Madden NFL 17 News Post

NASCAR Heat Evolution Hands-On Impressions (Polygon)

02:39 PM - August 25, 2016 by Steve_OS

Owen Good from Polygon has just posted his hands-on impressions of NASCAR Heat Evolution with quite a few interesting details. Check it out and post your thoughts. The game releases on September 13 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Quote:


	The previous editions of NASCAR-licensed games, developed by Eutechnyx, had drivers racing on rails and accelerating or braking within them. "This is a very racy AI," Wilson said, mentioning that the EA Sports games had three AI lines that all drivers adhered to. NASCAR Heat Evolution has none. Drivers should drive where they would in that situation in a real race. "You just always knew where they're going to be," in earlier series, Wilson said. "We really wanted a race at Talladega, in our game, to pack up like in real life." That also means the potential for a Talladega-class wreck. I didn't see many AI driver errors, much less ones leading to a major pileup.

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Member Comments

# 1 Turbojugend @ 08/25/16 03:23 PM

Quote:


	For now, the game features only the NASCAR Sprint Cup series and its drivers, not the lower-rung Xfinity or Camping World Trucks series. It's possible they might join the game later through downloadable content.

Man, if they could pull that off it would mean so much to Career Mode, assuming they could integrate it. I'm not holding my breath but it would be cool.

This looks like it's shaping to be a pretty good first effort. I can deal with okay-ish graphics, if the A.I. is sharp and the sim racing is handled well, then that will be good enough. But so much of these games are based on feel, there's no way I can look at a video and judge how a racing game feels or handles. Fingers crossed.

# 2 jway44 @ 08/25/16 05:55 PM

I sure hope this is good. F1 2016 has set the bar high, but I'd also love a decent NASCAR racer to go along with it.

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# 3 Rules @ 08/25/16 06:12 PM

Though it is a first release and a few things from what I have watched online bother me such as realism and the cars supposedly not on rails, I will still purchase to support their effort. Knowing it is their first release, I can deal with it and lower my expectations for a year.

# 4 Vechi8 @ 08/25/16 08:56 PM

We old guys remember the Heat series very well. It was a great brand of racing in which was easy to add mods including the then Busch series and the craftsman truck series. It was the holy grail of PC racing until.... Nascar Racing 2003
A great look at the past Heat mods is at the mos squad which is http://www.themodsquad.info/

# 5 Skyflame21 @ 08/25/16 11:41 PM

I'd love to see an online career mode. Nothing like racing against buddies in a season format for bragging rights.

# 6 legacyme3 @ 08/25/16 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbojugend


	Man, if they could pull that off it would mean so much to Career Mode, assuming they could integrate it. I'm not holding my breath but it would be cool. This looks like it's shaping to be a pretty good first effort. I can deal with okay-ish graphics, if the A.I. is sharp and the sim racing is handled well, then that will be good enough. But so much of these games are based on feel, there's no way I can look at a video and judge how a racing game feels or handles. Fingers crossed.

The more I see, the more hyped I get, and the more I begin to realize that what I want isn't a new NASCAR game, but a NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona remake, with updated drivers, graphics, and more realistic gameplay.

I'm very excited for this game.

# 7 brandon27 @ 08/26/16 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyflame21


	I'd love to see an online career mode. Nothing like racing against buddies in a season format for bragging rights.

While I'd have no interest in this as I don't like to play much online, personally... I see this as a next, natural step for them. I mean, they've already got the ability for 40 player online races. So, the next step naturally should be online career/season mode.

This is sounding nice, I'm still a little hesitant. I should have pre-ordered it when I was in the other day, but I've got so many new games in deep into right now with Madden, F12016, and then FH3 around the corner too, I may hold off on this one and NHL for a little bit. I see Best Buy is listing this one here in Canada for 79.99. That's a bit insane for a title I'm not 100% sold on, especially with the visuals potentially not being up to par form the videos. We'll see what happens I guess. I'm going to buy it, it's just a matter of when right now.

# 8 Turbojugend @ 08/26/16 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brandon27


	This is sounding nice, I'm still a little hesitant. I should have pre-ordered it when I was in the other day, but I've got so many new games in deep into right now with Madden, F12016, and then FH3 around the corner too, I may hold off on this one and NHL for a little bit.

This is my problem as well. You've got NASCAR, NHL, PES and Bioshock Collection all coming out on the same day. Not to mention NBA 2K three days later. Given it's a first effort, you're virtually asking for people to wait on this.

Seriously, the marketing heads for these sports games need to work on their release scheduling.

# 9 Thrash13 @ 08/26/16 02:53 PM

This one looks to be shaping up pretty well, but I just can't see myself getting it at release after getting F1 and Madden in the last week. PES 2017 and FIFA 17 come out in September, and WWE 2K17 is scheduled for an early October release. If this would've been released a few months ago, it would've been a definite purchase. As of now, however, it's looking like a Black Friday possibility.

# 10 Lieutenant Dan @ 08/27/16 07:28 PM

That was a nice write-up. I also was intrigued with how the alcohol sponsors appear in the game as gated DLC (have to be 21 or over to download those sponsors....like that can be enforced? lol). Just happy they are in. Happy to hear good things about the AI and the like, but honestly, with NASCAR games of the past few years they just simply weren't good enough.

Add to that is the fact that F1 2016 has set the racing game bar pretty high this year. I'd like to support this NASCAR game if it's worthy, with the understanding of setting expectations for graphics in particular. I've got my hands full with F1 and Madden 17 for my gaming time right now.

My aim right now is to wait and see how this one grades out in our community first before I jump in or no. It has a solid pedigree, but this will still be a 'first effort' for this generation, so we'll see.

# 11 dave360 @ 09/05/16 10:12 AM

Has anyone seen any videos with yellow flags or pit stops? I love what I've seen with the AI. I know the graphics are a bit meh, but I don't mind that if the racing is good. I'd like to see vids before release of what happens with yellows or how pit stops are controlled. Probably will end up with it both for PC and PS4 if it's good.

# 12 Lieutenant Dan @ 09/05/16 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave360


	Has anyone seen any videos with yellow flags or pit stops? I love what I've seen with the AI. I know the graphics are a bit meh, but I don't mind that if the racing is good. I'd like to see vids before release of what happens with yellows or how pit stops are controlled. Probably will end up with it both for PC and PS4 if it's good.

Curious about that myself.

Will be interesting to see also how the game handles a 'Big One' at Tally and Daytona from a crash physics/graphics point of view as well as caution or red flags.

# 13 dave360 @ 09/05/16 06:54 PM

My biggest hope is that it sells like hotcakes and we get Trucks and xFinity in the next few years. I have little interest in racing at the cookie cutters or superspeedways and find the short tracks and road courses far more appealing. Would love to see the road courses from the xFinity series (Mid Ohio and Road America) but man oh man, I'd triple dip if they put MoSport in a console game. I absolutely loved having VIR and Road Atlanta in Forza.

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NASCAR Heat Evolution Hands-On Impressions (Polygon)