| Nascar Thunder 2003 Facts : | ||
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HOW REAL IS REAL? Over the last two decades, the popularity of Nascar has been increasing at an incredible rate. This is apparent in the amount of attention it receives in the national media each week The sports division of Electronic Arts (EA) has released several Nascar products in the past with its clear aim at the console market, but its last attempt in the PC realm, Nascar Revolution, fell flat in sales and popularity. Its lack of realism did not provide what hardcore PC racing enthusiasts wanted. The arcade game-play did not make up for the beautiful graphics, and was destined for the bargain bins. EA Sports has again decided to throw their hat in the ring with Nascar Thunder 2003 (NT2003), a racing game developed by the makers of F1 2002, Image Space, along with the technical expertise of Nascar Heat's creator, Ed Martin. Needless to say, my enthusiasm peaked upon hearing this…Ed Martin working with the publishing kings of sports games…you couldn't help but be excited about the possibilities. While this title was also used for the console market, a different developer was creating the PC version. EA Sports now has exclusive rights to the Nascar license after 2003, and this is to be the introduction piece. While 730MB of disk space seemed significant, I had other software that wanted more. One very nice touch to the installation was an option asking if you would like to have the late great Dale Earnhardt installed as a driver in the game. Once installed, I went through the usual 3D Setup that is customary for most EA Sports products. The intro screen and movie were very nicely done, with several Nascar drivers and crewmembers doing the introductions. Once past the movie, I was asked to enter a driver name, hometown and other information to create a driver. The next step, selecting a car to drive, let you scroll through the 36 Winston Cup and 20 Busch Series drivers included with the game, as well as past legend's cars such as Alan Kulwicki and Elmo Langley. I selected my ride and went to the main menu. At the main screen, you are greeted with an animated backdrop of a speedway with thunder and lightning rolling overhead. More interesting is the background music for the menu screens, which are in MP3 format that allows you to add your own music. Hearing Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" really added to the overall attitude of this game. On the main menu, you have 5 options to pick from:
I went into the Settings menu to set my options for racing. At the Difficulty screen, I was introduced to several assist options to aid in controlling the car:
The next screen presented Rules for races. From here you can adjust the use of flags to no flags, full flags, or black flags only. Fuel Usage, Tire Wear and Mechanical Failures can be adjusted here to create pit strategy and tire conservation in shorter races. The number of opponents in each race, from 1 to 42, can also be selected, as well as the temperature and race length percentage of all races. Controller setup was very simple, and single or dual-axis controllers can be used, although there are some known issues with some dual-axis controllers. My TSW2 could not be assigned in dual-axis mode, but once I re-configured it as a single axis, there was no problem within the game. Using a single-axis for gas and brake does prevent you from doing such things as trail brake and tapping the brake at plate tracks, but I soon found that it didn't make that much of a difference. Also note that within the controller setup, there are several options for controller rates, dead zones and force feedback effects. Image Space has done a very thorough job in allowing a high level of input customization, so that each individual can calibrate their controller to their liking. The Graphics setup screen had options for turning on and off and setting several levels of detail for items such as Track Detail, Player Car Detail, Lighting, Shadows and Image Quality. Special Effects could be adjusted to allow slower machines to leave out skid marks, smoke and dust, and several other options for default views (cockpit, nose, broadcast TV) and broadcast overlays, which make the game resemble a television broadcast. The number of options given for increasing or decreasing what is displayed was helpful, and made the game run well on my current machine, an AMD XP2700, and my secondary machine an AMD 1.2Ghz. Audio options were minimal, with sliders to adjust volume levels for music, sound effects, player's engine level and spotter level. The default levels that came with the game were found to be acceptable. Next I went into the replay system where you have the option to turn on the replay for recording entire races and/or hot laps. You can also turn on an Instant Replay system, which is a feature available for offline races. You simply press 'R' (or whatever hotkey you assign it to) and see the most recent event in the practice or race. From within the replay setup you have the option to set the amount of time, from 10 to 180 seconds, for the instant replay to run. If you want to see an entire lap or two while in a practice session, you will either have to set the instant replay to an adequate amount of time or you will have to leave the track to view it, and then return to the track later. Once all the options were set, it was time to hit the track...DRIVERS, START YOUR ENGINES Once back to the Main Menu, I chose Race Modes and Testing Session to get an idea of the car's highly touted physics model without having to worry about rules and other cars. I chose Daytona International Speedway as my opening testing