Nascar Revolution - Mini-Review - Buyer beware!!!

thought this guy captured my feeling s of the game prettty well: >After 2 hours with my shiny new copy of Nascar Revolution, I have to say that it is *utter crap*. It fails both as a 'sim' and as an arcade racer. Read on: First my system is a PII-333, overclocked to 375. I use A Monster2 3DFX card with 8MB. I have 128MB RAM, and a Storm VX (PCI) soundcard. My controller is an ACT Labs Force RS wheel. I have DX 6.1 and the latest 3DFX reference drivers, downloaded and installed last week from the 3Dfx main site. I run N1999, GPL, Viper, NFS3, European Air War, Falcon4, Tribes, Red Baron 3D, etc. on my system. I am in no way a Papyrus worshipper. Here we go: The install (375MB) went normally. When I ran the game it only gave me the option for Direct3D.No Glide.. hmmm.. Thinking perhaps it was the new Glide drivers, I installed the Voodoo2 drivers from the Nas Rev CD (which are DirectX5 drivers) and Nas Rev ran in Glide. This thing is so truly bad, I don't know where to begin. Let's start with the (very)few good qualities, move up to the annoyances and finally work our way up to the ridiculous stuff which will cause me to return it to Walden Software tomorrow. I was pretty e***d about this game. From the demo, I could tell that it looked great, had nice FF effects, and was running in arcade mode with the promise of a 'sim' mode in the real game. My expectations were that it would at least have equivalent physics to N2/N1999 and that the rest of it would look and feel very nice. I didn't expect it to have the physics of Viper or GPL. I expected it to be quite a bit better than the "physics" in NFS3. I love Viper and I like N1999. Sometimes I think that GPL is not for me due to the inability to feel what the highly modeled car is doing. I don't drive it much. I am saying this because I want to show what I expected and my biases. I raced lots of RL racecars for 15 years, mostly in SCCA. I also have done a few outlaw stock car races in my time. I have been around races and racecars a lot in my life. I love racing sims and flying sims. O.K.? Here we go: * Good things: 1) Graphics. Nuf sed. It is gorgeous and runs smoothly on my system at 640x480. For maximum smoothness, I had to reduce the number of cars from 40+ to 20 or so to get what I consider to be decent framerates at 800x600. Tracks look great, but popup is horrendous, even with the highest setting. I give the graphics engine a B- based on appearance and smoothness. 2) Sound. While I wish it was throatier the staccato thing works nice with good back-off effects, etc. Not bad! Of course the Benny Parsons chatter, etc. would probably grate on my nerves after a while, but it was fun listening to it for the two hours I played the game. Sound rating = B, IF you remove the CD from the drive to end the nice, but ultimately annoying music. 3) Force Feedback. Not bad. It's not nearly as detailed as Viper, but MUCH better than NFS3 or CMR. Push and wheel sliding is easily detected, and overall it works pretty well. I would give it a B. Yes the above items are ALL that is decent about Nascar Revolution. * Annoyances: 1) If you want to end the incessantly playing CD music, you have to physically remove the CD from the drive. Nope, the music slider won't help. The good news is that NasRev will run without the CD. 2) Every time you take to the track, you will be swooped into the scene in the external view. Nope you can't change it, and it doesn't matter what your settings for the***pit view are, it forgets them and you must reset them each time (while you are running 180mph). 3) Every time you want to leave the race or practice, you have to watch your car zip around for a while and then it will finally do what you want. Just like the demo. Nope, there is no way to stop it...... Also, your force feedback wheel will be bashing back and forth if your car happens to hit the wall or another car while it continues to drive itself on the screen. I would say that this process takes about 20-30 seconds EVERY time you want to quit. * Ridiculous (deal breaker) stuff: 1) Sense of speed in***pit mode. NONE!! At 190 MPH it feels like about 50MPH. It crawls with a capital C. Oh, if you like to get rid of the***pit and drive in a forward view, or a rear arcade view, the sense of speed is great. Also, the sense of speed in replays is good.I don't like that, so I give sense of speed a D. If you like a dashboard view, I promise that you have never seen a game or sim with this low level of sense of speed. 2) Absolutely NO physics model in either the arcade, sim or 'custom' mode. Catch this, you can swing your steering wheel quickly from lock to lock at 180 MPH and not spin, or lose control of the car. Yup. Hell, at high speeds, NFS* will spin from steering input. Actually, you damn near have to hit something else or simply push into the wall to lose control of your car. If you lessen the push, the car is on rails. Period. EXTREMELY canned over/understeer effects. Fair spin/crash effects, but VERY scripted. I give Nascar Revolution's physics an F-. If Nascar Revolution had 2/3 of the physics of, say, Gran Turismo I could live with the rest, and probably enjoy the racing. It has NO PHYSICS. You are warned.. :) I could have continued to drive it and seen if the AI is good or bad, and reported on other stuff, but at this point it doesn't matter to me. Others can tell you about that, I can't stomach it. Anyone who tries to equate Nascar Revolution to either N2/1999 or Viper or GPL or ICR2 or NFS1 or MGPR* or GP2 or any of the other sims and sim lites that we enjoy is simply WRONG. Just believe it and forget buying this game. Well, you ask, what about arcade mode for the arcade players? First, let me say that I enjoy good arcade racers. I am not snobbish about them at all if they are fun. I loved POD. I love Powerslide. I like DethKarz, etc. etc. Nascar Revolution is WAY too dull to be a decent arcade game. It just does NOT have the flash and pizazz necessary to garner attention in that market. So who will buy it? IMO, it will be bought by Nascar *fans* who want to see their favorite drivers and cars whip around nicely rendered tracks. They won't have to worry about crashing too much, even if they use a keyboard or gamepad. It will show off their new system with it's nicely realistic graphics. EA knows this, IMO, and since there are a *LOT* of Nascar fans, they figure that this game will be successful with the crowd it is designed for. (and it just might be very succesful). That's O.K., there is room in the racing game world for all types of products. I am just REALLY disappointed that this great looking title has nothing to offer me. I am also amused at a couple of the posts that we have already seen from users that love this game. I don't get it... Oh well, back to Viper and N1999. You are warned.. hehe.. -- rrevved posts from mindspring dot com

