I'm not a huge racing game fan, but my dad was, and the Gran Turismo series has always been special as a game we played as a family. From completing cups, to license tests, B-Spec races overnight, or just racing against each other, this series was a childhood staple for me, and this game is what started that trend.

While old, and surpassed by its successors, Gran Turismo really started to pick up in the PS2 era, with excellent handling mechanics and a diverse roster of cars to use. It didn't hurt that there was a lot to do with those cars, from precision tuning, to racing them in a variety of scenarios. This franchise is a staple of the genre, and GT3 is where it really started to shine.

The racing engine is fantastic and visually this game rocks, but this game kinda has a problem in its pacing. Whereas GT2 had billions of races and cars to do said races with, offering a ton of freedom in which events you can choose and how you choose to do them, this game feels like the exact opposite. There's no used car dealership here so all the cars are really expensive and the races don't feel like they pay enough so it really feels like if you don't spend your money in just the right way on just the right car to win just the right event to earn just enough money, it's back to grind town for you. There are a few ways to cheese the game such as completing an endurance race early to earn an F1 car that will absolutely destroy any and all remaining races but that's still just not as fun... I've heard GT4 is the game that this game actually was trying to be so I can't wait to play that one.

The Playstation 2 is, at the moment, the best selling console of all time, and it's not hard to see why. It represented a massive leap in graphical and processing capability; this was the first generation in which graphics started to resemble games in the modern day. And when talking about graphics on Playstation consoles, it's impossible not to bring up Gran Turismo, Sony's simulation racing series. GT has been at the pinnacle of what is possible for the Playstation ever since the series's release in 1997, and there are no doubts expectations were high for Gran Turismo 3, its PS2 debut. For the most part, these expectations were met-surpassed, even. GT3 became the series's best selling title, a record it retains to this day, and the second best selling PS2 game. It certainly was a big step forward in many ways when compared to its predecessor, but it made quite a bit of concessions to do that.

Gran Turismo has always been a series built on delivering a realistic driving simulation experience, and there's no doubt GT3 delivered that expertly. Racing sim games are usually at the forefront of video game technology, and the enhanced physics engine & competitor AI capability shown in this title were living proof of that. It's impressive when a racing game can offer a genuine challenge without the need for rubberbanding, and GT3 delivers that experience with flying colors. And it's not just under the hood where GT3 shines; visually, it's held up incredibly well. Textures are smooth, backgrounds are generally crisp, and it blows pretty much all of its contemporaries out of the water. On the technical side, GT3 holds up just as good. There are plenty of tuning options which give drivers even more control over how their vehicle performs, and so experienced players have a virtual cornucopia on how to best suit their car to their needs. It was also the first in the series to introduce rally car races, which was a much appreciated dynamic, adding a new type of racing which required its own skills and considerations. Even so, it was still the most newcomer-friendly title in the series at the time, as it introduced gear-shift suggestions and more approachable starting races. It can still be alienating for some, though, and it requires a fair bit more grinding than would be ideal in the mid game for players who are unfamiliar with it.

While Gran Turismo 3 represented the next step in video game technology, and there's no doubt the quality of racing simulation was there, it's hard to overlook the quantitative issues that this game possesses. There were more events, more races, and more tracks, but many of them were really just the same event at different difficulties. Indeed, compared to its predecessor GT2, GT3 had a significantly more generic selection of events. Lack of variety is a big issue for this game, and it's expressed both in the amount of options you have to race with, as well as which events you can race in. In fact, many of the more unique tournaments only allow entry for one or two types of car, which, while perhaps making the races more competitive, also makes them less interesting. Nowhere is this lack of variety more clear, though, than in the car selection. 100% completion in GT3 means unlocking 183 cars, which is more than three times less than was offered in the previous gen's Gran Turismo 2. And even then, many of these 183 are not competitively viable, even in the early game. What that leads to, then, is a game that encourages fine tuning and player-specific details, while its players are likely using mostly the same cars. This dims the appeal of GT3 significantly, especially once all the easy races and tournaments are out of the way. Racing over the same courses in the same events in the same car, even on different difficulties, can get tedious rather quickly.

Gran Turismo 3 is an extremely well designed game, which only really suffers from things that are mostly tangential to the driving experience. If simulation racing is your thing, GT3 is likely one of your favorite games ever. It's definitely a game that caters to the hardcore fan of the genre, but there was obviously enough to get many a casual fan interested as well. Clearly a lot of effort was put into the physics, graphics, and technical side, and those are the aspects of GT3 that continue to impress, even to this day. But there's simply not enough content for it to maintain greatness throughout its playtime, and interest is likely to fizzle out long before players have experienced most of the content. Gran Turismo 3 is a good game, and super impressive given its time of release, but subsequent releases and the passage of time has dulled a bit of its luster in the simulation racing genre.

Me: I'm a pretty good driver, I bet I could race cars. How hard could it be?

Me playing Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec: Stop hydroplaning! Stop hydroplaning!! I'm gonna crash- AHHHHH!!!

I did not even get my class B license.