NASCAR '14 Available Now - Post Your Impressions

[bluengold34_OS]

Quote: Originally Posted by TCrouch

Sure, you can do it with a controller. There's no doubt it can be done. But to compete with a driver of equal skill using a wheel is exponentially tougher doing so. You can use the "crank over to the left as far as it will go and throttle steer it" method on a controller, but you're eating up tires that way. If I could tell you how many leagues I'd been in where the setups are fixed and somebody goes "how are *insert 2 or 3 guys' names* so much faster?" The answer is always those 2 or 3 guys are using wheels. Doesn't mean you CAN'T be just as fast with a controller. It takes a ton more work and incredible control on the stick to not vary a fraction of an inch mid-corner. Some aliens can do that. I know a couple of people who are incredible with the controller. But that's so rare compared to a driver of equal skill and knowledge using a good wheel setup. Most people using controllers and laying down blazing fast times are eating the tires up a lot more than a smooth wheel driver turning the same times, so over the course of a run it shows.

^^This - and that's why I use a keyboard

[bravesfan1984]

I need to break out my wheel but I have nothing to attach it to. I need some ideas haha.

[TCrouch]

I use this, and can't properly tell you how much more enjoyable it made console racing for me:



http://www.xwstands.com/page6.php

[cusefan74]

I just did a race now race at Kansas at oh my god, what a glitch fest. First after a caution we go back green and there is a car in the middle of the track. We were just driving right through it. After the next caution it disappeared.

Then during another caution I decided to pit and as I went down pit road the pit window for me to make adjustments never came up. Half way down pit road my car stopped in the middle of the road and sat there for about 20 seconds. Then it started going again and didn't stop in my pits and went back out on the track, went around to turn 3 stopped behind 2 other cars sitting there and that was it. After about 2 minutes of just sitting there I left the race.

I don't know what was going on, but man it just makes me crazy. I mean this game has so much potential. Now I'm afraid things are gonna start happening like crazy now.

[OnlookerDelay]

Didn't get my Gamefly rental copy today, as expected. The mail has gotten slow in the last year. I used to get all of my Gamefly rentals in three days, now it's typically four. Oh well, this is Duke/UNC game night, so I wouldn't have been doing much racing tonight anyway. Second half's about to tip...

[brandon27]

Had a real bad race tonight at Vegas. It was actually tons of fun up until the ending... it was a 27 lapper. I had wear and fuel at 4x to have some fun and trial runs at pitting and to test the AI. Actually, everything went perfectly. I had pitted twice already, and the entire field was pitting about with about 3 laps to go. I went in to the pits in the lead, came out 20 somethingth... understandable I guess as cars were cycling through stops, as the laps tick away, im now shown in in around 5th about 3 seconds behind keselowski who hasnt yet pitted. Final lap rolls around, Keselowski goes and pulls into the pits and the leaderboard suddenly drops me down to 25th, says I'm one lap down as I pass keselowski as he's on pit lane. As Im about half way through turn one, Keselowski hits the start finish line and is declared the winner.

Somehow Keselowski went from having a few second lead, to pulling into pit lane, and suddenly lapping the whole field by pitting??? I just threw the controller across the room onto the other couch, got up, turned off the xbox and grabbed a beer. In a sense, it makes sense I would be a lap down if he hadn't pitted yet... but the running order didnt reflect that. Then on top of that... why is it that when the entire field has been pitting together roughly at lap 11, then again around 22 of 27... how can Keselowski end up running an extra 3 laps... at 4x wear/fuel. Just a mess.

Guess I'm back to running races without wear and fuel use so the finishing order is at least correct, and logical. Either that, or finding a way to limit it to just one pit stop per race to limit the damage.

In the game's defense though, I ran about 3 races prior to that with the same settings, and experienced no issues.

[Aggies7]

I ran a good deal of races this morning and also tested out career mode. Here are my impressions:

Graphics: 7/10

There has been a lot of talk about a graphics downgrade from the last version, I for one do not see this when it comes to the cars and tracks. The cars look very sharp and so far the tracks look and feel accurate. The only issue for me is the damage model during wrecks. Two things standout to me. The first is how cars take on contact. The cars really looks like bumper cars and do not at all crunch when hitting a wall at higher speeds. If damage is on full, and a car is spun out striking the wall head on, the front should push way in and it should either be a DNF or a long wait in garage. The second issue is consistency with damage. Sometime the damage with minor spins and contact is accurate and sometimes it
seems like they have metal straps around them like bumper cars protecting the body of the
car.

Sound: 9/10

There was a few times, the sound seemed to fade away on me, but I do not know if it is my TV to fault or the game. And seeing as that is the only issue I detected, I am very happy with the sounds for the game.

Control: 7/10
Using a controller at Daytona and Talladega with the aggressive AI, is near impossible as holding a line in the turns three wide typically resulted in accidents. They have a lot of options for steering sensitivity and I will need to tweak those to find what fits best. Possible adjusting those options will make the Super Speedways more enjoyable. Furthermore, cars still feel like tanks when you make contact. If contact is made with the rear quarter panel on an AI car, it should spin, not just wiggle and hit the outside wall and continue on like nothing happened.

AI: 8/10

This was a tough one, because without perfecting the controls and handling in the turns, the AI being aggressive is just frustrating. The main reason for the 8/10 is simple,
I personally like the AI being aggressive trying to win every race, as opposed to the past, where they would just move over and let you by.

Online: Not Graded

Did not get a chance to test out online, as I do not want to play with random folks, who turn each race into a demolition derby. Will have impression on this topic after I race
with folks who want to race and not wreck.

Paint Booth: 7/10

If you are good with the previous versions of paint booth, you will have no issues dealing with this version. I am not that advanced when it comes to paint booth so I struggled with the simpliest of tasks. What would put this over the top would simply be the ability to import images to put on your car.

Career Mode: 6/10

Very similar to past versions. When aquiring a sponsorship offer, I could not find how to add the logo to my car, until I tried to go to the next race and it prompted me to add the sponsorship. I am intrigued to see if there is year to year stat tracking, but due to time, I could not complete the first season prior to these impressions. Since I did not
make it to the second season, I did not get to see if there is a Sprint Unlimited for all the pole sitters from season one, but I assume there is not. I know Eutechnyx is working to make the career mode top notch, but they are still short of that goal. I like the sponsorship offers, but what about offers from other teams. Imagine getting an offer from Henricks Racing, to replace the retiring Jeff Gordon. Don't get me wrong Eutechnyx is going in the right
right direction,but need to keep improving.


Overall: 7/10

Sorry for any errors this was typed up and formatted on my phone.

[BurghFan]

Quote: Originally Posted by brandon27

AI cars pitting on last lap issue

Sigh, same thing happened to me plenty of times when playing Inside Line.