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
Everything. There is a wide variety of cars, from compact to sports, including some '80s cars. There are lots of tracks, and all of them appear to have been worked on extensively, with detailed buildings, environmental effects and sun glare. In Rally races, they've even included believable dirt tracks, which when played in two player mode, can really distort the view of a trailing car.

The Simulation, or Career mode, is outstanding. You can only buy a few cars with your measley starting credits (cash), and you use that car to win races to earn money to buy upgrades to improve your car. It has been really thought out and was implemented nicely.

The Arcade mode, which lets you play two-player battles, free run, and other races is also done nicely. Not only is it there for people who don't want to start a career, but some areas of this mode MUST be completed to get a 100% completion rating for the entire game.

The iLink battle is astounding. If you have the hardware to set this up, you are guaranteed one of the most exciting nights of your life. You can hook six PlayStation2's to each other, each connected to a separate television and race each other, all at once, just like you would find in a video arcade.

The Bad
I can't really find anything bad to say about GT3:AS, but one thing I was disappointed at was the fact that they didn't include any '80s muscle cars, especially from Dodge, which were readily available in GT2. Other than that, the game is, well, perfect.

The Bottom Line
Any fan of racing games should pick this up no doubt. If you loved the previous GT games, you will adore this incarnation. People who aren't into racing would probably get bored of this game really fast, so I'd recommend it as a rental to non-race fans.

The Good
I will never change my opinion, Prince of Persia is the top game ever for me, but in the case of driving games two strong candidates are Gran Turismo 2 & 3. The graphics are simply outstanding in this game, the speed control, smoke effects and light in this game are other things that are great, this game is technically perfect, but what is technical perfection without great enjoyment? Nothing is the answer, but luckily for us gamers, this game is enjoyment at it's peak, all the racing action is worth the price of this game without the superb graphics and technology.

The Bad
It's overall an excellent game, with no flaws at all, except the Playstation 2 controller, but the controller doesn't have anything to do with the game, does it?

The Bottom Line
The result: A fast and exciting racing simulation with great cars. A great game that is a must-play, and it lives up to the Gran Turismo series.