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From MY experience, you can get access to money trees in like a day or two in GT2, 3, and 4 if you know what to do. Since GT games can keep you busy for months, a day is not far into the game.

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I do lament the fact that Forza 3 doesn't have prize cars for when you finish events. It feels like something is missing.

But is the reward at the end the only thing you care about? Don't you want to have fun on the journey too? GT had this problem where I felt like I had to finish a lot of events, instead of wanting to play them. The less things I feel like I have to do in a video game, the more fun it tends to be.

Forza 3's lineup of events is incredibly diverse and covers a lot of different themes (engine sizes, body type, drivetrain, car rivalries, drag racing, oval racing, etc). There were a lot of events I found myself looking forward to just because of what they were about, rather than how much money they awarded. This, to me, contributes a lot more to longevity than a fancy car at the end.

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Personally, I think Forza's way of encouraging you to be a better driver is a lot more fun and more effective. You get bigger winnings for increasing AI difficulty and turning off driving assists. By making things harder on yourself, you learn more about racing and becoming a better driver. And you can dive right into the racing without having to take classes first.

When I do License Tests in GT, the only thing on my mind is completing them so I can get back to playing the actual game. I'm doing them because I have to, and not because I'm having fun. The lessons are usually gone from my head once I'm playing the proper game. Forza's system actually helped me get better, and GT's didn't.

License tests do sound like a great idea for new players, but they need to be presented in a more entertaining manner or replaced with a different learning tool.

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You know, I think it's funny how you guys harp on and on about graphics, like they're really that important. To me, graphics have reached a level where the vast majority of stuff looks spectacular already, and to go further is just overkill. I almost never consider graphics anymore when purchasing new games.

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Even so, if someone happens to gain access to the LMP1 cars as the result of a "money tree" event, as I did while playing Gran Turismo 4, horsepower caps on early events would prevent them from abusing the system as a means of quickly progressing on to later events where usage of high-powered cars would be permitted.

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Also, note that you concede the fact that "GT games can keep you busy for months." In contrast, Forza 3 kept me busy - busy, not entertained - for a week at best.

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The problem with your argument here is that, while I agree that in Forza 3 I feel less pressured into completing events, the lack of individuality and reward in those events means I have no interest whatsoever in completing them of my own accord.

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Personally, I found the Licence Tests extremely entertaining. Tearing up the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in an 1000hp off-road monster in a desperate bid for that last gold medal in Gran Turismo 2 was as much fun as is in Forza 3 ten times over. In contrast, Forza's idea of awarding the player a modicum of cash for completing a race with the traction control turned off strikes me as rather dull and pointless, seeing as it's laughably easy to obtain huge amounts of credits regardless.

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Graphics are a huge factor in contributing to the realism in simulation games such as the Gran Turismo series. The whole idea of a driving simulator is to provide the most true-to-life experience possible, and, if the player's "car" resembles a plastic toy, let's just say it takes away from that experience just a little.