Monday 9 June 2008

NASCAR 09

Okay. I’m going to be straight up with you now. I don’t get NASCAR. I don’t see the appeal, I don’t fully appreciate the fan following that it gets, and I don’t follow (or understand) the rules.

But, it was with an open mind that I downloaded the demo of the NASCAR 09 demo, because I am, in all honesty, a racing game junkie. I was excited to be able to give this game a try, and see what it was like.

I liked what EA did with the opening sequence, having a racecar going around the 'circuit' that is the perimeter of the EA logo, and then the car wheelspinning off - that's my kinda style. Let's hope that the game lived up to this kind of standard...



Now, first impressions were good – a ‘real’ dude stood there, by the name of Jeff Gordan, presumably a real racer that is affiliated with EA’s offering, telling me that this was a demo, but not to worry because in the real game he would be there every step of the way, guiding me in all things NASCAR. Fantastic.




I found the menus hard to read – but that will be because the game is designed to be played on a HDTV, and I don’t have one. (If you want to help contribute towards an HDTV, that would be muchos appreciated).

I couldn’t change the actual car that I was using, only driver - and I ended up using a car that was sponsored by Pop Tarts. Erm, okay.... So, I just got into my car (I’m not even sure what the car was).



I tried with a three lap practice first of all, and was quite disappointed with the graphics. They weren’t refined and polished like they are in GT5 – okay, maybe I’m being a bit harsh here – who can match GT5? Even then, compare the graphics of NASCAR 09 with the graphics of RaceDriver:Grid, and it makes EA’s racer look like a Spectrum game… blocky graphics – poor. The in-car graphics weren't too hot either...


So anyway, I completed my three laps, hitting speeds in excess of 160mph, managing to stay on track and not crash. Fine.

I then tried a proper race, and discovered that it was 10 laps. 10 laps? What’s that all about then? Anyway, it didn’t feel like 10 laps. I lost it a number of time, and when I crashed into the wall, the camera shook annoyingly – obviously in a poor attempt to imitate real in car crash physics.



Then, I happened to nudge another car, and must have caused an awful pile up behind me – the replay of this was good, although I quickly got confused and wasn’t even sure what car was mine.

But then there was all this green flag/white flag malarkey, being pulled into the pit, going back onto the track and driving slowly, and suddenly the 10 laps were over, and I’d finished 17th out of 40 odd.

I then had the option to play again.

No thanks.

But, I hadn’t yet thrown in the towel.

I tried another of the games, which was crash evasion. Basically, you had to stay on track for 15 seconds without hitting another car or the wall, whilst trying to navigate a pile-up in front.

I tried this on a number of occasions, and failed miserably on each one.

Then I threw the towel in.

For some people, this game will be awesome. I am not one of them.

My rating: 4/10.

Will I be buying this game? Not at all.

But that doesn't mean that you don't need to: