NASCAR The Game 2011 Q&A and Impressions

[luciano2421]

Thanks alot mason. These ease my concerns. I wish there was a hardcore mode and online league, but maybe a patch later on.

[UGA14]

So you can turn off all or the vast majority of that goofy HUD stuff? Also, a controller is better than a wheel? Are all of you on the Xbox? Hope that's not the case on the PS3.

[thekodinator]

has anyone made it past one full season in career mode yet? I'm really curious to see what happens after the last race of the year and how/if it transitions into 2012.

[Aggies7]

Anyone see a response on pit road. When you pit do you see all the teams working on the cars.

[BronxBombers22]

Quote: Originally Posted by UGA14

So you can turn off all or the vast majority of that goofy HUD stuff? Also, a controller is better than a wheel? Are all of you on the Xbox? Hope that's not the case on the PS3.

Yep, Blue confirmed that you can turn the HUD off. I'm pretty sure he said everything too.

[SLICK_T]

I have a HUGE very important question. I swear I will freaking scream if the LOCKED the save data to ps3 were we cant back it up on our usp drives. GT5 did that then the IDIOTS realized to unlock the save data in a patch. If they LOCKED THE SAVE DATA well Im not buying it. Im sick of stupid developers pulling that UNCALLED FOR CRAP. Whats the point of playing a game on a ps3 for weeks advancing to get a corrupted harddrive by random chance and all those hours invested in a game save WASTED. Oh I wont join PSN PLUS just to be force to pay money to save the copyproted save data online either. Thats stupid when all along these games should be LOCKED to our PSN accounts not the console. So please tell me they DIDNT system lock the save data cause Nascar 09 might of sucked but we could save our data ALL OF IT to any usb drive. I want this game I've been excited but this problem shot my mind just now in worry.

[Cubfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by Aggies7

Anyone see a response on pit road. When you pit do you see all the teams working on the cars.

Nope you just see your team working on your car. I think you see the other cars on pit road but i'm not a 100% sure on that.

[Senor Nascar]

I got the game today for XBOX 360 and I have been playing for the past 8 hours. I will start my impressions by stating that I have played NASCAR games for the past 10 years. I was a big fan of the NASCAR thunder series on consoles due to the depth of career mode. I then played the hell out of NR 2003.

Most recently I played Iracing for almost two years. I am definitely a hardcore sim guy who just wants to have a fun yet realistic experience while still being able to run with a full field of NASCAR licensed drivers in a full 36 race season.

On another note, I recently bought the FANATEC Porsche GT2 wheel to play the latest formula one game and ofcourse NTG 11. After putting in the game and connecting my wheel, I was happy to see it recognized it. I was able to customize some buttons but my worries started when I saw no way to mess with wheel settings. No Force feedback setting, no deadzone, throttle and/or brake settings either. Once I took the car to the track I quickly realized there was NO force feedback only vibration for the wheel. It felt pretty bad especially if I compare it to Formula one with the same wheel. Now I'm not sure if the fanatec wheel is not calibrated for the game and that's why I was experiencing this or if all wheels for the XBOX are like this.

I quickly had to do something I hadn't done since my PS2 days, play a Nasar game with a controller. It was certainly manageable and felt pretty good but I am certainly dissapointed with the wheel issues for now. I also own a PS3 and a g25 wheel so I will have to wait for Tuesday to see if there is any difference between the two.

As far as how the game is, well I can tell you it certainly is the best AI I have seen in a NASCAR game by far. The graphics look great. The cockpit views are awesome. The actual handling model in my opinion is about 65 percent sim and 35 percent arcade. Keep in mind I am paying on the hardest difficulty with no assists. The tracks are very nice to look at and are fairly well done. They are just not nearly as accurate as they could be in regards to bumps in the track. There are no bumps at tracks where there should be such as Dayton and Las Vegas.

I feel the setup aspect of the game is also lacking. There is no telemetry which makes it hard to properly setup a car as you have no tire temperature readings, etc. Also the small little indicator that tells you when your tires are worn could be much better than what it is. In other games tires would go from green to yellow to red. Here they go from black to red. The indicator is a bit small to see and it makes it difficult to tell what tire is more worn than another and whether the outside, middle or inside of the tire is hotter. Now with all that out of the way, I am sure good setup can be made based on feel alone. The amount of changes you can make is crazy and it does seem to affect how the car handles.

I have raced about 4 races and have experienced some very exciting moments racing with the AI but overall that first day patch will be crucial to making this game right. I have seen very few cautions thrown when they should have been. There was some strange yellow thrown when the entire field at California decided to come into the pits under green. They were running all over each other in the pits. This happened twice in the same race. Also as it has been stated the AI is way too easy on the hardest difficulty. Now I had read a while ago that there was a fifth difficulty setting called adaptive AI but I have yet to see it.

The paint shop tool is pretty amazing. I dare to say it is deeper than Forza's paint options. I was very impressed. I have not tried any multiplayer at all so nothing to comment on there.
I will gladly answer any questions people may have and will continue to post my impressions as I get some more game time in. I will say though even though there are issues the game is fun.