The_Light_Triton
Joined Apr 2005
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When the PlayStation 2 launched in the year 2000, it was one small step for man, but a giant leap for graphical capabilities. Compared to what we see today in graphical advancements, the PS2 was remarkable. On top of that, the console had no shortage of fun titles to get started with in it's launch year, but 2001 was when it's competitors, Nintendo and Microsoft released the Gamecube and the Xbox respectively, and in the summer of 2001, Sony Computer Entertainment America presented arguably the best tech demo for those who were still unconvinced Sony would be the king of the 6th generation of video game consoles; Gran Turismo 3.
Gran Turismo 3 at first glance looks like a game, but it is not. It is a driving simulator with racing, car modifications, and testing driver's abilities to earn a license as part of the package. Most gamers who bought it might have revelled in it's early stages for it's presentation but passed it on for more arcade style racers and visually exciting adventures on the PS2, a category in which the console was not short of, even in 2001.
Why? Because it's not a game. It's a driving simulator. That cannot be stressed enough about it. You can't just hold down the X button and rush through it as if you're playing Mario Kart on 50cc difficulty. You actually have to make an effort to finish courses without messing up, and messing up is very easy to do in the Gran Turismo series. You have to hit the brakes at the right times and even being just a few tenths of a second off can have unforgiving consquences that will either have you frustrated while you try to regain control of your beloved automobile, or you'll be quick to hit the start button and rage quit a race. You'll have to study courses constantly and figure out the best lines for driving through courses so you can put up the best times. The game will test you on this, and won't allow the instant gratification most racing games do. You have to unlearn the arcadey, cartoonish and ridiculous style of gameplay most racing games embellish while learning the realistic science of driving an automobile.
Now to be fair, this game has moments where it's easy to break it. Getting prize money in the game is a slow process in the beginning but if you spam Sunday cup's super speedway race with an '83 Toyota Sprinter Trueno with a few cheap mods you can pile up enough money, roughly $32,000 to buy yourself a '00 Mustang SVT Cobra, and spam the super speedway race in the Stars & Stripes category for an easy $3,500 every 4-5 minutes, or spam the Apricot hill raceway course in the NA sport category for $5,000, a course that's relatively easy to finish in 1st place every time with the Mustang SVT Cobra even with all the twists and turns. Mostly because all the cars in that cup are 4-bangers which for some reason, a 32v 4.6 V8 Cobra engine is allowed to compete against.
Honestly, the 00' Mustang SVT Cobra breaks the game simply by existing. It's classmates, the Camaro Z24 & SS are around the same price but are slower and less responsive, and even the Corvette Grand Sport and Z06 are slower, but more expensive. Dodge has the Viper which bone stock is superior, but for roughly $78,000. After a few thousand dollars worth of mods to match, your Mustang will top 600 HP and be impossible for a bone stock Viper to catch.
But that's the thing about the Gran Turismo games, and especially this one. It's a product made for the car enthusiast. The guy who can talk for hours about machines he'll never afford in real life. That guy can go to the car dealership in the game and spend an hour just looking at the cars and reading the details as they scroll across the screen, while listening to the classy Isamu Ohira jazz fusion soundtrack that in 2001, was a breath of fresh sound for the ears. Then after that guy has spent his in game money, he can take the car and mod it to go faster or respond better to his commands, and race it against the in-game AI to win more money to keep exploring all the game has to offer...and there's 180 different cars to try in this game and all of them handle in different ways.
This game was made for that guy.
The final thing to talk about Gran Turismo 3 is it's presentation. As mentioned, the soundtrack is the classy Jazz Fusion genre, a genre which became popular in it's native Japan when groups like T-square and Casiopea released albums in the 80's and 90's. The menus are so visually stimulating you will have to watch the videos in the background many times before you can remember all the details. But when you're flooring it on the speedway, the game is chock full of a variety of original music that spans from the 70's to the modern era. You might be vibing along to Papa Roach, Junkie XL, and Lenny Kravitz, but your mom & dad could do a race with you and vibe along to Jimmi Hendrix, The Cult, Motley Crue or Judas Priest, all of whom have one of their classic hits to race along to.
