At present, there is no other game able to give the realistic visuals of Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec. This game is so gorgeous and smooth that you can fool your parents, your friends and your dog telling them you're just looking at a real GT championship.

Each car is built with 4,000+ polygons; the reflections over the bodies are generated in real time by the game engine and they are really based on the elements of the surrounding environments. The textures quality is the best ever seen in a racing game. These cars look real and you have to see with your own eyes the game in action, because screenshots and movies are far away from doing this game any justice.

The backgrounds are marvellous too. There are 19 different tracks in the new Gran Turismo; while just two of them are new to the series (Monte Carlo and Tokyo Racing Circuit) all the tracks look completely different from the ones featured in GT2. Thanks to the power of the new console and thanks to the wonderful work of the genial developers the backgrounds are literally a sight to see. The buildings are wonderful, trees and grass are stunning, lighting and shadow effects are simply the most realistic ever seen in a videogame, and weather effects like the rain in the Stage Route 5 Wet will make you cry. Anyhow, there are little details that if noticed reminds the player that Gran Turismo 3 is just a videogame and not a real race seen on TV.

For example many complex buildings in the Rome track, like the Colosseum or the old palaces, look just a bit too flat and the spectators look sometimes clearly 2D. Anyhow the game is so fast that you wouldn't notice these little flaws unless you go close to your TV with the intention to find them out.

The replay mode is incredible. There are wonderful blur effects and perfect camera angles and all is synched up with the exciting music of the game. In the replay mode, you can add special filters for your image. For example you can invert the colours or use a blue filter.

Overall, Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is surely "the real driving simulator". Polyphony has created the best graphics ever seen on a simulation game.

The music and the sound effects of this game are simply perfect. They fit the atmosphere of the races and they pump the adrenaline in the veins of the player.

The U.S. version of Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec features a series of songs from artists like Jimi Hendrix, The Cult, Lenny Kravitz (U.S. version), Judas Priest, Apollo 440, Grand Theft Audio and much more for a total of 25 different famous artists. The European version features artists like the Ash, the Muse, Iggy Pop, Grand Theft Audio and many others. What's good is that you can choose the tracks you prefer to hear during your competitions. In this way you can avoid hearing a song you hate.

Sound effects are even better than the music. The developers have digitally recorded the real sound of each car included in the game. And all the other sound effects you could find in a real race seen on TV are here. The result is so realistic you won't trust your ears, especially if you have a good audio equipment connected to your console.

You'll never, I say never, find another racing game that includes 150 different cars identical to their real counterparts both in their bodies and in their physics; you'll never find another title featuring normal races together with a gorgeous Rally championship and an incredible series of F1 races; you'll never find a racing game with 19 different tracks that can be raced in reverse mode too; you'll never find a racing game with more than 80 deep challenges. In a word, Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is virtually infinite.