To be fair GT5 6 Sport and 7 in photomodes look very similar (even rendering out 4K images and 3D images for PS3 back in the day).
That’s because the car models textures and shaders were all really excellent on PS3 and 800+ of those car models from the PS3 era (not just the “standard rendered” ones either) were just tossed out and rebuilt for PS4. Of course, on PS3 rendering 4K images took quite a bit of time maybe 15-20 seconds in Photo Travel mode… I remember it like it was yesterday!
Anyway, PS5 renders minimum of 4K images in GT7, and even with RT it still takes around 4-5 seconds instead of 15-20 to render out a standard 4K image (nearly a minute for 4K+3D images) than back on PS3. Additionally, photomode doesn’t actually improve visuals in real substantial ways. The better shader models of GT Sport and even better shader models plus RT in GT7 are of course missing from GT5/6.
The very fact that we could post GT5 and GT6 images and most of these Forza Motorsport eccentrics wouldn’t actually know the difference between those PS3 shots and real life car pictures and GT7 is all we really need. GT5 is when realism really became possible in GT’s renderer, but to say that even GT Sport looks identical to 7… it’s a boldfaced lie.
GT7 is improved in ways that are still tangible, especially when you get comfortable with 7 on PS4 and then just boot up the PS4 version of GT7. The difference is both seen and the psychological effects of that visual downgrade are easily felt even though GT7 on PS4 and Sport are still 60FPS. PS5 still has the best looking 1st party racing game and GT7 is still the best looking racing simulator.
Forza Motorsport (including 8 aka: 2023) is atrocious looking especially given their 6 year development time, potentially huge budget, the team’s long history making Motorsport titles, the marketing hype behind FM23, what was shown off of the game’s early builds initially, and what we know Xbox Series X and PC’s are capable of delivering. Forza as a whole (the entire IP) hasn’t produced anything real drivers (not paid sponsors) would call a sim yet.
Add to that, the abysmal physics, monumental list of bugs some game breaking ones, which reset progress, supposedly ‘meh’ wheel implementation, and shoddy online MP. For $70 you got one heck of a rip-off in FM23.
Even I wasn’t expecting FM23 to be in this poor a state on launch especially after a nearly 1 year delay.
