| Nascar Racing 2003 Season Facts : | ||
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Some time ago I had a look at the media demo of NASCAR Racing 2003 Season (N2003), which was only about 80% complete. This time I'm reviewing the retail version, which is already in the stores in the US. As we all know N2003 is the final Papyrus NASCAR simulation for now as EA have bought the NASCAR rights and Papyrus and Sierra are moving towards the console market. My expectations for N2003 grew higher the closer we got to the release when I read about the involvement of Jasper Motorsports and Goodyear. Due to N2003 being the final in Papyrus' NASCAR series I was hoping for quite a few new features and of course improvements to the already good physics engine and multiplayer, so that the community will be happy with it for years to come as they have been with Grand Prix Legends. Is N2003 good enough? Read on. Let's start by having a look inside the game box. You've got the CD (duh), and the manual. I enjoy reading the manuals (call me crazy) and one of my favourites is "Four-Wheel Drift" by Steve Smith included with Grand Prix Legends. The N2003 manual isn't that special, especially if you own N2002, as these manuals are quite similar. Sure, it has all the useful keyboard commands and all the information you need playing the game, but I was hoping for more information about car setup and the characteristics of the Winston Cup tracks. The manual (about 50 pages) is a good read for novices for learning about the game and the NASCAR rules. I need to mention that on the CD you can find "A Philosophy for Setting up the Winston Cup Race Car" document written by Manuel Daskalos (Chief Engineer at Jasper Motorsports) which is a very good read and can help you understand more about setting up your car. This 5-page documents completes the manual nicely. Installing the game is as easy as it's been before. You choose the directory, some graphics options (renderer, resolution, colour depth) and you're set. The installed size of N2003 is a little over 500 MB which is not much compared to some other new games out there. Launching the game for the first time I was expecting to see some kind of an intro movie, but there isn't one. Not a big deal for me personally, I always watch them once and after that they're useless. As I mentioned in my preview earlier, the menus are similar to N2002. The colour scheme is different of course, and you have animated backgrounds, which look nice in my opinion. In the main menu you can choose between four different driving modes: testing session, single race, championship and multiplayer. You can also watch 10 driving lessons (pitting, drafting and car tuning for example) which are similar to ones already included in N2002. Sadly, there are no track lessons, but if you watched them in N2002 you won't miss them much. The first thing you want to do in options, is set up your controller. This too is quite similar to N2002. First you calibrate your steering wheel and pedals (or joystick) and assign the buttons for shifting and looking left and right. Those of us using an FF wheel can turn the FF effects on/off and tweak the feel by changing the strength, damping and latency settings. I find the FF feel very similar to N2002, which is fine as Papyrus' FF has always been good. There's also a new "advanced" menu for the controller options. You can change the steering linearity which is a very important setting to get right if you're using a steering wheel or a joystick. It can make a big difference on how the car feels on the track so make sure you experiment with this setting. In the advanced menu you can also enable/disable the "steering boost at low speeds" option which was previously found in the core.ini file. There are also new settings for keyboard players to play with. You can set steering assistance from 0 to 100% which, as the name suggests, makes steering easier with a keyboard or a gamepad. There are also smoothing settings for the steering, brake and throttle. I didn't give these settings a try as I prefer using my steering wheel and pedals. The controls menu is very well done with support for multiple controllers and you shouldn't have any problem getting your controller device to work. The sound options are also familiar from N2002, but let's go through them anyway. You can turn 3D audio on/off and even turn sound off completely. You can choose the maximum number of sounds played between 8 and 24. This setting affects the frame rate so some experimenting is needed choosing the right value. In the sound options you can silence your spotter and crew chief or have their comments displayed as text on the screen and also have them heard at the same time. Or any combination you wish. There are also different volume levels you can adjust, including master volume, player engine, opponent engines and track surface. There are a few new graphic options. Settings like track lighting & shading, solar effects and shadows are the ones which have the biggest effect on frame rate, but also make N2003 look so much better than N2002. Another new option I'm happy to have is the field of view (FOV) setting. In the previous NASCAR titles this was set to 78 degrees and there wasn't an option to adjust it. A FOV of 78 degrees gives you better visibility to both sides of the car but also gives you a "backseat" feel; everything looks a bit too small. In N2003 you can change the FOV between 65.00 and 78.00 degrees. The default is 65.00 and to me this looks great. All objects and cars look bigger. Even the banking at Bristol looks steeper. Not to mention that now you can actually see the tachos much better. The visibility to the sides of the car is reduced a little but I feel it's worth it for the more realistic view. Let's move on to the track. I did my first laps at Infineon Raceway (previously known as Sears Point - R.I.P) and it has changed quite dramatically from N2002. The pit area has changed the most, there's no wall inside the final hairpin anymore. Many of the corners have been modified a little, too. The kerbs are different, some objects have been removed, small changes like that. All in all it looks more realistic than before judging from what I've seen on TV. First thing I noticed driving around is that the car feels much more glued to the track than