>2) Sound. While I wish it was throatier the staccato thing works >nice with good back-off effects, etc. Not bad! Of course the The sound on my PC was utter crap... I turned the music slider to 0 and it turned off the music as you would expect. Perhaps it was payback (in a good way) for the crappy engine sound I was getting. BTW, the game really sounded like ***to me, almost had pong like sounds... Really horrible, -- Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes. cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com

>After 2 hours with my shiny new copy of Nascar Revolution, I have >to say that it is *utter crap*. It fails both as a 'sim' and as an >arcade racer. Thanks for the writeup, rrevved...pretty much said what I expected from it all along...won't waste my pocketbook... Cheers! ??Jan Kohl?? **The Pits Performance Team** Computer Systems Programmer USAF Air-Ground Operations School Hurlburt Field, FL Castle Graphics - http://www.castlegraphics.com/ The Pits - http://www.theuspits.com/

Well I told everyone I liked it after a couple of races. WELL, I have now played it for two to three hours and I want to beat the F**K out of Benny Parsons. I never got the music, Glad I didn't! I felt Like I was going 50mph also, I seemed to have very bad control over my car, I spent more time in the wall and flipping than I did racing. I LOVE NASCAR 99!! This game has mad me appreciate it even more!! It is going back tomorrow as soon as the store opens! I never got my Thrustmaster T2 to work in it, had to play with my Wingman Digital Extreme. My Final review.....F.....F.....F....F....F graphics were good but mad me feel as if I was playing with a cartoon!! Thanks and STAY AWAY FROM REVOLUTION!!

