Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, as it is officially called, was the first Gran Turismo to appear on Sony's beautiful black box. It was first shown to the public with very, very early screenshots way back when the PS2 had yet to be released. It went by a different name back then, Gran Turismo 2000.

Having a name like that you could easily guess that it was meant to be released in the new millenium year, 2000. That didn't eventuate and they ended up still working on the game in the year 2001 and it finally got released a few months into the new year. But it had a different name, the one it sports now, and a whole lot more cars, tracks, even races and muchly improved graphics.

GT 2000 was never meant to be a proper sequel, it was supposed to be a 'mini-game' like Gran Turismo Concept. It was definately worth the extra development time though because it has made one of the best driving simulators out there and in terms of graphics GT3 still looks better than most racing games coming out now (excluding GT Concept, GT4: Prologue and of course GT4) which are well over two years newer!

It also set a new personal record for me (and i'm sure many others) which is the fact that i had been playing it since the day it came out (not *every* single day though) and boredom never struck me. I only stopped playing it in late June 2004, and that was only because GT Prologue came out and was better in every way. Now i've stopped playing Prologue because GT4 has been released!

Read my review

RACES

GT3 has more races than you have hands on your fingers (which i hope you don't have any of...). Although it has less races than the previous title, most of them are quite challenging and can encourage you to keep racing them with different cars to see how developed your car handling and tuning skills are.

The races are split up into five categories this time and unlike GT2 they differ in terms of difficulty instead of types of race series' (if you've played GT2 then you'll know what i mean - hopefully). They are Beginners League, Amateur League, Professional League, Rally Events and Endurance Races.

In Beginners the AI are going at about 1/2 of their total ability and if you drop behind after a spin or something then they slow down even more so that you can catch up and still have a chance of winning the race. Amateurs League AI race at about 3/4 of their available race pace and also slow down a little if you spin but they are not as forgiving as Beginners League opponents! In Professional League the AI are using 100% of their ability (and more sometimes...) so you really have to be a good driver when entering races here because you will never stand on the podium if you're not!

The other two modes are pretty self explainitory, a variety of rally races and some endurance races which can suck up plenty of your time. It takes nearly three hours for the longest endurance race. But that's nothing in Professional League there is a series of ten races called the Polyphony Digital Cup (has by far the *best* racing in the whole game) and that can take even the most experienced driver over six hours to complete!

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CARS

Roughly 184 cars reside in the GT3 DVD and thanks to a garage which can hold exactly 200 cars, you can have one of every single car in your possesion at the same time. Or be like me and have over 35 Nissan Skylines all of differing colours, years models and modifications. I'm a Skyline-o-holic. I admit it. But they're so beautiful!!

*Ahem*. Anywho, most people may notice a distinct lack of classic American Muscle cars but there are a couple such as the Ford GT40 and Shelby Cobra plus newer ones liked the awesome Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R, Chevrolet Camaro SS, Dodge Viper GTS and more. Unfortunately race body modifications do not feature in GT3 which is probably only due to time constraints. There is a good enough selection of race cars and modified cars like the famous Pennzoil Nismo GT-R JGTC, Dodge Viper GTS-R, Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM, and modified cars like the Mugen Honda S2000, Spoon Honda Civic Type R, Mine's Nissan Skyline GT-R N1 V-Spec (R34), Toyota Celica TRD Sports M and more.

There are 25 of them below but if you want to check out the whole lot then click here.
~ Acura CL 3.2 Type-S
~ Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6 24V
~ Chevrolet Camaro Z28
~ Chrysler PT Cruiser
~ Ford Escort Rally Car
~ Gillet Vertigo Race Car
~ Honda Castrol Mugen NSX JGTC
~ Jaguar XJ220 Road Car
~ Lotus Elise 190
~ Mazda RX8 Concept
~ Mazda RX-7 Type RZ
~ Mercedes-Benz CL 600
~ Mini Cooper 1.3i
~ Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI RS
~ Nissan Skyline GTS-t Type M (R32)
~ Nissan C-West Silvia JGTC
~ Pagani Zonda C12S
~ RUF 3400S
~ Spoon S2000 Race Car
~ Subaru Impreza Sports Wagon STi
~ Subaru Legacy B4 Blitzen
~ Tommy Kaira ZZ-S
~ Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-Apex (AE86 Type I)
~ TVR Griffith 500
~ Volkswagen New Beetle 2.0

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TRACKS

There are about 36 tracks in GT3 and nearly all of them can be raced in reverse too (not the gear, the track...). It has a combination of real-life circuits; Laguna Seca, Cote D Azur (Monaco GP Circuit), real locations but fake tracks; Seattle Circuit, Rome Circuit, Tokyo Circuit, and made up tracks some of which have been brought over from GT2; Deep Forest Raceway, Grand Valley Speedway, Complex String (a complex 'string' of chicanes, long turns, long straights, zig-zaggy sections and more, hence the name its basically a test track), Trial Mountain Circuit, Special Stage Route 11 and more.

For more information on the tracks please click here.

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