Sega GT 2002

"Dear Sega - you are forgiven for your Sega GT Dreamcast sins."

The original Sega GT was a trainwreck of a Dreamcast game. The solid graphics and unique ability to (somewhat) build your own car were the lone bright spots in a game marred by boring, uninspired track designs and awful handling cars that controlled like a wobbly shopping cart. Sega's attempt at making a Gran Turismo killer was a bitter failure, and when an Xbox version was announced, I was hopeful, yet cautious that Sega and WOW Entertainment would fix all the issues with the DC original, and create a game worthy of Sega's great name as well as something to make Xbox owners forget about the PS2's Gran Turismo 3.

Whether or not it’s better than Gran Turismo 3 is irrelevant - what is relevant is that Sega GT 2002 is improved many times over the original. The issues with the 1st Sega GT game have been not only fixed, but also enhanced so well that it makes you forget the Dreamcast game even existed. Plus, all the enhancements and additions to the things that actually worked before come together to make a game that is without a doubt the best racing simulation on the Xbox. Sega and WOW definitely have a lot to be proud of. With the rumored online and expansion booster disc possibly seeing the light of day, Sega GT 2002 has the potential to become even greater.

Gameplay

In many ways, Sega GT plays like a slightly watered down version of Gran Turismo. I don't mean this as a bad thing at all - many people find GT3 to be overly technical and too much work when tuning your race cars. Sega GT balances this out by letting you do a ''stock'' enhancement that automatically sets itself up for perfection and adds a bit of realism with the ''overhaul'' system that makes you tune up vital parts to run at max potential.

Of course, I'm overly speaking of the Sega GT 2002 mode itself, since you'll spend most of your time here. The GT mode is rather long, but not exceptionally long. The racing is split between Official Races and Event Races. Official Races is supposed to be the main part, since you race them in order to unlock license tests (though licenses really don't mean much, since you aren't really locked out of Event Races unless you don't have the proper car). Event Races are special events that can require certain cars; such as famous Group B cars of rally racing fame, or the 70's, 80's, and 90's challenges. Gimmicks can be found in Event Races as well, such as drag racing (Fast and The Furious style) and a psuedo-endurance race that puts you up against 4 different cars, within losing one race costs you all the money you earned in any prior races in the event. There's also an intensely challenging rally race - which unfortunately is hosted on the most poorly designed track in the game; it almost feels tacked on.

As you might expect, winning races not only unlocks money to spend on upgrading your car (or just overhauling a maxed out one), but you can unlock a few cars here and there as well. All the cars you unlock are not available for purchase ever, so you'll have to decide if one is worth keeping or not. Also, winning races and passing license tests unlocks new parts to buy. For instance, you can unlock a Turbine Stage 3 to make your turbo-engined car even faster. Most of these are random and require certain events to unlock, so try different things. It really doesn't matter anyway, since a fully-tuned Ford GT/Concept can smoke everything without the special parts.

There are over 100 cars to buy or unlock in Sega GT 2002, spanning all sorts of eras. Instead of offering slow and useless cars that are worthless after a few races, the game gives you plenty of speedsters to unlock and many different forms of them. For instance, there are about 7 different forms of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and a half-dozen or so Nissan Skylines. Since many of the cars are needed for the ''era'' races, having more than one is a definite advantage.

Besides that solid gameplay mode, Sega GT 2002 also features the very cool Chronicle mode. Chronicle lets you take old, famous cars and place them in races of other cars of all the major eras, from the late 70's post oil crisis rides to the speedsters of the 21st century. Placing in the top 3 will give you points, which in turn let you purchase upgrades to the cars to face tougher competition. Winning the race gives you the most points - though you can only buy one upgrade in between each race, so you'll be adding a bit at a time until you complete it - which is definitely not a small task. Winning the mode with each of the initial selectable cars unlocks new cars, which can be used in the bare-bones Quick Battle.

