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Sega GT Preview
Noel Brady
00/12/0000
When you've got this much talent in the development team how can it possibly fail.
Sega GT has celebrated its auspicious Japanese release date a couple of days prior to my preview report. And while commendations have been literally flooding the gaming community; mixed reactions have emerged to the surface regarding its gallant premeditated assaults on the "King of the Racing Genre", Polyphony Digital's development masterpiece, Gran Turismo. Is Gran Turismo about to be dethroned by the Dreamcast's own version of the definitive realistic racing simulation?
First off, in order to answer that question its best to look at the facts. Pre-release; press releases regarding SGT seemed promising to say the leat and provided a wealth of much needed, opportunistic publicity. Development reins where placed under the firm creative control of the muti-talented duo of design visionaries Takeshi Nimura (renowned for his phenomenal achievements in creating the revolutionary NiGHTS on the ill-fated Sega Saturn) and Hideshi Tatsuno. The announcement of both these creators being posted to the SegaGT project promised dedication of the highest degree and some much required, new creative perspectives into Sega's past repetitious and subsequently obscured outlooks of the racing genre.
While Sega has always remained dominant force in the arcades with "former-queue regulars" Daytona USA and Sega Rally, to the more recent success stories like the sequel to the aforementioned Sega Rally and AM2's highly revered, Ferrari F355; they're sheer propensity for brilliance converted incomprehensibly into sheer inconsistency somewhere along the line between "arcade-to-home" conversions. Considered to some as similar in style to Ferrari F355,the question now is, is Sega GT the broken link in this chain of inconsistency, what with the advent of the 128-Bit Dreamcast?......
Going head-to-head against Sony's Gran Turismo franchise to many, including myself, while a worthy goal to achieve, is a one-way track to DeadEnd's Ville unless you've got the experience, the fame, the game designing technical forte and of course the advertising ingenuity to surpass the nigh-insurmountable success of Polyphony Digital's GT empire. And Sega, is one company of only a select few to be able to accomplish this and have the resources to back up such a daring endeavour.
Upon first inspection, the thing which hits you (apart from "Homolo-what?!") is the two dominant and strangely familiar letters, "GT", which intentionally or not, instantly refers your mind to the delights of Gran Turismo and GT2. Either way, this show's Sega's clever marketing ploys never the less. And to the ill-informed casual gamers, quite righteously be mistaken for some godlike 128-bit conversion of GT. The reason for this, is that primarily, Sega HAS indeed on close inspection created a propitious title for hardcore racing fans and in effect also created a worthy challenge to Gran Turismo's relative unmitigated dominance of the genre market.
Sega GT attempts to simulate a realistic intrepretation of the TRUE driving experience and propel itself beyond the standards attained by Gran Turismo. SGT includes a most prestigious in-game catalogue of a nigh-200 individual vehicles to buy and to burn some rubber. 9 manufactures have signed contracts to license these automobiles, which will be exact replicas of each manufacturers own indigenous car designs and specifications. The manufacturers who have signed up are Suzuki, Honda, Isuzu, Daihatsu, Nissan, Mazda, Toyota, Subaru, and Mitsubishi Motors but as of yet these are only the Japanese list of in-game manufacturers and more may be added to SGT's already awesome line-up upon its Western Release. To date Sega Of America has yet to comment on any possibilities.
After working cooperatively with the All-Japan GT Committee during development, Sega achieved a plethora of realistic vehicle information to insert into the game's instruction manual pertaining to each individual car allocated to each individual manufacturer section; displaying the Name of the vehicle, Type, Class, Engine Capacity, Engine and Drive Train, Type of Engine, Max. HorsePower@RPM and Max. Torque@RPM. A wonderfully computer-generated, modelled photo accompanies each spec. details to appeal to the graphicall inclined among gamers.
While many of you may argue that Sega is inexperienced in the realistic racing simulation genre, the above seems to convey quite the contrary and "so what if they are inexperienced" you may declare? Sega obviously ARE NOT going to lay down and submit to the high-quality of work being displayed by the competition. They're gonna make the best goddamn stab at making THE best Racing Sim there ever was!!! And no matter how much you love or hate Sega for their misguided recent history, you have to commend Sega for their diligence on this title.
