| Nascar Racing 4 Facts : | ||
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"The long awaited stockcar simulation is finally here!" It has been a long road for diehard stockcar simracers throughout the world as they have been waiting patiently since 1996 for the stockcar simulation successor to the popular NASCAR Racing 2 by Papyrus. You may be pondering on why I said, "1996". Papyrus did release NASCAR Racing 3 but since it still used the same dated engine - with some tweaks - from NASCAR Racing1, there weren't any new physical innovations with its release. When NR3 hit the market many simracers were disappointed that it did not use the new 3D physics engine and voiced their opinions loudly at various gaming forums throughout the simracing community. Folks, NASCAR Racing 3 was basically a placeholder for the market as the Papyrus people felt that the GPL based variant wasn't ready for the masses. Technology wasn't up to par, so to speak, and other game refinements needed to be done to make the game play on moderate equipment. NASCAR Racing 4 was supposed to be released late last year but Papyrus felt that it would be wise to hold off and release the product early this year to fix and refine the game engine a bit more. (Smart thinking here) As I mentioned before, NR4 uses their latest and tweaked physics engine from their 1960s F1 simulation, GPL (Grand Prix Legends), which was released several years ago. Gone are the 2D physics that has been in use since the release of their Indycar Racing 1. (Man, that was a long time ago!) I welcome the new addition of realistic 3D physics from Papyrus to their line of stockcar simulations. With the new physics engine in place you will be able to experience the realism of driving a Winston Cup stockcar through conditions at the various tracks. Which means to my fellow simracers that this is a simulation first and an arcade game second. So enough of the past and let's move on with the review as the one of the most highly anticipated stockcar simulations of all time has been finally released. Could this be the crème de la crème of all stockcar simulations to date? Perhaps. MY SETUP:
CONTENT: Well besides the nice looking box, you get a 130 page NR 4 manual, CD, a reference card for the macros and a registration card. The NR4 manual itself was easy to read with detailed explanations for configuring the game to your system. INSTALLATION: After the disc gets loaded and you click on the installation routine (hey, you want this installed, right?) you are presented with several options varying with the amount of disk space. I opted to go for the maximum installation which was approximately 370MB. Once the installation was completed, I decided to configure the graphics by running the 3D Graphics program in which you can select the following APIs: Direct3D, Direct3D TNL and OpenGL. I chose the latter since theoretically it is faster in performance, plus the fact there are other enhancements available. This entire process takes an average of 30 seconds or more depending on the resolution, processing power, memory and speed of your video card. You also get an option to have the game run in a window or use the software cursor. IN THE GAME: Now it was time to get into NR4 to see what is new. Once you have clicked the shortcut, you are given a prompt for you to enter your CD-KEY that is located on the CD jewel-case, which is something like Half-Life used for security. After you have entered the proper key, you are then introduced to some Bink movies for Sierra and then Papyrus that are followed by the NR4 introduction movie. This movie has racing clips that were taken during last year's WC season that gets you in the mood to go racing. The music and the action portrayed gets your adrenaline flowing. The movie is a bit long and after viewing it several times you might want to disable it via the 'Options' menu so you can immediately get into the game without hitting ESC or the spacebar to bypass it. Once the movie has been completed or skipped, you are introduced to a menu layout, which is somewhat reminiscent of GPL. But first things first, you are prompted to calibrate your wheel, joystick or whatever game device that you are planning to use and assign your buttons and axis'. So I calibrated my Act Lab FORCE RS (Serial) and appropriately assigned the RS Shifter. If you do have a shifter, you can tell the game what type of gearbox (Sequential, H-box, .etc) you plan to use which in my case was the H-Box and then I program the game to know what gear would be what when I used the shifter. After that was completed, I looked at the help aids and made sure all were off with the exception of the auto clutch feature since I no longer have a clutch. I enabled the Force feedback that is exclusively available when only using the Microsoft driver and was given several options to tweak: damping, strength, latency and also there is linearity which was set to 100%. Papyrus as also included their very own generic controller driver but this reviewer didn't use it. Before I forget, NR4 supports an abundance of axis' for game controllers, which means it supports more than 4 axes. I recall it was either six or eight axes. (Actually 12, just like GPL,) You can