I was thrilled when my copy of Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec for the Playstation 2 arrived a day earlier than its official release date. I dove right into it and played for hours. I loved it and wanted to immediately write my review that night. But to really do the justice GT3 deserved, and to be able to sample more of the game, I decided to wait to write my review.

I’m now up to 18% completion and showing no signs of being bored or disappointed in this game. If you’ve played the other two Gran Turismo series games on the PSX, this isn’t going to be a shocking or groundbreaking game, but that’s not a bad thing. The first two games on the Playstation were unlike an other racing game before or since — while they all have a great arcade single race modes, the game is at its best in its simulation mode — totally addictive, amusing and realistic, all rolled into a game with more sweet vehicles than I can count.

GT3 is the same game as its predecessors except with more options; worlds better graphics and a slightky refined interface. It’s also miles above any other PS2 game to hit store shelves to this day.

Obviously the most stunning and obvious enhancements to GT3 are graphics-related. The PS2 has already put out some breathtaking graphically intense games such as Madden 2001 and SSX, but Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec is way ahead of the curve. The cars in the game are super-accurate to their real-world counterparts and even though there are less vehicles overall than GT2, the selection is still really impressive.

One of the most striking graphic elements is the lighting. As a car twists, turns and accelerates through GT3’s impressive set of highly-detailed tracks, the light reflects in real-time off the car’s body. On several tracks, sunbeams filter through the trees and looks impressively realistic. The shadows cast by the light also are also real-time, rather than pre-rendered. Until you see these effects, you don’t realize how poorly other games have done it. The shadows and lighting effects add an amount of realism that’s subtle but at the same time a major enhancement.

Some of the tracks from the first two games are back, but other than the layout of the tracks, they are almost unrecognizable as the scenery is so much better and closer to photo realistic. As great as the graphics are, keep your eyes on the road. Some of these beasts have more HP than any street legal machine you’d even hope to test drive. I still have a lot of courses yet to expeirence but so far, I’m really impressed particularly by the Seattle course’s scenery — very well done, down to a set of train tracks you bump across outside of one of Seattle’s stadiums.

Another impressive visual is when there is water on the track in the later stages. No description will do it justice. You’ll just have to see it to be as fully impressed as I was.

Just as in the previous installments, watching replays is a real treat too. The cars look so real and the varying camera angles are used nearly perfectly. While you obviously aren’t going to want to watch every race after its completion, it’s really interesting and impressive to watch yourself in action once in awhile from outside of the car.

The game play and the game’s controls are pretty much what you’ve come to expect from Gran Turismo. The simulation’s controls are a lot more sensitive and responsive to real life physics, driving conditions etc. than any other racing game out there. The game prides itself on real racing conditions and unless you learn to handle the different kind of cars such as All-Wheel Drive, Front-Wheel Drive/Rear Engine (your REAL sports cars), Rally, etc. you’re not getting the full potential of GT3. Real driving techniques and perils come into play in every race, things such as over and under steering and the fact that the tires can only be used for so much braking, accelerating and turning before spinouts occur.

As you become more comfortable in the game, you can earn different classes of licenses, allowing more tracks to race and more series to beat. Each license has a series of tests you have to complete in a given time in order to win the license. You can get by pretty easily with the bronzes, but it’s worth it to go for the golds on each license test. You’re handsomely rewarded with a nice new car for your garage when you achieve all golds on a given license. It’s worth the effort and just taking the tests and practicing them makes you an immensely better and more competitive driver.

Every race won with a gold helps you completion creep up too by the way. The replay value on this game is really high because of the diversity of races, cars, etc. but also because of things like the licenses, the ability to customize and tweak your settings and the want to win and/or buy more cars to park in your garage which can hold up to 200 cars (!).

The game isn’t perfect though. A big complaint is that GT3 has a great variety of background music, but you can’t hear it in game. The music includes Jimi Hendrix, Snoop Dogg, Motley Crue and many others. During the couple races of the game, you would think the music’s default volume level was just too low. But neither me, nor my best friend can find any type of volume control settings anywhere in the game, nor does the instuction manual make any mention.

The engine levels are just about right on, maybe a tad loud, but acceptable. What do you do when road noise is too loud to hear the radio? You crank the radio to drown out the wind and engine noise. But not in Gran Turismo 3. Volume controls are something that have been pretty much a given since the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Also, this is only a semi-bash on the game, but other than its impressive graphics, GT3 is more of the same. At the same time though, why mess with an incredible game formula? The game is longer that its predecessors, but it is pretty much more of the same.

Regardless, if you get one game for the Playstation 2, this has to be it. Its graphics, game play and attention to detail are unmatched. The game play is varied from 2-lap races to 200 lap endurance races to rally racing. If you own a PS2, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec is the must-have game.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2001 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Game Reviews, Gaming, PS2 Review, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Related Posts: