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Let me start out by saying that I am a HUGE NASCAR fan. I play NASCAR 09 a ton because it was the only NASCAR game available. After seeing all the videos and all the hype surrounding this game, so far it's been a bit of a disappointment. The game needs major patches to fix issues. If the game didnt have so many glitches and silly mistakes, it could easily be a 4 star rating or an 8/10. Below are the pro's and con's after playing the game for 3 hours. For every pro, their is a con and usually the con is greater.
Pros:
Paint booth: It's cool to fully paint and customize your car. It's almost identical to Forza's system.
Attention to detail: The in-car camera is awesome. You actually see your drivers feet hit the clutch or put his foot on the brake. Also will move his hands to shift. If you drive as Dale Jr you can see his driving gloves are black Adidas.
The pre race introduction is cool. Announcers talk about the track, fireworks go off, fly overs, etc..
The menu: I find this to be really cool. People walking around outside, your crew working on the car, and it's easy to navigate. When selecting tracks it shows like a pit pass with stats which is cool.
Gameplay: The cars are sensitive and don't require to much steering wheel input. Cars feel solid and drive like a 3,500lb+ car. Physics are pretty good.
Drafting: Finally other cars will work with you and push you
Pit stops: Animations are really cool. To see the lug nuts fall off and gas spill out is neat.
Setups: You can tune your car as much or as little as you like. Perfect for the simulation or arcade driver.
Pace car: Under caution its cool to see an actual pace car
Cons:
Paint booth: Making your own decals and stuff is cool, but the controls can be clunky. NASCAR 09 did it right by having an online feature and then import it to you game. Would be much easier to make cool designs instead of something a 2nd grader did with crayons.
Attention to detail: Things like the caution lights being on while the race is under green is silly. Also if you spin through the infield and end up on pit road you get black flagged for speeding.
Damage: Even after flipping over and hitting cars head on, my car looks like I hit a deer instead of another car at 190mph
Race modes: If you want to practice you have to go to a separate session from the main menu. No other cars are out there with you. If you choose to race, you get to qualify and then race. Can't even change your setup in between.
Hitting the wall is a joke. Your car basically just comes to a stop. You don't smash into it and then your car spins out of control. If you drive through the grass your car doesnt spin out.
Cautions: This is even more a joke. I spun out, 10 cars hit me, and no caution. I had to drive in reverse for about 10 seconds before it came out. If you spin by yourself it still wont come out even if you wreck hard.
No DNF's: You can destroy your car as much as you want, drive with full tape on the grille, and nothing happens. Maybe you lose a little performance but that's it.
Pit stops: It's great to have the animation but having to wait 10 seconds for it to load kinda kills it. Also if your under caution, the game should ask you what you want to adjust well before getting on pit road.
Online: One word....horrible. If you try to bump draft you wreck basically. And if the caution flag actually does come out, the crashed car has to sorta drive back to start finish line from this over head blimp camera. One time I just stared at a stopped car on the back stretch for 5 minutes. Then when we were about to start the race, cars started flipping and spinning. Online is useless until they fix it.
Career mode: It's basically just a season mode. Go to the race, race it, and move on. How come games like MLB 11 The Show can have ticket prices, free agents, stadium upgrades, trades, sponsors for the stadium, etc etc and we get a season mode? A real career mode would feature hiring a pit crew, buying a shop, building chassis for different tracks, hiring more drivers to make a full race car team (like Richard Childress Racing), engine shop and engine builders. When you race you should earn money and that money should be used to buy better crew chiefs, better products, larger shop building, bigger sponsors, higher expectations, etc etc. Have an off-season where you can test at tracks to improve your car and team or public events to gain fans and impress sponsors. A merchandise section where you can sell die-casts, memorabilia, shirts, etc etc to earn money and gain fame. Would be cool to start out as a rookie in a 1 car team and over a season or 2 be a major powerhouse and have a full 4 car team.
