Finally, here we are. There are games that are considered masterpieces before their own release, and Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is surely the best example of this tendency, together with titles like Metal Gear Solid 2 and Final Fantasy X. No need to say that whilst I was opening Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec box I was excited. And I'm pretty sure that most of you already own this game and are just reading this review to know what another of these boring reviewers has to say about your favourite game. But I know too, that a few of you, especially the ones who can't afford more than 3-4 titles a year, are interested in a good, objective review. While I don't think objectivity really exists in the world seen through our human eyes, I'll do my best to give you an idea of what's good and what's bad in this game from Polyphony and SCEE. If you want to have a list of all the tracks and all the cars featured in Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, read the preview Carlito wrote about this game.

There are two important premises I have to do before speaking of Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec. First of all, the game is extremely loyal to the Gran Turismo tradition. In other words, in its inner core, the game uses exactly the same formula of the preceding episodes. And this leads to the second premise: Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is 100% racing game, nothing more. I've read things like "this game has an RPG touch in it", but that's not true. Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is what a T-Rex is to carnivorous animals: it's the exaltation of a genre, in this case of the racing genre. So if you don't like racing games, there are good possibilities you are going to hate this title.

The game features 150 different playable cars, that's about a quarter of the ones included in GT 2. This because the cars of Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec are built with a huge number of polygons: 4000 against the 300 used for the cars in Gran Turismo 2. It took more than a week to model each car in Gran Turismo 3, while in GT2 for each car at most 24 hours of hard work were needed. The result is less cars in Gran Turismo 3, but they are all identical to their real counterparts and not only in their body. Playing the game you can feel the weight of the vehicle and its reactions to the road, also thanks to the wonderful support of the vibrating function of the Dual Shock 2.

While low-end cars are this time just a few, a great number of the most incredible pieces of machinery in the world are included in the game. Unfortunately, because of several licenses related problems, Ferrari are missing in the new Gran Turismo and the Lamborghini Diablo GT is included only in the Japanese version of the game. That's bad for all the lovers of European cars but you can still find monsters like the Gillet Vertigo or the Pagani Zonda. And we shouldn't forget that in Gran Turismo 3 you have the possibility to drive F1 cars from the mid-eighties since the game features an incredible F1 special mode (that's better than most of the F1 games at present on the shelves).

Gran Turismo 3 provides an amount of challenges you wouldn't find in three or more racing games put together. Compared to Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec infinite challenges, the ones featured in the previous instalments are just a few. First of all, you have the two main usual game modes of Gran Turismo: the Arcade Mode and the Simulation Mode.

The Arcade Mode, like the name itself says, is the one to choose if you want a straightforward game; in fact in this mode you have the possibility to run a Single Race, a Time Trial Race or a Free Run. In the Single Race, you can choose among three difficulty settings (Easy,Normal,Hard), that will affect mainly your opponents' AI. But first of all the Arcade mode is the one to choose if you want to fight against your friends in a 2 player split screen competition or if you want to play an I-Link battle, for which at least two TVs, two Ps2 and an I-Link cable are needed. For the ones who are asking themselves, Gran Turismo 3 doesn't feature a four player split screen mode. To play a four player mode you need four different Ps2, four TVs and four I-Link cables because in the I-Link mode the split screen is not available. That's to say not everyone will be able to play four player mode everyday.

The true core of the game is surely the Simulation Mode. This is the mode that made this racing series different from all the others. Here you can build your own garage of cars, buying new cars and improving them with the money you won in the races.

In the Simulation Mode section you can go through different choices: Beginner league, Amateur league, Professional league, Rally Mode and Endurance Mode. Each of these modes offers an incredible number of championships and special races. Let's take for example the Beginner competitions. Here you'll find short championships like the Sunday Cup or manufacturers races like the Audi TT race (it's simply fascinating to see those life-real Audi run through the streets of Rome) or the Volkswagen New Beetle Cup. In the Amateur league you'll find the Japanese, American and European Championships and other special races. But it's in the Professional races that the experts will find out the true core of the game. Among the several modes of the professional league there is a complete F1 championship with six different vehicles to choose from. While these are not licensed models, Polyphony has recreated true vehicles seen during the mid-eighties, when pilots like Ayrton Senna were the heroes of all the F1's enthusiasts. In order to unlock the F1 championship you have to earn the S license.

Overall, there are 60 different events in the Beginner, Amateur and Professionals modes. But don't think the fun stops here. Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec features an Endurance Mode and a Rally Mode, both featuring 10 races. A Rally Mode was already present in Gran Turismo 2, but this time the developers have created a sort of "game into the game". In fact, the physics of the cars behave in an incredible realistic way over the uneven dusty roads of the Rally races. If you have liked Colin Mc Rae Rally, you will simply adore this game mode.

Like it happened in the previous instalments, in order to play all the races and all the modes in the Simulation Mode you'll need to get six driving licenses (B, A, International B, International A, S, Rally). Each license test is made up by many different parts and according to how good you perform during the tests you get a different medal. If you are good enough to get a bronze the license will be yours; if you are a very good racer and you get a gold medal you'll won a new powerful car for your garage. That's a good strategy to get one of those cars before going into the true game. But that's not an easy task and if you prefer, at the beginning of the Simulation Mode you can get a cheap yet interesting car like the Volkswagen New Beetle 2.0 using the little money you have to start with.

The controls of the cars are more refined than those of the previous instalments but the affectionate players of the series will find themselves absolutely comfortable with the new instalment of Gran Turismo. You can feel your car, both if your are using the official Logitech GT force Wheel or your Dual Shock 2 analog sticks. Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is another proof of the versatility of Sony's controllers.

Despite its evident greatness this game has a series of flaws that I have to mention. First of all, in Gran Turismo 3 there are just six cars per race and this takes something away from the overall gaming experience. Adding to that, the opponents' A.I. is not exactly incredible. A first generation game like Ridge Racer V had more interesting and challenging A.I. procedures. With games like Metal Gear Solid 2 (Demo) or Zone Of The Enders featuring complex A.I. procedures, the effort of Polyphony developers in this sense seems a little PsOne style. Another fault of this game is the fact that the cars are not damaged by the frequent clashes and that they can't overturn. That's surely bad, especially if the player is a lover of rallying used to spectacular incidents, destroyed cars and so on.

Anyhow the truth is that Gran Turismo 3 conveys an incredible gaming experience and can be easily considered the most refined racing simulator ever realized. The possibility to modify your cars in all their main mechanical parts and all other details you'll find out by yourselves playing this game make of Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec the symbol of a genre, and much more. The flaws present in the gameplay are not invisible but they become of secondary importance if considered into the magnificent and enormous work made by the developers.