Grand Prix 3 Official Add On - PC Games

Once installed, you are brought all the treats of the 2000 season--better than the 98 season which shipped with the original game, but still sadly out of date. The updated car sets are impressive, with the yellow Minardi's, Orange Arrows and new Jaguar team the most notable additions. You also get access to a full 17-race season, with Argentina gone, to be replaced by the famous Brickyard circuit at Indianapolis and the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

Cosmetic updates have been applied to the menus and additional video footage is included. A Grand Prix encyclopaedia has some interesting facts included, but is nothing too exciting. There is a new race mode called "Quicklaps" which lets you Hotseat compete for flying lap times.

More significant amongst the additions is the improved sound. All car engines can now be heard, rather than just your own and with the addition of 3-D sound, this dramatically increases your immersion in the cockpit. Pit lane chatter has also been implemented, but this is quite limited and repetitive. A competent replay system has finally been added, which you can scale according to hard drive space. The physics have been tweaked, though regular racers will find the differences minimal.

Many of the additions to the game can be matched, or even surpassed by the unofficial downloads on many of the online communities that have sprung up in support of this game. However, one sticking point has always been to get the season to go beyond the 16 races of 98, to the 17 races of more recent years. By providing this alone, the 2000 season add-on is worth the expense for all the hard-core fans of the series.--Jason Weston