ground, set the weather to 70 and clear and proceeded to the track. The game loaded the track in a few seconds, and I was presented with a screen that listed drivers, best lap and options for car set-up in the garage via the Easy Tweak and Advanced method. In the Easy Tweak Garage, the car can be adjusted via four independent sliders that control down-force, balance, suspension and gearing. A great touch, especially for anyone who's intimidated by the plethora of setup options in the Advanced Garage. The changes you make with the sliders do affect the setup values in the Advanced Garage as well, so this is not an independent or dumbed-down tweak area for novices. This very well could be the best place to start a base setup until it comes time to fine-tune it. Entering the Advanced Garage area, I was met with several screens that handled tires, suspension, weight and drive-train options. A new option in the aero adjustments section that I had never seen before in a stock car game were options for flaring the left and right front fenders. This was marvelous, allowing actual aero tweaks for handling and speed. I decided to take my first laps on the track at Daytona. My first impression was that the track appeared dark, and while the graphics were very clean, the color differences in the pavement were minimal. No racing groove was evident as I left pit road and drove down the front straight into turn 1. Moving the car up through the gears, I could hear several ambient mechanical noises just under the wonderfully deep sounding engine tone. I'm not sure if they were mechanical movements in the chassis, the drive-train, or what have you, but they certainly added to the total atmosphere of the game. As I roared up closer to full speed and entered turn 3, the car suddenly pushed straight up the track into the wall. A controller calibration problem was my thought, so I exited the track, went back to the controller options and saw that the range of steering was correct. I ran back out on the track and once again the car climbed the hill and scraped the wall. I ran several more laps wondering if this was related to tire temps, but the problem remained. I finally realized that I needed to adjust my entry line and get off the gas to keep the car low in the turns. The only way I could determine if it was the game or me was to put other cars on the track, so off to Quick Race I went. Once I chose to start the race, I was presented with a grand display of all the pageantry that comes with Nascar races these days. The cars lined up on pit road, the Goodyear blimp high in the sky, a formation of fighter planes in flight overhead as the announcers talk over the images with great anticipation of the race. Once placed inside my car, the engine came to life and I noticed for the first time several icons on the left hand side of the screen. One had a yellow flag in it, one had a car with an arrow behind it, and another had a wrench with a red line through it. I paused the race and found that these are Race Information icons. The flag shows you the current race condition, which is good because there are no flags displayed at the flag-stand at any time, not even the checkered flag. The car with an arrow behind it indicates that you are to follow this car…and trailing from that box to the car in front of me was a blinking red line that resembled a Fox telecast. This line stayed glued to the back of the car you're supposed to follow until the green flag drops. This is rather annoying, and you cannot turn it off, at least not that I could find. The wrench icon was a pitting icon and the red line through it indicates the pits are closed. I was flabbergasted that a game with such intent on realism would suddenly drop the ball and place icons and markers on the screen for information. The race begins and after running several laps in a tight pack there is no contact between myself and the other drivers. I'm impressed with the AI at this point. They recognize the player as another driver on the track and neither ignores the player nor do they move aside for him. It's racing hard, the way it should be. Several laps later, I'm following a car into Turn 1 and for several laps I have been taking note of the AI's braking points. Although my lap times were comparable to the AI cars, the braking points were significantly later than the AI cars, and they were able to accelerate at a much faster rate out of the turns. On one particular lap however, the AI car slows sooner than expected and I plow into the back of the car with enough force to have turned his car around, and caused significant damage to mine as well. Instead the AI car pulls away with a small rounded indentation in his rear bumper and seemingly no damage to mine. Near the end of the race, as an AI car is passing me, I get loose and spin down into the grass on the front stretch. Although I never came back up on the track, another AI seems to find me sitting close enough to the apron and plows into my right front fender. I decide to pit, fix any damage and get fresh tires for the closing laps. With all the other teams' war wagons and pit signs present on pit-road, it's tricky finding your pit stall. I'm driving the #3 Oreo car and yet I can't see my pit box. Then I suddenly realize I have the only box that doesn't have a number on the pit sign, which also isn't dropped down to help me find my stall. This kind of oversight makes me wonder about the beta testing and quality assurance that went into this game. It's simple things like this that makes a good game great. As I hit my mark in my stall, the game switches from the cockpit view to an external camera with a great animation of my pit crew going to work