before. No more of that gliding over the track feeling. You can now push the car a bit harder and the driving feels easier than it did in N2002. Close to the limit it's still not easy of course, although when the rearend steps away you can bring it back with opposite lock a little better than in N2002. All in all there's just a much better feeling of grip and four tyres under the car. Next I tried Darlington, and first time coming out of turn 4 on to the front straight I thought my teeth would fall off. Darlington is really bumpy! Not just the front straight but also the turns. The bump modelling is really well done in N2003 and adds a lot to the game. The bumps are not excessive but can get you into trouble at tracks like Darlington, Bristol and Lowe's if you're not careful or if your car setup isn't optimal. It's also possible that you need to change your driving line a little due to the bumps on some tracks. This might not sound like a big new feature, but in my opinion it's one of the biggest factors that makes N2003 great. The improvements to the graphics are really visible at the evening/night races. Driving at Lowe's night is beautiful. On the front straight as you approach turn 1 the sun literally blinds you (if you've got solar effects turned on) and decreases your visibility. Entering turn 1 the sun disappears behind the buildings in turn 1. It's just graphics but it's a really beautiful effect. I haven't seen it done this well in racing sims before, or any game for that matter. Another thing that I really like about the graphics is the sky. Everytime you load a track the sky seems to look different, and the clouds look great. Not to mention that at night races the lighting level changes going from happy hour to race, which is another subtle, but nice effect. The way the track lights reflect of the dark asphalt at Richmond night is another thing that adds to the immersion level. I really love these lighting and solar effects, and although they reduce your frame rate I think it's worth it. The track textures, asphalt, grass, and the other texures are quite similar to N2002, but the lighting really makes the tracks come alive. It's most noticeable in night races, but also looks very good at day when the amount of sunlight changes around the track depending on the conditions. It's also really easy to tell the difference between a clear and a cloudy day; when there's cloud cover everything looks a bit darker and gloomier.There are also a few new shadow effects. You can now see shadows cast on the cars from other cars. Another addition is that shadows can now be cast from buildings to inside your cockpit. This looks quite cool, when for example you're driving close to the outside wall the shadows from the trackside fence are cast in your cockpit. And it doesn't effect the frame rate much at all on my system. Another thing you'll notice especially in long races is windscreen build-up. When you drive behind other cars the windscreen gets dirtier and dirtier the longer you drive. You can get a clear screen by visiting the pit lane. If you blow your engine or drive through a wreck with lots of smoke (or dirt) your windscreen will get really dirty very quickly. As you can see there are quite a few new improvements to the graphics and these together make you feel much more involved in the action than before. I'm also happy with the frame rate on my system compared to the demo. I switched from Direct3D rasterizer to OpenGL and gained about 5-10 fps. I'm getting about 30-60 fps in races depending on the track and cars visible. I reduced drawing distance to 40% and this seemed to help the frame rate nicely. I've got most of the graphics options on (at 1152x864x16, no FSAA), although I have stuff like mirror quality at medium. I'm satisfied on how it runs on my system, but if you want to turn everything on and run FSAA at high resolution you better have a P4 3 GHz with an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. I also noticed that the feeling of speed is slightly better than in N2002, but I'm not quite sure why. The lighting and shadows probably have an effect on that. The sounds are also improved slightly. With most of the sounds I can't find much difference to N2002 but the engine sound sounds cool. The cars rev a bit higher than in N2002 and at the end of the straights you can really hear the engine working hard. And as you get off the throttle and start slowing down to a turn the sound really changes as the revs drop. Then you slowly start getting back on the throttle in the middle of a turn and the engine revs start to rise slowly - it sounds really good. If you've seen in-car footage on the TV that's almost exactly how it sounds. Like I mentioned before, the other sounds aren't that different but the engine sound is the most important and again like some of the new graphics effects it's very well done and adds to the feeling of being there. There are some new sounds like the sound of a helicopter when you're viewing a replay from the helicopter view and a few new announcer sounds when you start a race. I don't really like the engine sounds much in replays, when viewing the race from the TV or spectator cameras. The cars don't sound powerful enough for my liking from these views. The replays are excellent in N2003 like they have been before in Papyrus sims. There are 15 different views you can watch the action from, including TV, spectator and helicopter cameras and few different views from the car. You can save a short clip, or an entire race if you wish. You can watch the other cars go around the track when you're in the pits in practice or happy hour. By downloading a replay from another player you can watch his throttle and brake position to get a better idea on how he's driving the track. The new graphics effects look really great in replays, the reflections and shadows on the track and cars and the lens flare on the cameras. Thanks to the new physics and bump modelling the cars look much more alive than before. They're moving up and down over the bumps; looks much closer to the action you see on TV. Like N2002, there's a replay editor which you can use to add sounds and artwork to your replays. You can basically use this feature to create a video of your online race for example. The little I've used the editor it seems a bit awkward to