While this game has definitely shown it's age in over 2 decades, it's impact at the time of it's release cannot be discounted. It's the best selling Gran Turismo game of all time, selling just a few thousand short of 15 million copies. What Super Mario Bros was to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Gran Turismo 3 was to the PS2 - the Quintessential title.
Gran Turismo 3 at first glance looks like a game, but it is not. It is a driving simulator with racing, car modifications, and testing driver's abilities to earn a license as part of the package. Most gamers who bought it might have revelled in it's early stages for it's presentation but passed it on for more arcade style racers and visually exciting adventures on the PS2, a category in which the console was not short of, even in 2001.
Why? Because it's not a game. It's a driving simulator. That cannot be stressed enough about it. You can't just hold down the X button and rush through it as if you're playing Mario Kart on 50cc difficulty. You actually have to make an effort to finish courses without messing up, and messing up is very easy to do in the Gran Turismo series. You have to hit the brakes at the right times and even being just a few tenths of a second off can have unforgiving consquences that will either have you frustrated while you try to regain control of your beloved automobile, or you'll be quick to hit the start button and rage quit a race. You'll have to study courses constantly and figure out the best lines for driving through courses so you can put up the best times. The game will test you on this, and won't allow the instant gratification most racing games do. You have to unlearn the arcadey, cartoonish and ridiculous style of gameplay most racing games embellish while learning the realistic science of driving an automobile.
Now to be fair, this game has moments where it's easy to break it. Getting prize money in the game is a slow process in the beginning but if you spam Sunday cup's super speedway race with an '83 Toyota Sprinter Trueno with a few cheap mods you can pile up enough money, roughly $32,000 to buy yourself a '00 Mustang SVT Cobra, and spam the super speedway race in the Stars & Stripes category for an easy $3,500 every 4-5 minutes, or spam the Apricot hill raceway course in the NA sport category for $5,000, a course that's relatively easy to finish in 1st place every time with the Mustang SVT Cobra even with all the twists and turns. Mostly because all the cars in that cup are 4-bangers which for some reason, a 32v 4.6 V8 Cobra engine is allowed to compete against.
Honestly, the 00' Mustang SVT Cobra breaks the game simply by existing. It's classmates, the Camaro Z24 & SS are around the same price but are slower and less responsive, and even the Corvette Grand Sport and Z06 are slower, but more expensive. Dodge has the Viper which bone stock is superior, but for roughly $78,000. After a few thousand dollars worth of mods to match, your Mustang will top 600 HP and be impossible for a bone stock Viper to catch.
But that's the thing about the Gran Turismo games, and especially this one. It's a product made for the car enthusiast. The guy who can talk for hours about machines he'll never afford in real life. That guy can go to the car dealership in the game and spend an hour just looking at the cars and reading the details as they scroll across the screen, while listening to the classy Isamu Ohira jazz fusion soundtrack that in 2001, was a breath of fresh sound for the ears. Then after that guy has spent his in game money, he can take the car and mod it to go faster or respond better to his commands, and race it against the in-game AI to win more money to keep exploring all the game has to offer...and there's 180 different cars to try in this game and all of them handle in different ways.
This game was made for that guy.
The final thing to talk about Gran Turismo 3 is it's presentation. As mentioned, the soundtrack is the classy Jazz Fusion genre, a genre which became popular in it's native Japan when groups like T-square and Casiopea released albums in the 80's and 90's. The menus are so visually stimulating you will have to watch the videos in the background many times before you can remember all the details. But when you're flooring it on the speedway, the game is chock full of a variety of original music that spans from the 70's to the modern era. You might be vibing along to Papa Roach, Junkie XL, and Lenny Kravitz, but your mom & dad could do a race with you and vibe along to Jimmi Hendrix, The Cult, Motley Crue or Judas Priest, all of whom have one of their classic hits to race along to.
While this game has definitely shown it's age in over 2 decades, it's impact at the time of it's release cannot be discounted. It's the best selling Gran Turismo game of all time, selling just a few thousand short of 15 million copies. What Super Mario Bros was to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Gran Turismo 3 was to the PS2 - the Quintessential title.