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>thought this guy captured my feeling s of the game prettty well: >>After 2 hours with my shiny new copy of Nascar Revolution, I have >to say that it is *utter crap*. It fails both as a 'sim' and as an >arcade racer. >Read on: >First my system is a PII-333, overclocked to 375. I use >A Monster2 3DFX card with 8MB. I have 128MB RAM, and a >Storm VX (PCI) soundcard. My controller is an ACT Labs Force RS >wheel. I have DX 6.1 and the latest 3DFX reference drivers, >downloaded and installed last week from the 3Dfx main site. >I run N1999, GPL, Viper, NFS3, European Air War, Falcon4, >Tribes, Red Baron 3D, etc. on my system. I am in no way a Papyrus >worshipper. >Here we go: >The install (375MB) went normally. When I ran the game it only gave >me the option for Direct3D.No Glide.. hmmm.. Thinking perhaps it was >the new Glide drivers, I installed the Voodoo2 drivers from the >Nas Rev CD (which are DirectX5 drivers) and Nas Rev ran in Glide. >This thing is so truly bad, I don't know where to begin. >Let's start with the (very)few good qualities, move up to the >annoyances and finally work our way up to the ridiculous stuff >which will cause me to return it to Walden Software tomorrow. >I was pretty e***d about this game. From the demo, I could tell >that it looked great, had nice FF effects, and was running in >arcade mode with the promise of a 'sim' mode in the real game. >My expectations were that it would at least have equivalent >physics to N2/N1999 and that the rest of it would look and feel >very nice. I didn't expect it to have the physics of Viper or >GPL. I expected it to be quite a bit better than the "physics" >in NFS3. I love Viper and I like N1999. Sometimes I think that >GPL is not for me due to the inability to feel what the highly >modeled car is doing. I don't drive it much. I am saying this >because I want to show what I expected and my biases. I raced >lots of RL racecars for 15 years, mostly in SCCA. I also have >done a few outlaw stock car races in my time. I have been around >races and racecars a lot in my life. I love racing sims and >flying sims. O.K.? >Here we go: >* Good things: >1) Graphics. Nuf sed. It is gorgeous and runs smoothly on my >system at 640x480. For maximum smoothness, I had to reduce the >number of cars from 40+ to 20 or so to get what I consider to >be decent framerates at 800x600. Tracks look great, but popup >is horrendous, even with the highest setting. I give the graphics >engine a B- based on appearance and smoothness. >2) Sound. While I wish it was throatier the staccato thing works >nice with good back-off effects, etc. Not bad! Of course the >Benny Parsons chatter, etc. would probably grate on my nerves >after a while, but it was fun listening to it for the two hours >I played the game. Sound rating = B, IF you remove the CD from >the drive to end the nice, but ultimately annoying music. >3) Force Feedback. Not bad. It's not nearly as detailed as >Viper, but MUCH better than NFS3 or CMR. Push and wheel sliding >is easily detected, and overall it works pretty well. I would >give it a B. >Yes the above items are ALL that is decent about Nascar Revolution. >* Annoyances: >1) If you want to end the incessantly playing CD music, you >have to physically remove the CD from the drive. Nope, the music >slider won't help. The good news is that NasRev will run without >the CD. >2) Every time you take to the track, you will be swooped into the >scene in the external view. Nope you can't change it, and it doesn't >matter what your settings for the***pit view are, it forgets them >and you must reset them each time (while you are running 180mph). >3) Every time you want to leave the race or practice, you have to >watch your car zip around for a while and then it will finally >do what you want. Just like the demo. Nope, there is no way to >stop it...... Also, your force feedback wheel will be bashing back >and forth if your car happens to hit the wall or another car while >it continues to drive itself on the screen. I would say that this >process takes about 20-30 seconds EVERY time you want to quit. >* Ridiculous (deal breaker) stuff: >1) Sense of speed in***pit mode. NONE!! At 190 MPH it feels like >about 50MPH. It crawls with a capital C. Oh, if you like to get rid >of the***pit and drive in a forward view, or a rear arcade view, >the sense of speed is great. Also, the sense of speed in replays is >good.I don't like that, so I give sense of speed a D. If you like >a dashboard view, I promise that you have never seen a game or sim >with this low level of sense of speed. >2) Absolutely NO physics model in either the arcade, sim or 'custom' >mode. Catch this, you can swing your steering wheel quickly from lock >to lock at 180 MPH and not spin, or lose control of the car. Yup. >Hell, at high speeds, NFS* will spin from steering input. >Actually, you damn near have to hit something else or simply push >into the wall to lose control of your car. If you lessen the push, >the car is on rails. Period. >EXTREMELY canned over/understeer effects. Fair spin/crash effects, >but VERY scripted. I give Nascar Revolution's physics an F-. >If Nascar Revolution had 2/3 of the physics of, say, Gran Turismo >I could live with the rest, and probably enjoy the racing. >It has NO PHYSICS. You are warned.. :) >I could have continued to drive it and seen if the AI is good >or bad, and reported on other stuff, but at this point it doesn't >matter to me. Others can tell you about that, I can't stomach it. >Anyone who tries to equate Nascar Revolution to either N2/1999 or >Viper or GPL or ICR2 or NFS1 or MGPR* or GP2 or any of the other >sims and sim lites that we enjoy is simply WRONG. Just believe it and >forget buying this game. >Well, you ask, what about arcade mode for the arcade players? First, >let me say that I enjoy good arcade racers. I am not snobbish about >them at all if they are fun. I loved POD. I love Powerslide. I like >DethKarz, etc. etc. Nascar Revolution is WAY too dull to be a decent >arcade game. It just does NOT have the flash and pizazz necessary >to garner attention in that market. >So who will buy it? IMO, it will be bought by Nascar *fans* who want >to see their favorite drivers and cars whip around nicely rendered tracks. >They won't have to worry about crashing too much, even if they use a >keyboard or gamepad. It will show off their new system with it's nicely >realistic graphics. EA knows this, IMO, and since there are a *LOT* >of Nascar fans, they figure that this game will be successful >with the crowd it is designed for. (and it just might be very succesful). >That's O.K., there is room in the racing game world for all types of >products. I am just REALLY disappointed that this great looking title has >nothing to offer me. I am also amused at a couple of the posts that we >have already seen from users that love this game. I don't get it... >Oh well, back to Viper and N1999. >You are warned.. hehe.. >-- > rrevved posts from mindspring dot com