find this in the calibration screen by clicking on the arrow that takes you to the next axis calibration screen. When I completed with the controller section, it was time to set the graphics and sound options. In the graphics menu, you can scale how much detail you would like to see front to back, what type of detail in the mirror, detail on the track and the cars. I pretty much had everything set at their highest values with the exception of the mirror which was set to 50%. Since I was using OpenGL, I checked every option available to see NR4 in all its bliss and glory. One thing to note is that if you use Direct3D/TNL, you will have one option grayed out which was spectacular highlighting. The sound menu presented a master gain level and other levels for you to adjust if you wanted more emphasis over another sound. Also shown was the ability to choose what sound API you would like to use in the game that were: Microsoft DirectSound3D, A3D 2.0 from the defunct Aureal and Creative Lab's EAX. I chose A3D 2.0 since I favor realistic 3D positional sound over reverb and I also opted to leave the amount of sounds to be heard at eight although you can set it up to 24 sounds in my case. Going back to the main menu, you will see two tables. On the left, you have Testing Session, Single Race, Championship, Multiplayer, and Exit. On the right table you have: Player Info, Opponent Manager, and Options, Configure 3D Graphics and View Saved Replay. Let me go through each of them for you so you can get a basic idea of what the game offers. Since NR4 was modeled for the 2001 WC season the schedule and all rule changes apply. All car makes are represented and chassis manufacturers included: Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Pontiac. Although there are no performance or handling differences between that chassis' as they are just graphical representations. NR4 is also the first stockcar simulation to have all of the WC tracks! And for the first time there will be Daytona, Pocono and Indianapolis in the same game, now isn't that special! Yet, it is missing Kansas City and Chicago. I guess licensing issues were the roadblocks. Testing Session: Here you can choose what weather (custom or realistic), damage (none, moderate, or realistic), physics (arcade or simulation) and a track to test. There is no time limit in testing session and this is where one would spend the most of their time getting acclimated to the physics and the tracks. Single Race: Basically involves you racing with the Artificial Intelligence (Ai) cars on the track with the same options as the Testing Session but also with some additional options that pertain to running a race. Options like turning on yellows, full pace lap, race length, AI strength/amount and the time limit for the practice (max is 90 minutes) and warm up (max is Happy Hour) sessions. Championship: This option lets you run a season in NR4 that is based on the 2001 season and you can create multiple instances of seasons with varying options (e.g. amount of tracks) just like the two other options mentioned. Multiplayer: This is where you can race some human opponents or you can add some AI to the mix too! You can online race using several methods, by either doing IP or going to the Sierra site. If you have ample bandwidth, you can also host and set the rules for your races. You can create races with fixed setups or force some graphics to be on/off, max latency, password and lastly, which seems to be getting some controversary forcing the cockpit view. - You want a simulation, right? The same racing options are available for the host to choose. Got a spare PC laying around? NR4 can give that PC new life by making it a dedicated server. Just be sure you have the bandwidth available to use this function. Now moving on to the other side of the menu. Driver Info: Here is where you provide your information, what car you want to use, either offline or online, and save it. You can also create more than one driver profile but, be warned if you delete a profile, you will loose all your setups! You can also view the roster that is currently being used and you can also paint your own car if have the creative touch by entering the paintshop. The paintshop itself has somewhat gotten a facelift and you can do most of your painting within the game. But most talented people for past several years go outside the game by exporting a car file and then painting the car with some third party software like Photoshop or Paintshop Pro and then importing the work back into the game. Opponent Manager: This is a new feature that has been added and it has been highly needed. What the Opponent Manager basically does is not only help you in creating your very own roster but also help you edit each driver's rating in the game. And I might want to add the rating system has gone through a complete facelift, as in the past they were pretty vague for the overall performance of each driver. In NR4 you can get an explicit breakdown on things like, qualifying, consistency, finishing, etc., so you can really get the drivers behaving like their real-life counterparts. Options: Here's where you set your hardware to the game in which there are three menus to choose from: Controller, Graphics