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NASCAR: SimRacing

Score: 88%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: EA Games
Developer: Tiburon
Media: CD/2
Players: 1 - 43 (Online)
Genre: Sports (Racing)/ Simulation/ Online

Graphics & Sound:

When you think of gaming clans, the last thing to pop in your mind is NASCAR. While the minds of online gamers usually wander more towards FPS or MMOs, there is a core group of gamers who get together, not to frag their friends, but to race them. For years, Papyrus Racing Games provided what many considered the greatest NASCAR sims on the market. However, when EA nabbed the rights to NASCAR, fans were left with nowhere to turn. This is where NASCAR: SimRacing comes in. If you’re one of the aforementioned fans, or just a NASCAR fan who is looking for more of a simulation than EA’s console offerings, NASCAR: SimRacing is for you – making reading the rest of this review kind of pointless.

Given EA’s history of great looking sports titles, NASCAR: SimRacing’s visuals do not disappoint. Cars are modeled accurately and include all of the major sponsors and markings you’d expect to see on the cars. Even when going at top speed, it’s very easy to identify which cars are around you and, more importantly, in front of you. Once you’ve stopped gazing at the other cars, you’re sure to notice the game’s spectacular lighting engine. Although you’ll need a pretty good rig to truly get the full effect (although the game does scale to give you the best visuals, regardless of your PC’s specs), the shadows are really something to see. Don’t spend too much time staring at the shadows though. Otherwise you might end up hitting a wall or another car. Then again, crashes are pretty cool as well, so it might be worth the distraction.

Engine sounds are loud and lively, making you feel like you’re really driving a powerful car rather than a go-kart. Tire squeals and scraping (from hitting walls or other cars) seal the deal. Announcers, spotters, and crew chiefs are informative and usually have a lot to say. All three can get a little repetitive and annoying at times, but that’s something every sports gamer has had to learn to cope with.


Gameplay:

NASCAR: SimRacing hits the track with one goal in mind: win over the NASCAR fans who are still clutching onto their copies of Papyrus’ last NASCAR game with little hope of letting go (trust me folks, I know some of these guys personally). And, in that respect, SimRacing delivers nearly everything a hardcore NASCAR fan could want: real-life drivers, paint schemes, and real tracks. However, this NASCAR game shouldn’t be confused with EA’s console offerings since with all the glitz and glamour comes a racer that is anything but arcade.

NASCAR: SimRacing delivers on its promise of sim-style action that is true to what the game’s target audience wants. While the game may be too “real” for some fans, the hardcore ones will eat it up. Like other sports games, NASCAR: SimRacing offers a variety of play modes that should appeal to nearly every racing fan.

The core single-player mode is Career, which takes a more low-key approach than other NASCAR games. Career mode is all about trying to manage a team and take it to the top – which translates into a lot of decision making. You have to decide on where you want to compete, such as the Nextel Series or Craftsman Truck Series, and what equipment and crews you compete with. This aspect isn’t as fully-developed as it could have been, and usually boils down to just waiting around for R&D to get done with researching whatever you’ve dumped funds into.

You also have to sign sponsors and keep them happy (via your performance), otherwise they’ll pull support. These elements present one of Career mode’s more interesting dynamics because in order to do really well in a race, you have to keep up in your R&D. But in order to do that, you have to keep sponsors happy. The situation isn’t as dire as it sounds since sponsor money isn’t hard to obtain. There is, however, some inconsistency in the mechanic that presents some problems. Sponsors are, at times, too picky, and even if you’ve just won three races in a row, will turn on you if you have poor showings in your next three races.

For the most part, Career mode simply feels like something to do while not online, and isn’t all that engaging. It’s the 43-player multiplayer where the game’s real fun can be found.

Online performance is really good and goes beyond just racing to win. For starters, you can use a headset and communicate with other drivers – making both friends and enemies along the way. If you want, you can even join leagues and build up little drafting strategies with people. My only disappointment was that the servers were pretty empty when I played. But hopefully the word will get out and more of the hardcore fans will assimilate.


Difficulty:

What makes NASCAR: SimRacing difficult isn’t the hard-nosed sim-styling or the other racers you meet online; it’s the lack of instructions. The manual is very lightweight and seems to assume that you already know what’s going on. To a point, I can see where EA is coming from. The game is aimed at a very specific crowd that already has its head in the game. What this concept leaves out are the newcomers who are interested but don’t know everything. Once you start racing, you begin to pick up on what’s going on via your spotter and crew chief. But for the most part, you’re left to learn things on your own.

Game Mechanics:

Control is another area that could possibly lead to some difficulty. The default setup uses the arrow keys, which is really no way to drive a car – at least not successfully. If you really want to have any success, clear off some desk space and invest in a steering wheel controller.

NASCAR: SimRacing features 25 real tracks to race on, but don’t think that just because you’ve seen one oval you’ve seen them all. Each track has its own unique feel, complete with flaws and variations. Racing on each track requires a change in approach, something that may come as a bit of a challenge to strictly arcade racers or those who are more used to EA’s console NASCAR games. A large part of the different feel is because of the physics engine behind the whole show. There’s still a little leeway in car handling for the sake of making the game fun, so it’s not the world’s most realistic simulator, but you still get a more realistic feel than you would in other racing games. When a car hits another at 130 mph, it looks more like a high-speed collision than a car simply glancing off another like a bumper car. Driver aids are available for newcomers, and help them to get acclimated to the game’s feel.

Car tuning also plays a major role in the game. Newbies can tinker with three “basic” adjustments in order to get their cars track ready. However, if you really want to win, you need to use the more advanced options, which is something the gear heads will really enjoy. NASCAR: SimRacing offers a garage full of equipment to help get your car ready for races. You can tune your car in nearly every way possible, and also have access to telemetry information, which give you read outs as to how the car will more than likely perform under race conditions.

If you didn’t take the hint in the first paragraph, let me say it again – NASCAR fans will love this game. Sure, a few members of the game’s target audience are still fostering ill-will towards EA for essentially “killing” the Papyrus game, but NASCAR: SimRacing makes up for that and is what fans have been waiting for. The game still needs a little tweaking, especially in the single-player areas and lack of information. But it’s still a strong offering that can hopefully only get stronger over time.


-Starscream, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ricky Tucker

Minimum System Requirements:



Windows XP/Me/2000/98 SE, 1GHz or Faster CPU, 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce 2 (or greater) or ATI Radeon 7500 (or greater) video card, 256 MB RAM, 3 GB free disk space
 

Test System:



Windows XP, Pentium 4 1.7 GHz, Radeon 9100 128 MB, 40 Gig HD, 640 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c

Sony PlayStation 2 Constantine Nintendo GameBoy Advance Disney’s Winnie the Pooh\'s Rumbly Tumbly Adventure

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated