put together in one place. Now, imagine taking each and every car in that showroom onto the

racetrack or dirt road. This is what has attracted automobile aficionados to the Gran Turismo

series that calls itself the real driving simulator, and when the series left the Playstation

with Gran Turismo 2, it was because it was moving on to greener pastures. 2001 saw the

rise of better graphics and performance, and none could doubt that the Gran Turismo franchise

would continue to shine with beautiful detail and refined gameplay in Gran Turismo 3: A-spec.

Special thanks to my good friend Jason for his kind donation. There's just so much that

can be said about this powerful racing simulator. Once again, development team Polyphony Digital

and Sony Computer Entertainment would join forces to develop photorealistic graphics,

a precision-based physics engine, and a vehicle lineup that might just leave you drooling

at the dealership in Simulation mode rather than actually taking them for a spin. Arcade

mode and Simulation mode are now combined onto one DVD disc, a pretty big novelty at

the time. To be sure, some things were left unchanged from GT2, such as the driver AI

which operates much the same, lots of crashing and forcing rather than finesse movement around

an opponent. But unless you're a true racing game snob, you'll be heartily challenged by

the gameplay mechanics, which test your skills at the wheel rather than just the speed and

handling of your vehicle. I think it’s safe to say that this is the closest a racing game

has come to an RPG. And with the ability to challenge your buddies or the computer at

racing the hundreds of cars you will collect with your hard earned cash, it’s safe to

say the replay value is through the roof. Gran Turismo 3 A-spec may not be for everyone,

including a select few racing fans. This certainly isn't Mario Kart we're talking about. It's

an in-depth look at the automobile industry and everything it has to offer.