Feature By

Ben Hopper

The original Gran Turismo (1998) for the Sony PlayStation set the gaming world ablaze with its driving realism, attention to automotive detail and deep appreciation for sports car racing. The sequel, Gran Turismo 2 (1999), did all of those things equally well and added more cars, more tracks and more game modes and features. Combined, both games sold over 15 million copies worldwide and spawned the release of a whole new generation of racing videogames.

This spring, the developer of the Gran Turismo series, Polyphony Digital, wants to do it all over again with Gran Turismo 3 A-spec (GT3) for the PlayStation 2. Only now the luster has worn off a bit. The genre is now flooded with similar racing games. Sega even did their own personal Gran Turismo imitation on Dreamcast with the solid Sega GT. In general, racing games have become more sophisticated and realistic since the days of the original Gran Turismo, so Polyphony would be foolish to expect GT3 to have the same impact as the previous games in the franchise.

However, this is not to say that GT3 isn't eagerly anticipated by the gaming public. PlayStation 2 owners are in dire need of quality games, and GT3 promises to deliver the most realistic and authentic sports car racing ever seen. And let's not forget the legions of Gran Turismo fans, who seem to be primed for another sequel. Even if I didn't write up this preview, the game would still sell like mad, and would most likely put the PlayStation 2 console in even greater demand than it is now (which is pretty hard to imagine).

So let's take a closer look at this long-awaited game through a screen-by-screen analysis.