If you want to turn the music off you don't have to move the slider to zero. Just click on the speaker icon next to slider and it will mute it. BTW- great review. EA sure missed it with this one. :( Now I have to wait 8 months for N3. Hope they put out a demo soon. >* Annoyances: >1) If you want to end the incessantly playing CD music, you >have to physically remove the CD from the drive. Nope, the music >slider won't help. The good news is that NasRev will run without >the CD. Paul **Remove nospam to reply to me**

First things first. Where did you get it? -Larry > After 2 hours with my shiny new copy of Nascar Revolution, I have > to say that it is *utter crap*. It fails both as a 'sim' and as an > arcade racer.

I got my copy at a babbages in illinois. You think this will impact whether the game sucks or not??? -- Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes. cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com >First things first. Where did you get it? >-Larry >> After 2 hours with my shiny new copy of Nascar Revolution, I have >> to say that it is *utter crap*. It fails both as a 'sim' and as an >> arcade racer.

No, I just wanted to know so maybe _I_ could go there and buy a copy. Jeez, Greg. You can be really grouchy sometimes. It was a simple question :) FWIW, I stopped by both MicroCenter and CompScrewUsa and neither had it. -Larry > I got my copy at a babbages in illinois. You think this will > impact whether the game sucks or not???

You hit the nail right on the head. I am returning it tomorrow.

