Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

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Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

"I think we're gonna make it, I think we're gonna save it. (Yeah) So don't you try and fake it. Anymore, anymore." (Feeder - Buck Rogers)

Genre(s):	Racing
Platform(s):	PlayStation 2
Release Date:	JP: April 28, 2001 NA: July 10, 2001 EU/AU: July 20, 2001
Developer(s):	Polyphony Digital
Publisher(s):	Sony Computer Entertainment
Series:	Gran Turismo
Predecessor:	Gran Turismo 2
Successor:	Gran Turismo 4

Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec is a 2001 racing game, the first in the Gran Turismo series released for the PlayStation 2. During its demonstration at E3 2000 and E3 2001 the game's working title was Gran Turismo 2000. The game was a critical and commercial success and went on to become one of the best-selling video games of all time.

In 2002, Polyphony released three smaller scale versions of Gran Turismo 3, titled Gran Turismo Concept, which focused on concept cars shown off at auto trade shows. These releases were known as 2001 Tokyo, 2002 Tokyo-Seoul and 2002 Tokyo-Geneva, which were released in Japan, South Korea and Europe respectively.

Why It Goes A-Spec

The graphics have vastly improved from it's prequels, thanks in part to the new hardware.
The gameplay is superb, playing practically like the first two games, except running at a smooth framerate of 60 FPS, something which was previously only available on the Hi-Fi mode in the original game.
Porsche and Lamborghini had unofficial releases on the series while other cars manufacturers such as Pagani, Panoz and Gillet (along with Hyundai in Gran Turismo Concept) finally make their debut.
GT Mode has tons of races to participate in, including Endurance Races, Rally Mode, one-make races, etc.
Handling feels tight and responsive, depending on the car used; racing cars have tighter handling, heavier cars (like the Shelby Cobra) are more difficult to turn.
Arcade Mode, Time Trial, and GT Mode all contribute to 100% completion, so there is plenty of content to play to finish the game.
Faster and more powerful cars provide a good sense of speed of the high speed tracks.
While the amount of vehicles isn't as massive as the previous game, it still offers a good selection of cars to choose from.
Awesome soundtrack.
- All releases feature original songs composed specifically for the game by Isamu Ohira and Daiki Kasho, with songs like "Glowl", "Slipstream" and "Light Velocity", and the Japanese NTSC release has an arranged version of the series' main theme, "Moon Over The Castle".
- The NTSC release is focused on rock music, with songs like a remixed version of "Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz, "Turbo Lover" by Judas Priest, and "She Sells Sanctuary" by The Cult.
- The PAL release is more electronic focused featuring "Supermoves" by Overseer, 3 songs from Feeder ("Buck Rogers", "7 Days in the Sun", and a remix of "Just a Day") and "Sober (Saint US Mix)" by Muse.
The in-game economy is solid enough to allow the player to easily obtain every purchasable car in the game without grinding (if you like car collecting). Plus the small car roster makes car collecting fairly easy.
From this game and onwards you can save the game in middle for a championship event which you can use for restart a round race if the aforementioned race you lose or simply you're tired.
Some cars are hidden from players until they are won from events, like the road versions of the Nissan R390 GT1, Toyota GT-One TS020, and the Ford GT40, and many others. This adds an element of surprise, since these cars aren't on show at the Car Dealerships.

