Well, after 1 Hour and 16 minutes, I was able to see the intro video. This included the updates and installations to the PS3. Then another 3 minutes or so to add the XL content. Then just a couple more minutes to get the free FR-S. Unfortunately, it only gives you one in Red (You don't get to choose the color). Oh, and for anyone claiming that my internet connection is slow or whatever, here's a speedtest.net result I just ran:
So, after all of that, it should have provided the best experience possible. Here's my impressions of the first 6% of the game that I've played...
Setup:
* I set the buttons to be the same as Forza. Doing so, made it control pretty well. I found the car control to be decent while playing.
The not so good:
* This game looks like a game or cartoon. If you were to see this running side by side with Forza 4, you would clearly and quickly see a big difference.
* The car dynamics are also very artificial looking. Again, it looks like a game
* Not sure why I needed a car to begin taking the license tests. But luckily the XL content helped that out.
* Drive line. This is possibly subjective, but I like to use the driving line on "braking only" in Forza so I know when I'm approaching a corner too fast. This game is either ALL or Nothing. And the line itself looks like crap and doesn't provide as good of feedback as Forza.
* Damage. Where is it? It has already been proven that you can show the cars with damage on them. EVERY other racing game does it. why does GT5 have rubbermaid bumper cars instead?
* Game flow. When I complete a race in a series, the next thing I should be presented with is an option to continue on to the next race. Same thing goes with the license tests. Absolutely no excuse for that other than laziness.
The good:
* GoKarts! Yeah, it's a neat addition.
* Interface. It's much better than I expected. GT4 was one of the worst interfaces I've ever used. No wonder I didn't play it much. This one is fairly easy to jump around in.
* It has the Toyota 86 GT and now the Scion FR-S. If Forza had the car, I wouldn't have bought this game. But it has it.
* Racing feel. It's good. Similar to Forza, but the controller is just not as good as the 360 controller and you will get hand fatigue quickly.
Overall:
As has been said by many people, this game is nowhere near as solid of a racing simulation game as Forza 4. Since I got it with the extra DLC pack (XL Edition) for $40 shipped from Amazon, I'm not disappointed. And all that said, it's still a good game on the PS3. I'll probably play it some more until I get my actual FR-S (any day now) and then it will likely go in the drawer with the other games to make way for Blurays to be watched.