NASCAR The Game 2011 Q&A and Impressions

[Papi34]

Quote: Originally Posted by hooder18

Stupid question: How do you view replays? I have only played a single player race (no career) and for the life of me, I cannot find the replay function. Any help would be appreciated.

After the race when the results screen is up, just press left or right to scroll through the options at the bottom of the screen and you'll see race replay. I can't find an option to replay something mid-race though.
You also need to have the first patch apparently.

[Papi34]

Still having great fun with the game. Haven't had the time to do a long race yet, so still not seen a lot of the bugs. I did see bunching at Atlanta though and another track.
My only real complaint so far is the difficulty, especially in qualifying. Although you don't charge off from the front and leave the pack for dead, a la GT5, it's not half as much as much fun fighting with a handful of cars than it is fighting with the pack. That's already been fixed in the second patch though, talking of which, they're really making progress considering the game's not even been out two weeks. Eutechnyx are saying the patch should be out in the week beginning 9th of May, which I can wait for. Here's an update on where they are as of the 8th of April.

Quote:

Bugs: Fix lack of Caution Flags - Fixed Fix issues with the A.I. exiting the pits and then pulling straight up the track - Fixed Reconfigure the damage to improve the look and add more debris on impact - To Be Fixed Fix Cautions Lights being illuminated all of the time - Fixed Improve the PS3 voice comms - Fixed Fix the Rolling Starts Online/Offline so the cars begin in the correct formation and together - Work In Progress Fix the instant wrecking during Online Rolling Starts - Fixed Fix the Lobby Race Start Counter freezing - To Be Fixed Improve FFB and wheel sensitivity options - Work In Progress Fix Spotter saying “Clear” too often - Fixed Truex Jr. & Bill Elliott being corrupt during celebrations - Fixed This may need to be held back until the DLC pack due to the size of the fix. Microsoft limits the size. Hardcore mode enabled on Xbox 360. PS3 already works - Fixed Fix Custom Setups working Online - Fixed Car rolling away during a celebration leaving the driver celebrating in mid-air - Fixed Pace car lights in single player are on all of the time - Fixed Improve general stability and freezing issues - Work In Progress Improvements: Change the Gas indicator so it defaults to full in the pit stop interface - To Be Fixed Draft effect both on the car and visual to be tweaked - To Be Fixed In Private games, the host will start the timer when they are ready - Added Add support for the Porsche GT2 wheel - To Be Added Add support for the T500 wheel - To Be Added Allow the HUD to be completely turned off - Added Free up the A.I. cars so that when they are hit by a player they will get loose - To Be Fixed Ensure only Carl Edwards performs a back flip - Fixed Add the ability to change your Online Car - Added Add proximity indicator to split screen - Added Added Manufacturer Logos and Headlight / Taillight stickers to the Paint Shop- Added Adding time to the lobby count down when people enter a lobby - Improved Added a penalty mechanic to slow down the player when cutting corners on the Road Courses - Added A.I. difficulty being too easy when qualifying - Improved Added Wheel Control sensitivity option to the XBox 360 - Added Investigating: A.I. being overly aggressive when bump drafting the player A.I. pitting problems causing them to collide in to each other A.I. bunching on certain tracks A.I. slamming their brakes on for no reason Hitting the wall often turns the car ending up with the player facing the wrong way Issues with the Lucky Dog and Wave Around rule Loss of Save on Xbox 360

While it is impressive how quickly they're working on this, I am a little concerned that the biggest issues don't have an update as yet and are only being investigated.

Anyhoo, had a great race again at Bristol in career mode, this time as Carl Edwards going from 8th to get the win. 4 cautions, with only one being caused by me and after the last one I was third with 8 laps to. Managed to take the lead on the second to last lap and held on. It's actually my first win at Bristol on any game as I always end up making a mistake at some point. The game is very bare bones, especially compared to something like F1 2010 (another freshman effort), but I still say the physics and handling are fantastic. You can have all the game modes and fluff you like, but if the car handles like s**t the novelty soon wears off.

Also had a quick play with with the video editing and it's actually pretty easy. Just a shame you can't upload clips longer than a minute.
Not the most graceful of passes, but Kyle didn't have a problem with a similar move!

[Brew]

Nice writeup Papi! Thanks for the update.
Couldnt watch your video... says this video is private.

[Papi34]

Well, I tried a 100 lap race at Daytona last night and it was........... interesting. It was weird, like a switch was flicked and the game went to rats**t! There was a few big pileups, but no cautions and most of the pitstops were a debacle with a pileup at the entry. Just wasn't fun at all, so I can really see why some are very upset.

I went back to 20% races and everything was fine again. I know it's not realistic racing without pitstops as they're such a big part of racing, but I can stick to shorter races until the patch drops. If it doesn't sort the issues then............. well, I'm not sure. I have faith though. I'll try a shorter race with increased wear, to see what that does.

Had a great race at Texas this afternoon at 20% distance. I eased off in qualifying to make things more interesting and started 13th. On the default setup the car was as loose as a whore's drawers and I had to take it very steady until the tyres warmed up. I managed to get up to 5th after 7 laps, but then got span and dropped to 9th after the caution. I managed to get to 5th again, but just couldn't get closer than 1 second to Jimmy Johnson in 4th. There was a battle for 5th with me, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Bush, but eventually he faded.
Kenseth was right on my *** for the last few laps and I let the pressure get to me, drifting wide at turn 1 on the last lap. Kenseth went up the inside and I went a bit too hot into the last corner, but came flying off it to go for the pass on the line. JUST didn't make it though.

[bigdoc85]

OSU Guy -- thanks for your posts. By the way, one of the things your posts imply that the handling, in general, is pretty good. In my opinion, it feels much better than NASCAR 09. This supports the thought that if the bugs get fixed, it's a pretty decent game. I also like the split screen 2-player option (which NASCAR 09 for PS3 did not have -- did have it on PS2, though).

[Candymandagreat]

Running at Bristol sucks. The computer seems to be able to go 200 laps without pitting and when they do major crashes happen. I'm having a decent time with the game because I love racing, but this game is seriously flawed. The graphics are supposed to be good, its on the latest generation system. if nascar '09 was on ps3 it would be killing this game. once again im playing the game and i'll continue too, but it could've been way better than this. the developers failed on simple things which could've made a big difference. ciao

[bigdoc85]

NASCAR 09 was on PS3. I still like this one better. As mentioned previously, I liked NASCAR 09 on PS2 better than PS3.

Quote: Originally Posted by Candymandagreat

Running at Bristol sucks. The computer seems to be able to go 200 laps without pitting and when they do major crashes happen. I'm having a decent time with the game because I love racing, but this game is seriously flawed. The graphics are supposed to be good, its on the latest generation system. if nascar '09 was on ps3 it would be killing this game. once again im playing the game and i'll continue too, but it could've been way better than this. the developers failed on simple things which could've made a big difference. ciao

[Brew]

The biggest downfall with the graphics is that the HD is only 720 not 1080.
The graphics and gameplay are still better than Nascar 09 IMO.