The second movie in the Disney renaissance of '89-'99, The Rescuers Down Under was an example of a sequel doing just as well as the original movie, but doesn't get a lot of love from Disney. A lot of the original voice actors came back, Including Bob Newhart & Eva Gabor as the anxious hero Bernard and the fearless heroine Bianca, and brought in George C. Scott as McCleach, the poacher who's greed for a rare bird named Marahute, the golden eagle, causes him to kidnap a child named Cody, whom the rescue aid society must help return home. Along with the help of the fun loving brother of Orville, appropriately named Wilbur, voiced by the late & lovable John Candy, the 2 beloved mice are on their way to Australia to do all of this.
There's a lot of love from Disney fans for this movie, so much so that this movie outdoes the original in a lot of ways. While the original is a good Disney movie, the second is just as much fun and keeps the story going.
One of my favorite things about this movie was that it was the Guinea pig for CAPS. The Computer Animation Production System was a mainstay for Disney animation movies for many years and it all began with Wilbur's swan dive off the empire state building accompanied by a fun surf rock soundtrack. While Disney often has used the sweeping shot of the ballroom from Beauty and the Beast in it's promotional content, arguably it's most famous CAPS animation, it all began with that swan dive. Disney kept using CAPS in movies for years after.
Another thing to note is the scene where Wilbur is in the hospital. That scene divides audiences. Some people find the sadistic nature of the mouse doctor hilarious, others found it traumatizing as children. Modern audiences would not likely find it funny, so a heads up if you have young children who are exploring the world of Disney.
Overall, this is an early example of a Disney sequel doing just as well, if not better than it's original counterpart. There aren't many Disney sequels before this one, but it was a great second entry into the Disney renaissance, and worth a view.
There's a lot of love from Disney fans for this movie, so much so that this movie outdoes the original in a lot of ways. While the original is a good Disney movie, the second is just as much fun and keeps the story going.
One of my favorite things about this movie was that it was the Guinea pig for CAPS. The Computer Animation Production System was a mainstay for Disney animation movies for many years and it all began with Wilbur's swan dive off the empire state building accompanied by a fun surf rock soundtrack. While Disney often has used the sweeping shot of the ballroom from Beauty and the Beast in it's promotional content, arguably it's most famous CAPS animation, it all began with that swan dive. Disney kept using CAPS in movies for years after.
Another thing to note is the scene where Wilbur is in the hospital. That scene divides audiences. Some people find the sadistic nature of the mouse doctor hilarious, others found it traumatizing as children. Modern audiences would not likely find it funny, so a heads up if you have young children who are exploring the world of Disney.
Overall, this is an early example of a Disney sequel doing just as well, if not better than it's original counterpart. There aren't many Disney sequels before this one, but it was a great second entry into the Disney renaissance, and worth a view.
As far as the Mario Party series has come since it's debut in 1998, it's no doubt the N64 games were the ones people remember and the later ones slowly began to lose their luster over time. But going back to 2001, the final Mario Party on the N64 was an absolute treasure, and proved the N64 to be one of the most fun party consoles ever made.
In this one, 2 more characters are added to the fun - Waluigi and Daisy. More mini-games are added, and a few are taken away. There's a few new game modes, plenty enough to keep you occupied and plenty to replay just for the heck of it.
My favorite piece of this game is it's OST - Probably the best one. Ichiro Shimakura did an amazing job for this one, blending whimsical & frantic wonderfully.
Hard copies of this one have skyrocketed in value, so the best way to play this one as close to original is on a flashcart, but it wouldn't be too hard to play this in emulation.
In this one, 2 more characters are added to the fun - Waluigi and Daisy. More mini-games are added, and a few are taken away. There's a few new game modes, plenty enough to keep you occupied and plenty to replay just for the heck of it.
My favorite piece of this game is it's OST - Probably the best one. Ichiro Shimakura did an amazing job for this one, blending whimsical & frantic wonderfully.
Hard copies of this one have skyrocketed in value, so the best way to play this one as close to original is on a flashcart, but it wouldn't be too hard to play this in emulation.