and Sound. I have discussed these menus earlier. Configure 3D Graphics: If you would like to change the API, resolution, use the window mode or software cursor, this is the section of the menu in where you would like to do it, although you could also do this outside the game. View Saved Replay: This is where all the replays you have saved and can be watched. The beta testers have also recorded some laps for you to view if you happen to be confused at a certain track. There are two pull downs in which you can either view just a driver's replay that you created or just view the replays at a particular track. Exit: You click this to get out of the game and you can also by-pass the viewing of the credits by disabling this feature in the options menu. Overall the mouse movements through the menus were crisp and very precise when using either hardware or software cursor. When saving or adding replays, cars, or setups, the directory structure in NR4 has changed with the likes of GPL. TRACKS I headed to the Testing Session and set the weather to a constant to get a feel of the physics at certain tracks. The first track I chose was Daytona since I wanted to see the restrictor plate package in action by its lonesome. After the track loaded, you are shown the two tabs: Info and Laps. (In race, you have: info, laps, and standings. For online play, you have: info, laps, standings, and latency.) If you open the Event, you will see the track logo and the options (weather and type of driving mode) that were set in the previous menu. If you click on the arrow, you are then presented with a map and the specifications of the track. You also see the laptime record and the driver's name at the track. There is also a location for one of your profiles for your personal best lap at the track that is located under the real life record holder. If you clicked on the tab for laps, you will are presented with the laps you drove that is shown either in time or speed. You want realism? Pick time. Other options available are at the bottom of the screen: Options, Garage, Pause, Back and Drive. I don't know why there is a Pause feature in the testing session as all you are doing is just testing with an infinite amount of time. But there is a little box near the bottom right portion of the screen that does show you the elapsed time of the practice session. I don't know the significance of it either but it does also show you the weather. You can also export these laptimes. Above this box is a little replay window that provides two pull-downs for what driver you would like to view and what camera you would like to use. There are buttons stacked below the replay window that mimic the controls of a VCR or a DVD player. You have the ability to view the replay in letterbox since the little window doesn't show the speeds or laptimes. If you depress the letter S, you can get the laptime sheet showing your laptimes. The replay controls are still shown and if you want true full screen, just hit the spacebar and that letterbox appearance goes away. If you want to go back to the letterbox mode, just hit the spacebar again. If you would like to do some editing, NR4 gives you the ability to cut your replays and then save them or you just save a whole replay depending on how much memory you have allocated in the core.ini file. The more you allocate, the longer and bigger the replay you can save. GARAGE: Well it is now time for me to head to the garage to see what new innovations have made their way into the game. My blood starts pumping in excitement as I click onto the appropriate shortcut, the screen changes and voila! I see before my eyes a new setup sheet layout using the same GPL scheme. My eyes are overwhelmed with the abundance of setup tweaks, as they are some new ones that I have been waiting for some time and I mean a longtime. These new additions such as: caster, left/right track bar, ride height, toe in/out and the breakdown of dampeners (rebound/compression) have been truly desired since the second sequel and of course the traditional settings are still available with refinement of tire pressures which are broken up in half pound increments. (At the track, you can adjust the tire pressures at .25 increments) So I am very pleased with the dismissal of the one-dampener/spring package of the past and it's about time! I find myself going to one of the two pull downs available and looking at what setups are available which happen to have four setups per track that are: easy, intermediate, fast and qualify. Each of these default setups vary in difficulty and speed. And hey, just like GPL, you are able to bring other setups from other tracks to help you try things out. If the track happened to be close in layout, or you find a base set-up at another track that fits your driving style then you can import that set-up without leaving the game. Since NR2 you had the ability to add comments to your setup that you could note the characteristics of your setups and it is still evident here. Plus, there is also a track note section where you can add the conditions of the track, grooves used or practically anything. I feel that this is a great asset if I ever forget what the setup did or plan to share the setup with