use, but if you have the patience you can do some nice things with it. The N2003 replays are easily the best in any sim but I would have liked to see more special effects with the TV cameras. For example a camera close to the wall could shake a bit when the cars drive past; this would create a nice sensation of speed. The TV cameras are also fixed to the center point of each car. I would like to see a camera which would "move around" a bit when following the cars. But like I said, the N2003 replay features are the best you can find in racing sims. According to the manual the AI has also received a lot of attention. I didn't spend much time racing the AI in N2002, but it's still clear that the N2003 AI is much improved. I've raced a few short races against it, and haven't seen any really silly moves yet. There's been a couple of crashes but the way they happened was realistic. The AI cars also seem better in avoiding spinning cars. The real improvement, though, is in the way they race. They don't just follow a pre-designated path like what seemed to be the case in N2002; now they move around a bit more, looking for the best lane to be in. You can race side by side with them, or 3-wide if you've got the balls. You can also bump with them a little more without immediately losing control. In N2002 you needed to be really careful and avoid contact because it sent you to a spin very quickly. It's been a long while since I enjoyed racing the AI this much. It's still not anywhere as enjoyable as racing against real humans, but it's a good way to practice as now you can actually enjoy it. I've done races at the super speedways and also short tracks like Martinsville, where the AI had problems before. I haven't encountered any big problems so far so it looks like Papyrus did a really good job on this part of the game, too. There's also a few new options for the AI. Before a race you can set the AI strength to "auto" and after completing the race this value will be adjusted according to how well you did in the race. There's also "Adaptive Speed Control" which adjusts the AI speed during the race. Let's say you build up a 2-second lead. In this case the AI would speed up and catch up back to you. If you spin and drop back they will slow down and wait for you. This isn't a realistic option and not interesting to me, but some drivers might find it fun. I mentioned the improved physics engine before, but I'll try to describe the differences to N2002 in a little more detail, because this is in my opinion the area where N2003 has improved the most compared to the previous versions. Papyrus worked with Jasper Motorsports and Goodyear to really improve the handling of the car, and they have succeeded in doing just that. You have a bit more power now and the grip seems so much better on all tracks. You have a much better feel for the car than before; it feels like there's actually four tyres under the car. The "gliding" effect which was evident in N4 and still in N2002 is pretty much gone completely. You can drive the car harder into the corners without the rearend sliding all over the place like it did in N2002. You need to be careful with the throttle though, because there's more horsepower. You can't just mash the throttle down like you could with N2002. Overall, the car is easier to drive and you have a better feel when the tyres are reaching their limit. It still gets tricky if you go over the limit; you need to be quick to catch the car with opposite lock but it works better than in N2002. I noticed that you can still save a spin by turning more into the corner when the car gets loose, or by applying the brakes. Fortunately it doesn't work as well as in N2002 and will have a bigger effect on your tyre wear, too.In N2003 bottoming out the car doesn't end up in disaster like it did in N2002. Sparks fly but it doesn't spin you around like it did before. Much more realistic according to what I've seen on TV. The setup options are almost the same as in N2002. You can now adjust camber in increments of 0.10 degrees and the limit is now 7.00 degrees compared to 5.00 in N2002. The choice of sway bars is also different than before; you can now fit a bigger bar at the front. I would have liked to have a possibility for changing brake balance during a race, but apparently there wasn't enough time for this. So the setups options are the same as in N2002, but don't try using your old setups, because they won't work. The improvements in physics means that you'll need to use different, more realistic setups; for example more forward weight and a bigger front sway bar. Getting the camber and especially the tyre pressures right is more important now, particularly for tyre wear. Even a small change can have a noticeable effect on the handling. In N2002 you had to use loose setups so that the car wouldn't start pushing bad later on. In N2003 if you get the tyre pressures right and get the handling neutral the car stays like that more than it did in N2002. You need to be careful on the first few laps though as the tyres are cold. Pushing the car and the tyres too hard in the beginning of a stint can lead to really bad tyre wear now; you need to keep an eye on the tyre temps. By taking things easier in the beginning you can improve your tyre wear a lot and be stronger on long runs. The aerodynamics have also been changed and you can notice this well on faster tracks; get close behind another car and your car will push up towards the wall. If someone is riding on your rear bumper you'll get loose. These effects are much more noticeable than in N2002. It also seems like the outside line works better at some tracks than before, but still not as good as in real races, because the grip is the same all around the track. The weather also plays a big part on how the car handles. If you have realistic weather turned on, the wind will change speed and direction. I haven't noticed a change in ambient temperature in the races I've done so far, though. All this, the aero loose, aero push and changing weather means that it's very difficult to get a good setup together. The setup you made at 70 F, no wind will probably feel really different at changing weather and in traffic. This brings a big challenge to the driving and I can't wait to do some league races. Another big challenge comes from the improved damage. In