Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec (2001) Review #blogpost

Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is a circuit based racing game. It was developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the Playstation 2 and came out in 2001.

At the start Gran Turismo 3, you have 18,000 credits. Usually that would be more than enough to begin with, but for some reason there’s no used car market, so you’ve got to buy a “new” car. The reason why I put new in quotation marks is because every car is in a new car dealer. So the car that I bought was a Toyota AE86, which at the time Gran Turismo 3 came out would have been 18 years old. Not a new car at all. Once you’ve bought a car, you have to enter the beginners cup, so you can get some money.

There are only somewhat 180 cars in Gran Turismo 3. Compare that to Gran Turismo 2’s car count of 650, that’s not a lot, but there are a few reasons from that. The Playstation 2 was at the time, a new console so developing the game would have changed. In Gran Turismo 2 there was more than one version of the same car, whilst in Gran Turismo 3 there’s just one version on a car. Gran Turismo 3 also had a development time of a year and it was also made to show what Gran Turismo could be like on the Playstation 2. So with all that information in mind, Gran Turismo 3 had a very reasonable car list.

There are a huge rang of cars in Gran Turismo 3, from little city cars like the Toyota Vitz and the Suzuki ALTO WORKS SUZUKI SPORT LIMITED to LeMans Race cars such at the Toyota GT-ONE Race Car . All cars have been modelled really well, but that’s because it was to show what the Playstation 2 could be capable of doing.

In the easy races at the start of the game, you don’t need a licence, but as you go through the game you have to get more licences, which is something that has been a part of the Gran Turismo series. In the licence test you have to Learn how to brake and accelerate in the right place, how to go round a corner in the right way and a few other basics of racing. The tests are laid out so they are not too easy or too hard when they’re not supposed to be.

I’ve always thought that the way the upgrade options are laid out in any Gran Turismo game and Gran Turismo 3 is no exception. It’s really easy to find what you want. The only bad thing about the upgrading system is that you can’t do engine swaps or add forced induction into naturally aspirated cars.

To sum up this review, Gran Turismo 3 had a good track list and the racing is really fun. The car list, Physics and the upgrading system did need some work. Overall I would give Gran Turismo 3 A - Spec 7 out of 10.