Gran Turismo 3 lives up to its name and so much more.

Ebay is a great online auction site. You can find almost anything that you want and get it for a very reasonable price. I am always looking for a great deal, so I decided to browse Ebay for some video games. I was pretty much looking for any Playstation 2 game that was being sold cheaper then $50. I came upon Gran Turismo 3. I heard that it was the best racing game ever made, and I found a seller that was selling the game for $39! Whoa, how could I be so lucky? The game retails for $50 and there is not going to be a price break anytime soon, so being the opportunist that I am, I placed my bid and won the auction. Great, I thought, now all that I had to do was pay the money and wait for the game. The day finally came when the game came. I was anticipating the arrival and tore open the package, then popped the game into my PS2 system, and started to race.

The twenty-first century of graphics

The tracks that you race at are extremely detailed. The advertising billboards look exactly the same as they do at a real race. You will be surprised how everything looks almost real in this game. The detail that was put into each car is unreal. The cars look identical to how they would look in real life. One car that I bought in the game was a P. T. Cruiser. I figured I mine as well race with a P. T. Cruiser because I will probably never end up getting one in real life, and I was astounded at how it looked. The dark green really glistened on the car.

As cars passed and were being passed the reflection of the sun bounced off the exterior of the car right in your eyes.

The realism of Gran Turismo is incredible

The graphics in Gran Turismo 3 are nothing short of awesome. At some parts of the game you might actually think you are racing a real car. The bright colors really liven up the game and make racing a lot of fun. Gran Turismo 3 takes the words “video game” to the next level.

We have to have some good music to listen to while we are racing.

The soundtrack to this video game is very well selected. There are some really great songs by very popular artists. Who doesn't want to hear Snoop Dogg rapping while they are racing? The only flaw that I see with the background music is that you can barely hear it! The car engine drones the sound of the music almost completely away! It seems that the attention was put more on the sound of the engine then on the sound of the background music. If more of the attention would have been focused on the music the sound would be a lot better.

The detail of the sound is great though. Everything is captured from the sound of screeching tires, to the smash of one car plowing into another. The overall sound to Gran Turismo is probably the best out of any racing game that is out today.

How can a racing game be innovative these days?

The replay value of Gran Turismo is better then any Playstation 2 game out today. In some instances you can have up to 300 hours of gameplay if you want to win every race, and get every car. I have never heard of a game taking 100 hours to beat, let alone 300, but that just shows you that Polyphony, the makers of this game, were really thinking about replay value when they made it.

Simulation Mode: The simulation mode is where you will be spending most of your time. The object of the game is basically to be the Gran Turismo champion. Sounds easy enough, but this feat is very hard to accomplish. You start the game with about $18,000 or credits, whatever you want to call them. Obviously you want to purchase a car so you can start racing. You can only enter a very few amount of races before you get your license. So actually even before you get your car you would probably want to take the tests to get your license. The tests are simple maneuvers with the car, basically just familiarizing yourself with the controls. After you get your license then it is off to the track. There are numerous races to compete in, but you should really go in order from left to right. After you get a first place in about every 3 races you will receive a new car, and the tracks become slightly harder. This may sound easy; you may be thinking that you are going to blaze through the game. Think again, you will spend a lot of time racing the same track over and over again trying to get the gold medal and when you do, you will want to continue to race it because you will want to get a lot of money.

As you are making your way through the races, receiving money, you will want to spend this money on car upgrades or new cars. You can upgrade almost every part of your car: the suspension, brakes, drivetrain, brakes, and my personal favorite horsepower. It really is funny to upgrade a P. T. Cruiser to 600+ horsepower and flying 200+ miles per hour down the strait-a-ways.

You can see that the game can get repetitive. The basic just of the game is this: Race, upgrade, new car, race, upgrade, new car, but it seems to be incredibly fun to do. If you told me that the game was this repetitive I probably would not have bought it, but you have to play the game for yourself to see how fun it is. Now on to the other modes…

Arcade Mode: Arcade mode is basically everything else in the game. Here you can have exhibition matches to practice your skills. You can also have a 2-player battle in this mode. Which can provide hours of fun with multiple people racing against each other. Don’t worry about not being able to use your awesome cars that you won in Simulation Mode because you can load your entire garage of cars. The arcade mode can actually be almost as fun as the simulation mode, and if you have more then 1 player this is the mode for you.

The gameplay in Gran Turismo 3 is very detailed. You can get your car washed, which actually improves your performance, and not to mention the ever important feature of getting your oil changed.

As I mentioned before, if you want everything, you might be looking at a 300+ hour game. Whoa that is a lot of time, and it is a lot of fun.

The realism that is Gran Turismo 3.

The controls of this game are a bit different then a normal racing game. When you compete in your first race you will hate the controls of the game, but that is because we have been spoiled by these sappy racing games like Ridge Racer 5. The controls of this racing game are 100% real. You get the maximum real feeling from racing these cars, Which means that you will have to know when to brake, and how hard to hit the brakes. Which is a major reason this game takes a long time to master. The controls are very easy to operate; it is just a matter of knowing when, and how hard to hit the touch sensitive buttons. You should really feel comfortable with the controls a few hours into the game.

Overall

Buy Gran Turismo 3 now. This game is everything that it is supposed to be. You will be having hours upon hours of fun playing this game. I really think that Gran Turismo 3 could be called the best racing game to date. The game is for all ages, and everyone who plays it will have a ton of fun. The realism is incredible, and you should have a great time with this game.