NASCAR Heat 5 Review: Familiar But In a Good Way

[ChaseB]

704 Games is set to deliver NASCAR Heat 5 this week, although this time it's coming...

Written By: Robert Kollars

Click here to view the article.

[tc020791]

This is my first nascar game and I’m really enjoying it. I absolutely love the strategy with drafting. If you don’t have a draft partner, good luck catching that group in front of you.

[grismosw]

This is on my radar, how is it without a wheel? Can you save mid race progress?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[StoneCalf]

Good review and I like how the first point he hit on was the controls. Very encouraging to hear that he was able to be in good enough control to "race comfortably anywhere", including with controller and wheel. Being able to hold your line is paramount for me being able to enjoy a Nascar game and sustain and enjoy returning to playing.

I preordered yesterday and began playing at 11:01 pm last evening. I'm on Xbox 1 with an elite controller, and I must say I was extremely pleased with my first practice race. I jumped in and ran 13% race in Xfinity at Homestead. Racing on "Hard" with AI at 100.

As I had raced some lately with NH4, I came to the realization that although it hurts my pride to have some driving assists turned on, it really is a must for me to be able to enjoy the game. I'm simply not good enough to make it through races consistently without kissing the wall occasionally and/or being the cause of a wreck, even when I'm trying not to be over aggressive. On my practice race last night, I had most driving aids around 20-25, and wall avoidance at 35. I completed the race cleanly without hitting the wall a single time nor contacting another car significantly (26 laps). I qualified 28th and finished 7th.

This has increased my confidence in a huge way and encourages me as I plan to put in more serious time in this iteration. On NH4, I worked on my dirt series career a good bit, but interest waned and I never got to the other series, other than an exhibit race here and there. For NH5, I plan on skipping the dirt. (I enjoy the dirt racing, but I really want to sink my teeth into a series like Xfinity right away)

I also pulled the trigger recently on a wheel, and I'm looking forward to using that, as I haven't used a wheel since back in the PS2 days.

The only negative critique from my first impression was I still got a frame-rate dip at a certain point on the track. I didn't notice it every lap, but on corner exit, the frame rate would snag for just a fraction of a second- enough for me to notice, and I am the type of person who isn't too picky about things like that, but it's there. Not an issue for me, but trying to be fair about my assessment. I know many people are likely to skip this one and wait for the next version that is purported to run on a different engine, and I understand, but it's not a deal-breaker for me. You see, I'm approaching old-codger status lol (very late 40's), and my first driving video game was Night Driver on Atari, so I have a certain perspective/appreciation regarding graphics.....

[BurghFan]

Quote: Originally Posted by StoneCalf

... my first driving video game was Night Driver on Atari, so I have a certain perspective/appreciation regarding graphics.....

Loved that Game when I was a kid and also Pole Position.
_________________

Anyway, @NASCARHeat just tweeted that the Indy Roval will be released as free DLC for all players at a later date for anyone wondering

Quote: Originally Posted by @NASCARHeat

Last night while @DiegoxAlv was streaming #NASCARHeat5 on our Twitch channel there was a bomb dropped by game designer @ehgdesign ... Indy road course is coming to NH5 as free content later this year to ALL NH5 players! We don't have a date set yet, but we'll keep you updated.

________________

I preordered my copy from Amazon and it says I won't get it until the 14th

[TrophyKing80]

I can't recall which game it was, but there was a "Hero" and "Villian" rating when you played career mode. I liked that game, and that mode, though my poor driving skills led me to be more villian than hero. ::shrugs::

[Stormyhog]

Quote: Originally Posted by StoneCalf

Good review and I like how the first point he hit on was the controls. Very encouraging to hear that he was able to be in good enough control to "race comfortably anywhere", including with controller and wheel. Being able to hold your line is paramount for me being able to enjoy a Nascar game and sustain and enjoy returning to playing. I preordered yesterday and began playing at 11:01 pm last evening. I'm on Xbox 1 with an elite controller, and I must say I was extremely pleased with my first practice race. I jumped in and ran 13% race in Xfinity at Homestead. Racing on "Hard" with AI at 100. As I had raced some lately with NH4, I came to the realization that although it hurts my pride to have some driving assists turned on, it really is a must for me to be able to enjoy the game. I'm simply not good enough to make it through races consistently without kissing the wall occasionally and/or being the cause of a wreck, even when I'm trying not to be over aggressive. On my practice race last night, I had most driving aids around 20-25, and wall avoidance at 35. I completed the race cleanly without hitting the wall a single time nor contacting another car significantly (26 laps). I qualified 28th and finished 7th. This has increased my confidence in a huge way and encourages me as I plan to put in more serious time in this iteration. On NH4, I worked on my dirt series career a good bit, but interest waned and I never got to the other series, other than an exhibit race here and there. For NH5, I plan on skipping the dirt. (I enjoy the dirt racing, but I really want to sink my teeth into a series like Xfinity right away) I also pulled the trigger recently on a wheel, and I'm looking forward to using that, as I haven't used a wheel since back in the PS2 days. The only negative critique from my first impression was I still got a frame-rate dip at a certain point on the track. I didn't notice it every lap, but on corner exit, the frame rate would snag for just a fraction of a second- enough for me to notice, and I am the type of person who isn't too picky about things like that, but it's there. Not an issue for me, but trying to be fair about my assessment. I know many people are likely to skip this one and wait for the next version that is purported to run on a different engine, and I understand, but it's not a deal-breaker for me. You see, I'm approaching old-codger status lol (very late 40's), and my first driving video game was Night Driver on Atari, so I have a certain perspective/appreciation regarding graphics.....

I also noticed that the framerate would snag for a moment as well. Doesn't hurt my overall enjoyment but I did notice it. I'm on PS4 Pro.

[Bvrat76]

So picked up the gold edition and nothing happens when I redeem the code for the extra content? Anyone else have this issue?