"Randy Magruder wrote"
I have every Papyrus sim and I don't remember any of them being close to the
state that NSR is when they were released. I've been around since the first
Indycar and raced on Hawaii the day it went public so I like to think I know
where I'm coming from too. I think its hard to compare NSR to games that
came out almost 10 years ago. Papyrus was breaking a lot of new ground back
then. NSR wasn't breaking any new ground...they were just trying to make
something better than NR2003 which so far they haven't done. Its kind of
like GM rolling out an '88 IROC today and introducing it as a new car to
compete with the Mustang.
I think that's a huge problem. I run in leagues where 20+ drivers is common
so what motivation is there for them to switch? One of my leagues was
seriously thinking of making the switch but of course they discovered there
was no way when the game was released. Here's how it worked in that
league...4 or 5 guys bought the game...tried it...then destroyed it in the
forum which pretty much kept anyone else from buying it. One of them
couldn't get his controller to work (it worked fine in all the Papyrus sims)
and EA told him to send him the opened box and they'd send him a sealed copy
to take to Staple's. What a ridiculous policy. They should have hired the
Papyrus guy that wrote the controller code...lol. Does NSR support ECCI's?
I'm sure it doesn't say it on the box...I think they only mentioned 2 wheels
and a gamepad or something.
The whole thing sounds like a classic rush job. I think they did themselves
a lot of harm here because the word of mouth has been so bad. The lack of
communication has been a poor choice too. People were suspicious of EA
after the Thunder debacles and this experience has only confirmed their
suspicions unfortunately. A few sentences a week on a website or a blog
about the patch would go a loooong way with the people who already bought
the game.
I was talking about the code. If it can't handle 30+ people then I just
don't understand what they were thinking. The better leagues out there see
fields of around 30 cars and if they were planning on expanding the
community then those kind of fields would become the norm. I would imagine
the rules could be fixed rather easily...
I'm hearing a lot of people are editing files to lock the rear-end like they
are in real life. It seems there's a "dirt track" effect that lets you
loosen up the car and slide thru the turns giving an advantage over the
people who locked up their rear-ends by editing a file. I was surprised
this made it thru since it seemed a simple thing to find. I'm sure it will
be fixed in the patch but my concern is if this made it thru what will
people discover when they really get into the physics and start creating
setups.
Actually I don't hate NASCAR...I get tickets to Michigan, Brickyard, and
Bristol...plus DodgeBullet40 would be an odd choice for a handle...lol. I
own every Papyrus sim ever produced...but I also own a lot that were made by
other companies. I have Nascar Heat and thought it had potential. I see a
lot of similarities between Heat and NSR actually. It doesn't matter who
makes it...I'll buy it if I think it will be any good.
That's a positive. I like to race against the AI when I'm practicing for
league races. However...with broadband now the norm league racing is where
its at and if EA wants to build the community...and they'll have to if they
want to make any money...they need to get the multi-player code worked out.
43 on a LAN is nice but LikeReal aren't even doing LAN's anymore
unfortunately. :(
Remember that line from "Top Gun" where the bald guy tells Maverick "Your
name isn't the best around here. You need to do it better than the other
guy."? That's the position EA was in...with their reputation they were
starting in a negative position and then they released something that wasn't
close. If it was like NR2003 where people could still run in leagues and
the game could at least be used that would have been ok if the game excelled
in other areas. Unfortunately it seems like most people put it on a shelf
until the patch comes out. The thing that's really sad...the people that
have it now paid $40 for a broken game...by the time the patch comes out the
price will be down to $29. By the time the second patch comes out I'll be
able to buy it in a bargain bin for $10. :) Do you have any information on
how the game is selling? My fear...if its flopping...is they'll blame it on
the community instead of pointing the finger at themselves for releasing a
game that wasn't close to what they were promoting. You have to
admit...they promoted this thing like it was the best thing ever made...
