Gran Turismo 5 or F1 2011?

Hello again people of the Internet, TKH here. One thing I should probably say now whilst this blog is in its beginnings, is that I'm a gamer, love playing video games, have done for the majority of my life. Hence one issue that I've been thinking about recently is which game is a more realistic take on motor racing, Gran Turismo 5 or F1 2011? I have a PlayStation 3 as my primary gaming console, and thus have both games on the console. In my opinion, F1 2011 is a more realistic game overall than Gran Turismo 5, for reasons which will be explained in the following paragraphs.

 F1 2011 has a very realistic tyre wear system, which has your tyres wearing at rates which are very close to the real Formula One cars tyre wear in the 2011 season. There is a harder type of tyre (called the prime tyre), and a softer type of tyre (called the option tyre). The harder tyre lasts for longer than the soft tyre, but doesn't offer as much grip, hence lap times are slower with the prime tyre than the option tyre. Both types of tyre have to be used at least once during the course of a dry race. Last years tyre design was one that had high tyre wear in mind, even higher than previous years. Hence, in the game your tyres don't last a terribly long time, meaning in a full length race you would have to pit three or four times during it for new tyres. To be honest I like this a lot, as it adds a layer of strategy to the game, trying to figure out when the best times to pit are. The thing that I really like about the tyres in F1 2011 is that if you do a race, say 20% distance of the real length race, your tyres will have scaled up tyre wear to match the length of the race you do.

 Gran Turismo 5 has a less realistic tyre wear system in my view. Because the game has over a thousand different types of cars, ranging from your everyday sedan, to full blown race cars and Formula One cars, I can see why it isn't as good as F1 2011's system. GT5 has three types of tyre; comfort, sports and racing, with each tyre type having a hard, medium and soft type of that type of tyre. From experience playing the game, I've noticed that no matter whether, for example, you use a soft sports tyre or hard sports tyre, the distance each can go for before wearing out is the same regardless. Whether this was missed by the developers or meant to be implemented, it makes the game less realistic than F1 2011.

The AI in F1 2011 is also much better and more realistic than in GT5. In GT5, the AI mostly sticks to the same line, only going off it to pass a car in front of it. Whereas F1 2011's AI actually tries to defend their position from someone trying to take it. They will try and block the inside line if one tries to pass, forcing you to have to go the long way around them in a corner. The AI won't always do this, sometimes sticking to the racing line, making it harder to know what the AI are going to do. This makes the F1 AI far more enjoyable to go up against, because they actually try and not let you pass them, unlike GT5's which just stays on the one line and do nothing to stop you from passing them.

One thing which GT5 has over F1 2011 is that the mechanical damage a car gets (if damage is turned on full) from hitting another car or wall hard enough is more realistic than F1 2011. The cars steering will be bent and go off centre and your suspension could be damaged from the hit and even damaging the engine is possible, making the car harder to drive, possibly meaning a trip to the pits is on the menu. F1 2011 on the other hand doesn't have any of that damage from hitting a wall or another car. You will either lose your front wing, get a tyre puncture or destroy the car, the latter forcing you out of the race. Your suspension can't get damaged and your steering never gets bent or damaged.

Although GT5 does have a better damage system than F1 2011, Ultimately F1 wins by having far better tyre wear and AI than GT5, making the game a far better choice if realism is what you want from them. I rate both games highly though and to be honest I'd suggest buying them both, because they are fantastic representations of motor racing and the challenges which the sport has to offer. If you're a petrol head and love motor racing, these two games are ones which I'm sure would be enjoyed tremendously and give you many hours of motor racing at it finest.