing tracks and drag racing tyres in FM4. I'm sure you'd be able to find fellow drag racers if you start a drag lobby or start a thread on the forums. (ForzaPlanet or Forzamotorsport.net)

 

[ImaRobot]

In GT5, there is no official online drag racing. Just line up at a predetermined point on the track, and race to another predetermined point on the track that is roughly equal to 1/4 mile. How does FM4 compare to this?

Forza has actual 1/4th mile and full mile tracks, i think they even have an 1/8th but im not sure to be honest. You can do the point to point if you want to, but you have to actually start a race to get it going. Its not like GT5 where you can stay in the staging forever and back out and go in whenever you want.

I know among the GT5 community, the drag racing section seems to be pretty busy. Looking around on the Forza forums, I haven't really found that the following is as large. Is drag racing just not as big in FM4 or am I just not looking in the right places?

I know FM.net has its own section for drag racing, but like you said it doesnt seem to be as popular. I never done it, i usually stick to track racing, or drifting every now and then.

 

[local chap]

Biggest issue with online drag racing is that all the leaderboards are dominated by the same handful of cars. Seems to ruin the spirit of competition found in real drag racing.

 

[young___nate]

No doubt the Drag Racing experience will be better in Forza. It has several features not found in GT5, but I don't think there is a single in game drag race, but I have never looked. There is also no Lobby "Hopper" for drags I don't think. You would have to search the public user created races, which is going to take a lot of time and frustration to sort combined with unstable connections to peers etc...So I can't say Forza justified my Xbox purchase sadly. Luckily theres Left 4 Dead and Mass Effect to fill the void.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

There are three public Hoppers: American Muscle Drag (600hp max, RWD), RWD Unlimited Drag, and Unlimited Drag. The problem with these, I imagine, is that most people would be more interested in leaderboard times than competition and fun, so you might always run into the same few cars.

There'd be nothing stopping you from starting leagues and hosting user-created (either public or private) rooms, though. Like ImaRobot mentioned, though, you can't re-run over and over like in GT5 - there's no "Free Run" in FM4 online, sadly.

As for the actual act - drag racing in FM4 requires throttle control, just like GT5, but it's more realistic in the sense that torque steer needs to be accounted for, as your car won't stay in a perfectly straight line from the off.

 

[young___nate]

There'd be nothing stopping you from starting leagues and hosting user-created (either public or private) rooms, though.

Except the lousy/spotty peer to peer connections and lack of a fix for online.
If people can't count on the servers to place people with compatible connections in the same lobbies? Why would people expect good results from random chance?

 

[ImaRobot]

There'd be nothing stopping you from starting leagues and hosting user-created (either public or private) rooms, though.

Except the lousy/spotty peer to peer connections and lack of a fix for online.
If people can't count on the servers to place people with compatible connections in the same lobbies? Why would people expect good results from random chance?

I really don't get what you keep going on about as I've had no problems with p2p connections. I can race in a full room and still have no connectivity issues more times then not(a lot more). I have had flying cars and seen warping cars, but that only happens because lets say my gf is downloading on the computer and using her phone connected to the wifi as well, but what I'm trying to get to is that's a problem on my part not the servers.

 

[I'm Motarded]

Like ImaRobot mentioned, though, you can't re-run over and over like in GT5.

For this you need to look out in the user created lobbies for lobbies called 'Drag' or "street racing" or similar. They won't be under the Drag section though, they'll usually be in the circuit section or timed races. The main track used is Le-mans because of the long straight.

 

[young___nate]

I really don't get what you keep going on about as I've had no problems with p2p connections. I can race in a full room and still have no connectivity issues more times then not(a lot more). I have had flying cars and seen warping cars, but that only happens because lets say my gf is downloading on the computer and using her phone connected to the wifi as well, but what I'm trying to get to is that's a problem on my part not the servers.

It's probably a lot easier for a CA resident to find peers close enough to him to maintain a connection than a guy from Washington state. Not Seattle.
Not everyone has the problem, but peer to peer has problems. It's easy to spot for me and the other people I play with. I can even see when people on my friends list are struggling as they will pop in and out of Live when playing Forza. It's a real problem for a lot of people and it has been acknowledged by Turn10 as well as Polyphony Digital. I don't expect are experiences are the same, but I have a High Speed Comcast account and no problems with any other game except Forza and GT5. Pretty obvious to me that Racing games with deep and detailed physics engines put a strain on Consumer bandwidth. Makes sense considering there is a big difference between the amount of computing a console must do at racing pace (times 16 players) and your average shooter dealing with human running pace. Basically everything in a racing game is being rendered at a much faster pace than a shooter right?
At least that is a theory of mine. Maybe I am wrong, but I know both Forza and GT5 are the only games I have issues with. Pretty sure that both developers avoid the topic because they know it's a limitation on this generations hardware/infrastructure.