your fellow racers. So far NR4's garage is very thorough by having most of the setup options available pertaining to the 2001 season. Yet, it lacks bump stops, trailing arms, and the ability play with fenders but this will do for now. ON THE TRACK: I loaded up the fast setup and exited out of the garage. My heart was starting to beat loudly, my breathing getting heavier as I clicked the 'Drive' button. Sitting in the newly redesigned cockpit, I felt as though I was lower and further back. I hear the newly redesigned engine sound that sounded as if it was definitely smaller than a 358CID small V8 as it lacked some oomph in the lower frequencies. The cockpit gauges have been slightly redesigned for the new cockpit with a new addition of a fuel pressure gauge since real racecars don't use a fuel level gauge. I clicked my left and right views buttons to check the views and when I did, the engine sound moved to the opposite side of the view I chose which signified that the engine was in the middle front of the car. As I peered to my left, I noticed my pit crew standing around and as I looked to the right, I saw some of the track and the enormous grandstands. Hey now, there was no pit wall! Alas, we have finally gotten realistic pit lanes! I looked in the mirror to check out the new detail of the rollcage and rear spoiler. Hey, that rollcage looked real in the mirror! DRIVING: Restrictor Plate Track As I sat there on pit-road at Daytona, I was in awe in what I saw on the track. I saw the boom for the cameraman that was perched high above the pit-lane. I could see the infamous yellow merge line that prevented you from going onto the track after leaving pit-road. Although you can drive over this line but there is a penalty if you do it during a race. Lastly you could view the 4-story banking of the track. I began to hit the gas pedal a couple times with the transmission in neutral just to see the response of the engine through the tachometer, which acted as if it was a drag racing engine. That didn't make sense to me as majority of endurance engines have a heavy rotational assemblies thus a slower ramp up in RPM would have been expected. I depressed my clutch button and engaged first gear and then brought the revs up to around six grand and let the button go. I heard a slight chirp of the rear tires as the 3400-pound started to progress forward. This whole action sounded as if the engine bogged down, which it did. And I recollected, "450 or so horsepower and no tire spin? What gives"? Anyhow, staying under the yellow line and shifting into the second since the engine no longer pulled past 7000 RPM, the speed of the car began to increase at a slower but steady rate since I was using a tall gear. When my spotter told me I was clear to merge, I went onto the track slightly after the entrance of turn one. I shifted into third and then fourth. After each shift, you are greeted with a movement in the cockpit as the auto clutch engages and disengages. As you turn the wheel, you see the cockpit sway left and right. As the speed increase, you are introduced to the road and wind noise thus telling me that there is some serious speed here. I am on the backstretch now and the car is slowly building up speed and momentum. As I entering turn 3, I decided to take the high line for the next several laps to make the track longer thus getting more speed. I noted the transitions of the weight when entering the turn and my wheel started to get heavy as the load on the front tires began to rise. Turning the wheel ever so slightly to prevent scrubbing speed, I see and feel the chassis react to my inputs. After two laps, the car was car almost at full speed and I changed my line and started running the bottom of the track. Upon driving in the turns, the wheel began to get a bit heavier and heavier as the speed started to increase. If I made a mistake in the turns by accidentally hitting the apron I was quickly greeted with the sound of the car bottoming out which upset the car a tad. I noticed the engine was pretty tapped out around 6500 RPM. NR4 really does have a restrictor plate! Whoopee! DRAFTING: I decided to add some AI to the track to do some drafting. The lap-times without a drafting partner were pretty high in comparison to speeds at this year's race, which told me that with the draft, speeds would be much higher. You are as slow as a turtle without any drafting help so you better get a drafting partner. The tail end of the draft is pretty long, roughly three or so seconds back. You can still get a whiff of the draft around four seconds especially if a train has passed you and you can feel your own car gain speed. NR4 must be modeling this year's aero package because you can close on the cars in front very quickly in the draft. As I got up to speed and caught up to several cars in a draft, I noticed how fast my car gained on them as I drew closer. Once I reached the AI's back bumper, I backed off the throttle to give some distance between the cars, which I had to do a lot. When I decided to bump the AI, it seemed to either move off to the right or left and I thought I did hit the AI square. This told me that the sweet spot of the rear bumper was really small which isn't correct. I also didn't