Wrong paint schemes: I know a patch is scheduled to update the roster and paint schemes, but seriously, why make a game with last years schemes and cars? It would be like MLB 11 The Show releasing the game with players on last years teams. Every sport releases their game around the start of the season with current rosters, NASCAR should too. Over the course of the season, have patches and downloads for new car skins or if drivers get dropped or a new driver starts.
Night races: Another head scratcher. I am racing at Charlotte and it's dusk the entire time. There are no day to night transitions. Either have the race in the day or at night, not in between.
HUD: I don't want to see how many experience points I am getting for "Dominating." I also don't want car radar which is a small icon at the bottom of your screen showing where cars are around you. Actually, this might be a PRO since you have no rear view mirror and can't tell where anyone is unless you look behind you which usually isnt a good idea while doing 180mph around a turn.
Spotter: It's great that he can inform me to drink tons of fluids cause its hot, but it sucks when he cant tell me there is a car low. As soon as a car comes low or high, spotter should tell you that. I don't care that I'm leading and can do this all day, I care if a car is coming up on me or I'm approaching lap traffic. Maybe he got himself a cold beverage and missed all the cars around me.
Difficulty: Even on VERY HARD the game isn't very hard. Very hard would be riding in 20th position fighting for 19th. Very hard is being at Daytona or Talladega and being stuck in middle of the pack cause there is no where to go all by yourself. I raced at Charlotte and after 10 laps I had almost a 3 second lead. Then all of a sudden by lap 13 the field was right behind me. If my tires went away in 10 laps or the AI just got amazing, that's pretty stupid.
As you can see, a lot of issues. For their 1st time out the game is playable, but only to a certain degree. If you want online, skip this game until a patch is released. I am going to stick to single player until the new car paint schemes come out and the game is fixed. I hope this helped.
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Here's where I'm coming from. I got started on Papyrus sims on the PC 10-15 years ago. I went from those games to the EA Nascar games for X-Box but was really disappointed, particularly in the graphics, even after putting in some time on them. I didn't bother to even try the EA versions for the PS3. Today, prior to buying Nascar 2011, I've been driving F1 2007, Dirt2, and GT5 for the PS3. I love all three games and they have set the standard for my expectations. With this in mind, to sum up my thoughts on Nascar 2011 while it approaches (but doesn't meet) the standards set by the other three games, it blows away the EA games. I am glad I bought this game if anything else, to support a new developer in creating a good Nascar racing game again. It looks like this will be more of a process (with patches) than an event (with initial release).
I bought this game yesterday and put in about three hours with it last night, and raced in 17 different online races, trying out Martinsville, Daytona, Talladega, and Atlanta. Here is a list of Likes, Eh, and Dis-Likes:
Likes -
* Graphics (other than the resolution, see below) the immersion is good, I like the sense of speed, and I can pick out detail a good distance down the track, which helps in choosing a passing strategy, avoiding a wreck, etc. I caught myself getting tunnel vision on the racing line, and using my (virtual) peripheral vision for gauging where I was relative to the wall, the yellow line, other cars, etc.
* Spotter so far, so good. Yeah, the repetitive "you're clear" can get a little annoying, but when in traffic I relied entirely on the spotter's guidance and I thought it worked well
* Little details The bits of rubber building up on your windshield. Bumps in the track. Changing light conditions with shadows, reflections, the change in sound of the air as your car gets close to the wall, etc. I am sure I will notice more as I spend more time with the game.
* The Draft I like how the draft is portrayed with the option of having it visualized with "wingtip contrails" coming off the spoiler of the car in front of me. Looks cool caught myself watching the draft instead of watching my racing line. The feel of the draft seemed right to me as well.
* Two cockpit views one "to scale" and one "wide angle". I switched between both depending on whether I wanted to try to use my mirrors or not. I don't usually race any sim using the outside views.
* Ticker tape at the top of the HUD good for a quick glance to see time differences and closure rates between you and the car in front, and the car behind
* Damage model not bad, didn't experience it much, but did notice rubbing the wall a few times in one race was starting to really impact my top speeds on the super speedways
Eh -
* Force-feedback programming seems simpler than F1, GT5, or Dirt2. Granted, these other sims have different types of racing, but even Nascar driving in GT5 had more "feel" to it. I hope Eutechnyx improves this with a patch.
