Gran Turismo 3: A-spec

The Good
Gran Turismo as a series has always been a great racing game. The realism is always been a factor, giving each car its own feel. For being an early PS2 game I found the graphics to be very amazing. Especially when I first bought it. The selection of cars, though less then GT2, still gave you a good variety. The tuning shops also let you take full control over your car's performance. I thought this game was great.

The Bad
It is hard to find problems with Gran Turismo but I did find it a little had to get money in this game.

The Bottom Line
This is one of the best racing games there are out there. With great flexibility on many factors, such as car type and track type, this game lives up to the claim of being "the real driving simulator".

The Good
Nice graphics. Large variety of music.

The Bad
The first time that I played it I was very disappointed. There are no used cars. I was expecting a huge car line up. As an example there is the Chrysler dealership and the only car that it offers is the PT cruiser. A lot of the dealerships offer only a very small selection to choose from. Something is wrong with the stats. I bought a Mazda Miata and upgrade the motor so I was sitting on 280hp. It said that the car made 17 ft/lbs of torque. There are still the licenses to get but they seem almost pointless...like someone remembered that GT1 & GT2 had license tests so GT3 should have tests as well. You cannot adjust the level of the music and background volume as you could in the earlier versions. Instead you can only turn it on and off. I find that the music volume is barely audible and I would like to be able to adjust it. I could be wrong but it seems like the tachometer and speedometer are not custom to each car. All cars have a max 9k tac and 200mph speedo, they simply have different rev limiters. All in all the game feels less personal and detail oriented. For me this takes away from the overall fun factor. I am still playing this game, so if it grows on me with time I'll be sure to update this review. I am still playing the game trying to get into it but I'm so far having a hard time.

The Bottom Line
A graphical step step forward. The lack of detail and car selection is disappointing.

I would buy this game only if you already own a PS2 and the game is cheap.

The Good
Incredible Graphics - On first inspection you think, "Yeah, they're not bad", however after a bit of play you really appreciate how great they are. There are heaps of subtle touches - heat haze, track glare, smoke, environment mapping, shadows... it's all there. It amounts to something that could almost pass for real life video at some moments and really good computer graphics the rest of the time. Still impressive after a year or two out of the box!

Size - This is one big game, LOTS of tracks, LOTS of cars, LOTS of options and multiple modes of play. This game is the best value for money I've ever gotten from a game (maybe with the exception of 'Doom'). If only all games were this size we could justify the high cost!

Sound - Again, awesome. Sound effects are good, and each car has it's own growl. While not exactly the same as the real things, it's close enough, and closer than most other games have ever come. The music is also a good rock selection and while none of it is really well known, it all fits in with the atmosphere of the game and furthers the adrenaline rush.

Engine - The car handling is great and feels very true to life. At the same time you don't have to find tweaking minor details and studying stats and lap times fun, to do well - the emphasis is on the racing (as it should be!) - other games take note!

The Bad
Not Much - There's not much wrong with the game at all. All I would say is that the "Gran Turismo" (career) mode could have been balanced a little better. By that I mean that it is very easy to work into a corner where the only races you are likely to win are ones which you don't quite have a car that meets the criteria. This requires you to repeat previous races in order to get the money for new vehicles and/or parts. After a while this becomes a drag - but this is only a minor thing, and better that than have the whole thing mapped out linearly for you.

The Bottom Line
A game worth buying a PS2 for. Simply awesome.