like the actions of the AI car when I bumped him as the AI's car squatted and then moved forward. The bumped car should stay either level or raise somewhat and not sink when I hit the bumper. I also noticed that when I began to bump draft my car would slow down which isn't correct as when you hit the car in front, the car should go forward with you along with it. Not slow and then catch up. Something is amiss here with the draft. I'll talk about the AI later in the review. Racing side-by-side in the draft can be quite a chore. If you are in the inside and there is a car on your outside be prepared to have a handful as the air is taken off your rear spoiler which usually results in a loose condition and you might find yourself chasing the car up the track. Now if you are on the outside with no other cars in front of you, your car seems to tighten up a tad going into the turn. Also, regardless of which groove you run, if you follow too close, aero push is highly evident. So this told me to either setup the car for this type of reaction or give some room between you and the car in front. Trap speeds in the draft can be over 200MPH, which doesn't follow along the lines of the current speeds being achieved. After racing with the AI for a while, I decided to pull into the pits and as I went down pitroad, my spotter kept telling me the RPM to stay at in second gear. As I approached my pitbox, the pit sign came down. Man, that was cool! As I stopped my car at the pit sign the animated pit crew began working on my car. Once the pit work was completed, I headed back to the track. As soon as I was told I was clear to romp on the gas, I did and proceeded to stay on the apron until I hit the backstretch and then I decided to come to a complete stop. I wanted to try something. Being in the pitbox, I could barely spin the tires so I decided to try again at the backstretch and I was in for a shocker, as the rear tires broke loose pretty hard! This doesn't make sense now does it? This needs to be fixed by letting the car spin the tires hard from a dead stop regardless where I am on the track. Super Speedway Driving I went to Atlanta with realistic weather and loaded up the fast setup. I jumped into the cockpit and nailed the gas and the car responded by looping the car. Whoa, we have power, Scotty! I restarted again and this time slowly getting back on the throttle. As the engine neared its peak torque the rear tires began to haze then started to loose traction. So I short-shifted into second-gear and headed to the track. I waited for my trusty spotter to tell me to merge - makes good racing habits for online racing! - And then I did. As the 750hp pulled the car around the track, I felt the sensations at the wheel as the wheel began to rock back and forth. So I decided to get a firm grip on the wheel and started to manhandle the car. Going into the turns, the setup had the feel that I liked in that the car wanted to go into the turn so that I could use to the gas to moderate the rate of the car going down into the turns, which kept the suspension loaded. Had I driven the car like I did with the past NR genre, I would have certainly looped the car! Around the fifth lap or so, the characteristics of the car began to change as the car seem to be going a bit tight from entry to the middle. I like that and I see that they fixed their tire algorithm to get this done. Thank you Papyrus & Co.! By lap twenty, the car was really a burden to drive as it was getting tighter and tighter. My driving line and style (slowed down earlier and went smoother) had to change. So I thought this setup was great for a short haul by the way I drove it. The car started to fall off and it wasn't acceptable to me. But I love the tire wear rate as the laptimes showed it. Gone are the days of running qualifying speeds by half tank as this is realism as its finest! Speedways less than 1.5mile I headed to the Rock for some semi-short track racing. Again, I loaded up the fast setup. The weather was somewhat cold from I what I recall. I think it was in the 30s and that is cold for Rockingham! As I drove onto the track, I noticed something different with the cockpit view as it reminded me of a game I once played. Viewing the track from the cockpit was like NASCAR Revolution as you couldn't tell that the track had any banking. Don't use your past brake and gas points as the view drastically changes things. As the laps added up, I decided to see what the speed was in reference to the laptimes I was using and I was shocked the speeds were exactly like their real life counterparts. So going with the realistic race speeds, I wanted to try out the qualifying engine just to see how much that engine is really worth. After doing several attempts, I will say this qualifying engine was at least three tenths or more! Heck, don't be shocked to knock more then a half a second off when comparing to the race engine. I wonder whose engine model they used? Short Tracks I have been really looking forward in driving at the Martinsville with the new engine since not only the physics has gotten my curiosity but the engine power. When I was driving at the track I noticed several things: the brakes need several laps to get up to temperature in