Let's talk about: Gran Turismo 3 / my review of GT3

[WTFer420]

I know a lot of ppl on this board aren't the biggest fans of sim racers, but let's be objective here shall we



gimme your opinions on G3
why you like it
why you hate it
If you disagree with my opinion
etc...


ok now
i bought GT3 with my Ps2 (one of the reasons I bought a ps2)
I liked GT2 on psx, it had glaring flaws, but was enjoyable overall
I thought Gt3 would fix all that & then some

well as much as Gt3 fixed, it Messed up just as much




they took out a whooping 15 tracks FROM GT2
there still a lot left in Gt3, BUT the quality BLOW
i.e they took out the kick ass tracks from GT2 such as:
Tahiti road
Red Rock valley
High Speed Ring
Rome Night
Seattle Short
Rome Short
Grand valley east
Clubman Route 5
Pikes Clib
Green Forest Roadway

all which in my opinion were AAA quality tracks

YET they kept in GT3 the most frustrating, bland & boring tracks i.e:
Apricot Hill
Grand valley
Deep Forest

the added tracks were mixed as well
the Tokyo Route was kickass
the Monaco track was decent
the Complex string is the worst track ever by far in a racing game


add matters MUCH WORSE along with the fewer track
they made winning money/cars MUCH MUCH MUCH more harder/slower
add to the fact that they actually increased the number of races at that

so now it's a longer game, made longer by the slow progression, made more tedious by the fewer tracks


now the actual gameplay:
Gt series was nevr perfect
the biggest two problems are (and what kill this game for me)

-A.I.
-Driving mechanics

the a.i goes in the absolute prefet line every time
they go in the absolute perfect speed
they brake at the absolute perfect time
they tap the acceleration at the perfect moment during a corner
racing against them is like racing the cars doing the demo's in the license test

the a.i leads to the actual racing gmeplay:

YOU CAN NOT JUDGE WHEN TO BRAKE AT A CORNER
every car has different braking
& each corner has a different apex on the exact moment to brake
so when you see a tight corner after going through a straightaway you brake enough & make the corner alrigh, BUT the a.i will just pass you by, even if you have a faster car


now if you try that corner again & brake a little less, your car will go off the road, this is especially bad when there isn't a wall there
also some cars JUST can't turn, even if you tweak with the tuning they stil won't turn a corner even at remotely slow speeds


& thus the reasons I hate GT3
the graphics are very nice
the cars selection is decent enough
the handling is somewhat better then in Gt2
the menu/interface is leaps better then the pervious games

BUT that does not make up for the huge flaws

I called EB & Funcoland & the saidthey would ONLY give me $7.00 store credit if I traded the game in

so I'm STUCK with this game damnit

[Will]

*sigh* I'll paste this from the 'best ps2 game' thread.

Grand Tourismo 3- I usually wouldn't buy this game but hey it was 20 bucks so I couldn't go wrong with a gorgeous looking racer with good physics and such. It a kind of game you can keep around forever since it has so much to do and while I find the license tests a bit lame, it's sort of a game you kick back crank up some radio music and have a good time. I like cheaply bumping the a.i. at fast speeds on slow turns with a slower vehicle or just ripping through them with better vehicles yet trying to maintain harder control of the car, at least, that's how I see it anyways. Sure a tad boring at times but it maintains my interest most of the time, and is a good game to play in short spurts of time, playing all day would drive me insane. It all depends on how you play it.

To add I didn't mind less cars I thought it was better to focus on that 2 or 3 you really like, but then again I'd like to see some sports cars like Ferrari's and Lamborghini's.

