Daytona Network Racing Preview

Creating groundbreaking, trend-setting games has always been a hallmark of Sega's respected development teams. Indeed, the mere mention of classic Sega series like Virtua Fighter, Sonic, Shinobi, and Streets of Rage - among countless others - engenders something near a blissful delirium in die-hard fans, and Sega certainly recognizes the benefits of bringing as many of these established franchises to the Dreamcast as possible. Such is the case with Daytona, Sega's most popular racing series, and the news of the upcoming release of Daytona Online has stirred up a sizable reaction in Sega's vocal fan base. As the name indicates, Daytona will finally arrive on the DC, packed with massive online potential, courtesy of Sega and Amusement Vision.

It should be made clear up front that Daytona Online isn't so much a sequel as it is a 128-bit revision of the original Daytona USA that you can play with anyone who has an Internet-enabled DC. The original Daytona USA was a hugely popular arcade-style stock car racer that pitted 20 different cars against one another on three tracks. Speed, handling, and the courses themselves were exaggerated far beyond reality, but gamers nonetheless reveled in the high-speed action with an emphasis on fun. Though Daytona was ported to the Saturn and PC, it's never had the potential to receive the totally faithful port it has now, thanks to the power of the Dreamcast.

You can expect Daytona Online to remain faithful to the established Daytona gameplay. Handling and standard options should remain the same, though Daytona's DC face-lift will be dramatic in most other aspects. Daytona USA's original tracks will likely be supplemented with some of Daytona 2's tracks, as well as all-new tracks for the DC. Also, you can expect added customization options to be available to separate your car from a very crowded online pack. You can choose from a wide variety of car models, textures, and colors, as well as modify handling aspects like grip, acceleration, and max speed to your liking. While the focus will likely be on the Internet end of things, Amusement Vision won't neglect the single-player aspects of Daytona - these offline features, however, have yet to be detailed at any length.

Obviously, the Dreamcast's graphical capabilities will be a great improvement over the old Model 2 board that's served as the series' workhorse. While no one will be comparing Daytona Online with Gran Turismo 3, such a comparison isn't really fair - Daytona's visuals are more concerned with rendering 40 cars on a track at the same time while keeping frame rates at a steady 60fps. From all indications, it looks like Amusement Vision is having little trouble in this regard - the game moves smoothly, looks good, and most importantly, recaptures the feel and excitement the Daytona series has always had in spades.

What's up in the air, however, is how Sega intends to manage 40 different cars and online accounts while keeping everything lag free. Amusement Vision claims that Daytona Online will allow as many as 40 individual racers to log on from 40 unique DCs at one time - making this (next to Phantasy Star Online) the most ambitious online project SegaNet and the Dreamcast have attempted yet. Though games like NBA 2K1 and Quake III have proven the DC and SegaNet are up to handling small online matchups, it remains to be seen whether or not the network is ready for Amusement Vision's lofty goals.

Daytona's arrival on the Dreamcast, in and of itself, probably isn't that surprising - the series is one of Sega's most popular, making a DC port almost inevitable. Its additions, however - like revamped graphics and a grandiose online strategy - are what really have the potential to separate this game from the rest of the pack. Don't be surprised if Daytona Online becomes one of Sega's biggest releases when it arrives sometime in the first quarter of 2001.