order to prevent them from locking up, tires also take several laps to get up to their operating temperatures and I might add the default tire pressure is low - that's realism! - there's a lot of power under the hood, and finally, turn 4 has a bump that loves to unload the rear tires! You have to be smooth with the gas and steering input. I ran a lot of low 20s with a tweaked fast setup. Don't forget to avoid the curbs! If you plan on using force feedback expect the wheel to bite! Road Courses I went to both road courses in the game: Sears, then followed by Watkins Glen. Driving at Sears was a bit awkward as turn 1a was a bit more acute than I was accustomed in driving because I had to get prepared for the turn a bit earlier. Is that turn correctly modeled? The default fast setup fit my driving almost perfectly. I finally started getting the hang of the track after a couple of days but it's no Sunday drive! Going to the Glen was pretty exciting and I loved the newly redesigned inner loop. Turn 10 is a pain for me for some unknown reason. Believe it or not it actually took me longer to get use to this track than Sears! I did find out several things at these tracks and they were, being very smooth with your footwork and not using the curbs to catapult you into the cheap seats. J The chassis' are very stiff. The sandpits really slow you down and are to be avoided. The transitions of the hills and bumps can wreak havoc on your laptimes, and Goodyear is going to love your tire bill. I really think if you can produce decent lap-times at these two road courses, your confidence will surely build and more than likely you will do very well at the other tracks. Why? If you can handle turning left/right and braking and accelerating smoothly, you will pretty much figure out how to drive the game! Nice tip isn't it? J All in all, the physics are top notch and could be thought of as one the most realistic physics engine to ever model a stockcar. But it does have its shortcomings; the flips at short tracks can be a common occurrence. The rapid raise in RPM is too fast - no mass. Locking up the brakes can cause you to blow a tire a bit too quickly. Being involved in an accident or your car spinning out with your brake pedal smashed to slow your car down, it seems that this event would blow your tires faster but it doesn't as the time it takes to slow the car down seems longer. Getting back up to speed after a spin, accident, or locking up the brakes can be quite a chore as the car keeps doing doughnuts. The remedy was to start in third gear. I guess the tires heated up too much and I did check the wear indicator that showed me that the tire was only in the yellow. Having a very stiff car and in a spin, viewing from the cockpit, it seemed as though the car had blown shocks as the weight was exaggerated from side to side. The draft needs a bit more tweaking and wall riding needs to be stopped as you can run some very fast laptimes against the wall! The learning curve is quite steep for beginners; I suggest that they start either in arcade mode or in simulation mode with some aids enabled. When you try to save your car in a spin, your success rate will be really low. I don't think saving a car from a loose condition in a slow spin is that hard. Something doesn't seem right, most of the time in order for you to save the car, you had to turn it with the tail end of the car thus making the car loop. What's interesting is that when doing this and mashing the brake pedal the seemed to straighten out completely. I think the yaw control is canned. Lastly, the physics seem to lack some consistency as with one session while you work on our setup and runs fine and on the next, like junk. And yes, the weather was the same as was the driving. This can cause a great deal of frustration when trying to work in setup for either qualifying or for the race. On a plus side, the physics allows for 6-degrees of freedom, you have ample power when needed, tire wear and laptimes are realistic at most tracks, weather plays an important role, sprinters are no more as real racers reside, and optimum tire temperatures vary from track to track. DAMAGE MODEL: NR4 damage can be thought as almost realistic but most of the time too forgiving. For instance, I hit the wall pretty hard, I expect my toe (an alignment of the front tires) to be shot and in the game it's not damaged. I think there are too many chances in order for the car to lose it's handling or speed and I am just talking about little bumps to the aero and such. They (Papyrus) need to patch this area and give penalties when these incidents happen. You can lose a gear; hurt the engine (sound marvelous!), etc. Flying debris can be seen when enabled. (I love this feature.) I don't know if liquids are present at the track but I recall an accident at the Rock in turn 4, and as I drove into turn 3, my car just looped around on me even though I hadn't touched the brakes. ARTIFICIAL INTELIGENCE: The AIs are new in NR4 so gone are the days are the scripted and very predictable computer adversaries or is it? With several weeks of racing and watching the AI's behavior at the various tracks, they need work. Here's why:
