Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

When the PlayStation 2 launched in the year 2000, it was one small step for man, but a giant leap for graphical capabilities. Compared to what we see today in graphical advancements, the PS2 was remarkable. On top of that, the console had no shortage of fun titles to get started with in it's launch year, but 2001 was when it's competitors, Nintendo and Microsoft released the Gamecube and the Xbox respectively, and in the summer of 2001, Sony Computer Entertainment America presented arguably the best tech demo for those who were still unconvinced Sony would be the king of the 6th generation of video game consoles; Gran Turismo 3.

Gran Turismo 3 at first glance looks like a game, but it is not. It is a driving simulator with racing, car modifications, and testing driver's abilities to earn a license as part of the package. Most gamers who bought it might have revelled in it's early stages for it's presentation but passed it on for more arcade style racers and visually exciting adventures on the PS2, a category in which the console was not short of, even in 2001.

Why? Because it's not a game. It's a driving simulator. That cannot be stressed enough about it. You can't just hold down the X button and rush through it as if you're playing Mario Kart on 50cc difficulty. You actually have to make an effort to finish courses without messing up, and messing up is very easy to do in the Gran Turismo series. You have to hit the brakes at the right times and even being just a few tenths of a second off can have unforgiving consquences that will either have you frustrated while you try to regain control of your beloved automobile, or you'll be quick to hit the start button and rage quit a race. You'll have to study courses constantly and figure out the best lines for driving through courses so you can put up the best times. The game will test you on this, and won't allow the instant gratification most racing games do. You have to unlearn the arcadey, cartoonish and ridiculous style of gameplay most racing games embellish while learning the realistic science of driving an automobile.

Now to be fair, this game has moments where it's easy to break it. Getting prize money in the game is a slow process in the beginning but if you spam Sunday cup's super speedway race with an '83 Toyota Sprinter Trueno with a few cheap mods you can pile up enough money, roughly $32,000 to buy yourself a '00 Mustang SVT Cobra, and spam the super speedway race in the Stars & Stripes category for an easy $3,500 every 4-5 minutes, or spam the Apricot hill raceway course in the NA sport category for $5,000, a course that's relatively easy to finish in 1st place every time with the Mustang SVT Cobra even with all the twists and turns. Mostly because all the cars in that cup are 4-bangers which for some reason, a 32v 4.6 V8 Cobra engine is allowed to compete against.

Honestly, the 00' Mustang SVT Cobra breaks the game simply by existing. It's classmates, the Camaro Z24 & SS are around the same price but are slower and less responsive, and even the Corvette Grand Sport and Z06 are slower, but more expensive. Dodge has the Viper which bone stock is superior, but for roughly $78,000. After a few thousand dollars worth of mods to match, your Mustang will top 600 HP and be impossible for a bone stock Viper to catch.

But that's the thing about the Gran Turismo games, and especially this one. It's a product made for the car enthusiast. The guy who can talk for hours about machines he'll never afford in real life. That guy can go to the car dealership in the game and spend an hour just looking at the cars and reading the details as they scroll across the screen, while listening to the classy Isamu Ohira jazz fusion soundtrack that in 2001, was a breath of fresh sound for the ears. Then after that guy has spent his in game money, he can take the car and mod it to go faster or respond better to his commands, and race it against the in-game AI to win more money to keep exploring all the game has to offer...and there's 180 different cars to try in this game and all of them handle in different ways.

This game was made for that guy.

The final thing to talk about Gran Turismo 3 is it's presentation. As mentioned, the soundtrack is the classy Jazz Fusion genre, a genre which became popular in it's native Japan when groups like T-square and Casiopea released albums in the 80's and 90's. The menus are so visually stimulating you will have to watch the videos in the background many times before you can remember all the details. But when you're flooring it on the speedway, the game is chock full of a variety of original music that spans from the 70's to the modern era. You might be vibing along to Papa Roach, Junkie XL, and Lenny Kravitz, but your mom & dad could do a race with you and vibe along to Jimmi Hendrix, The Cult, Motley Crue or Judas Priest, all of whom have one of their classic hits to race along to.

While this game has definitely shown it's age in over 2 decades, it's impact at the time of it's release cannot be discounted. It's the best selling Gran Turismo game of all time, selling just a few thousand short of 15 million copies. What Super Mario Bros was to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Gran Turismo 3 was to the PS2 - the Quintessential title.

Poliphony Digital really knows how to make games to feel realistic out of the box, thats what they proved with the Gran Turismo series and a few of their other series that were strangely forgotten (maybe one day i would talk more about them), and, despite not convincing me, I recognize that they were the pinnacle of the fifth and sixth generation in many things... including the graphics. One of the most detailed video games on the PS1 and PS2, and in this case, the PS1 was already saying goodbye and giving way to the next generation. How Gran Turismo could be improved on the next gen? Well, i wouldnt repeat what i always repeat with the series because it would be redundant. Poliphony Digital arguably was the only company that could rival Naughty Dog. In the past it really was one of the companies that pushed the hardware to its absolute limits and made PC gaming cry to shame. But, thats not enough to make a game good.