So getting down, to the actual in-game aspects; firstly your mind will be totally obliterated by the graphical onslaught that ensues from the word "Go". Without a semblance of doubt, SGT wins hands down in terms of graphical performance. Crisp, smooth and so-ever fast, without any hints of slowdown. And advanced techniques offering jaw-dropping, vivid, perceptive views of distance and overall depth, make pop-upa thing of the past in Single-Player Mode. Meanwhile, Multi-Player Mode suffers from patches of the increasingly unpopular (for gamers) fogging technique.
The wide mutitude of the DC's consortium of colours will enable SGT to mesmerise you without fail, with their bright, luscious and delectable deliverance. The unique and definitive Dreamcast light-sourcing techniques adds a healthy dose of awe-inspiring realism involving both residual lens flare from headlights and streetlamps to visually blissful motion blur. The only disparaging remark about SGT's graphical finesse is that there have been reports that the accuracy of detail is too refined and the in-game motion blur has been kept to a minimum. The result of this creates a rather rigid pace to the overall movement of the cars, surrounding lanscapes and environments.
Yet I assure you, that this is a minor trviality and Sega GT is the most graphically superior racer to hit the games market to date, outshining the most recent installment of Gran Turismo and making it seem visually primitive by comparison. But naturally this should be the case considering the 128-BIT DC's nigh-17 million pallette of colours and high-performance polygon rendering capabilities.
Sega have also introduced highly-sensitive in-game motion detection which provides a simply breath-taking gameplaying atmosphere. The advanced motion detection enables for techniques such as recreating the effects of your auto-racer to respond realistically when driving over varying in-game surface gradients, ranging from gravel, to tarmac, to dirt, snow and mud tracks. The design team should be proud of their pin-point precision of recreating realistic car physics, which delivers accurate reactions to the absolute slew of adverse conditions in SGT which assuredly provide ample variation, for a healthy gameplay longevity.
The gameplay controls are thoroughly precise too and yet in this respect, suffer from over-sensitiveness and upon initial driving attempts, especially for newcomers to the racing simulation genre, manoeuvring your vehicle will present a daunting task. You will inevitably find braking and steering veritable art forms to be mastered but once you have become accustomed to the sensitive analog controls you'll have a feeling of total reverance and admiration for the overall realism of SGT's driving experience.
Indicative of Gran Turismo's layout, are the recognisable (and much despised)..... LICENSE TESTS!!!!
YAHOO!!!....*coughs*.... Similar to GT's license tests, SGT's license examinations are extrememly difficult and in this respect provide a worthy challenge. Before you even qualify for tournament races, each individual test must be accomplished, beginning with the E-class License examinations of 1000cc, with promotional opportunities available to advance and participate in the B-class, A-class, and then finally the SA-class, the culmination of all your driving training and initiative to date. In order to unlock all of the 200 licensed vehicles in the game the SA-class MUST be accomplished. Acquiring each of these licenses is no easy task either!!!!
When you begin Sega GT, you start off with a relatively meagre cash sum which only enables you to purchase the most ramshackle hub of machinery in the manufacturers' garages. Bearly able to keep up with the competitors, you must conserve your skill and wit for the many trials and tribulations ahead, as SGT will indubitably test your driving metal.
SGT's track and landscape designs are incredible and include some wonderful backdrops and miles of breathtaking scenery, ranging from magnificent antiquated English villages, to snow-capped mountain terrains. To casual gamers of the racing simulation genre, the various courses will seem fantastically designed and opinions will be regarded as indifferent in comparison to those of the well-trained eyes of hardcore racing game fanatics.
To hardcore fans of the genre, the track layout can seem, at times, a tad unprofessional compared to Polyphony's attempts. While the vehicle physics are spot-on, the track physics on the other hand are slightly off-balanced. Yet, i emphasise "slightly" and in know way, hinders SGT's primary visual and gameplaying impact. And not to be outdone, SGT also includes a superb Tuning Mode, for fine tuning and recalibrating a variety of vehicle specifications from suspension, engine, drive train, muffler, supercharger, brake mechanics and weight reduction settings.
Soundwise; SGT is average in that respect and includes the traditional rock soundtracks to get that adrenalin pumping. The car engines are ultra-realistic and are THE best on any racing title, with authentically-satisfying engine, tire-on-surface and environmental sound effects.
Sega GT: Sega's answer t
