rec.autos.simulators

NASCAR Racing -- Initial Review

Chris Gouch

NASCAR Racing -- Initial Review

by Chris Gouch » Thu, 17 Nov 1994 23:03:53

: Seems like the computer *** world has blown it big time with their attempts
: to make cutting edge games.  With the exception of System Shock, I have been
: disappointed with practically every high-end game that's supposed to make my
: hardware shine.  NASCAR Racing is no exception...this is the quickest decision
: I have ever made to return a game.

--- After how long trying it?  1 hr? 2 hrs?  Hardly justification to me that
the game is poor based on your play-time.

: First of all, I purchased this game so I could play with it's high-end
: graphics...I wasn't about to be satisfied with a game that looks like IndyCar

[some SVGA-frame-rate issues removed for space]

--- Well, let me start by saying that it may 'look' like Indycar from the
outside; not dis-similar to an orange shares a similar quality with an apple
in that they are both round-ish.  To me, there is a world of difference in
the two sims.  
--- First of I take offence to you "review-initial impressions" in that you
barely scratch the surface on actual game content, but rather discuss the
visual appeal and you expected 'eye-candy'.  I will make a small assumption
here that you likely are not a fan of NASCAR/oval-style racing to begin
with?  (I think you touched on this)  Well, far be-it for a game to change
your opinion on reality and 'covert you' shall I say to a sport that you
did not take interest in to begin with.  I would have trouble enjoying a
Soccer-sim even if it was the best one to hit the market as I'm not really
a large fan of the sport... but I digress.  Therefore if I should have
happened to buy this 'cool' soccer sim and didn't enjoy it, I personally
would likely refrain from posting a review about it.  The obvious bias would
be evident before I even began commenting.
--- Your (and others) opinions are definately worth sharing and thanks.  
--- For what it's worth I have found the low-res graphics VERY pleasing
(sure, not leaps and bounds advanced over Indycar, but no less visually
appealing either <VGA>).  Also remember that ICR was only released about
1 year ago and considering it takes a game that long to be designed I commend
Papyrus for taking the extra step in going High-Res (for the future so you
can dust off NASCAR later on and it'll be a fresh new game when we all have
the sytems to drive it!) given the time frame in releases.  Also for what it's
worth on my DX-2/66 LB-Cirrus Logic 8 Meg.Ram machine I end up having to
turn some of the low-res. detail off when running full-fields (38 opponents).
Generally just the track/grass texture and horizon.  I can live with that
given the quality of the meat of the program.  Also, Papyrus has gone to
great lenghts for you the user to customize the detail and frame-rates....
use them.  You can not only toggle the detail on/off but select the
min./max. fps AND you are able to adjust how many cars are DRAWN AHEAD/BEHIND
and how many opponents you can HEAR.  Try adjusting these a bit, they make
quite a difference.  I generally run min.=13, max.=20 with the above mentioned
details turned off, and draw 8 AHEAD, 2 BEHIND (default I think is 3) and
select 2 to be audible to me (default I believe is 4).  This improved the
frame rate somewhat.

: So I figure, let me play this in lo-res and at least check the playability.  
: Folks, this game is BORING!  At least IndyCar had some variety; as I'm sure
: you all know, NASCAR tracks are all oval. I just do not enjoy going round and
: round over and over again, especially since my joystick port was giving me
: hell with this game, and I've never had a problem with it before.

--- re: joysticks.  I trust you left it at Non-Linear?  Linear may give
head-aches witout a yoke or actaul wheel.

--- Obviously you made the wrong decision when looking for a new purchase.
Maybe you should have saved your pennies for F1GP-2 or some such as it sounds
like that would be more along the lines of what you would enjoy for a style
of racing; Formula 1 and mucho road courses?  "BORING"??  Far from it BABY!
This game is hot!  I will attempt to write up a review of my own as time
permits as this post has gotten long and even further off-topic.  Again,
I respect your comments and concerns but to each their own.  I personally
am so pleased with this sim (no bugs to report on yet to this point either,
but they _may_ show up.  Everything seems to function as indicated and I
haven't witnessed any abnormalities as yet-- good sign!), I don't think
I'll need another racing sim for a long time to come.  A NASCAR-sim is
a true dream come true for me..... THANKS PAPYRUS! :-)

: The README file included with the game also says that even on a 90Mhz Pentium
: you won't be able to run at full detail all the time.  Just what kind of
: hardware is this game made for?  It's going back...

--- It's made for the present with the future in mind.

: ---
: Adarsh Daswani                                 |  May God bless us with

--
Christopher Goucher                                 Atlantic Geoscience Centre

work: (902) 426-4754                                    Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
home: (902) 865-9270                                                    CANADA


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