* Driving physics I thought the superspeedways were a little easy using the default setups, but not a big deal. The default setup for Martinsville had me suffering from push most of the time and running slower than the pack, which indicates I needed to do some work in the garage to tweak the car for my tastes. So this was a little more of a welcome challenge. I should mention that I turned off all driving aids for my entire session.
* 720p resolution as soon as I looked at the back of the box, I felt a twinge of disappointment. I really was hoping for 1080p, to rival GT5. I found that the more I played the game though, the less I cared about the lower resolution.
* Mirrors not a lot of help. They are available in one of the cockpit views. I haven't used the "radar" display yet as I mainly listen for guidance from the spotter.
* Customizing the controller buttons for different functions is clumsy. I hope they fix this with a patch.
* Experience points popping up based on game events kinda cool, but I will likely disable this function in the HUD
* Crashes believe it or not, I think they might be a little over-done here. It's a little hard to suspend disbelief during some of the wild rides (spinning like a top in the air, that kind of stuff)
Dislikes -
* Multiplayer bugs. Granted, this was the first night for the servers to go live, and I set my expectations low. Still, I felt like I was a beta tester for the online portion. There were long load times depending on the number of drivers. One session failed to load at all, and I had to reboot the PS3 to get out of it. Occasionally the other cars would disappear from the "map view" of the track. Other times just the proximity of a car (no contact) would lead to a bizarre crash. Still other times, if I was on the pole, my race would start but the other drivers were stuck at the starting line. Eutechnyx has some work to do here. Even after all this though I mean I raced 17 different rounds (at an average of 10 laps per race), and I had fun!
* Rolling start right before the green flag both online and offline races are too sloppy here
* Yellow flags, particularly in multiplayer inconsistent, and distracting with the cut scenes, pitting, etc. Some wrecks really should have had an immediate yellow, yet they didn't. I think if the settings for Yellow flags was more sensitive, online races would tend to be cleaner.
* You choose your car/driver at the beginning of the game, and then your stuck with that for the rest of your game-save! What if halfway through the actual 2011 Nascar season I decide I am not a Kurt Busch fan (for example)?? Am I stuck driving his car anyway in the game, or having to start over my online driver from zero experience?
A few things I've yet to try out Career mode, pitting during a race, in-depth car setup. Look to other reviews for opinions on these. Oh and I don't begrudge Eutechnyx for not reflecting the actual 2011 Nascar last minute details I mean if they update that with a patch, that's cool, but it doesn't detract from the game for me. I would like to see them use the new points system though.
In summary I am glad I bought it on opening day, bugs and all. I had a good time running multiplayer last night even with the bugs, and the time flew by. One sign of a good game is when you have to make yourself quit I kept thinking "ok, after this next race I'll quit and go to bed. Well, maybe one more... Ok, this time I really mean it, just one more..." If Eutechnyx is committed to working out the bugs in the online action and some of the game mechanics, then I am committed to supporting their establishment of a new Nascar racing franchise.
NanoSiO2 (#42 Juan Montoya)
Buy NASCAR The Game 2011 Now
I think the game is great and I like it a lot, yes there is room for improvements too. compared to previous nascar games (I have), this one is a huge improvement.
Graphics: they are good, but I also own GT5 and if you compare it to GT5 you know it could be better.
Wheel: I use it with a Logitech wheel and the game gives you great feedback on the traction, loose (over steering) tight (under steering). in my mind I think it does a good job there and you can feel how much traction you have in the corners and if you will hit the wall or not.
when a yellow comes out it takes you to the video of the thing, I don't like that but is ok not a big deal.
I was going to give 4 starts but why not 5, I'm having fun with it.
* they said before releasing the game that there will be a free upgrade to change the game to the 2011 season and get the new track, don't think is out yet, waiting for it.