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>After 2 hours with my shiny new copy of Nascar Revolution, I have >to say that it is *utter crap*. It fails both as a 'sim' and as an >arcade racer. >Read on: >First my system is a PII-333, overclocked to 375. I use >A Monster2 3DFX card with 8MB. I have 128MB RAM, and a >Storm VX (PCI) soundcard. My controller is an ACT Labs Force RS >wheel. I have DX 6.1 and the latest 3DFX reference drivers, >downloaded and installed last week from the 3Dfx main site. >I run N1999, GPL, Viper, NFS3, European Air War, Falcon4, >Tribes, Red Baron 3D, etc. on my system. I am in no way a Papyrus >worshipper. >Here we go: >The install (375MB) went normally. When I ran the game it only gave >me the option for Direct3D.No Glide.. hmmm.. Thinking perhaps it was >the new Glide drivers, I installed the Voodoo2 drivers from the >Nas Rev CD (which are DirectX5 drivers) and Nas Rev ran in Glide. >This thing is so truly bad, I don't know where to begin. >Let's start with the (very)few good qualities, move up to the >annoyances and finally work our way up to the ridiculous stuff >which will cause me to return it to Walden Software tomorrow. >I was pretty e***d about this game. From the demo, I could tell >that it looked great, had nice FF effects, and was running in >arcade mode with the promise of a 'sim' mode in the real game. >My expectations were that it would at least have equivalent >physics to N2/N1999 and that the rest of it would look and feel >very nice. I didn't expect it to have the physics of Viper or >GPL. I expected it to be quite a bit better than the "physics" >in NFS3. I love Viper and I like N1999. Sometimes I think that >GPL is not for me due to the inability to feel what the highly >modeled car is doing. I don't drive it much. I am saying this >because I want to show what I expected and my biases. I raced >lots of RL racecars for 15 years, mostly in SCCA. I also have >done a few outlaw stock car races in my time. I have been around >races and racecars a lot in my life. I love racing sims and >flying sims. O.K.? >Here we go: >* Good things: >1) Graphics. Nuf sed. It is gorgeous and runs smoothly on my >system at 640x480. For maximum smoothness, I had to reduce the >number of cars from 40+ to 20 or so to get what I consider to >be decent framerates at 800x600. Tracks look great, but popup >is horrendous, even with the highest setting. I give the graphics >engine a B- based on appearance and smoothness. >2) Sound. While I wish it was throatier the staccato thing works >nice with good back-off effects, etc. Not bad! Of course the >Benny Parsons chatter, etc. would probably grate on my nerves >after a while, but it was fun listening to it for the two hours >I played the game. Sound rating = B, IF you remove the CD from >the drive to end the nice, but ultimately annoying music. >3) Force Feedback. Not bad. It's not nearly as detailed as >Viper, but MUCH better than NFS3 or CMR. Push and wheel sliding >is easily detected, and overall it works pretty well. I would >give it a B. >Yes the above items are ALL that is decent about Nascar Revolution. >* Annoyances: >1) If you want to end the incessantly playing CD music, you >have to physically remove the CD from the drive. Nope, the music >slider won't help. The good news is that NasRev will run without >the CD. >2) Every time you take to the track, you will be swooped into the >scene in the external view. Nope you can't change it, and it doesn't >matter what your settings for the***pit view are, it forgets them >and you must reset them each time (while you are running 180mph). >3) Every time you want to leave the race or practice, you have to >watch your car zip around for a while and then it will finally >do what you want. Just like the demo. Nope, there is no way to >stop it...... Also, your force feedback wheel will be bashing back >and forth if your car happens to hit the wall or another car while >it continues to drive itself on the screen. I would say that this >process takes about 20-30 seconds EVERY time you want to quit. >* Ridiculous (deal breaker) stuff: >1) Sense of speed in***pit mode. NONE!! At 190 MPH it feels like >about 50MPH. It crawls with a capital C. Oh, if you like to get rid >of the***pit and drive in a forward view, or a rear arcade view, >the sense of speed is great. Also, the sense of speed in replays is >good.I don't like that, so I give sense of speed a D. If you like >a dashboard view, I promise that you have never seen a game or sim >with this low level of sense of speed. >2) Absolutely NO physics model in either the arcade, sim or 'custom' >mode. Catch this, you can swing your steering wheel quickly from lock >to lock at 180 MPH and not spin, or lose control of the car. Yup. >Hell, at high speeds, NFS* will spin from steering input. >Actually, you damn near have to hit something else or simply push >into the wall to lose control of your car. If you lessen the push, >the car is on rails. Period. >EXTREMELY canned over/understeer effects. Fair spin/crash effects, >but VERY scripted. I give Nascar Revolution's physics an F-. >If Nascar Revolution had 2/3 of the physics of, say, Gran Turismo >I could live with the rest, and probably enjoy the racing. >It has NO PHYSICS. You are warned.. :) >I could have continued to drive it and seen if the AI is good >or bad, and reported on other stuff, but at this point it doesn't >matter to me. Others can tell you about that, I can't stomach it. >Anyone who tries to equate Nascar Revolution to either N2/1999 or >Viper or GPL or ICR2 or NFS1 or MGPR* or GP2 or any of the other >sims and sim lites that we enjoy is simply WRONG. Just believe it and >forget buying this game. >Well, you ask, what about arcade mode for the arcade players? First, >let me say that I enjoy good arcade racers. I am not snobbish about >them at all if they are fun. I loved POD. I love Powerslide. I like >DethKarz, etc. etc. Nascar Revolution is WAY too dull to be a decent >arcade game. It just does NOT have the flash and pizazz necessary >to garner attention in that market. >So who will buy it? IMO, it will be bought by Nascar *fans* who want >to see their favorite drivers and cars whip around nicely rendered tracks. >They won't have to worry about crashing too much, even if they use a >keyboard or gamepad. It will show off their new system with it's nicely >realistic graphics. EA knows this, IMO, and since there are a *LOT* >of Nascar fans, they figure that this game will be successful >with the crowd it is designed for. (and it just might be very succesful). >That's O.K., there is room in the racing game world for all types of >products. I am just REALLY disappointed that this great looking title has >nothing to offer me. I am also amused at a couple of the posts that we >have already seen from users that love this game. I don't get it... >Oh well, back to Viper and N1999. >You are warned.. hehe.. >-- >// rrevved posts from mindspring dot com

