rec.autos.simulators

by **Curtis Mat** » Mon, 11 Mar 2002 22:57:32

Is Nascar Racing 2002 worth it if I only play offline. Is this upgrade
Nascar 4.5 or are there enough changes to warrant spending 50 bucks on the
game? I feel like waiting for the next version.

Curtis

by **Gerry Aitke** » Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:14:23

> Is Nascar Racing 2002 worth it if I only play offline. Is this upgrade
> Nascar 4.5 or are there enough changes to warrant spending 50 bucks on the
> game?

It's worth it!

Gerry

by **MadDAW** » Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:18:17

Offline is were the greatest improvments were made. If you look around you
can find it less than $50. I just saw an add for 29.99 after the seirra 5
rebate at CompUSA.

MadDAWG

by **Don Burnett** » Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:44:04

It's worth it, and you can get it cheaper now if you look around.

Don Burnette

by **Colin Harri** » Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:51:17

Anone else having troubles on re-starts against the AI? WAY too aggressive,
three-wide, etc...

by **Glen Pittma** » Tue, 12 Mar 2002 00:50:07

If you have to ask this, then you may not be a big enough fan of Nascar Sim
Racing to warrant the 50 bucks.

I haven't regretted spending the money here though.

by **Mike Wisniewsk** » Tue, 12 Mar 2002 01:23:20

Since I am an offline racer only, I will not buy another Nascar game without
an in-race save feature.

From what I have read in the reviews, if you own Nascar 4...Nascar 2002 is
only a slight improvement over Nascar 4.

by **Gerry Aitke** » Tue, 12 Mar 2002 01:35:20

> Since I am an offline racer only, I will not buy another Nascar game without
> an in-race save feature.

Your loss.

The reviewers you read were typing bull. Probably the same idiots that
said ICR2 was 'only a slight improvement' over ICR1!

Gerry

by **Mitch Alatorr** » Tue, 12 Mar 2002 01:51:15

It just kills me when someone says "From what I've read" when there are 20+
posts in the last 2 weeks from people who actually "OWN" the game that say
it is a great improvement on N4. In fact I havent seen any post (from
somebody that owns N2k2) that says it isn't worth it. Then again this is
from a guy who won't buy another version w/o a save game feature so take it
FWIW.

My opinion is it is very much worth the $50 (cheaper now).

Mitch

> Since I am an offline racer only, I will not buy another Nascar game
without
> an in-race save feature.

> From what I have read in the reviews, if you own Nascar 4...Nascar 2002 is
> only a slight improvement over Nascar 4.

> > Is Nascar Racing 2002 worth it if I only play offline. Is this upgrade
> > Nascar 4.5 or are there enough changes to warrant spending 50 bucks on
the
> > game? I feel like waiting for the next version.

> > Curtis

by **Andre Warring** » Tue, 12 Mar 2002 02:16:05

On Sun, 10 Mar 2002 14:51:17 GMT, "Colin Harris"

>Anone else having troubles on re-starts against the AI? WAY too aggressive,
>three-wide, etc...

That's normal, Nascar is not a sport for sissies Colin! :)

Andre

by **Colin Harri** » Tue, 12 Mar 2002 03:16:32

> On Sun, 10 Mar 2002 14:51:17 GMT, "Colin Harris"

> >Anone else having troubles on re-starts against the AI? WAY too
aggressive,
> >three-wide, etc...

> That's normal, Nascar is not a sport for sissies Colin! :)

> Andre

It isn't? Why are you driving it, then? :-)

by **jason moy** » Tue, 12 Mar 2002 03:17:56

> Anone else having troubles on re-starts against the AI? WAY too aggressive,
> three-wide, etc...

Not so far. I've found that if I leave room between myself and a car
to my low side, that a faster AI car will occasionally take advantage
of it, but really, if I'm disciplined at holding my line (like a real
driver would be) I don't have any problems. Holding a high line
against the AI is tough because it's so different than doing it
against a human (where you leave as much room as possible in most
cases because of warp/driver skill).

Also, I only notice that on starts. Haven't had any trouble on
re-starts, and it seems that the AI cars get up to speed much faster
and more realistically than in previous versions. I just ran a 35%
fixed-setup race at Rockingham at 100% AI strength and I spent a good
chunk of it in 28th place (started 37th and moved up early by avoiding
an accident), and I have to say that moving from 28th to 26th, even
after a restart, took several laps and all the concentration I could
muster. I am really really happy with the AI at every track I've
tested so far, at least using the default rating set that the game
shipped with (for addon cars like Sterling Marlin or Mike Wallace I
just grab different ratings from various drivers who I feel are
similar in that particular skill). Using fixed-fast setups at 100% AI
strength you can have some great duels at most tracks, although the
qualifying times seem out of synch at times with the in-race
performance. At Las Vegas and Pocono I can qualify on the pole at
will but I'm lucky if I'm in the top-5 within a handful of laps, even
though I'm consistently turning near-pole times. On the other hand,
the pole times at Daytona are always .5 seconds better than my perfect
lap, even with a highly optimized setup. Maybe the AI are using
lawnmowers. =)

Jason

by **Isotrip** » Tue, 12 Mar 2002 20:26:24

I would agree with this. Since I purchasing NR2K2 I wouldn't even consider
going back to N4. ESPECIALLY for offline use. NR2K2 is THAT much of an
improvement over N4. N4 is basically a Coaster at this point for me.

- Isotrip?

by **Joachim Trens** » Wed, 13 Mar 2002 05:13:28

Hi Curtis,

N2002 is substantially improved over N4 in many aspects. However, these
modifications don't present themselves in a sensational gown. Many of them
are noticeable only to those who are capable of looking really close.

Like
- the much improved (IMO more realistic) tire temp / tire wear modelling and
the grip modelling in dependence of temp and wear
- a what I think is a substantially improved tire deformation and slip
model - many situations that directly depend on the tire's interaction with
the road surface have never been simulated as detailed and close to reality
as in N2002
- I don't know whether the improved (more detailed) FF of some driving
conditions is a consequence of this improved tire model or comes as a
separete mod, but the FF info is more detailed IMO
- the sounds are substantially better
- much better positional sound for much better situational awareness
- many tracks load faster
- more tracks
- nicer (more detailed) cars
- a replay editor - nice features, the GUI is a bit tricky
- it shows the ranking points in the chat window after an online race
- you can now disable the display of drivers connecting or disconnecting
from online races
- more detailed ini files - you have more control over more aspects of the
sim.

And so on, these are only some of the improvements I've noticed. None of
this is sensational, but for me, it's useful and sensible evolution that -
again for me - has increased the fun in N2002 as compared to N4.

Therefor, if any of the above makes you think 'wow, I want to have that' <g>
then you'll enjoy N2002. If none of the above makes you feel like that, then
you'll probably regret having spent the money.

Just my 2c worth...

Achim

by **Steve Smit** » Thu, 14 Mar 2002 10:38:06

Absolutely, Achim--hear, hear! (And I don't even like stockcar racing.)
The best improvements, IMO: 1. Tire model. 2. Sound.

rec.autos.simulators

NR2002

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NR2002