I know I do reviews of a show with a time machine, but despite that, I haven’t taken us back more than two decades. Gran Turismo was a racing series that passed over me for many years, set to be released with the launch of the PS2. This includes Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, often considered to be one of the greatest games of all time and one of the greatest simulation racers of all time. It was released in the same year as some of the greatest games ever made as well. Advance Wars, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Silent Hill 2, are a few examples among its game-of-the-year counterparts.

I believe it was just over ten years ago that I was adamantly told how fantastic the series was following the release of Gran Turismo 5, though I never understood it. That was until a few days ago when I thought ahead of the release of Gran Turismo 7 I’d give the launch PS2 version a go. As it turns out, I finally get it. I get the feeling as you carry too much speed into a corner, the power once you upgrade a car beyond where it is by default, and the excitement of driving a 2000 Toyota Sprinter Trueno. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

That’s the first noticeable thing about a Gran Turismo game, you’ll capture a glimpse into the mind of the yob of the decade with only a few seconds of footage. The small (easy insurable), cheap but quick cars of the day for the young “motor enthusiast” is always a perspective into that decade of car design. The boxy 90s/early-00s styling is something to put fear right up anyone old enough to remember a Renault Twingo or a Suzuki X-90.

Teens weren’t concerned about that, they only cared if it went fast and was cheap. The trouble with a bit of retrospective rejoicing about such a game is just how slow it is now. It is not sluggish or uneventful, but it is lacking in the ceremony until you hit a corner. Going back to that very first race, topping out at an easy 170kph at the end of the straights, you could tell me I was ambling about at 75kph and I wouldn’t notice the difference. The benefits a touch of blur can do. It might gamify Gran Turismo a hint, but you already asked me to press X for the throttle.

The 2000s had a bit of trouble with the word realism. This is something that haunts us to this day, as almost every open-world game, racing game, or otherwise opts for photo-realism. A-Spec instead looks to make driving as pinpoint accurate as possible, right up to the line of being infuriatingly so. I’ve argued this before I’m sure, however, you are never out of control when you over or understeer. It is in fact your own mistakes and under or overestimating your ability to make a corner that is the issue. The realism here wasn’t to say, “look, we’re cutting edge like everyone else” it was actually making the game as fun and exciting as possible. Throwing a hot-hatch into a corner always will be.

However, for all of this, the PS2’s inaccuracy through arthritis inducing cramps as it gets old with us retrospective farts radiates through. Be it the sensitivity of the controls conveying a feeling of weightlessness that such games are often plagued with, or the fact that no matter what button the throttle is mapped to, you’ll never be able to feather the throat. Out of years of PS3 and 4 games, I’m left with the muscle memory of using R2 and L2 for throttle and brake. Anything else feels mindbogglingly strange otherwise.

The accuracy comes from either your ability or inability thereof to metaphorically thread the needle and string together a well-turned-out couple of laps. Where it stumbles across the line, coughing and spluttering with a missing hubcap rolling over the line just after, is the more dated design. Menus are about as user-friendly as spitting cobras manning a tech-support call center, ancillary nonsense such as changing your oil can be frustrating, and progression can often be a bit of a slog. The latter of the three is defined by a large amount of grinding.

Undoubtedly it is a game of its time, though despite ideas as unbelievably stupid as not having a quick restart for races in the pause menu or once the race is forfeited/finished, some of its ideas still hold up over twenty years on. I’ve already said that the ability to throw a car, be it a hot-hatch or the latest concept car of the early 00s, will always be fun no matter how dated the game gets. I would have liked a larger number of cameras other than the bumper and two inches from the radio antenna, the former on the rally sections of the game being as violent as Fox News thought every game was at the time.

Overall, as the graphical fidelity fades into bigger and more undefined pixelated squares in comparison to its 21-year junior, the gameplay and ideas are still fundamentally there. Of course, within those two decades since its release, we’ve improved several things, including the ability to have dark levels and brightness controls in the options menu. In a time when graphical fidelity takes precedent over all else for the sake of shareholders, the fact that Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec was a product of its time by defining gameplay was refreshing. Despite more than two decades of dust coating some of it.

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Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Era-defining driving.
• Fun racing.
• Ability to remap controls.

Cons

• Minor mechanics taking in two decades.
• Menus, so many unfriend UX menus.
• Ancillary nonsense.
• A lack of brightness options.