Okay, today, I'm going to review Eutechnyx's NASCAR the Game: 2011, which was released March 29th. It was published by Activision.

When I first heard about this game, I think, in September of last year, I was so happy, even days afterwards. Just having a new Nascar game after almost three years of the same EA crap was getting old. Then, the next couple of weeks and months, Eutechnyx released more and more info that just got me pumped upped for this game. The damage, car models, tracks, everything looked awesome from the screenshots they provided. You have no idea how pissed I was when they pushed the date back, even if it was only a month.

However, then the game was released. I didn't get the game on the release date, so I had to settle for reviews from people on here and other sites. When I saw how many people were saying stuff such as, "WORST GAME EVER!!!" and "I didn't pay for a beta video game." and everything like that, I was unsure about this game, but I decided to still get it since I wanted a more updated Nascar game. I don't buy games for perfection, I just buy games if it is fun to play and something that I can sit down to play if I'm bored or passing the time.
And that's exactly what I got.

I finally got it yesterday, Friday, and right when I got home, I popped it into the PlayStation 3. I let it load and answered the trivia as best as I can and then I was able to drive. I decided to drive a few quick races to get the feel of the car and just to see how fun the game was. I picked my favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and decided to race at Bristol, my favorite tracked. The race was on the Very Hard difficulty, no qualification (started dead last because of it), and turned the assists off; it was a ten lap race, by the way. It was just a awesome race. I was dumping into drivers and the walls, once I spun out after I decided to make it three wide coming out of the corner and it didn't turn out well. If I remember correctly, I finished 33rd. I then raced at Martinsville where I won, 'Dega where I finished somewhere in the top ten, Daytona where I wrecked out, and Kentucky where I also won.

This game is an overall great game. The graphics, feel of the cars and tracks, the car and driver models. It was just an awesome game. Does it have issues? Yes, but even my favorite games (COD: Black Ops and Red Dead Redemption) has issues. The issues can be patched and, from what I heard, Eutechnyx is in the process of patching the issues. Oh, all the races so far have been pre-patch (the first patch that was released). My connection was weird last night and I didn't get it. That's also why I haven't been able to play Online yet, but I'll try to get Online time in today. From what I understand, most of the issues are online, so maybe that's why I haven't seen to many.
One that I've seen the most? Caution flags not coming out when its supposed to. I spun once at both Bristol and Daytona and not once did the caution flag come out, and yes, I did have Caution Flags "on". And caution flag did come out once for me, but I had to stay in the middle of the track for it to come out. Like I said, this was pre-patch so the first patch might have fixed this.

Something did bug me about the game though: the damage and crashes. Eutechnyx was raving about how realistic the damage and crashes look, but when I got into the game, the damage/crashes looked almost as worse as EA's. It feels and looks like bumper cars out there and damage hardly ever appears even when you ram straight into the wall at full speed. Not a very big deal, but I was seriously disappointed in this aspect of the game, especially after how much they hyped it up.

Before I forget, the paint shop is amazing. Yes, it is complicated and time consuming, but it is still a very cool aspect of the game. I spent about an hour just in the Paint Shop making cars. It is really cool and if you have enough patience, you can easily make a car that looks like it could be raced on a Sunday. I'm defiantly going to play around with it some more today.

So, to this finish this review, a very good game with a few issues, but nothing a patch or two can't fix. If you still haven't got this game yet or haven't opened it because of what you heard, it isn't that bad. Don't play it expecting a perfect game because it's not, but if you can brush aside all the bugs/glitches it has, it is a awesome game. If Eutechnyx does fix those few bugs/glitches everyone is complaining over, this game would be amazing.

This is going to get the Nascar Racing 2003 and iRacing (both of which I have never played) fans pissed, but, in my opinion, this is the best racing game ever. The tracks race the way it does in real life and the drivers are aggressive, but it isn't overdone. The graphics are a plus too. Only thing that disappointed me was the damage and crashes.
Get this game if you want a racing game that you can just have fun on when you're bored or want to pass the time. People that have passed on this or already took it back, you guys are defiantly missing out on a fun game.

Once I play Online today, I'll let you guys know my impressions on it. From what I heard, it in itself is a different game entirely.

UPDATE:
Tonight I raced online; not many races, but enough for a review on it. The first one was a race against one other driver at Charlotte; no problems, just a clean, fun race. I won and saw no glitches or bugs. Then I raced at Martinsville with two other drivers. Again no problems, except for one of the drivers driving backwards all race long; that isn't a glitch, just someone being a donkey. The final race was against four other drivers at Martinsville, and we did see a few glitches; at the start, everyone was piled up and when we got everything sorted out, things just was weird. The map didn't show any drivers and it was a little laggy. I tried another race, but it locked up at the loading screen. It would have had somewhere around eight drivers in it. So, I like online, but I suggest sticking to small group of drivers. Less glitches that way. But like before, I rarely saw any glitches.

Something I forgot to say, the career disappointed me. It's only a season long and drivers don't retire or anything. So it's more "season" instead of "career", but no biggy really. Still a ton of fun.

My Score:
8/10

PS: When I went to GameStop yesterday to buy it, I was expecting to find a used copy or two, but the game said they were selling like crazy and no one took the game back yet. They had no used copies and no "new" ones in stock. Hell, even at Wal-Mart, they only had four in stock. Apparently, around my area it is selling like crazy.