is it worth trying different brands or are all the same?

At the moment they're all the same.

They're all the same at the moment, however I think it'd be a good idea to have different brands with different atributes, say there's 30 points to distribute between "grip" and "longevity".

All the brands have the same total allocate points, but in different catergories so people have to choose what they want.

falken for drift, bridge for race, ect.

Quote from LFSn00b :

There's no Falken sidewall on LFS(except for modifying)

so there is Flaken sidewalls.. :P
but the same tyre with diff s.w