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GT3 A-Spec released 25 years ago today

What is your favourite GT?

  • Total voters
    135
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Victhemic

Member
I'm a huuuuge GT nut and this might still be my favourite GT title. Sleek menus, sublime progression, flow and vibe. Possibly still the best handling model of the entire series. Great music selection. Good car and track selection. To this day the very best iterations of some of the most iconic tracks of the entire series like: SSR5, SSR11, Tahiti Maze, Smokey Mountain, Seattle, Grand Valley and especially Deep Forest and Trial Mountain.

Impossible not to mention the INSANE graphics this game featured at release. There was NOTHING on the market (including on the PC) to rival it graphically even remotely...

I have very fond memories of this game. What are yours?!



 
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Graphics were INSANE and I loved the game but I preferred GT2 with the vast amounts of cars and tracks. Also GT4 but it was great for the early PS2 days.

My favorite is 7 but I do miss some cars/tracks that they never brought back. I want an updated Seattle track.
 
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Im going with 3. it was the perfect single player GAMER progression. then it started catering to car weirdos with bad menus.
 
Yeah, it's a classic, although, I never actually finished it. I loved the game, though. It had the best aesthetic the series has ever had, and I'd argue the best overall feel. It was a really great blend of arcade-y and sim. I'd really love to revisit the game someday soon, and I've actually been mulling over grabbing it off of ebay recently.

Also a stark reminder that you really can't go back home - sim racers have changed so much and, like substantially all sports/sports-adjacent titles, lost the charm that made earlier games so fun to jump into and just play. I genuinely don't think another game will ever channel the same vibe that GT3 (and to a slightly lesser extent, GT4) did.
 
Back in the day I had the most fun with 1 and especially 3.

3 was such a monstrous leap forward. I still think the lighting and the way the sun's rays bounce off the asphalt looks good, but in 2001, it looked unbelievable.

But I recently played 4 (after not getting hugely into it on PS2) with the Spec II mod, and it's my favorite. It has the best single-player campaign and the Spec II mod adds a lot of modernization and QoL improvements.
 
For me 5 was my fav, loved the career mode amd the music was great.
Although the original on ps1 was my first gt so I have nostalgia related to that experience.
 
I bugged my parents to no end to help me find this game at a store lol

For some reason it was hard to find around me, but there was as no better feeling than finding it, rushing home, and playing non-stop for days!
 
One of the biggest graphical leaps I've ever witnessed. I remember thinking this looked closed to real life. Looking back, I have no idea why I thought that lol, but this game was one hell of a PS2 showcase.
 
TIL 2001 was 25 years ago.
Wait, that means GTA3 is also 25 years old later this year.
ffs
What is time? Baby don't hurt me...

To keep on topic, when GT1 came out I was blown away and played the hell out of it. While GT3 also mega impressed me with the visuals, I think by then I was veering off racing sims, so didn't play it as much.
 
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Gaiff said:
One of the biggest graphical leaps I've ever witnessed.
Click to expand...
I still think it's THE biggest graphical leap I've ever witnessed.

Gaiff said:
Looking back, I have no idea why I thought that lol
Click to expand...
This quick video should remind you again why you had that feeling. If you watch from the start, by the time GT3 is on screen you should still be like "Woah!":



John made such a masterpiece video series that perfectly touched on this:



 
The main advantage of 4 was not making you race every second of an endurance race.

3 was special, and I remember owning 4 and playing plenty of it but it not quite having that something 3 has.

I hope I still have my PS2 copy, but if not I might have to take a trip to a 2nd hand shop.
 
I feel bad for kids today who won't have their mind blown ever the way this game was capable of blowing a mind.

It is absolutely crazy that we went from PS1 graphics to THIS game. I will never forget the first time I saw the sun illuminate the pavement. This was peak.
 
AGRacing said:
I feel bad for kids today who won't have their mind blown ever the way this game was capable of blowing a mind.

It is absolutely crazy that we went from PS1 graphics to THIS game. I will never forget the first time I saw the sun illuminate the pavement. This was peak.
Click to expand...
This.

