Sports Car GT

Reviews / previews

Review: Sports Car GT

Papyrus' Grand Prix Legends is, well, legendary for it's physics model. And while Sports Car GT doesn't have its dogged fidelity, it does a terrific job of faking the intangibles that make it feel like you're at the wheel of a car. In the sense that Sports Car GT's physics model makes it more fun, more playable, and more "alive," it's very much like GPL. Although collisions are a bit too forgiving-the program seems to divide your speed in half to calculate the effects--everything else feels great: the sway of your suspension, the dynamics of over- and understeering, the heft of shifting weight during a turn, and the traction of various surfaces. Any racing game worth its salt should give you enough feedback to let you drive at the threshold of control and Sports Car GT is one of the genre's better efforts in this regard.

By contrast, the AI racers are somewhat disappointing. Although you can see them laboring (and sometimes flailing) with the same physics as your car, they brake too early and they hug the line like slot-car racers. If you've got the horsepower, it's never a challenge to pass these grannies. They are, however, aggressive without being reckless, and they'll make mistakes rather than driving with CPU-guided precision.

Sports Car GT's career mode is very much like the excellent quasi-RPG aspects of the Playstation's Gran Turismo, in which you buy your car and then upgrade it component by component.

But Gran Turismo started among the commonplace, allowing you to race in and against everyday vehicles, the Volvos and Hondas you see on the freeway, before moving on to the truly rare birds. Sports Car GT doesn't offer this early smack of familiarity, but it does offer that same sense of building up and customizing a collection of bitchin' cars in your garage. Anyone who's ever so much as bought a license plate bracket for their car will appreciate Sport Car GT's affection for that favorite pastime of American consumers: the shiny new car.

There's a nicely streamlined upgrade system (as opposed to Gran Turismo's murky guessing game) that gradually opens new garage settings as you buy better components. Although these settings aren't as detailed as some of Papyrus' games (engineering degree required), they're an important part of winning on certain tracks. Unfortunately for harder core racers, Sports Car GT doesn't provide much in the way of tools to evaluate different settings: A telemetry routine or specific feedback on tire wear or temperature isn't provided. And much to the chagrin of serious drivers wanting to try endurance races, there's no save option when you hit the pit.

The graphics are serviceable and bright, but the cars themselves have odd shimmering seams between polygons. The night races feature some impressive light sourcing and the rainy streets show off some fancy reflective surfaces. The absence of damage effects on vehicles is disappointing, but I suspect this is a licensing issue. (Porsche and BMW probably don't want their vehicles depicted as battered, smoking hulks.)

Although it's not as accessible as Gran Turismo and not as deep as Grand Prix Legends, Sports Car GT is good enough to sit for a long time on the hard drive of anyone who feels the need for speed but doesn't want to be treated like an arcade gamer.-- Tom Chick / GamePro