N2002 it was really relaxed and you could get away with big hits without affecting the speed of the car much. In N2003 if you even hit the wall just slightly you will bend the metal on the car. Slightly bigger hit and you've got damage which has a noticeable effect on the car's performance. Even repairing the car in the pits doesn't bring it back to the same level it was before. If you get involved in one of those big ones at the super speedways you can say goodbye to a good result. Online multiplayer is another area where Papyrus is far ahead of the other developers. You can have online races between 40 players very smoothly if the server has enough bandwidth. The clients joining don't need a broadband connection to have a good racing experience although it certainly helps and reduces the "warping". There are a few new things in multiplayer in N2003. First of all the host can choose hardcore mode which forces cockpit view, windscreen build-up and realistic weather. The players can also vote on different things, like giving a certain player a lap back or removing his black flag. Multiplayer remains one of the biggest strong points in Papyrus' NASCAR series and it has been improved slightly in N2003. There's still no save game feature during a race, which would have been useful for those who like to do long offline races during a championship for example. You can argue that it wouldn't be realistic, but a save game feature when pitting would have been a good idea in my opinion. I'm no painter, but from what I've seen the paint shop works the same way as in N2002, or alternatively you can use your favourite paint program and import your car to the game. I went back to N2002 after playing N2003 for over a week and it was quite a shock. The car didn't feel good to drive, I was sliding all over the place and there didn't seem to be any feeling of grip and also the speed sensation wasn't as good as in N2003. It took a while to get used to it again for my league race. This gave me a good view on the biggest improvements in N2003, which are the physics including the bumps on the tracks, the improved damage model and of course the graphics effects including track lighting, shadows and sun effects. I was pretty happy with the update from N4 to N2002 but this is a bigger change thanks to the new physics. The car just feels so much better and enjoyable to drive, and I think this will also have a positive effect on online league races. To conclude this review, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season is definitely the best racing simulation available and certainly worth the money even if you own the previous version. Even if you don't like NASCAR racing much you should check it out to see the best physics engine and multiplayer at work. I can't see any reason why the online community wouldn't take this sim and keep improving it for years to come like has happened with Grand Prix Legends. I'm certain that I'll be enjoying this title for a long time to come. |
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Comments : |
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| Author: Napoleon-X | 04-02-2003 |
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Jure, the graphics aren't any more intense than the Demo or Beta Demo right? |
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| Author: Jure Zagoricnik | 05-02-2003 |
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I wouldn't know. I am not the one reviewing it. The reviewer here says "First of all the graphics engine seems to be optimised a little from the media demo." so I guess they are a bit better, |
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| Author: Capt Dobey | 05-02-2003 |
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best one yet |
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| Author: Richard Beasley | 05-02-2003 |
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wheres the pitcrews on pitroad??? i thought i saw a screen shot of them workin on the cars for nascar 2003 a while back?? r they not in the game other than th epit boxes? |
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| Author: Cool Hand Luke | 05-02-2003 |
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I noticed the bumps on the media demo at michigan to be quite realistic. In a game like F1 2002 where it has "bump" modelling, its more like mountain modelling. Race tracks are never like rally tracks, hardly ever mammoth bumps where the car gets airborn or anything like that... |
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| Author: Jure Zagoricnik | 05-02-2003 |
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I thought we would see pit crews for other cars as well but I guess there aren't any. It's funny seeing the car get jacked by an invisible person and then hanging in the air. |
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| Author: StrtRacrZ | 06-02-2003 |
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I agree w/ Jure, I thought we were supposed to se people on pit road. NASCAR Heat did exactly that except for that there was no boards going up and down when a car would get close and pit |
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| Author: jimi | 14-02-2003 |
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cool! |
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| Author: Hannu | 14-02-2003 |
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Good job. |
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| Author: Frenk | 15-02-2003 |
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Excellent review! |
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| Author: Mikhail | 15-02-2003 |
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I agree that it's an awesome game. Crank up the Radeon 9700 pro or 4600 and you can't beat it. Daytona at night is breathtaking. I can even beat my 13 year old son on LAN occasionally. |
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| Author: Robert Fleurke | 15-02-2003 |
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Simply a superb review! Well done Greger, U (remain) DA MAN :) |
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| Author: Couch | 16-02-2003 |
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Finally, the in-car view doesnt look like your driving in the back of a 1976 Town & Country Station Wagon! |
