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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:
- During a practice session, they seem to put themselves into big wrecks that usually take forever to clear up.
- At some tracks when they return back to the pit road, you can find them spinning out at the same spot each time before heading to pit road.
- Although somewhat improved, they are still blind and run the lines they are programmed to run if a certain situation arises. For example, an AI was on the outside of me and as we headed into a turn, the AI just turned right into me. This has happened several times, which can be quite frustrating if you decided to run a race either offline or online.
- Racing with the AI at 100%, if you pass an AI for a position, they seem to back off too much and it really doesn't seem like they are racing you. But it's the last remaining laps of the race some AI do race you but a majority of the time during the race they just fall back. I guess it's highly dependant on their ratings.
- The AIs are somewhat slow at the 100% strength at some tracks like Homestead.
- The AI has an uncanny ability to prevent itself from wrecking or spinning out.
- On restarts, the AIs restarted in a gear too high which gave the human drive the advantage by starting in a lower gear thus passing the entire field on the outside.
- The pace car can be lost under a caution situation, as it doesn't know where to go. Also, the spotter can get you confused on where exactly you are suppose to be. There were times I knew I was on the lead lap and when a caution came out, the spotter told me to stay behind the pace car, what? This becomes frustration and confusing to say the least if the spotter can keep tabs on what position you are supposed to be at or for some reason, you get a lap down when you know that you are not a lap down.
- Under a cautions at some tracks, the AI and the pace car are completely lost as they will either cause a wreck or run into the player, which causes extra laps and makes for a long periods at slow speeds.
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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| Author: |
13-10-2002 |
| Very thorough. Thanks |
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| Author: |
29-03-2005 |
| very very cool game ! |
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