Despite the way the podcasts sound, I’m not spending my days just hitting the refresh button on Autoblog like a rat hitting the stimulus bar in a Skinner box. I have other obsessions, and my other addiction of choice is video gaming. I’m the proud owner of both an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3, oh, excuse me Sony, a PLAYSTATION 3, and I’ve been playing driving games since my parents bought home used copies of the original Test Drive and Test Drive 2 on the PC, complete with the California Challenge pack.

More rantings, pretty pictures and actual news below the jump.

I own both Gran Turismo 4 and Forza Motorsport, and have had a chance to play both Forza Motorsport 2 and Gran Turismo: HD, which was intended to be a preview of Gran Turismo 5 and I have to say, I still vastly prefer the Forza series to the Gran Turismo series. They’ve always taken turns being the leader in the graphical department, and they both have a large roster of cars to choose from (I don’t count the 200 different versions of the R34 GT-R in the Gran Turismo series to be different cars) and different ways to tune and set up your car of choice. The thing that’s always set the two apart is control. The PS2-era GT games were always hamstrung by being forced to use the Dual Shock 2 controller, which didn’t have the analog triggers you need for fine throttle and braking control, and instead had analog buttons that really only registered five different settings: off, one quarter, half, three quarters, and full pressure, whereas the Xbox had those nice analog triggers with much finer control. The PS3’s stupidly-named SIXAXIS controller and the soon-to-come Dual Shock 3 controller have triggers now, but since Sony stubbornly decided to stick with the same basic controller shape that they had with the PS2, the triggers are minuscule and not much better than the old analog buttons on the PS2. The 360, on the other hand, still has those excellent analog triggers that give you the level of control that makes the difference between a perfect powerslide and oversteering into the virtual Armco.

One benefit of the next-generation consoles that both games will take advantage of is the possibility of offering downloadable content through the Intertubes, and Turn 10 Studios, developer of the Forza Motorsport series, will be putting out a new set of cars for sale on March 19th. The complete list of cars is below, and will set you back 400 Microsoft points, or about five real-world US dollars. Personally, I’m most excited about the 1971 BMW E9 3.0 CSL, as I’m a huge sucker for the hot BMWs of the 1970’s and 1980’s, the Ferrari 430 Scuderia, which will give the Forza 2 car tuners a chance to beat the design decisions made by a little-known Ferrari test driver named Michael Schumacher, and the new Porsche 911 GT2, since the car’s already faster than a Carerra GT in stock trim, and after adding the ludicrous amounts of boost that you can get away with in Forza 2, it should technically be capable of time travel.

March Car Pack
* 2008 Audi S5
* 2007 Audi TT Coupe S-Line
* 1971 BMW 3.0 CSL E09
* 2008 BMW E92 M3
* 1989 Ferrari F40 Competizione
* 1996 Ferrari F50 GT
* 2007 Ferrari 430 Scuderia
* 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
* 2007 Maserati GranTurismo
* 2006 Maserati MC12 Corsa
* 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR
* 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 (997)
* 2007 Peugeot #1 Peugeot 207 Super 2000 (Xbox liveried 2007 IRC championship winner)

For full details, including a video trailer, check out http://forzamotorsport.net/news/announcements/carpack3.htm