Gran Turismo 3 A-spec (Sony PlayStation 2, 2001)

When I think of GT3, the words "much hyped," "highly anticipated," and "killer app" immediately spring to mind. Let's face it, unless you're a PlayStation 2 owner who has a really, really, really deep-down hatred for racing games, GT3 is the most important release yet for Sony's l'il black box.

Sure, there have been some really good releases on the system already, but GT3 pushes PS2 software to new heights. Graphically, it's a marvel. Super-smooth, incredibly detailed and stunningly lifelike, GT3 raises the graphics bar several notches beyond any racing game we've ever seen before, inside or outside of a videogame arcade. Phenomenal object modeling is combined with amazing attention to detail and astounding lighting to deliver a simply incredible racing experience. The way the sun bounces off the road as you turn corners and glints off the metal and glass surfaces of the cars completely fools your eyes into believing they're watching real cars drive around real tracks. The shadows and lighting are used to really bring the environment to life and make it look more solid, more visceral and more realistic than any other race game.


Sound too is amazing. You can really hear the difference in the car engines, from the low rumble of a big-block monster like the AC Cobra to the tortured scream of the high-revving S2000, each car plays its own music. The sound effects are also that much clearer and more detailed, and combine beautifully with the graphics to deliver a simply stunning experience. The game's soundtrack boasts some all-new tunes for the American version including selections from big-named artists like Snoop Dogg, plus a few tracks carried over from the Japanese release. There's a lot of variety here, so regardless of your tastes, you should be able to find something that you like and since the game allows you to select the exact music tracks that you wish to hear, you'll never have to listen to anything that you don't want to.

And the gameplay? Well, it goes without saying that once again, Polyphony has come up with the goods. Indeed, while it may be disappointing to some that GT3's car count is less than a third of GT2, it nevertheless packs a far, far greater racing challenge than its predecessors did. GT3 features 60 beginner, amateur and professional championship races, as well as 10 rally races and 10 endurance races. And some of those Championships are huge, featuring 10 different races, each requiring the player to complete anywhere between 20-78 laps. This is not a game you will complete overnight. Indeed, GT3 packs such a huge challenge that if you're serious about completing the game, you will be required to put in a serious amount of time and effort to do so. Sony has made the game's progression a little easier in the beginning of the American version by upping the credits that you start off with and giving out more prize money in the Beginner and some Amateur races, but it's still going to take you quite a bit of time and effort to make it through this gem.

The racing is more varied than before. There are a lot more manufacturers races this time around, ranging the Silver Arrow Mercedes-only challenge and the Toyota Vitz Challenge through Beetle Cup Racing to the Type R meeting and Evolution Challenge. The '80s car races are back, as well as a slew of specific challenges, such as British GT car racing, roadster races and all the usual FF, AWD, FR, NA and Turbo car races. And best of all, GT3 has an F1 Championship.

Racing is, as far as racing goes, a simplistic concept. Right? You get into a car, push the gas and go around and around in a track. Right?
WRONG!
WRONG!
might I repeat....
WRONG!

Gran Turismo 3 shows us that there is much more to racing than we realise with the great number of tuning options, a large variety and number of cars amongst other things.
There are plenty of tracks in Gran Turismo 3, including real tracks such as Test Course, Laguna Seca and Grand Valley Speedway. There are also plenty of Rally Tracks, some of them real such as Tahiti Maze and lots of Rally cars including the Toyota Celica and specialty cars from European Companies such as Delta and Lancia.
I played this game for a very long time, 200 hours plus, but never finished it. I still have the Formula Racing Challenge at the end of the Professiional Courses and can't finsh the last three courses :(
Some of the endurance courses are too long and I don't like to play video games that long consistently.
Still this game is the best racing simulator, best legal racing game, one of the best PS2 games of all time, and had ground breaking graphics for the time when it was released.
GO GRAN TURISMO!!!

Be carefull buying this game the physic are real and just like real life you can't take a 90 degree turn at 100 mph, this game is relistict not arcady like most racing games. this is by far the best racing sim out there and if you aren't ready for a game like this don't buy it but if you are a hard core racing fan and really are into what it takes to really drive a car then this is the game for you. I don't want to see anyone complaining about this game is too hard or unrealistic, because the game is very relistic. I would love to see the people who complain about this game try to go rally thier ford tarus and see how well they do. This is definatly the hardcore gamers game.

this review is not really for the game (which is excellent, by the way) but for the UNLOCKED memory card i recently purchased from eBay member ultrasavesinc.

my 3 1/2 year old son loves playing GT3, but he accidentially deleted all my game progress while trying to save a replay of one of his races. this was SEVEN YEARS worth of game progress. tons of cars, all the tracks, etc. needless to say, my son was heartbroken when he realized his favorite car, the ZZII, was now gone, as were all the tracks he loved to race. he cried himself to sleep that night.

i stayed up all night trying to win stuff back, but had very little to show for it the next morning. then i went on eBay and found this ultrasaves memory card. it arrived in the mail just a few days later and it saved my butt and sanity big time. it came preloaded with 200 cars (all fully loaded), all the tracks and $10,000,000,000,000. that's not a misprint: 10 trillion dollars!!!

the memory card also comes with fully unlocked info for GT4, which we have yet to test out because we are having so much fun with all our newfound GT3 cars.

thank you ultrasaves!!!!

What can anyone say about GT3... it's the best racing game ever made, even better than GT4 (in my opinion). The only things I can fault are that a few of my favorite tracks are missing (Red Rock Valley in particular) and there are some cars I would have liked to see in the lineup... the Saleen Mustangs and vintage Corvettes come to mind. Also there are a few places where the graphics mess up, like when driving over the outside rumble strip before the last turn in Rome normal, the shadow under the car will disappear. And in longer races (15+ laps), if the computer controlled cars get too far behind, they might drive off the course and crash into the wall, and just stay there. It seems like they got mad and "gave up" and it makes me laugh to see it. Otherwise the graphics are gorgeous, the sound is great, and the physics are perfect. I will never get rid of this game as long as I own a PS2 (or PS3).