Pink Vitz Qualities

Due to the limitations of the PS2 that time, the car list was vastly reduced to just 160+ cars compared to GT2's 650. Not only that, some cars such as the Lancia Stratos can only be accessed via Gameshark and not through the normal means of the game.
- The amount of race tracks was also reduced to 19 compared to GT2's 27.
The infamous Professional League Vitz/Yaris Race, are balls-to-the-wall hard, and are often the final roadblocks stopping players from getting 100%. Also the S Licenses are extremely difficult to pass at least Bronze and the Time Trials are difficult to obtain gold with the last one in Complex String being the worst offender.
If your save data gets corrupted, you must format both Memory Cards PS2 in order to save the game because you can't delete it and also it displays "File size ? kbytes". Worse still, if this occurs while you are playing WipEout Pulse and the save data of the said game is corrupted, the save data of this game along with your other previously saved games are corrupted too even it doesn't display "Damaged data".
While the ability to save mid-championship to great to have, you can't actually leave the championship itself to buy upgrades, new tyres, or visit GT Auto. The next game in the series remedies this.
There are some inaccuracies regarding car performance; one egregious example is the Pagani Zonda C12S, which has a top speed of 208mph (334.7km/h) in real life. In this game however, it can only do 152mph. Like the previous point, this was corrected in its successor.

Tips how to prevent corruption of the game

Simply do not remove Memory Card, controller or reset/turn off the console while saving.
Have a Memory Card backup with the game not corrupted if the one gets corrupted and then copy all of your saved games into other Memory Card before formatting.

Gameplay Tips

If you manage to complete all 10 Time Trials with a gold medal before starting GT mode, you can win the 1998 Panoz Esperante GTR-1 right off the bat.
Get all of your Licenses before starting race events; doing this will give you immediate access to all events (even if you don't have cars suitable for each event).
For the infamous Vitz/Yaris race in the Professional League, you can overcome the difficulty with a particular setup, courtesy of GTVault user Fumes. Check to out for yourselves here.
Some Amateur League events, every Professional League event, and the Endurance Races all have Tyre Damage active. Make sure you have credits leftover for Racing grade tyres; these not only have superior grip and endurance (depending on their hardness), but they bolster the car's handling as well. These are key to remaining competitive in the upper ranks.
If you have your International A grade license, it is possible to obtain a Formula 1 style car almost immediately; you can obtain a Mazda MX-5 1800 RS from getting all golds in the B grade license tests, and then entering the Apricot Hill Raceway Endurance Race (which is exclusively for Mazda MX-5 models) for a 25% chance of winning this F1 style car.
If you have any of the Gran Turismo Concept games and cleared all of the license tests in said games, you can import the data over to GT3: A-Spec and earn 10,000,000 credits and finish all license tests. However, the save file must be in the same region as the game (except for the NTSC-U release, as GT Concept was never released in North America). For example, if you have a PAL save file of GT3: A-Spec, you must have Gran Turismo Concept 2002: Tokyo-Geneva.

Reception

Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec went on to receive universal acclaim, holding a 94/100 on Metacritic, and is the PlayStation 2's second best selling game behind Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the best-selling PS2 exclusive, and the best-selling game in the entire Gran Turismo series, selling 14.89 millions copies worldwide.

Trivia

This game introduces a very popular glitch in form of 2147483647 km/h / mph. To do so it requires the following:
- A powerful racing car (the Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak and the Toyota GT-ONE Race Car (TS020) '99 are the most well known ones to perform),
- Have the highest NA/Turbo kit possible installed.
- The spring rates and ride height must be to the lowest value possible.
- The front downforce must be to the lowest value possible and the rear downforce in the highest value possible.
- The TCS and ASM must be the lowest possible.
- Set the transmission to the highest possible and the final gear must be set to 2.500.
Once done this, simply glitch through Seattle Circuit's last wall corner at 300 km/h (180 mph) and once it, upon accelerating, the car performs a wheelie which it causes the car to accelerate indefinitely because the game thinks that the car is flipped upside down, but since it is not possible to flip the car, as a result, the car can reach the 2147483647km/h (mph) causing the game to overflow and crash as well.
It spawned the Pink Vitz meme from RynoGT4 and the Yellow Lancer Evo V from BK4 which the latter was well known from a tech demo called Gran Turismo 2000 which is notorious of appearing a deep fried picture of said car with a bass boosted earrape version of Mirage by Daiki Kasho playing in the background.

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