on the car. From this vantage point I realize the damage on my car from the impact in the grass resulted in nothing more than a paint scuff on the fender, which is quite disappointing. Once again the developers have taken the player from being inside the car, feeling like they are in a real race, pulled them out and made this all a game again. No sooner had I finished my thought, I was back in my car and given the "GO, GO, GO" to leave pit road. Even while repairing the damage, the pit stop lasted only a little over 15 seconds; not very realistic in my opinion. I re-entered the track to line up for the restart (behind the flashing red line again). The green flag waved and we were off with 2 laps to go. While attempting a tight pass in turn 3 my car collided with the car on the outside of me. The AI car did not budge more than an inch and I bounced off and kept going. I pushed it again in Turn 1 and this time I hit the AI car in the left rear quarter-panel. Ordinarily, this would have caused his car to spin up the track and into the wall, but not here. It seems that the AI cars are very solidly glued to the track. It takes a significant blow to move them, much less spin them. As I crossed the start/finish line taking the checkered flag, the game took control of the car, switching once again to an external view of my car, and then transported me directly to the results screen. I was expecting to see some sort of celebration in victory lane, but instead I was taken to see the results, and once I pressed OK, I was back to the main menu.SEASON, MULTIPLAYER AND FINAL THOUGHTS Running a season is essentially the same as running a quick race, except that you accumulate points over the duration of races in a single season, and the driver with the most points at the end is crowned season champ. You have the ability to edit the schedule when setting up a new season, removing tracks from the schedule to create a shorter season, or simply because you don't like to race at a particular venue. You can also setup different rules for your season such as the size of the field as well as the opponent strength, flag rules and race distance. A tabulation is kept over the course of the season with laps completed, laps led, poles won and so forth, which is nice to look back on after a long season. All in all, the season mode is not much out of the ordinary, and it's definitely nothing like the career mode offered in the console version, which includes special events such as the Shootout prior to the Daytona 500, and the All-Star race the weekend before the Coca-Cola 600. Again, a chance to do something different fell through the cracks. The multiplayer portion of NT2003 is very strong, albeit limited to only 16 cars through either a Local-Area Network (LAN) or via the Internet. GameSpy is offered as a method for finding online races, but you can also join online leagues and connect IP to IP with your friends. Of course, you can always find someone looking for a race on the EA Sports message boards or by joining several of the online racing community forums. I spent a lot of time turning laps at each of the included 23 Authentic Winston Cup tracks (and with the Daytona Beach circa 1955 fantasy track, which is quite interesting) and I have found highs and lows at each ranging from difficult driving surfaces (especially at Martinsville, very slick) to odd textures in the pavement (at Darlington in particular). Even after competing in several competitive, fun races, I still felt the same way about NT2003…the graphics are great, the physics model has incredible potential, but as a whole the entire package feels unfinished. Suffice it to say I felt let down, but based upon the posts found on EA's website, as well as numerous other websites, I know I'm not alone. I certainly understand that any new series is bound to have problems at first, and if this is just the beginning, it should get better. One disappointment was the lack of an option for creating your own car paint scheme within the game. If you want a custom paint scheme, or would like to have an updated or additional scheme for a Winston Cup driver, then you must do this outside of the game. There are several websites with add-on cars and templates for creating your own rides, but shouldn't that be a part of the program in the first place? The console version has car creation built-in, why can't the more powerful PC's version have the same? Personally, the biggest single disappointed was not finding the Career mode that was so raved about in NT2003 for the consoles. It would have been so much more fun to have had a 20-year career and have ride offers, sponsor options, crew changes, research and development costs and money being a big part of your success. That sounds great to me, but maybe that's too much like an arcade game to some. Now don't take this wrong, arcade-racing games have their place. It's important not only from a business standpoint, but from a practical stance, to develop and sell a product that doesn't take hours upon hours to learn and still more hours to master. Even the most hardcore fanatic has a favorite game they can just crank up and go. It is seemingly difficult to make a game easy for newcomers and authentic for hardcore junkies within the same platform. There's much to be said for having a fun game…as long as you know what you're buying. I'm a simulation racer at heart. It has to be real or I won't enjoy it. That may be why my views on this game were somewhat negative. While Nascar Thunder 2003 was a noble attempt to produce a true-simulation racer in the typical arcade line of EA Sports, the final product felt incomplete. If EA would take some of the finer modules from the console version, and implement them along with the physics model and graphics, they could have a winner on their hands. Only time will tell how long this series will last on the PC. |