It's not a small task because the AI in Sega GT 2002 is some of the best ever created, period. I enjoyed Gran Turismo 3 infinitely, but the computer was extremely uninspired, giving not much of a challenge and acting, well, computerish. Too much artificial and not enough intelligence. Sega GT 2002 is a completely different story. The game is smart, and requires some basic ''defensive'' driving to maintain a close lead. Winning requires being able to make your car ''wider'' by taking up more of the track, to block off opponents, who will back of slightly after you block them. Of course, you can bump them around and they'll do the same backing off, as real racers tend to do. However, do too much bumping and your damage meter will go down and your earnings will be much less. That's right, Sega GT 2002 features damage. But not quite. Instead of actual physical damage, there's a meter that depletes as you bump into things and other cars. If you manage to take zero bumps, you get the race earnings and another half of that - but the lower the meter goes, the more is taken away to fix and repair your ride. This is only in the actual GT 2002 mode, but it gives more strategy that offsets the strategy of tuning being absent here. Unfortunately, with the exception of the oval racetrack, most of the time you'll be unable to escape unscathed, because the computer will knock you around a bit when moving up the race, since you always start in last (no qualifying). It's probably best to just forget the money and go for the win by being aggressive -using finesse will just cause you to lose, because the other cars WILL be aggressive.

Most importantly here, the cars control wonderfully. There's some actual weight to them this time, and they feel very solid and part of the track instead of hovering around. The enhancements are even noticeable, so when you add in better brakes, you can sense the difference immediately (just as you can after you overhaul...it's like night and day, really). Some cars are a little looser feeling than others, but it's only because of the power under the hood.

Only one nag here - where did the ''create-a-car'' mode go? Sure it was basic and really nothing spectacular, but it was something that could be made into a really cool addition, especially with the Xbox hard drive and Xbox Live. Being able to create and then trade/race your cars online would have been a really fun addition. Perhaps on a booster disc?

Graphics

As you would expect, Sega GT 2002's visuals are outstanding, and worthy of the mighty Xbox. The car designs are magnificent - highly detailed to the point that you can read off the car name and logos all over it. Textures and bump-mapping can be seen all over the tracks, creating a very realistic feel to them. Animated crowds all along the race tracks are well done and very much so seem to belong, and not ''faked'' in.

The track designs, once the bane of the original Sega GT, are this time very inspired and exciting. With the exception of the oval track, all the tracks and the different variations of them (mirrored, reversed, etc) are full of challenges and insane turns, as well as a few places to get the speed way up. The only negative aspect here is the lack of courses - the half-dozen or so in the game are excellent (except for the poor rally racing track), but there just aren’t enough of them to give total variety. Turismo can claim about 20 original, tough tracks, but Sega GT 2002 lags behind here. Again, hopefully any expansion disc that's rumored will unlock more tracks to test out your cars on.

GT 2002 runs at 60 frames per second at all times - and while the blur effect that's in place is grating on the eyes, the game makes up for it in sheer speed. Because this game is fast. Very fast. Get behind one of the faster cars in the game and hold on, because sometimes they manage to get you off in dreamland and you have to quick stop and turn around a rough corner. But when you have open straightaways to navigate, the sense of speed is something only a Moto GP or Project Gotham Racing can deliver on the Xbox console.

Sound

Sega created a first for them here - use of the custom soundtrack. Prior to this game, Sega was iffy about letting people use their own soundtracks - thankfully in this case it came through. While the soundtrack has to be manually turned on before each boot-up of the game (it doesn't save the preference it seems, nor does it work in Chronicle Mode), it's not difficult and you'll want to do it anyway, because the default music is not so hot. Of course, in the menu screens you can't avoid it - so prepare for some boring lounge music and some low-level soft rock in others. In the races, the music is more tolerable with a more racing feel, but it's drowned out by the engines.

Like Gran Turismo, the engines of the cars are reproduced almost perfectly. Some are a little annoying, but most are done well and are really cool to hear. The screeching of tires is fun as well, and yet another good effect of the game. There's not much audio besides this though, unless you count the recycling of the old Sega GT chime when you select an option. What's up with that?

Overall

As Sega's premier racing simulation, Sega GT 2002 has to be good. And it is. It's not perfect, but it's still a blast, and will give plenty of Xbox owners something to play if they're GT fans, but don't own a PlayStation 2. If anything, Sega GT 2002 is great in just one way - it makes the existence of the Sega GT Dreamcast game a completely forgotten memory.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/03, Updated 01/23/03