The Gran Turismo series up to this point wanted to impress more than give the player fun, and while at least in GT1, 2 and 4 i could appreciate various innovations to the racing genre, those were pretty much non existent in 3. Is clearly that GT3, being released early in the PS2 lifespan and developers having problems with the hardware, ended up being pretty much inspired in GT2, but i didnt expected for the most part to be a carbon copy, even the UI looks the same which is very lazy, and a lot of things that made GT2 a more "memorable" experience in the genre here were gone, the insane amount of cars, the racing modifications or the variety of events (for some reason all of the different tiers have almost the same race events just harder).

For a moment i though that reducing heavily the amount of cars like GT1 would make the experience more focuses and feel each car awarded satisfying like the first game, but GT3 reminded to me that the series at this point was more like a car museum and not a classic career experience. Having only 100-200 cars and still somehow recieving the amount of cars per race like GT2 makes the money pretty much useless in this game, no car feels like my cars, it all feels like rental cars. I barely bought 10 cars and recieved more than half of the list.

And well... i guess i shouldnt mention all of the criticism of previous and newer games, because increasing the power of the hardware wouldnt automatically fix anything without work. AI is still trash, crashes at high speed still arent penalized, is only realistic on a surface level when it wants to be. It wouldnt be that bad for other racing games, but for one that wants to take itself so seriously? It is a shame because the "slogan" shows that the devs really wanted to make you feel inmersed in this beautiful car simulator, but things like this only go on the opposite direction.

GT3 is kind of dissappointing, and this comes from someone who isnt a fan of the series. The other games like GT1, 2 and 4 werent perfect games either, but i can admit they had a sense of innovation and a great core that... unfortunately GT3 lost. If you played GT2 then you played most of GT3. It could had pass as a remake of the second game honestly (which to be fair, it was the thing they show on the PS2 tech demos of the late 90s). Despite having its own improvements over GT2 like the handling and looking great, and not being terrible (of course), honestly GT3 wasnt even worth my time.

This is the best of the series. The only thing different from the other games are; better graphics, different car selection (I won't say more cars, because GT2 has the biggest selection), and some different tracks. The cars have taken on a life of their own. All the cars have realistic feels to them. GT1 and 2 did, but did they look this good? I don't think so. The only complaint I have is that they took out Motor Sports Land. Even though that was a slow and small track, it was at a challenging enough to like. But all the other tracks make up for it. I also like that now you can upgrade the racing cars, but not that you can't make your own. I also like that your car now has oil. It makes more sense. But, unlike GT2, their isn't any damage. Well, what's the plot, besides racing and suping up your car? Nothing. There's no reason for one. Just race. I also like the soundtrack. Some songs aren't the best, but the title song ("Are You Gonna Go My Way? (Gran Turismo Remix) is great. I also like "99 Red Balloons". Oh, and unlike GT1 and like GT2, in GT3, you can use your customized cars in arcade mode. And even though it doesn't look like it from the car select menu, if you go into the Settings option, look at the bottom of the screen. It'll say the horsepower of the car.I like to whip the computer's butt. Most of the time, you can beat 'em, if you have a strong enough car (strong as in HP).It's rewarding to race for hours, looking to win a new car, and on the final strip on the last lap, about 50m from the finish line, with no one in your mirror (because you're to far ahead, duh), than go to the left side of the track, hit the handbrake, and spin right across the finish line. SWEEEEEEETTTTTT!

Ok sacrificing gameplay for graphics makes a bad game. This game proves this. Ok so I was playing the game and it says 200 kmh and I started thinking "its more like 2 kmh"! The gameplay is so slow it makes a Lada look fast! In the second game the gameplay isn't sacrificed for graphics instead it's balanced. It has good graphics and good gameplay. The first sacrificed graphics for great gameplay. So number had great gameplay but the graphics weren't good. This game has amazing graphics but terrible gameplay! This is the worst GT game with the second being best but Gran Turismo Concept looks class so I'm hoping its a good Playstation 2 Gran Turismo game.

Upon first playing of this game I could not believe the superb graphics; what an improvement over GT2! I like GT3, but I am disappointed with the dramatically less number of vehicles you can drive in the game compared to its predecessor. I think you only get around about 150 - 200 cars in GT3, which is disappointing when you could drive more than 600 in GT2. Then again, with the release of the game early on in the Playstation 2's lifespan, I suppose this is to be expected.

Of course, with GT3, we are rewarded with extra tracks and a more detailed driving experience, but perhaps the main flaw with this game - and its two predecessors - is that you cannot damage the vehicles whatsoever. However, the replays are superb!

Although the aim of the game is no different to its predecessors (win races in GT mode to unlock new vehicles and courses etc), GT3 is still a massive contribution to a racing game series that redefined the genre, and will continue to set the benchmark in that respect.