Customer Reviews

NASCAR The Game 2011

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Let me start out by saying that I am a HUGE NASCAR fan. I play NASCAR 09 a ton because it was the only NASCAR game available. After seeing all the videos and all the hype surrounding this game, so far it's been a bit of a disappointment. The game needs major patches to fix issues. If the game didnt have so many glitches and silly mistakes, it could easily be a 4 star rating or an 8/10. Below are the pro's and con's after playing the game for 3 hours. For every pro, their is a con and usually the con is greater.

Pros:
- Paint booth: It's cool to fully paint and customize your car. It's almost identical to Forza's system.
- Attention to detail: The in-car camera is awesome. You actually see your drivers feet hit the clutch or put his foot on the brake. Also will move his hands to shift. If you drive as Dale Jr you can see his driving gloves are black Adidas.
- The pre race introduction is cool. Announcers talk about the track, fireworks go off, fly overs, etc..
- The menu: I find this to be really cool. People walking around outside, your crew working on the car, and it's easy to navigate. When selecting tracks it shows like a pit pass with stats which is cool.
- Gameplay: The cars are sensitive and don't require to much steering wheel input. Cars feel solid and drive like a 3,500lb+ car. Physics are pretty good.
- Drafting: Finally other cars will work with you and push you
- Pit stops: Animations are really cool. To see the lug nuts fall off and gas spill out is neat.
- Setups: You can tune your car as much or as little as you like. Perfect for the simulation or arcade driver.
- Pace car: Under caution its cool to see an actual pace car

Cons:
- Paint booth: Making your own decals and stuff is cool, but the controls can be clunky. NASCAR 09 did it right by having an online feature and then import it to you game. Would be much easier to make cool designs instead of something a 2nd grader did with crayons.
- Attention to detail: Things like the caution lights being on while the race is under green is silly. Also if you spin through the infield and end up on pit road you get black flagged for speeding.
- Damage: Even after flipping over and hitting cars head on, my car looks like I hit a deer instead of another car at 190mph
- Race modes: If you want to practice you have to go to a separate session from the main menu. No other cars are out there with you. If you choose to race, you get to qualify and then race. Can't even change your setup in between.
- Hitting the wall is a joke. Your car basically just comes to a stop. You don't smash into it and then your car spins out of control. If you drive through the grass your car doesnt spin out.
- Cautions: This is even more a joke. I spun out, 10 cars hit me, and no caution. I had to drive in reverse for about 10 seconds before it came out. If you spin by yourself it still wont come out even if you wreck hard.
- No DNF's: You can destroy your car as much as you want, drive with full tape on the grille, and nothing happens. Maybe you lose a little performance but that's it.
- Pit stops: It's great to have the animation but having to wait 10 seconds for it to load kinda kills it. Also if your under caution, the game should ask you what you want to adjust well before getting on pit road.
- Online: One word....horrible. If you try to bump draft you wreck basically. And if the caution flag actually does come out, the crashed car has to sorta drive back to start finish line from this over head blimp camera. One time I just stared at a stopped car on the back stretch for 5 minutes. Then when we were about to start the race, cars started flipping and spinning. Online is useless until they fix it.
- Career mode: It's basically just a season mode. Go to the race, race it, and move on. How come games like MLB 11 The Show can have ticket prices, free agents, stadium upgrades, trades, sponsors for the stadium, etc etc and we get a season mode? A real career mode would feature hiring a pit crew, buying a shop, building chassis for different tracks, hiring more drivers to make a full race car team (like Richard Childress Racing), engine shop and engine builders. When you race you should earn money and that money should be used to buy better crew chiefs, better products, larger shop building, bigger sponsors, higher expectations, etc etc. Have an off-season where you can test at tracks to improve your car and team or public events to gain fans and impress sponsors. A merchandise section where you can sell die-casts, memorabilia, shirts, etc etc to earn money and gain fame. Would be cool to start out as a rookie in a 1 car team and over a season or 2 be a major powerhouse and have a full 4 car team.
- Wrong paint schemes: I know a patch is scheduled to update the roster and paint schemes, but seriously, why make a game with last years schemes and cars? It would be like MLB 11 The Show releasing the game with players on last years teams. Every sport releases their game around the start of the season with current rosters, NASCAR should too. Over the course of the season, have patches and downloads for new car skins or if drivers get dropped or a new driver starts.
- Night races: Another head scratcher. I am racing at Charlotte and it's dusk the entire time. There are no day to night transitions. Either have the race in the day or at night, not in between.
- HUD: I don't want to see how many experience points I am getting for "Dominating." I also don't want car radar which is a small icon at the bottom of your screen showing where cars are around you. Actually, this might be a PRO since you have no rear view mirror and can't tell where anyone is unless you look behind you which usually isnt a good idea while doing 180mph around a turn.
- Spotter: It's great that he can inform me to drink tons of fluids cause its hot, but it sucks when he cant tell me there is a car low. As soon as a car comes low or high, spotter should tell you that. I don't care that I'm leading and can do this all day, I care if a car is coming up on me or I'm approaching lap traffic. Maybe he got himself a cold beverage and missed all the cars around me.
- Difficulty: Even on VERY HARD the game isn't very hard. Very hard would be riding in 20th position fighting for 19th. Very hard is being at Daytona or Talladega and being stuck in middle of the pack cause there is no where to go all by yourself. I raced at Charlotte and after 10 laps I had almost a 3 second lead. Then all of a sudden by lap 13 the field was right behind me. If my tires went away in 10 laps or the AI just got amazing, that's pretty stupid.

