Before I start this review let me tell you that I am a huge racing fan. I rent a lot of different racing games whenever I get the chance, but this one is a different kind of racing game. This game is special in its own unique way...this game divided the line between a good racing game and a great racing game. There are many games that have made the line between a terrible racing game and a good, but this is the first to divide the good from the great.

    In the Simulation Mode you start off in the game as a newbie to the tracks, you don’t even have a license to race yet nor do you have a car. The game is nice enough to give you 18 big ones (thousand) to buy a nice car at the beginning, and once you win your first license and buy a good car your off to the races. Every time you win a new license you get the opportunity to race in the next class with faster and more challenging AI opponents. Each class has a series of races you can win medals on and win a lot more money. While some of the series of races last only 3 races long, there are a few that go onto 10 in the first class...this series gets you the most money quick at the beginning of the game (GT World Championship). But be prepared, some series’ only let you use a certain type of car (For Example: FF, MR, etc.) and won’t let you into the races without that type of car.

    The basic feel of the game is as real as it comes. Though the buttons to this game are just like any other basic configuration of games the control over the car you get to have is unbelievable. After you buy your first car, you can spend remaining money on turning your car from mom’s beat up old station wagon to faster than Vin Diesel in his Civic. The tuning shop is just like going to a real car repair, merchandise, or accessory place and buying your own parts for your own racer in real life. You can change your transmission, tune your gear ratios and even buy a lighter body kit to make your acceleration up to speed. And if you buy a low HP car it’s simple to get the HP matched with that of your opponents: Just buy the Turbo Kit or the NA Tune-ups (depending on what your car can receive). Though this stuff is really cool to car junkies and dorks (like I am turning into) it can be very, confusing on what to buy for new comers to the car world. For example when I first got the game I had a 1020 HP car, but every time I raced it I wouldn’t even go over 150 MPH...and these small little 200 HP cars would blow by me. The reason for that was my gear ratios weren’t allowing my car to get the max speed it could get, and I didn’t know crap about cars then (and I know very little now compared to some people :D) so I had to ask my friend about it and he told me about the gear ratios...so if you are new to the car world a friend who is into cars is required.

    The graphics for this game were unreal when this game came out in 2001. The environments around the racer wouldn’t just pop up like in previous racing games, you could actually see it coming towards you from far away. The cars are real models from car dealerships from around the world and they look very nice, neat, and aren’t jagged edged like in most racing games. Because these cars are real models the dealerships made Polyphony not have car damage on the game, because the poor little dealerships didn’t want possible future costumers to see their poor cars all beat up and out of shape. This is one of the few drawbacks to this game in the car racing genre. A lot of people, like myself, want it to be as real as possible (which is hard to do, because if you slam into a wall at 200+ mph you know that that car won’t keep going, nor would you still be able to drive it) and have dents and dings and everything between. But other than the no damage factor the games graphics really defied what the past racing games looked like and it presented as a role-model to future games.

    The sound in the game is very clean and isn’t disturbing. You can turn the music all the way up and turn the SFX all the way down. The music soundtrack on this game consists of greats like Lenny Kravitz, Motley Crue, and Jimmi Hendrix. The soundtrack has about 25 hits. The sounds aren’t too annoying in the game either, I mean don’t you love to hear your engine purr as you pass by some dumb nut bums who’s engine sounds like some little go-cart? I think I would. And as you pass the crowd (who is usually only in one spot during the race) you hear them cheering for you to win the race.

    The game relies on you to have fun, because if you aren’t having fun thinking on how you can smoke your next opponent by changing your engine and what not, then you won’t play the final few classes which require a very good amount of patience and spare time. The number of laps you have to complete in each class goes up as you go up, and it can be very time consuming once you get to that last class. The replay value isn’t all too good if you aren’t into racing cars to much, but if you are I am sure you will play this game through and through and get every car while your at it. Which is a very hard feat to achieve seeing as the game has well over 100 cars for you to buy, and some of them are very expensive and take all your money and you don’t even realize it. But some of them are only won if you get lucky enough to win the car at the end of each of the Cups. If you get 100% of this game done and get all the cars you deserve the respect from all gamers, because it is a long grueling process, that I have not completed yet.

    How this game stacks up to today’s racers is simple, GT3 totally leaves Super Car Street Challenge in the dust. Graphical wise it is about 10x better then the later release. Midnight Club II is probably its only competitor in my opinion for the best racer on PS2. GT3 has all the stuff to become one of the best racing games out there today; Graphics, Gameplay, and Fun Factor are all outstanding. So get 20 bucks out if you don’t have this game yet and fork it over baby, you need this game!