The Sega GT Review Page
Genre: Racing.
My recommended Dreamcast peripherals: Maybe the steering wheel.
About 11 years ago, (in 2004,) I had a rather blunt and straight-to-the-point review of Sega GT here on my site. Well, I’ve now been able to take another look at it, to see if I still agree with what I once said.
As far as the graphics are concerned, this is one of the better looking Dreamcast racing games, and with a rock steady frame rate, there is no jerkiness or slow down to tick you off. The road textures are great, as are most of the others in the scenery, although some of the signs look a bit crusty and you can tell they’re certainly using texture compression. There’s a good deal of background detail, which makes you wonder why Daytona USA 2001 was missing so many little bits here and there. Especially the roller-coaster for National Park Speedway. If you like lens flares, Sega GT delivers in boat loads. Just about every light there is has a flarey effect coming off it, plus you also get some very noticeable light streaks too. You get 3 racing views, the usual, up and above, behind the car spot, a bit lower and behind the car, and the in-front sort of view, which gives you a rear vision mirror as well.
The cars look recognisable, and are of a pretty good quality, detail wise. The reflections on them leave a bit to be desired though, with the likes of Sega Rally 2 beating this hands down.
All the tracks appear to be made up for the game, which is good, because some of these overused real life ones get terribly dull after a while. Ferrari F355 Challenge & Le Mans 24 Hours Ultimate Endurance Challenge both seemed to have similar tracks in there, plus I think TOCA Touring Car Championship (on the PC) had one or 2 from the previously mentioned titles as well.
Like Project Gotham Racing 2, you can tackle a variety of challenges until you work your way up to better cars to attempt harder races. So if you can’t do one race, there’s usually something else to try out in the mean time.
When you start, you only have $10 000 to spend, so you’re limited to buying cars which are 2nd hand pretty much. After winning some races, you acquire more money and can upgrade your car, or buy something new.
The low power cars are generally the easiest to handle, where as the insanely powered ones are next to impossible. It makes me wonder if this game would be a lot better with a steering wheel. But seeing as I have serious doubts about getting one of them, considering how little use my Saturn one got, I can’t really comment on how Sega GT would benefit.
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Night Ground
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Sky Peak Hill
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Great Rock Road
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Snowy Mountain
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Night Section A
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Sprint Zone |
Now, the playability! Well, it’s pretty much a chore with the control pad at least. The cars are very unpredictable, and courses like Night Section A with its sharp turns are a real turn off. You’d rather not have to race there if you could. A lot of the cars’ brakes feel as though they’re underpowered for the vehicle they’re on, and by the time you’ve reacted to slow down, the car just doesn’t have enough oomph to slow up before you hit the wall. It makes a non-driver like me wonder if real cars are this bad. Over-steering, under-steering; sometimes it’s guess work, wondering what the car will do, and you often end up twiddling the d-pad trying to get a feel for things, even on straights. Hitting other vehicles can be a bit of a gamble also. Sometimes they’ll wipe you out, and @ other times, they’ll nudge you along. At least you don’t come to a grinding halt like in Virtua Racing.
On comparison with some other driving games, it feels like Sega GT’s response time is delayed from what you’re doing with the control pad, like you were pressing the d-pad through jelly or something. You turn the wheel, and the car takes a moment to respond to it actually happening. It doesn’t have that sharp, responsive feeling.
Graphics: There’s little to fault here, except some of the signs, which look a bit crusty, and probably could’ve benefitted from textures at 4 × the size, although with the Dreamcast’s VRAM, this may not have been possible. All in all, it looks pretty impressive, and would no doubt be one of the best looking Dreamcast racing games. 94%
Animation: The frame rate is top notch. On 60 Hz or 50 Hz, there is no noticeable slow down. So it’s in the Daytona USA 2001 league for smoothness. There are some subtle background animations here and there, such as wind powered generators & “chasing” lights. 95%
Sound: The music is nothing you’ll be humming in your head all day, that’s for sure. Pretty forgettable stuff really. One of the tunes sounds a bit like one in Sega Rally Revo, and another one seems familiar from somewhere too. Decent engine noises I suppose and skids. When cars hit together, it sounds a bit fake. 76%
Playability: Pretty poor with the regular control pad. Dunno about a steering wheel. Just about every other Dreamcast racing game I have plays so much better than this. Even tough as mutton Ferrari F355 Challenge is better. 34%
Lastability: My first play in probably 10 or 11 years. So, mmm, not too good. If you like how it handles, you’ll enjoy it more. As for me, I only came back out of curiosity. There is a lot in there to do though, in terms of challenges. 20%
Overall: If only it played as good as it looked. It feels like one of those instances where they spent all the time getting it looking nice, and then forgot about the rest. If I could play it with a wheel, maybe I might change some of the ratings, and base the view more around that, but with the control pad, I’d warn you to think twice before picking this up at eBay or wherever. 40%