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| Author: Griffin272 | 16-02-2003 |
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Sweet! |
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| Author: Azumamaro Nishimuraya | 16-02-2003 |
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Greger super article master !!!!! |
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| Author: hoslan major | 16-02-2003 |
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bad arcade racing game=(( |
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| Author: Spike | 17-02-2003 |
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right on target.. I am very impressed with the job Papy has done and look forward to years of fun with it. |
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| Author: Kbec | 17-02-2003 |
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Very nice. I enjoyed reading this review as I know it's hard to write. Well done. (By the way, I just bought the game too and I agree with the review) :) |
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| Author: Stephen Campbell | 18-02-2003 |
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Nice article. Brings out the fine points. I have purchased this and was not running with Track Specular highlights, but I will now. |
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| Author: Dave Antles | 18-02-2003 |
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Well written but I would like a little more info on the painting & importing of cars. (will it be possible for the other multiplayers to see your new paint job?) |
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| Author: Paul James | 05-03-2003 |
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Great review, a must own game, more fun than GP4 by miles! |
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| Author: Captain Rusty Scrogginss?. | 05-03-2003 |
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I have to admit Papyrus has raised the bar so high this time that the competition will probably never reach it. This is by far the best racing/NASCAR simulation ever and with all the add on tracks from 2002 being importable we have lots of Road Courses to keep us busy. And there is no mult Player lile Papyrus multiplayer. Yours truly #1 Papy Fan Rusty |
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| Author: Steve | 27-03-2003 |
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Brilliant review for a brilliant game. Pitty Papyrus wont be making anymore, not in the near future anyway. Definately the best Nascar game designers around! |
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| Author: Gabester | 31-03-2003 |
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There are pit crews from other people! And I totally agree with the reviewer. It's THE best racing sim EVAR!!! IT OWNZ J00! |
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| Author: Stagger | 31-03-2003 |
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Flyin'Finn, I have been driving the NASCAR Racing Papyrus simms since 1994. After reading this review I am convinced that you are a complete idiot if you think the car physics are more stable in this sim than in any of the other in the series. Please, No More Reviews. |
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| Author: Donald Mynes | 10-04-2003 |
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good article man i havent got a chance to play 2k3 yet but i know now it will be soon |
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| Author: Blackjack | 10-04-2003 |
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Accurate review, I liked it. |
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| Author: Butch | 13-05-2003 |
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Great and well written articule. I have had NCR2003 for quite a while, but it is great to read others comments about the game too. I still can't change views during a race, I couldn't on N2002 either. Don't know why, but I guess that's life. |
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| Author: Jure Zagoricnik | 23-07-2003 |
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Yo Stagger, Sure, Nascar Racing 1 and 2 had the most stable physics. It was like driving on rails. This is what you ment, right? There are always people who... |
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| Author: Jan Larsen | 11-09-2003 |
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The game is great, but it has some bugs. Like the pitlane speed vs. pace car speed. Sometimes at the short tracks like Bristol, you'll get a black flag for overtaking the pacecar as the pitspeed limit is higher than the pacecar. Will be fixed in 1.1.0.2 patch. (if it ever get released!!!) |
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| Author: tweek | 02-01-2004 |
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well informative thanks |
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| Author: Scott Michaels | 24-01-2004 |
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Rivals GPL in fun, but is easily the most complete game ever created |
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| Author: Paul \'dozman\' Dorival | 02-04-2004 |
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Great review, I'll have to go get it now......... |
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| Author: rob | 20-04-2004 |
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trying to convince myself to purchase n2003, have n2002 already and enjoy it. your article certainly makes me want to change.new to online racing. a friend told me sierra not hosting after april 30/04. would appreciate your comments. |
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| Author: Mark Royer | 02-07-2004 |
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Excellent Review! |
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| Author: Andy R. | 18-09-2006 |
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Awesome article. i was debating between this game and the ea sim 05... this atricle has convinsed me that nr2003 is the better sim. Thanks! |
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