Granted, there may have been more impactful generational, graphical leaps in gaming history, but this was mine and I'll never forget it. Nothing could impress me after this one.
 
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Racing games has been strugglig to match GT3 and GT4 for 20 years. The feeling of progression in those games was half the fun.

This was the coolest shit back then, I still remember me and my friends talking about what cars we got and how we tuned them.
 
Since i was a late ps2 gamer...

Gran Turismo 2 is my favorite.
At the time racing games usually had 7-8 tracks and 5-6 cars. Gran Turismo came kicking down the door with 180 cars and 11 tracks. By the time that RR Type 4 caught its breath with 300 cars (basically stats variations of 40 something cars) and 8 tracks. GT2 came with 620 cars and TWENTY FUCKING SEVEN tracks. It was insane value for the money.

After GT2, i would go with Gran Turismo 4. It's basically the "GT2" of GT3. Plus it was well polished, unlike GT2
Still is my get to go Gran Turismo on Pc (together with 5)
 
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GT3 was pretty special, but I'm very fond of all of them for one reason or another. As a lover of cars and music, there is no racing series like it for me.

I'd love to know how many hours I've spent playing each game. I've certainly spent a very unhealthy amount of hours playing GT7.
 
Gonna go with 4, as it just built on the strong base established by 3, added tons of diverse content the next couple entries couldn't compete with, and improved the wheel support from 3.

Oddly enough tried out Gran Turismo 4 just yesterday, because PCSX2 actually brings over PS2 wheel support that you can set to the Logitech Driving Force Pro, and tried it with my Logitech G29 wheel. Throw in 4k and an HD texture pack, game holds up great, and the force feedback was surprisingly more nuanced than I thought it would be. Easily could feel when I'm driving a tire up on a curb vs the road, for a game that came out before I left high school.

Absolutely wild Sony ported over stuff like Lego Horizons to PC, but not even one Gran Turismo that would just print money.
 
I bought a Logitech wheel for this game. I've owned every entry in the series, but after GT3 my interest mostly waned. That is until GT7.
 
Still has the best versions of some of the returning tracks (hello missing canopy)... and where the heck is the San Francisco track in the new installments?
 
Gaiff said:
One of the biggest graphical leaps I've ever witnessed. I remember thinking this looked closed to real life. Looking back, I have no idea why I thought that lol, but this game was one hell of a PS2 showcase.
Click to expand...
The visual jumps at the time were incredible.. every week or so we went to the mall as kids, we were excited to see how awesome the next game looked. Buying every magazine to get the demo disc.
You will never be able to replicate the feeling again. Future cop L.A.P.D, Rosco McQueen, Tomba, Rollcage, Time crisis..

You could get more enjoyment from a demo disc then some games these days.
 
Good, you posted the european intro, the only real one :D. Feeder is so good.

Its crazy to me that no dev has since figured out how to make replays look as good as the replays in this 25 year old game. It still looks crazy good. The motion blur, the lighting, the camera movements. All other racing games look so sterile in comparison. I'd argue 7 is better, because its just generally good and has more content than 3, but at the time, 3 was just a vibe.
 
I love the Gran Turismo series, and I've been playing it since the very beginning. The first game was just different—it had a completely different approach compared to other racing games at the time. Because of that, the original holds a very special place in my heart.

On the PS2, GT3 was my go-to, and on the PS3, GT5 was my most-played title.

As for the PS5, GT7 honestly saved this generation for me. Without Gran Turismo, this console generation would feel significantly weaker.

What I love most about GT7 is the incredible attention to detail. I enjoy the people in the Café when you show up in a new car, the relaxed music and atmosphere, and the great balance between single-player and multiplayer. My only complaint is that some of the iconic tracks from the earlier games are still missing.
 
Victhemic said:
I'm a huuuuge GT nut and this might still be my favourite GT title. Sublime progression, flow and vibe. Possibly still the best handling model of the entire series. Great music selection. Good car and track selection. To this day the very best iterations of some of the most iconic tracks of the entire series like: SSR5, SSR11, Tahiti Maze, Smokey Mountain, Seattle, Grand Valley and especially Deep Forest and Trial Mountain.

