Number 37: Gran Turismo 3: A-spec, Polyphony Digital 2001
Intro:
Some flashy pre-rendered engine running, a few shots of apparently real footage of people preparing and a race car, then lots of shots of the game in action over an energetic club-rock Lenny Kravitz song. The first menu is a one-at-a-time rolling list over a few patches of reddened videoclips. The inner menus are full lists. The race and car lists are all horizontal, allowing a huge image to be seen at the top. The Simulation mode menu is a little difficult to navigate, since its a bunch of floating points over a map of a city.
Getting Going:
Getting started in Arcade mode is easy enough, since it doesn't require the buying of a car or the unlocking of certain licenses. Simulation mode sets the player up some money to buy a starter car, then leaves the player to figure the rest out on their own. There is no proper tutorial mode, though the license testing is a nice try. Despite being very helpful and doing its best to spell out success in each of the tests, getting a gold rank in each one is a punishing task for new players. As someone who is still unpracticed in simulator racing games, this was frustrating and annoying as hell to complete, though I did become a better driver as a result of these cruel tasks. Also, beyond the Sunday Cup, the races are very difficult to complete at first.
Fun:
Despite a learning curve more unforgiving than a certain "Jose Cuervo," the game is a blast after investing some practice into it. The simplicity of control makes it very easy to pick up the dead basics, but as my gripes would lead one to believe, there is a lot of room to grow, and it's all up to the player to do that growing. I felt a very real sense of achievement as I picked up my first few Gold Cups, as well as after narrowly getting the gold ranking on some of the B class liscence tests, which took me damn-near forever to complete. Personal satisfaction beats a few gold coins any day.
Visuals:
The visuals are a little imbalanced. The maps are nicely done, but often dry and repeating textures are visible to the naked eye without much thought. Clouds of smoke collide very harshly with the ground, making them look like they were painted onto glass. The real spice, however, is in the lighting on the cars. WOW. WOW. WOW. The licensed cars are simple enough to model, it seems, since they are never animated beyond the tires. But lord all mighty the lighting and reflections are incredible. Some of the filters and camera angles in a replay will generate live-rendered footage that looks photorealistic.
Intelligence:
Opposing drivers are married to the course's line. This seems realistic to me, since real racing seems a lot more restrained than the arcade style fare I'm familiar with, but it's difficult to judge intelligence when it all seems to be following the rail.
Immersion:
The speed keeps me immersed just fine: momentum is everything, and keeping up with Number 1 will consume every brain cell. The music does a great job of keeping audio interest, though a lot of the time I barely notice it. The only times the immersion is broken is during the silent and nearly vacant loading screens. My only gripe is that to really get the most out of this game, it takes a lot of time and energy, and busy adults don't have that kind of time like teens do.
Cameras:
There is no cause for the camera to get blocked, so it's never an issue. I, and most of my peers, play the game from the driver POV, so it's usually not an issue.
Controls:
Simple and realistic, which leaves the player to do all the mastering. Perfect for an addicting game.
Ideas:
Taking real brands and cars and forcing the player to learn how to drive at highspeeds based on realistic physics is a great idea. It gives people who don't have the time or money the means to try a lot of different and often exotic cars and drive them around with a great degree of realism. Driving fast naturally generates an adreneline flow, while racing ups it tenfold. The Arcade mode opens it up as a casual racer, while the Simulation mode gives the player a lot of options and room for very controlled practice.
Memory:
It's been a few days, and I keep having this sudden and unexpected craving for GT3 come over me. The simple controls meant the only flaw in the system was between the seat and the controller, and the urgent need to improve myself first and the car second cut deep to my foundation and stuck. This is a great game with georgeous graphics and a boatload of real cars to drive. Really, I think this would have been a good game with made-up car brands, but making every car a real, licensed car is not only a selling point but an enchancement to the feeling of reality.
Some flashy pre-rendered engine running, a few shots of apparently real footage of people preparing and a race car, then lots of shots of the game in action over an energetic club-rock Lenny Kravitz song. The first menu is a one-at-a-time rolling list over a few patches of reddened videoclips. The inner menus are full lists. The race and car lists are all horizontal, allowing a huge image to be seen at the top. The Simulation mode menu is a little difficult to navigate, since its a bunch of floating points over a map of a city.
Getting Going:
Getting started in Arcade mode is easy enough, since it doesn't require the buying of a car or the unlocking of certain licenses. Simulation mode sets the player up some money to buy a starter car, then leaves the player to figure the rest out on their own. There is no proper tutorial mode, though the license testing is a nice try. Despite being very helpful and doing its best to spell out success in each of the tests, getting a gold rank in each one is a punishing task for new players. As someone who is still unpracticed in simulator racing games, this was frustrating and annoying as hell to complete, though I did become a better driver as a result of these cruel tasks. Also, beyond the Sunday Cup, the races are very difficult to complete at first.
Fun:
Despite a learning curve more unforgiving than a certain "Jose Cuervo," the game is a blast after investing some practice into it. The simplicity of control makes it very easy to pick up the dead basics, but as my gripes would lead one to believe, there is a lot of room to grow, and it's all up to the player to do that growing. I felt a very real sense of achievement as I picked up my first few Gold Cups, as well as after narrowly getting the gold ranking on some of the B class liscence tests, which took me damn-near forever to complete. Personal satisfaction beats a few gold coins any day.
Visuals:
The visuals are a little imbalanced. The maps are nicely done, but often dry and repeating textures are visible to the naked eye without much thought. Clouds of smoke collide very harshly with the ground, making them look like they were painted onto glass. The real spice, however, is in the lighting on the cars. WOW. WOW. WOW. The licensed cars are simple enough to model, it seems, since they are never animated beyond the tires. But lord all mighty the lighting and reflections are incredible. Some of the filters and camera angles in a replay will generate live-rendered footage that looks photorealistic.
Intelligence:
Opposing drivers are married to the course's line. This seems realistic to me, since real racing seems a lot more restrained than the arcade style fare I'm familiar with, but it's difficult to judge intelligence when it all seems to be following the rail.
Immersion:
The speed keeps me immersed just fine: momentum is everything, and keeping up with Number 1 will consume every brain cell. The music does a great job of keeping audio interest, though a lot of the time I barely notice it. The only times the immersion is broken is during the silent and nearly vacant loading screens. My only gripe is that to really get the most out of this game, it takes a lot of time and energy, and busy adults don't have that kind of time like teens do.
Cameras:
There is no cause for the camera to get blocked, so it's never an issue. I, and most of my peers, play the game from the driver POV, so it's usually not an issue.
Controls:
Simple and realistic, which leaves the player to do all the mastering. Perfect for an addicting game.
Ideas:
Taking real brands and cars and forcing the player to learn how to drive at highspeeds based on realistic physics is a great idea. It gives people who don't have the time or money the means to try a lot of different and often exotic cars and drive them around with a great degree of realism. Driving fast naturally generates an adreneline flow, while racing ups it tenfold. The Arcade mode opens it up as a casual racer, while the Simulation mode gives the player a lot of options and room for very controlled practice.
Memory:
It's been a few days, and I keep having this sudden and unexpected craving for GT3 come over me. The simple controls meant the only flaw in the system was between the seat and the controller, and the urgent need to improve myself first and the car second cut deep to my foundation and stuck. This is a great game with georgeous graphics and a boatload of real cars to drive. Really, I think this would have been a good game with made-up car brands, but making every car a real, licensed car is not only a selling point but an enchancement to the feeling of reality.