Sega GT Online

Xbox Live users and car customizing nuts alike will soon be taking their speed demons online with Sega's Sega GT Online. Here's our hands-on preview with new media.

	Version Xbox	Developer WOW Entertainment	Publisher SEGA	Genre Racing

By Joseph Jackson

The Gran Turismo series exploded onto the gaming scene during the PSOne era and till this day has managed to capture an enormous audience, making them some of the most popular console sim-driving games ever made. Providing realistic driving experiences with superbly modeled cars and highly praised vehicle physics, the series has provided car enthusiasts/nuts with an interactive version of their automotive dream come true by providing them with the freedom to tweak and upgrade the parts of their cars up in a variety of ways before burning rubber over the asphalt.

Sega's coin-op racers have also garnered quite a following and have ruled arcades for a long time by providing awesome, fast paced, adrenaline pumping racing experiences! Don't believe us? Go play Daytona USA 2!

Anyways, since Sega had a secure hold on the arcade racing crown they moved over to the console arena, and in answer to Polyphony Digital's much praised Gran Turismo series Sega GT was created to provide gamers with an alternative driving experience, and at the same time make a bid for the console sim-driving crown. The Sega Dreamcast gave birth to the original Sega GT, and in terms of gameplay was the closest any game came to competing with the Gran Turismo series.

After a solid first start and the unfortunate retirement of the Dreamcast, Sega GT eventually moved onto greener pastures on the Xbox and just hasn't been able to keep pace. Now with Sega GT Online marks the third outing of Sega's sim-driving franchise complete with online play features and updated graphics. Set to hit store shelves this Fall, Sega GT will be racing to the starting line before Gran Turismo 4, but even with the head start it'll be quite a tight race with Sega GT Online as the underdog, let's just hope that giving away all those copies of Sega GT 2002 with each Xbox actually made a difference.

When finally released this fall, Sega GT Online will be bringing all the thrills of this realistic driving series to the Xbox's online world, allowing up to six players to test their skills and pit their turbo revving, fully customized cars against each other in no holds barred competition. Players will be able to trade parts and cars and race their custom cars online in multiple game modes as well as being able to engage in real-time voice chat, trash talking or consoling their sobbing opponents from around the country after beating them or swiping their wheels from them.

More than 40 new cars will make their way into Sega GT Online, ranging from the latest rockets from Japan to the muscle cars of the 70s to complete the full roster of 160 vehicles, including the classic cars of Sega GT 2002. Players will also be able to transfer their Sega GT 2002 save data over and leave their competition behind in a smokescreen with their highly customized cars.

Other aspects of gameplay will have players trying to qualify for licenses, and competing in a series of highly competitive races to earn money in order to enhance their rides or buy newer, more powerful cars. Along with the meaty online mode is an equally beefy offline mode that will challenge you to unlock new cars, parts, and tracks by completing multiple tasks.

Fine-tuning is the name of the game here and players will be able to alter almost every aspect of their vehicles before showing them off in the races.

With both the single player and online modes of the game providing plenty of new tracks, missions, weather effects, and special time-triggered events this time around, Sega GT Online should provide fans with all the sim action they can handle and then some.

We took the game for a spin around the track in a race against other opponents via the network mode and while others were mighty pleased with the game, I honestly can't say that I was. The game played quite smooth but the majority of the race was spent fiddling around with the buttons trying to figure out why the car was going so bloody slow, then looking up at the opponent's screen to see that he to was also going at turtle-neck speeds. Such is the problem I've had with every version of Gran Turismo and Sega GT. The sense of speed and the slippery sim style control schemes just weren't my cup of tea. I'm all for realism in some games but have grown quite accustomed to the exaggerated sense of speed and the tight road-gripping controls of arcade style racers.

Driving simulators like Sega GT and Gran Turismo are based on the upgrade policy of fine-tuning your vehicles to max specs to get optimum performance out of them and even though I have all the time in the world, I don't really want to spend any of it customizing my vehicles just so they can finally go past 25 MPH. But that's not to say that I think they're bad games by any means, in fact they're excellent games for their respective audiences, but give me a Daytona USA 2 or Ridge Racer V any day of the week!

The graphics of Sega GT Online looked pretty good based on the courses we've seen so far, sporting some highly detailed environments and beautiful skylines. Some well modeled and detailed vehicles with solid physics should also provide fans with some visual stimuli after taking a gander at this game. The frame rate remained silky smooth throughout the races and the lighting effects were well implemented enough to help highlight the beauty of some of the cars and courses.

Although likely due to the screen we used, and not too noticeable, the vehicles seemed to contain some jagged edges, and few of the cars could use a few extra polygons and gloss to help them stand out. Even though great to look at, the course we drove through wasn't really much to shout at in terms of activity, just a stagnant unexciting racing environment with static crowds and no pedestrians to try and hit. But with several months left before the game's release, we're hopeful that the visual issues will be dealt with.

Overall, Sega GT Online was as fun as sim driving games can be, but wasn't nearly as fun as a true arcade style racer, and could've been if Sega decided to ditch the whole "challenge Gran Turismo" deal and focus on the type of racing games that secured them the thrown of King of Racers.

Fans of driving Sims certainly have something to look forward to with the release of Sega GT Online this fall, while fans of straight up arcade style racing games can look forward to Namco's multi-platform offering later this year. We'll keep you posted - and see you at the races.