-A.I.
-Driving mechanics

the a.i goes in the absolute prefet line every time
they go in the absolute perfect speed
they brake at the absolute perfect time
they tap the acceleration at the perfect moment during a corner
racing against them is like racing the cars doing the demo's in the license test

the a.i leads to the actual racing gmeplay:

YOU CAN NOT JUDGE WHEN TO BRAKE AT A CORNER
every car has different braking
& each corner has a different apex on the exact moment to brake
so when you see a tight corner after going through a straightaway you brake enough & make the corner alrigh, BUT the a.i will just pass you by, even if you have a faster car

I agree with you on this one but whatever, you can always pass them by on he long stretches in a faster car or in the slower cars, ram them at a high speed so that you ricochet off of the cars in a tight turn. The turning kind of sucks but I doubt you can't perfect it so that cars won't pass you by, you can always position yourself so that the car behind you bumps you from the back, so there are some other unorthodox strategies.

[WTFer420]

that strategy does work
but only for tracks with very long starightways like Stage Route 5 & the Tokyo route


the thing though you say this game can be enjoyed for just small periods
I can see how IF you have a lot of cars in your garage & have some high class racing cars

BUT at the start of the game, you'll have to race TONS of select tracks that hardly give you enough money to get the other cars needed for other races
let alone the upgrades for them to win those races

I estimate I'll have to play those few races that my cars can only participate in for about 3 hours before I can start to get a remote number of more cars

I mean that's crazy
I played Sega GT & GT2 extensivly & it never took THAT long to progress

[Will]

I thought Sega GT had worse license tests given the cars they give you and the times are kind of hard to get.

So far I only have 2 cars in my garage, my Ford Mustang I worked hard for with the Mazda Miata which I sold but then won again in green. But once I got the Mustang I started getting more money and gaining it at a faster rate since its a middleweight type car you can compete with in the middlewieght type courses. The only challenge I saw was in keeping you car from going too fast and maintaining control of it more than the slower ones.

It helps to change the oil and maintain your car too for fun and maybe some performance. There are many things you can do to keep playing all day like license tests for gold or perfecting certain runs but it's a type of game I can play for 45 minutes get a certain amount of goals accomplished then play another game. Once I have everything unlocked it's more fun since everything is available.

I'm probably the last person who should be defending this game but I'm just enjoying it the way I play and it was 20 bucks again. There's alot of replay value in this game fun or not, but again it depends how you play it.

[Tones]

When you are about to go around a turn, an LED in the gauge area tells you what gear to be in when going around a turn. This helps out a lot.

[WTFer420]

out of all the racing games i played I have NEVER EVER used the manual shiffing option...EVER


and speaking of oil changes yet another flaw in GT3

unless you want to loss HP & have a slower car you have to spend $250 on every few races to keep up

same for car wash
every 3 races the reflection on your car vanishs

kinda annyoning to have to pay to keep the graphics up

[hayato42]

heh if you hate it that much and want to get rid of it i'd gladly trade ya for it

gimme a pm or find me on AIM 'hayatofortytwo'

[DHG Otaku]

well I played the first GT too long ago to remember it much, never played GT2, so most of the tracks look like radical improvements over the ones from GT1 and the rest are all new to me. I think the rally racing is funner than Sega Rally and although the game isn't super 'fun' to play, using real cars that actually look like 'em is simply a gas and I think this game has some of the best graphics I've ever seen, anywhere. I'm at the point where I'm just playing and gasping at the visuals, even if the game plays like shit (in my world, realistic does not always mean fun, ESPECIALLY in this case!), I just enjoy rippin' through those amazing-looking courses, I just can't get over the graphics. I just got the game so I'm going through arcade mode right now before I get into that whole big mess that is the simulation mode. :P

[WTFer420]

BLAH

I would get rid of it, BUT for what
EB & Funcoland will only give me $7 freakin dollars in store credit
those cheap fuckin bastards


and YOU may play the game for the graphics, but oo me they aren't THAT amazing

I was MUCH more amazed at Test Drive Lemans on DC then I was with Gt3

lemans came ou like 9 months before & looks almost as good

I played Railsport Challnge before I played GT3, which has much better gaphics
so for me Gt3 graphics are in the middle

NOT as jaw dropping as when I first saw lemans & not as good as the most recent racer I played (railsport)