rec.autos.simulators

by **Bob Curti** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Hey whiner, tell me where to get a better NASCAR sim. Take it back to
Hastings and then shut up.

> Good grief what a let down.

> Been playing Nascar 3 on my system for about 3 hours now.

> I don't think I've been this let down in quite some time. I know that
> they declared that N3 wouldn't use the GPL engine quite a while back, but
> this is rediculous.

> I challenge anyone to find the difference between this game and Nascar 2/1
> aside from a couple of tweakable chassis settings that have a disputable
> affect if any whatsoever on the car performance/handling whatsoever.

> This game is _another_ rewrite of Nascar 1. Nothing more except for
> eyecandy. Even the soundsin Nascar 1 were better than this. Exhaust
> sounds are _completely_ the same from car to car, and are no better than
> anything you'd find in one of the cheesy Need for Speed series games.

> Realistic handling settings? My ass. From the get go I disabled all
> "helpers" for steering and braking, and find it hard to***up doing
> anything. The car drives like a damned station wagon. Even taking off in
> the pits gives you limited spinning sensation when you "smoke" the
> tires.... which by the way seems to be the only way to exit a pit without
> tagging another car's ass.

> And no steering wheel in the***pit? WTF is this? I can understand not
> wanting to obstruct the guages, but then why make the hud completely
> unconfigurable ... not to mention even leaving the SAME status display
> boxes in the SAME area which are called up by the SAME function keys to
> reveal the SAME limited information?

> The pit crew is the same stupid pose of a group of pit people on your team
> that posseses absolutely no movement charateristics whatsoever regardless
> of what view you're in. THE SAME POSES even. Just updated graphics/a
> sharper still image of them.

> I just ran my car at 160 mph into a wall now, and on REALISTIC damage
> settings, ALL graphical options maxed (p3-450, 2 12mb voodoo 2's/Creative
> TNT2Ultra, 256mb ram), there was absolutely NO debris coming from the car.
> The only signs of a wreck were the missing tire on my front left side and
> the obvious, though not even closely modelled inability to turn left.
> Pathetic.

> I guess my main question that I pose to the group is if Randy Cassidy and
> crew are working on Nascar Legends, and what if any resemblance to GPL it
> will have in the engine. This piece of ***is going back to hastings
> _tonight_. Please do NOT let them try to get the settings dumbed down
> like this garbage.

> Way to try to cash in on your nascar license Sierra. You've created a $50
> addon pack to the 6 other titles you currently market using the Nascar 1
> game engine.

> Back to GPL... the one game I can honestly say I've played more hours
> (bought 2 days after it hit the rack) than anything I've bought for any
> system ever.

> As a matter of fact, Sierra, release an addon for GPL. At least it would
> be worth $50. This belongs in a bargain bin. Yesterday.
> --

> -j.c.h.
> spill /|t frenzy dawt cawm

--
Bob Curtin
Worcester Area Strategy & Tactics Exchange
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
"If God had intended men to join the Army he would have given us green, baggy
skin"

by **Gary A. Burn** » Wed, 22 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Go play your GPL. Leave the real racing to us. The reason that the game
does not seem that different from N1/N2 is that the old saying "If it ain't
broke, then don't fix it" applies. Get over it and stop your crying.

by **Rexv** » Thu, 23 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Perhaps the question to ask is why pay $50 for the same sim that has
been out from the same company for years? Just because it has a 3 at
the end instead of a 2 or a '99? That seems to be the best summation
of his rant. At that, I highly agree with virtually everything that
he said save for that I run Tribes far more than GPL. :)

I played it for far more than that and am still trying to find
something to like other than the twits on the net. A few decent folks
are the only ones that have kept me playing it this long. It's that
bad a game.

The sounds do suck indeed. They don't get much more fake or
disjointed. The only interesting merrit for the sounds seem to be the
typical metal parts vibrating together. That's it.. Then again, that's
a sound they can digitize from just about any american car so it's
hard to mess that up! <j/k, grin, etc.>

If the real cars handle this badly, especially on the road course,
it's no wonder they spend so much time in the walls. With the oval
courses you simply put your foot down and crank in varying degree's of
understeer for a few dozen laps until you win. Meanwhile you can still
eat, watch TV, etc. For the road courses they are rediculous. They
don't even try to turn the cars, work with the bumps or rises or
hills, etc. Nothing. This game is a joke in the handling aspects and
even as a "simulation" it doesn't seem to be as well modeled as the
average Arcade game. That is VERY lame.

It's the same game. You expected it to be different?? The steering
wheel isn't even needed. a pair of switches marked "Left turn" and
"Straight". :)

Indeed! You might think that with todays tech and their interest in
making things realistic they could at least try to animate the pit
crew. For crying out loud the Atari 2600 had animated pit crews and
THEY can't? Am I really missing something here?

Let's see, the bumper comes off (sometimes) the front gets either
destroyed or just loses a tire (sometimes) and if you get plowed in
the rear by someone the rear gets a little crumpled. So much for the
damage list. Even worse are the cheesy sound effects when they try to
fix it. It sounds like the tool-band from home Improvement but without
the harmony. The spins and such aren't even realistic and are far to
easy to regain control over.

Something tells me this isnt' a surprise. I got the original Nascar
as a toss in when I bought some other item and it represented at least
a few evenings gameplay. The sad part? It seemed as though it used a
far more realistic physics model than this game, especially on the
road courses. I'm tempted to dust it off and see if it will run on
the PII450 since I used to run it on the Pentium 66. It seems that
for the extra money they are charging they are actually going
backwards in tech and quality. Is Sierra getting into Government
Contracts now? That seems to be the only explination! Charge more, do
less, and do a half-ass job at that.

____________________
Hydrogen and Stupidity.. The two most universal elements

by **Rick Sweene** » Thu, 23 Sep 1999 04:00:00

Geeez , go race yourself online for 40 minutes while waiting for someone to
either wait up for you, or you wait up for someone , so you can actually see
another car on the track. I love GPL for the pure fun of driving the cars.
But if I want to actually race, I do it off-line with GPL. If I want great,
competitive on-line racing, N3 is for me. That is the big difference between
these two sims. N3 gives you the on-line racing experience, GPL gives you the
realism.

I love them both

Rick Sweeney