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Comments : |
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| Author: VB | 03-03-2003 |
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Yikes where to start. The "annoying red line" can be turned off with F9. Easy to find if you bother to look. Pit-lane stall. Ok it doesn't drop the banner but your pit stall is in order of qualification so it's not difficult to find. Or put auto-pit on which sorts it all out for you without losing time. Car creation : The only other game with a built in paint package I can think of is Papyrus' Nascar simulations. But I doubt anyone would use the built in editor to create a car rather than a paint program. Why have McDonalds if you can have steak? The AI alone is superb enough to make this a heartily recommended game. A few minor things that can easily be fixed if the reviewer bothered to try, and an omission that is made from every other racing game on the planet bar Papyrus' doesn't make it any less of a great game. |
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| Author: davidan | 04-03-2003 |
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Great review that helps me in my evaluation of this game. Keep up the good work BHMS. |
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| Author: DAN WEEKS | 04-03-2003 |
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AWESOME REVIEW |
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| Author: jimmy d | 04-03-2003 |
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cool review. |
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| Author: Rodster | 04-03-2003 |
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The reviewer does make vaild points regarding this game. Thunder 2003 and Nascar Racing 2003 are both solid efforts, but they have different audiences. Thunder is still geared towards the Console crowd and Papy's is for the Hardcore Sim fan. I own both and like both games. Nice Review BHMS. |
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| Author: AKRY | 04-03-2003 |
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Very insightful review, not biased toward NT2003 nor NR2003..... Keep it up!! |
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| Author: The Man | 05-03-2003 |
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Fair review. I personaly tried the demo and was so disappointed. And sounds like the final version is not much better than demo. Thank God for Papy and NR2003. Man is it awesome and they really nailed the AI this time.. |
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| Author: WarBird | 05-03-2003 |
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Excellent review. Very well presented, well thought out and covers the good and bad about this so called race sim. |
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| Author: Slimebowl | 06-03-2003 |
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Papyrus just keeps making this game better! Where do they go with it next? |
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| Author: Tazz | 06-03-2003 |
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I've tried the other racing sims out there, which it seems you have failed to mention, in comparrison thunder 2003 is very good in its playing ability as well as drivability. I have tried countless other sims and have yet to find any remotly close as this one has. so maybe we should be the ones who felt let down for you not doing your job by comparing the other sims out there before shooting down one awsome game. Soory for being so harsh but you've really struck a nerve. Tazz |
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| Author: TimCollier | 07-03-2003 |
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Thanks for the feedback everyone...this was my first full-fledged attempt at writing a review, and with help from David Harrison, I managed to create what you see. I hope to do more reviews for BHMS in the future, and everyone's opinion is appreciated... |
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| Author: wesley | 11-03-2003 |
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can i try this game before downloading pleas. |
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| Author: DaddyRat | 26-03-2003 |
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You put it nice...I might not have put it that nice after rating on the game and all the hipe it was getting to be let down...yes the graphics are good but ill stick with the 2002 for now and me and my buddys all agree and that what we still race...Maybe the next one will be up to par...Dont get me wrong but the realistic to it is just not there yet.. |
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| Author: tim | 03-05-2003 |
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i think the game sucked. not even close to nascar heat |
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| Author: atze | 18-05-2003 |
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nice game for a beautiful fun |
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| Author: Markus G. | 01-06-2003 |
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Excellent review. Not a great game though when you compare it to Nascar Racing. I purchased the game hoping that it would be better than what it turned out to be. Ah well, back to the store to get the latest version of Nascar Racing by Papyrus. |
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