SEGA GT 2002 (XBOX)


Is Sega Turismo 2 the best car game?

By WILL BARKER

For too long now, Digital Polyphony has reigned supreme in the customisable racing genre. That's not to say that its Gran Turismo series is crap - it's not.

It just seems strange to this phreak that no other company has jumped on the customisable racing bandwagon ('cept for Tokyo Shotoku Battle).

The Gran Turismo series is basically a license to print money : The entire series has sold roughly 15 million copies. 15,000,000 x the price of a game?

You do the math...

Sega was the first to try and make inroads into Polyphony's lucrative niche market - and it failed. This was mainly because there weren't enough Dreamcasts around to support millions of sales.

Even so, the physics engine was mega floaty, which didn't help, though everything else was in perfect order. The tracks were brilliant, with some really technical sections that wannabe racers (like me) will rant on about for years. The car upgrading sections were sweet, and the cars spanned every maker and visuals were sweet.

But alas, the Dreamcast died a grisly death and so the sole competitor to the GT throne disappeared into uncertainty...

But what's that? It looks like a massive black lump of plastic offal - wait, it's the Xbox!

Wow Entertainment (aka AM2) has finished work on Sega GT 2002 and, to my complete surprise, the physics engine is amazing.

Praise the Lord!!

The intro to SGT2 is almost a carbon-copy ripoff of GT3's, with the funky journey through the innards of the conventional combustion engine. Gotta love that.

To my mind, the most important factor in any racer, regardless of whether it has the added bonus of modding vehicles, are the physics. Physics determine the style of play, and if that style of play is realistic, the gameplay will generally be quite agreeable. But before I get all excited about that, we'll look at what the game offers.

After the intro, gamers will be greeted with the main menu, where you can opt for one of these areas:

Sega GT 2002 - the 'career' mode
Quick Battle - hence the name #1
Chronicle Mode - race oldsmobiles in six-race tourneys
Time Attack - hence the name #2

There's also a replay studio, a save/load menu and the options screen.

First up, the career mode is where you'll probably spend most of your time. In layman's terms, you simply race through a number of tracks against opponents of varying skill in an attempt to become the world champion.

Like Gran Turismo, you start off with a small amount of cash - 13,000 bucks, I believe.

With these monies you can purchase only a handful of cars, most of which suck. But that's half the fun I reckon: Starting off a scum-sucking bottom dweller and working your up through the ranks.

Anyway, in the GT 2002 mode, there are two major sections in the main menu - racing and car management, as the manual eloquently puts it.

Racing is divided up into two categories: official and event races. Official races are the mainstay of the career mode and, in general, you'll complete three races (some have four or five) followed by a license test. Most races you'll win cash, some of them even offer new cars, which is always a nice surprise.

The other category - event race - is often a more lucrative and varied one-off race type. It may be a ¼ mile drag, or a race against all the same cars as your own, a 1970s only race, a race against only front-wheel drivers, or mid-engine mounted cars.

There are fifteen of these and each can be entered as many times as you want: It's a good way of beefing ones car up before tackling the official races.

The car management aspect of the game comprises four items in the career menu: My garage, car shop, parts shop and used parts shop.

You can buy cars from the car shop, parts such as turbochargers, racing suspension, engine tuning and sticky tyres from the parts shop, crappy parts and garage paraphernalia (VCRs, tables, chairs, plants etc) from the used parts shop and you can tinker with car settings and sell your cars in the garage.

Selling cars isn't a case of simply pushing a button and getting 33 per cent of the cars as-new value. Instead, you can only sell one car at a time and you choose the asking price. It may sell quickly - it may take a few race meets time before it's snapped up.

It's pretty cool to see the car for sale sitting outside your garage on the lawn. Another nostalgic element is the way in which you can take photos during the replays and choose one of them to hang on the wall in your garage. Kudos Sega!

With fifteen tracks on offer, for a total of 60 true variants thanks to backwards and mirror combined, SGT2 offers plenty in terms of replayability. The tracks have been designed with an eye towards originality too, with many fast bends lulling you into a false sense of security, before turning ever more sharply featuring prominently.

Combined with one of the best driving models I've ever had the opportunity to play, Sega GT 2002 comes across as very polished. While many may disagree, I actually prefer the physics in SGT2 than GT3: A-spec.

The wheels just feel more firmly planted and you can tell, via rumblings and steering response, when your car is at the edge of its traction. In fact, you can even tell when the left front wheel is starting to lose grip in a front-wheel driver for instance. Those who want a pick up and play a solid racer will at the very least enjoy this, but the perfectionists will revel in it.

One thing that I really thought was a great idea, not seen in Gran Turismo, was the damage meter. Funnily enough, this little baby gets depleted every time you crunch another racer, or a trackside object.

The end result is deducted from your race winnings, meaning that to do well you'll need to take racing lines and master the tracks - no corner sliding in this game, thankyou.

Visually, it's hard to say which the better - this or GT3: A-spec. SGT2 has more eye candy, for sure, and the general acuity and crispness is better, but having put them side-by-side, Sony's racer still holds it's own.

The cars on offer - totaling 125 models from automakers such as Subaru, Peugeot, Lotus, Chevrolet, Honda, Ford and Mercedes Benz - will keep even the most avid petrol heads happy. Each is modeled in meticulous detail and combined with the smoke effects and more than a dozen camera angles, the replays are a sight to behold.

Trackside detail is definitely better in Sega's racer, and the cars do have a higher poly count and smoother, sharper texturing.

Chrome mapping is very detailed and appears to make use of real-time reflections, and even the smaller details, such as sun glare, are masterfully implemented.

Sega GT 2002 wins - but only just. It's much of a muchness, really.

Longterm value is guaranteed, as the number of official races, not to mention tracks and cars, is impressive. There's also the Chronicle mode, which adds another facet to the game by introducing classic cars, such as the Ford Mustang, Mazda RX-3 and Jaguar E-Type.

It's also pretty cool how the game appears in black-and-white at the start of the races as the colour gradually seeps back in after doing a lap or two. Beating this mode unlocks more cars, too.

But the burning question is this: Which is better - GT3 or SGT2?

It's a very close call to be honest, but because I prefer the more realistic physics of Sega's game, I'm going to side with SGT2. Both offer solid racing, massive replayability and of course the all-important car tweaking aspect.

It's inevitable that some will disagree with my verdict, but either way, you're banking on a winner.

ORIGINALITY 80%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 90%
PLAYABILITY 90%
ADDICTION 95%
ENJOYMENT 90%