Thanks,
Read Best Reviews of NASCAR The Game 2011 Here
Okay so it doesn't have every little nitpick customization, but let me tell you what From a Dad with two kids, and barely enough time to even WATCH the races on TV, I'd rather spend my time RACING in the game, and not setting my car up.
I set the difficulty (which it remembers in my profile), I pick the track, and press "x" and next thing I know I'm at the back of the pack working my way up! Note: I don't even qualify or any of that. (which I could do if I wanted, but choose not to)
Racing on this game is configured to be about as "arcade pick-up game" -ish as possible and it succeeds amazingly well.
The one thing that drove me nuts in the beginning was that it was pretty hard to get used to everything, but now that I've logged a few (and by few I mean under ten since I got it) I'm more comfortable with the accel and brakes and have turned off the "throttle/brake control" button might not be a big deal to hardcore gamers, but it's a big deal for a game that is just meant to be played once in a while.
Score score score all around!!!
Graphics are great, sound is what you'd expect, and controls are spot on.
No complaints, even at full market price it's worth it if you've been waiting three years for a Nascar racer!
Enjoy it! (and stop whining)!!!
p.s. = for all you whine-babies complaining about it not being "sim-enough" how's this: I race with gas and tire wear OFF and my damage is purely COSMETIC! So how's that rub ya???? LOL Just hae fun with the darn thing!
Want NASCAR The Game 2011 Discount?
If there were 3.5 stars, I would have a tough choice on what to rate it, so I gave it 4 stars. I can't believe people are giving it 1 and 2 stars, that's ridiculous. I am going to give a simple review by showing you the pros and cons of the game.
Pros:
-Graphics are very impressive, best on a NASCAR game yet.
-Sound is also commendable. Realistic engine sounds, announcers and spotters are solid.
-Online play is great and well put together. Seems as if everyone always races fairly, no glitches that I have seen thus far, and presentation is as good as it gets.
-Presentation offline is fantastic. If you race in a season, it's all there, pre raace introductions from the two announcers, the flyover, and it also shows the current points of each driver going down the rows of the starting grid. Menus are easy to navigate, options are good, driver selection is complete.
-Finally, paint schemes are included again.
-Bump drafting is here, which is good and bad. Sometimes other drivers would help me with a slight push, other times they bumped me out of the way nearly crashing me.
-Replay factor is great. I always want to play it for some reason or another. It will definitely hold fans over for the 2012 edition.
Cons:
-Feels too much like an arcade game for my taste, but as a seasoned veteran to these games since 2003, I found pleasure none the less. Wish they would have made it a bit more technical and less pick up and play. A solid effort, but I hope to see a change next year.
-Based on 2010 season, we will have to wait for a DLC update for new schedule and drivers.
-Load times are sometimes annoying and longer than you would expect.
-Experienced a few minor glitches with online play, but nothing serious.
-Caution flag only waves for major accidents, if you spin out you basically don't have a chance of catching back up.
-Currently waiting for patches to fix all the above issues. One has already came, waiting for the 2nd one.
We shouldn't bash the game. It's Eutechnyx's first try at a NASCAR game and if you ask me, it's a heck of a lot better than EA's past few attempts. It is a very solid package. There are glitches, yes, but overall, it is a must-own for fans of the sports, such as myself. Days are gone where we once had PERFECT Nascar games such as Thunder 2003 and 2004, so get used to not seeing those any time soon. EA really disappointed me with 2005 through 2009, making sub par, boring, unplayable Nascar games, but hopefully Eutechnyx can save the genre. I'm sure anyone would agree with me when I say the best ones were 2003 and 2004. Easily. If there was a PERFECT Nascar game, it would have the depth and presentation of Thunder 2004, the gameplay and finesse of Thunder 2003, and the graphics and online play of the current 2011. So we still wait for the PERFECT Nascar game. In the mean time, pick this one up, you will not regret it. NASCAR the Game 2011 will definitely feed your hunger for the spectacle that is NASCAR racing.
Thanks for reading!