Impossible not to mention the INSANE graphics this game featured at release. There was NOTHING on the market (including on the PC) to rival it graphically even remotely...

I have very fond memories of this game. What are yours?!



Click to expand...

You do this stuff on Heaven, the whole world is centered around you in this game. You can't enter any race you want, buy any car you want whenever you want in real life but despite all that I still liked this game so much.
 
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Yes that was a great time. Matter of fact in the United states, the Red box bundle is the one that I got my PS2 for the first time. I think about all these games especially on PlayStation 2, was the leap in graphics was so great from PlayStation 1. Obviously the game play and stuff was there and they did have to put the game out with what you would call PlayStation 1 level cars in order to keep some of the car count from being too low. But you can clearly see that there was a lot to harness on PS2 and subsequently GT4 was more feature Rich and more loaded since the team had more time to make the assets and start modernizing the rendering of the cars.

I happen to think seven is the best in the series because it's just oozing with class and it's stacked with content. There is just a feel and a look that Gran Turismo has that it is just second to none. You can tell that it is made by car enthusiasts.

You can see from the presentation with GT TV and things that I remember for the time, they were pretty hardcore for a racing game. The way it is now where they have those races and things that people compete to drive is really robust. There's always been a pretty hardcore driving community and clearly a car enthusiast community as well. I think Gran Turismo has never lost sight of that unlike its main competitor Forza.

That's why there's always been this thing where people compare driving models and other things and they can have a preference but Gran Turismo has always stayed steadfast to its core and to this day feels very distinct and as up all the quality on PlayStation 5 entry.

To me that really started to ramp up with Gran Turismo 3.
 
The first time I played a racing game for that many hours. It was super fun and the graphics were insane!
I remember walking in a store with a non gamer friend and the intro of GT3 was playing on a tv screen. I told him these were in game graphics and he just wouldn't believe it.

Although I enjoyed later GT's (and now GT7), I've never had that feeling again that I had with GT3. It was the perfect package.
 
TheAssist said:
Good, you posted the european intro, the only real one :D. Feeder is so good.

Its crazy to me that no dev has since figured out how to make replays look as good as the replays in this 25 year old game. It still looks crazy good. The motion blur, the lighting, the camera movements. All other racing games look so sterile in comparison. I'd argue 7 is better, because its just generally good and has more content than 3, but at the time, 3 was just a vibe.
Click to expand...
It is Feeder indeed, but its actually not the intro, but the best trailer this game has ever gotten imo (also features the Diablo GT, which was removed from the EU version!). :(
That said, I do agree, the EU intro is far superior to the JP/NTSC one.
 
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Gaiff said:
One of the biggest graphical leaps I've ever witnessed. I remember thinking this looked closed to real life. Looking back, I have no idea why I thought that lol, but this game was one hell of a PS2 showcase.
Click to expand...
This 100%. The graphics were light years ahead back then. Man, I miss the generational leap between PS1 and PS2.
 
The GOAT.

Funnily enough at the time I wasnt impressed with the handling but graphics blew me away. I grew to adore the game though. Still looks amazing today on a CRT TV
 
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Definitely one of, if not the best GT

(Edit: for American Bros we had Just a Day by Feeder for the opening)
 
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Schmick said:
I have GT 1 - 6. I've just started playing GT5 should I continue with that one or pick another.
Click to expand...
5 is good, do the campaign for that but 6 is better for selection and has a better track editor if you can still use that. 6 has more premium cars and the standard cars got improved with some being as good as premium without a modelled interior. It also has more tracks and better physics.
 
Hard to pick between 1-3. But i went with 3.
Absolutely owned me in my youth.

I felt like i had trouble connecting with the series after 4. While i still purchased all of them, i found greater enjoyment with games like Need For Speed, Project Gotham, Driveclub, etc. to name a few.
In my opinion GT7 has been a return to form. Its the only racer ive needed this gen.
 
Never played a GT game as I prefer arcade racers. Are they hardcore racing sims like the really anal stuff you get on PC or somewhere inbetween?
 
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