Hehe :) The way it sounds, I might want to wait till it hits the bargain bin :) -Larry > Walden Software in Bellvue Mall, Nashville, Tennessee. They > have a few left so get a plane ticket!

Yeah, and maybe when N3 comes out they'll do another rebate offer, and we can send em Revolution. Then, it might be worth the 9.95 bargain bin price. -- Don Burnette Palmetto Racing Dburn on Ten >Hehe :) >The way it sounds, I might want to wait till it hits the bargain bin :) >-Larry >> Walden Software in Bellvue Mall, Nashville, Tennessee. They >> have a few left so get a plane ticket!

You know, I actually tried to buy this this weekend, and came out bust. CompUSA, MicroCenter, Best Buy. None of them have, or had, any stock. Best Buy wasn't expecting their first shipment until the 28th. These big Companies move like slugs when it comes to new stuff. Everything has to come thru 'Corporate' before it gets there... No wonder they are losing their asses... -Larry

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> Yeah, and maybe when N3 comes out they'll do another rebate offer, and we > can send em Revolution. Then, it might be worth the 9.95 bargain bin price. > -- > Don Burnette > Palmetto Racing > Dburn on Ten

>You know, I actually tried to buy this this weekend, and came out bust. >CompUSA, MicroCenter, Best Buy. None of them have, or had, any stock. >Best Buy wasn't expecting their first shipment until the 28th. Larry as a person who likes sims and even the odd araced racing game like NFSIII, save your money and buy another game. Nasar Revolution even for many arcade racers is too frustrating especially when the computer takes over for you in 1. the pits, 2, on the start, and 3. under caution (it loves to drive you car into another). Ex