Gran Turismo 3 A-spec - pure racing bliss.
Controls: 10/10
Fairly simple. X for gas, square for brake, triangle for reverse, circle for emergency brake, L1 for rear-view mirror, R1 to change views, L2 for downshift and R2 for upshift. Oh yeah, and the arrows to steer. The layout on the controller is beautiful. The feel is very natural.
Gameplay: 9/10
It is a fairly simple concept. You start with money. You buy a car that you can afford. You tune the car. You race to get more money and win more cars. You buy upgrades for the car. The concept is very simple and easy to get the hang of. It is somewhat tedious at the beginning of the game because you have such a small amount of money and you are quickly losing many races to more powerful cars. Unfortunately, towards the end, this seems to switch to the exact opposite. You have a large amount of money and you win many races because you can easily overpower the competition. Luckily, there are championships that only allow one type of car. Later in the game, all of the cars in these championships are maxxed out making a very tight race. These are some of the better races. But, for the most part, it is very easy to just buy many upgrades and out-horsepower the competition.
There are many series to race in. There are beginner, intermediate, advanced, rally and endurance races. The intermediate, advanced and endurance races have tire damage. This is a nice feature. The damage is realistic. If you slide around turns and peel out at the start, your tires will not last as long. There are also many different grades of tires, ranging from super soft to super slick. The tires that last longer have less grip. It is up to you to choose what you prefer to race with.
The AI is somewhat dumb. They can be fast, but for the most part they are just plain stupid. They donât try to go around each other, but rather just run into each other. It is easy to predict where they are going to be, allowing you to run into them and knock them off of the course if you want to.
The actual racing is incredible. The physics in the game are very realistic. The cars are incredibly responsive in a realistic way. It is impossible to take a u-turn while driving 180 mph in the game, as it should be. The game is very realistic as far as physics, so it may be a turn-off to the arcade-racing crowd.
Graphics: 10/10
I donât think that I have to say anything about graphics. The game is absolutely beautiful on every little detail. The cars, the lighting, the backgrounds, and the reflections are all absolutely gorgeous. The clouds of dust and the sparks that fly off of the car look very real. The wet stage has to be seen to be believed. It is just that incredible. The rally stages are also very impressive with the amount of dust kicked up from the cars. The game runs at a very smooth 60 frames per second, which is always a plus. There are a few points where pop-up is very noticeable, mostly on Special Stage Route 11, but these little kinks in the game can be easily overlooked. It would be nice if they werenât there, but it does not really detract from the overall look of the game. I also believe that the headlights on the car should have more of an impact than they do in the game. It would be nice if they had more of a GTA look (the lights on the pavement). I also find it disappointing that the cars are not aesthetically customizable. You cannot put on body kits or decals or anything cool like that. Just hubcaps. But minor issues aside, the game is absolutely gorgeous. I find it amazing to look outside and see a real-life model of a car in the game. They really look identical.
Cars: 9/10
The most important part of a racing game⦠the cars. Ok, so it really isnât the most important part, but it is one that Polyphony Digital did not overlook. There are a plethora of real cars in the game. There are cars from many different companies and many different countries. There are almost 190 different cars in the game and they are all beautiful. Not only are they stunning to look at, but also stunning to drive. Each car responds rather differently. They also have their own distinct sound.
Some people have their gripes for some missing brands, such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche (although they do have RUF⦠close enough to a Porsche). I agree that it would be nice to have had these cars in the game, but I am still very happy with the cars that were chosen for the game. There are plenty of cars for people who love fast cars, love rally cars, love road cars, or just plain love German cars (ahem⦠Schep).
Just about everything is upgradeable on the cars except for their physical appearance. You can tune the cars to your hearts desire if you want to. There are turbo kits, tires, mufflers, transmissions, shocks, car weight and many other tuning options for your car is your pocket book is deep enough.
In order for Polyphony Digital to get all of the cars that it wanted, it had to omit the damage model. This is rather unfortunate for a game that has such amazing realism. It would have been nice if they included a damage meter like Sega GT 2010 did, but the game runs just as well without it.
SOUND: 9/10
The revving engine is a must for racing games, and Gran Turismo delivers. The sounds of the engines are very well done. Also, the screeching of tires and sound of the dirt are a nice touch to the game. One of the sounds that I hear a lot is the sound of crunching metal when I crash into a wall. While this sounds nice, it is somewhat strange because of the lack of a damage model on the cars. But overall, the sounds of the game are quite nice.
The soundtrack in the game is very good. It is varied and has a racing appeal to it. The tracks sound like they should be raced to. A very solid soundtrack. But, if there are songs that you do not like, you can turn them off so they wonât play. A rather nice feature for a game that has such a wide variety of musical genres.
Multiplayer: 9/10
Well, multiplayer is the exact same thing as single player only split screen. The frame rate is the same without any slowdown. Or, if you have an i-link hub, 6 i-link cables, 6 TVs, 6 PS2âs and 6 copies of the game, you can play with (you guessed it) six people at a time full screen. Havenât tried this, but it sounds like it would be fun.
Replay Value: 10/10
Well, I got the game almost two years ago and I still have not finished it. This game is really that difficult at times (read: s-license tests) and that much fun and enough fun to have you wanting to complete it. There are a whole lot of races to complete in the simulation (story) mode. Some of the endurance races take over two hours to complete. The F1 championship series takes over ten hours to complete. Definitely a game that will give you more then 100 hours of gameplay. The arcade mode is also worth completing, allowing for more tracks and cars in multiplayer. In all, the replay value is very high.
Conclusion: 9.5/10
An amazing game for racing fans or car fans alike. The game boasts one of the most impressive graphical achievements in a racing game. It also has a killer list of cars. The game will keep you busy for many days and nights. Definitely a game worth picking up ($20). This is the game that all racing games will be compared to until Gran Turismo 4 comes out.
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