NASCAR The Game 2011 Q&A and Impressions

[nyisles16]

Picked up the ps3 version.... I can say cars can roll over- did it with Dale Jr at Daytona. I say Almighty love ease of control with the controller, where I can stay in a grove and not all over. However I really dislike the damage detection- sorry, head on wrecks don't do bumper car collisions, and the yellow flag issue. I take it for what it is though... a video game

[Rules]

Quote: Originally Posted by Aggies7

Ok so I loaded up the game and said update 1.01 I believe, I said download and it seemed to just go straight to game. Is this a small update the loads quick or should it have taken some time? Oh and I am doing a career with Jeff Burton, why in the world is Kevin Harvick a rival to start the season? He is my teammate.

It seems to select the car in front of you whenever the race starts. Not really a rival so this is poorly done. Nothing like having teammates as rivals lol. Can you say Kyle versus Denny?

[Aggies7]

Quote: Originally Posted by Rules

It seems to select the car in front of you whenever the race starts. Not really a rival so this is poorly done. Nothing like having teammates as rivals lol. Can you say Kyle versus Denny?

Yea ran 5 races now...every time I got the pole the outside front row driver was my rival...very poor in my opinion...still enjoying game though.

[nflman2033]

I am enjoying the game, granted I play offline, ps3, and just now getting back into NASCAR in years, so I have not had the history most have had with NASCAR games. IMO I think a couple more patches this game will be fantastic. It's a shame I bought three games this month and they all needed work. These devs seem to rely too much on patches these days. The only agrivating part of game play is ai being bunched up even after 10-15 laps on some tracks as well as group slow downs in corners. Most every other complaint I can live with or is already going to be fixed.

[TCrouch]

I tried not posting anything else last night, as it seemed that each race I ran ended with me wanting to scream at the TV due to something going wrong during a yellow flag. Whether it was me entering too fast onto pit road, where the AI took over driving my car, and promptly slid it right into the barrier wall and bent it up pretty good, or going in for Green Flag cautions and the AI pinballing off of each other and causing a yellow as they head for pit road, etc...I was pretty bent. I took a good 2 hour break from it.

When I came back, I tried something I don't usually do--I turned on "Pro" assists and grabbed a controller. After that, I ran a few races in a career and discovered I was having fun. The yellow flag stuff still seems to be a huge gamble every time you go to pit, which made me realize what they intended this game to be: a quick fix NASCAR session.

The online races being so short, the default quick races having the inability to set 4x tire wear, etc., leaves me thinking that they really poured all of their efforts into making this a "sit down, race a 10% race with no pit stops and call it a day". It's the only explanation I had, because the actual RACING is quite good. For kicks I took a spin around Bristol with no 4x wear and started from the rear of the field and it was a hell of a good time. They really let you beat and bang on each other (especially when hitting another car in the rear) without wrecking, and it just made me realize that they really spent a lot of time trying to get the experience to be all about racing...but much like EA and Madden's 4 min online quarters, they are targeting the ADD crowd that just wants to sit down and run a race in 5 minutes, then move on to the next.

That's not me.

I wanted to have multiple stops and 50 laps or more--and for the most part, it fails that. But once I got past what I expected it to be, and looked at it for what it is, I was at least able to have some fun with it. It's still a bit frustrating to have a race ruined by some bizarre yellow flag behavior, but once I put my big boy glasses on and calmed down a bit, it was easier to deal with.

One thing that DID impress me last night was my career race at Fontana. I just ran with the default setup, and man that thing was a dog. It turned like a yacht. I still qualified in the top 5, but as soon as the race started and I had other cars around me, it completely fell apart. I overdrove it and destroyed the tires trying to avoid getting ***-pounded by the AI, and on the first stop, added a ton of wedge to it (I want to say something like 2%...it was pretty drastic). That stop cycled through without any incidents, so that was good. The car actually DID get a bit better there, and on the second round of stops, I added another huge chunk of wedge. I was turning some of my fastest laps of the day on that last run, and actually passing cars.

The feeling of actually being able to tweak a car during a stop and having it respond was good. So there's that, I guess

I also agree with something Blue posted earlier--NR2003 had some hilariously bad yellow flag AI as well, and the AI itself wasn't nearly as fun to race against. But NTG2011 has some work to do to even get the pit stops anywhere near NR2003's level. Taking control away from us as soon as we hit pit road is one thing--but if you do that, you better make damn sure you don't have an AI driver that's going to spin in circles or drive into other cars (or walls). That's the kind of stuff that really gets me. Give me control all the way down pit road and out...don't take it away as soon as I hit the cones and not give it back until I'm exiting turn 2 on a half-speed exit that a blind neanderthal with half a foot could drive faster.

