NASCAR The Game 2011 Q&A and Impressions

[TCrouch]

My first race of the night was hilariously bad. It was pretty fun for a bit...did a 20% length at Daytona to start my career. Set it to Very Hard on Legend with Manual Tranny.

I qual'd on the pole without any setup tweaks on a plate track...but it was by .1, so it was within the realm of believability.

The bump drafting works pretty well when you're in the thick of it. You really have to keep your car straight if you're the lead car or they'll send you all sorts of sideways. They try to bump draft down the front stretch, which is madness, though. I got wrecked twice when I wasn't quite lined up perfectly with the car behind me, which then send me straight into the outside row. They have 5 rewinds, which is nice on a 40 lapper at Daytona lol

But after a while, I was pulling away, sadly. The fact that I could AT ALL sucked. But then I blinked and brushed the wall, beating up my RF. That let them reel right back in and start pounding on me again. At one point I decided to stick to the low line and I got steamrolled by 7 cars in a row, which was nice. Then it lasted all of about 1 lap as the overexaggerated draft let me climb right back up on them and blow by a few per corner.

Then the green flag stops started.

First round the AI cars from the outside flew across the inside lane headed for pit road. Caution flag flies.

I pitted under caution and came back out in front--despite watching 2 or 3 cars get out first in the "pit stop" movie. Ok, whatever.

Then I proceed to watch 3 cars just drive away from me as they're nose-to-tail and I can't be consistent enough to catch them. That's a plus.

But on the second round of green flag stops, I get a speeding penalty entering, and a pass-through on the next lap. As I'm heading in, some wreck happens and I'm stuck looking at a zoomed out "2nd caution" icon at the top, with cars stopped mid-corner in turn 1. Guys are colliding with each other, cars flying...and it never continues.

After 24 laps of a 40 lap event, I'm bugged and can't even finish. Forced to quit to dashboard to reload it.

I'm not bashing it for no reason--I can't even finish races and every time the AI goes to get onto pit road, chaos ensues. This is basic, basic stuff.

It's really frustrating, because half the time I'm having an absolute blast. But the other half, I want to put my fist through my TV.

[UGA14]

To add to multiplayer bugs... first races are too short. Anyways, "6" lap race at Atlanta turned in to a 2 lap race. I started first, was instantly 4 laps down and in last... and it ended pretty much as soon as it began.

[nascarthegame]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ænima

Okay, so I just got the game and I've been playing for a few hours offline. Difficulty is... ehh. On Hard at Daytona I could pull away without a drafting partner. On Very Hard at Bristol I couldn't keep up with Todd Bodine for 42nd place. I'm hoping you can adjust the difficulty from race to race in career mode when I settle on a real driver (probably a custom one). However, I want to stress that online is BROKEN right now. I'm not talking about buggy, I'm talking broken. Here is what just happened in my first race: Eight players, most of us driving the 24 or the 88 (lol). That didn't bother me. As soon as it loads into the track (Talladega), I am upside down skidding across the pavement. Other people are also spinning, flipping or parked backwards as the race goes green. We have no control as this is happening. As we gain control, my car rights itself and I drive through the spinning and the smoke to find myself in second place. The leader is the only car that wasn't flipping and spinning at the start. He is probably four or five seconds ahead of me. I am one lap down. Over the next five laps, I chase him down and pass him to unlap myself. Nevermind that HE NEVER LAPPED ME. Although I am gaining on him as we actually drive, scoring shows me (and everyone else) continuing to LOSE LAPS. He finishes the 9 lap race while I am on lap 5. I finish second, four laps down, despite winning the race (despite flipping around like the other seven drivers behind him, I caught him and passed him on track, finishing ahead of his car). Online is BROKEN. Someone in the lobby suggested that this bug has something to do with players who are playing without the patch because they haven't booted out and booted back in since the patch went live this morning. That seems reasonable. If you're waiting to get home and go right online to race, temper your enthusiasm and show some patience. Or, at least, bring your sense of humor. For what it is worth, I was laughing the whole time. I always wanted to play in a Beta. :P

I can't wait to see this. I was lmao reading this while my wife is watching TV. She thinks I'm nuts. This is insanity. How can the developers take themselves seriously when this kind of this is commonplace?

[y2j469]

Unless I'm missing something there doesn't seem to be any way to qualify or change paint schemes in offline multiplayer.

[Tidefan6869]

Quote: Originally Posted by TCrouch

I used a controller and a wheel, and didn't get anything like that. I could cruise up against the wall at Indy without any issue. Same with Daytona. I did have a pretty weird drift at Texas coming off of 4, but that's always a dangerous place for me in any game, so I don't know. I didn't notice anything drastically different about it as compared to NR2003 or iRacing, though.

I just tried it with a controller with the same settings and could drive straight as an arrow ???? What wheel are you using? Maybe I need to fight the wheel more coming off the corner to not ever let it start to drift. Maybe it is actually the force feedback steering the car instead of the game itself?

Oh and don't use 4x wear on daytona everybody. When they tell you to pit you can't make a full lap before you run out of gas and then the race is over. It won't even let you coast to the pits.

That being said, I'm still being open minded and I'm going to give the game a chance. Let's hope they can patch this stuff.

[acreyman]

Took my copy back without opening it and used the refund to by M$ points to purchase the downloadable courses for Tiger. I will keep an eye out for the future patches but it sounds like the game needs some work still.

[yanksfan72]

Quote: Originally Posted by y2j469

Unless I'm missing something there doesn't seem to be any way to qualify or change paint schemes in offline multiplayer.

your missing something. You can qualify and change paint. You go to car to change paint schemes. As far a qualifing in season mode its right in the buttom middle of the screen when you pick your race. In single race I know that you can qualify, I think the option is on the race set up menu.

Hope that helps

[chrisasst]

Also if want to quit a race and move to the next track, you can't.. there is no way to quit a race, finish last. you must race the entire race..
Oh and not every driver does a back flip... Kyle B. does not..( only guy I have raced..) ps3