Most of the time, the AIs are OK but other times their logic doesn't make sense. The AIs do give me some grief or a challenge in the later stages of the race; say 30 or so laps to go but in the early and middle stages they are pretty much non-existent. But I just think it's dependent on the ratings given to them. The AI could be thought of as the "Achilles heel" of NR4. GRAPHICS: From the talented artisans from Papyrus, NR4 is pretty damn good looking. From it's beautiful horizons to the intricate detailed objects throughout the track. From the best-looking smoke that anyone could ever want, to the lovely sparks and flying debris. The cars look very real when you view them either at the Player Info or Opponent Manager menus but don't quite match the appearance when at the track. They are reflections in the game that are shown on both the body and the windows of the cars. There is an option in the mirror to have the back of the car shown or you could use the traditional mirror that has been in use since NR2. Using a Geforce 2 video card and the OpenGL driver, they are a lot of jagged lines, which can be an eye sore to some. The key was to either 'Up' the resolution or enable 1.5LOD. Of course doing this you will pay the price in frame rate. NR4 requires a lot of processing power and a fast video card with at least 32MB for the frame rate to run smoothly as the physics and graphics engine are very demanding. The flexibility of graphics menu helps you optimally tweak the game to the performance specs of your computer. NR4 is definitely one of the best-looking stockcar simulations to date to ever come out of the Papyrus Skunkworks! SOUND: NR4 supports a foray of 3D sound APIs and when using A3D 2.0, the sounds are pretty well done but not perfect as the sound crackled or popped through my speakers or headphones. But on the plus side, the 3D positional is the best of any racing simulation to date! The spotter most of the time is on time but when you really need him he is a bit behind in telling that it is clear which at times gets you involved in accidents. The audio menu itself gives you the ability to set the amount of sounds heard and the more you enable, the more the performance hit. CONTROLLERS: Since I used force feedback, my settings differed depending on the type of track. I used a heavy setting for all ovals yet had to back off for the road courses. Leaving the values at a high setting when driving at a road course, you could actually feel and watch wheel go left and right as if I was steering a boat. But the force feedback is very well done and could actually make you think that you are actually driving a car as you feel the weight move from wheel to wheel and the terrain being driven. I don't think I will ever go back to driving a simulation or any racing game for the matter without force feedback as I get a better feel in what the car is doing faster than I do when I don't use it. MULTIPLAYER: Having some pretty heavy requirements in order to get the game to run smoothly or to run a full field, it worries me about the amount of bandwidth needed to race at least 20 cars. During my excursions with racing NR4 online, you need a broadband connection to get any successful racing, so good-bye dialup connections. Just like with any type of online gaming, if one person in the race has a high latency, you can pretty much get up and leave the race. If you don't, you will be seeing a lot of UFOs (really high flips in excess of 50ft!), warping and other abnormalities. I did have several great races that were lag-free, which is a big plus! I do worry about the hackers and cheaters racing online as wall riding is highly evident and in one fixed setup race, everyone was within a hundredth of one another. However, two other individuals managed to be more than a second faster. That makes me suspicious. CONCLUSION: Hardcore simracers have been waiting for this puppy for a long time, hoping it would be the best thing since "Friends" and I know I was in this category. But unfortunately, NR4 seems to be unfinished as you read from the review but does show promise in venturing into new directions. As with some of the areas I mentioned, there are big flaws in the game. I am a bit disappointed with the game in its current state, as like I said, I have been waiting for this bad boy for a long time. The learning curve can be intimidating for one to just jump in the game in simulation mode. That can be an invigorating task and might scare upcoming racers away. But that shouldn't be the case as Papyrus has coded the game for all types of skill levels. Papyrus has certainly added more realism to the game. There's no doubt about it. In closing, I would rate NR4 a 7.6 out of 10. Perhaps the patch could raise the rating? This review is dedicated to the memory of Dale Earnhardt and grandmother. |
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Comments : |
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| Author: Frederick Wilkins Jr. | 13-10-2002 |
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Very thorough. Thanks |
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| Author: karaszizsolt | 29-03-2005 |
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very very cool game ! |
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