[Perfect Zero]

Wow, things went sour on here overnight!

I just woke up and I have the day off so I'm going to enjoy the game today. I completed 20 laps at Kentucky (I'm really looking forward to seeing this in real life) and had a good race there. I ended up losing to Carl Edwards when he pulled up below me and I felt that if I blocked him, he would spin me. Second is better than Tenth or worse.

The only glairing problems I see are that the short tracks like Martinsville and Bristol are VERY HARD to deal with becuase there is bunching. I haven't tried Michigan yet, but the two short tracks I just mentioned were very difficult to pass on.

Somebody asked me what level I play on. I play on Hard, but I play it very conservatively. I admit that the qualifying is a bit easy, but when the race comes along I have a good time trying to stay on top.

[Rules]

Quote: Originally Posted by TCrouch

I tried not posting anything else last night, as it seemed that each race I ran ended with me wanting to scream at the TV due to something going wrong during a yellow flag. Whether it was me entering too fast onto pit road, where the AI took over driving my car, and promptly slid it right into the barrier wall and bent it up pretty good, or going in for Green Flag cautions and the AI pinballing off of each other and causing a yellow as they head for pit road, etc...I was pretty bent. I took a good 2 hour break from it. When I came back, I tried something I don't usually do--I turned on "Pro" assists and grabbed a controller. After that, I ran a few races in a career and discovered I was having fun. The yellow flag stuff still seems to be a huge gamble every time you go to pit, which made me realize what they intended this game to be: a quick fix NASCAR session. The online races being so short, the default quick races having the inability to set 4x tire wear, etc., leaves me thinking that they really poured all of their efforts into making this a "sit down, race a 10% race with no pit stops and call it a day". It's the only explanation I had, because the actual RACING is quite good. For kicks I took a spin around Bristol with no 4x wear and started from the rear of the field and it was a hell of a good time. They really let you beat and bang on each other (especially when hitting another car in the rear) without wrecking, and it just made me realize that they really spent a lot of time trying to get the experience to be all about racing...but much like EA and Madden's 4 min online quarters, they are targeting the ADD crowd that just wants to sit down and run a race in 5 minutes, then move on to the next. That's not me. I wanted to have multiple stops and 50 laps or more--and for the most part, it fails that. But once I got past what I expected it to be, and looked at it for what it is, I was at least able to have some fun with it. It's still a bit frustrating to have a race ruined by some bizarre yellow flag behavior, but once I put my big boy glasses on and calmed down a bit, it was easier to deal with. One thing that DID impress me last night was my career race at Fontana. I just ran with the default setup, and man that thing was a dog. It turned like a yacht. I still qualified in the top 5, but as soon as the race started and I had other cars around me, it completely fell apart. I overdrove it and destroyed the tires trying to avoid getting ***-pounded by the AI, and on the first stop, added a ton of wedge to it (I want to say something like 2%...it was pretty drastic). That stop cycled through without any incidents, so that was good. The car actually DID get a bit better there, and on the second round of stops, I added another huge chunk of wedge. I was turning some of my fastest laps of the day on that last run, and actually passing cars. The feeling of actually being able to tweak a car during a stop and having it respond was good. So there's that, I guess I also agree with something Blue posted earlier--NR2003 had some hilariously bad yellow flag AI as well, and the AI itself wasn't nearly as fun to race against. But NTG2011 has some work to do to even get the pit stops anywhere near NR2003's level. Taking control away from us as soon as we hit pit road is one thing--but if you do that, you better make damn sure you don't have an AI driver that's going to spin in circles or drive into other cars (or walls). That's the kind of stuff that really gets me. Give me control all the way down pit road and out...don't take it away as soon as I hit the cones and not give it back until I'm exiting turn 2 on a half-speed exit that a blind neanderthal with half a foot could drive faster.

Ok, I will need to start working on setups to see if I notice a difference. I played around with it alittle last night but it didn't seem to change much. This is good to know so thanks for posting this.

[rebelron22]

Sorry!, got to pass on this game, maybe I'll purchase down the road, until then, back to N2003. Thanks to all who have been giving impressions!