As you can see, a lot of issues. For their 1st time out the game is playable, but only to a certain degree. If you want online, skip this game until a patch is released. I am going to stick to single player until the new car paint schemes come out and the game is fixed. I hope this helped.

Here's where I'm coming from. I got started on Papyrus sims on the PC 10-15 years ago. I went from those games to the EA Nascar games for X-Box but was really disappointed, particularly in the graphics, even after putting in some time on them. I didn't bother to even try the EA versions for the PS3. Today, prior to buying Nascar 2011, I've been driving F1 2007, Dirt2, and GT5 for the PS3. I love all three games and they have set the standard for my expectations. With this in mind, to sum up my thoughts on Nascar 2011 - while it approaches (but doesn't meet) the standards set by the other three games, it blows away the EA games. I am glad I bought this game if anything else, to support a new developer in creating a good Nascar racing game again. It looks like this will be more of a process (with patches) than an event (with initial release).

I bought this game yesterday and put in about three hours with it last night, and raced in 17 different online races, trying out Martinsville, Daytona, Talladega, and Atlanta. Here is a list of Likes, Eh, and Dis-Likes:

Likes -
* Graphics (other than the resolution, see below) - the immersion is good, I like the sense of speed, and I can pick out detail a good distance down the track, which helps in choosing a passing strategy, avoiding a wreck, etc. I caught myself getting tunnel vision on the racing line, and using my (virtual) peripheral vision for gauging where I was relative to the wall, the yellow line, other cars, etc.
* Spotter - so far, so good. Yeah, the repetitive "you're clear" can get a little annoying, but when in traffic I relied entirely on the spotter's guidance and I thought it worked well
* Little details - The bits of rubber building up on your windshield. Bumps in the track. Changing light conditions with shadows, reflections, the change in sound of the air as your car gets close to the wall, etc. I am sure I will notice more as I spend more time with the game.
* The Draft - I like how the draft is portrayed with the option of having it visualized with "wingtip contrails" coming off the spoiler of the car in front of me. Looks cool - caught myself watching the draft instead of watching my racing line. The feel of the draft seemed right to me as well.
* Two cockpit views - one "to scale" and one "wide angle". I switched between both depending on whether I wanted to try to use my mirrors or not. I don't usually race any sim using the outside views.
* Ticker tape at the top of the HUD - good for a quick glance to see time differences and closure rates between you and the car in front, and the car behind
* Damage model - not bad, didn't experience it much, but did notice rubbing the wall a few times in one race was starting to really impact my top speeds on the super speedways

Eh -
* Force-feedback programming seems simpler than F1, GT5, or Dirt2. Granted, these other sims have different types of racing, but even Nascar driving in GT5 had more "feel" to it. I hope Eutechnyx improves this with a patch.
* Driving physics - I thought the superspeedways were a little easy using the default setups, but not a big deal. The default setup for Martinsville had me suffering from push most of the time and running slower than the pack, which indicates I needed to do some work in the garage to tweak the car for my tastes. So - this was a little more of a welcome challenge. I should mention that I turned off all driving aids for my entire session.
* 720p resolution - as soon as I looked at the back of the box, I felt a twinge of disappointment. I really was hoping for 1080p, to rival GT5. I found that the more I played the game though, the less I cared about the lower resolution.
* Mirrors - not a lot of help. They are available in one of the cockpit views. I haven't used the "radar" display yet as I mainly listen for guidance from the spotter.
* Customizing the controller buttons for different functions is clumsy. I hope they fix this with a patch.
* Experience points popping up based on game events - kinda cool, but I will likely disable this function in the HUD
* Crashes - believe it or not, I think they might be a little over-done here. It's a little hard to suspend disbelief during some of the wild rides (spinning like a top in the air, that kind of stuff)

Dislikes -
* Multiplayer bugs. Granted, this was the first night for the servers to go live, and I set my expectations low. Still, I felt like I was a beta tester for the online portion. There were long load times depending on the number of drivers. One session failed to load at all, and I had to reboot the PS3 to get out of it. Occasionally the other cars would disappear from the "map view" of the track. Other times just the proximity of a car (no contact) would lead to a bizarre crash. Still other times, if I was on the pole, my race would start but the other drivers were stuck at the starting line. Eutechnyx has some work to do here. Even after all this though - I mean I raced 17 different rounds (at an average of 10 laps per race), and I had fun!
* Rolling start right before the green flag - both online and offline races are too sloppy here
* Yellow flags, particularly in multiplayer - inconsistent, and distracting with the cut scenes, pitting, etc. Some wrecks really should have had an immediate yellow, yet they didn't. I think if the settings for Yellow flags was more sensitive, online races would tend to be cleaner.
* You choose your car/driver at the beginning of the game, and then your stuck with that for the rest of your game-save! What if halfway through the actual 2011 Nascar season I decide I am not a Kurt Busch fan (for example)?? Am I stuck driving his car anyway in the game, or having to start over my online driver from zero experience?

A few things I've yet to try out - Career mode, pitting during a race, in-depth car setup. Look to other reviews for opinions on these. Oh - and I don't begrudge Eutechnyx for not reflecting the actual 2011 Nascar last minute details - I mean if they update that with a patch, that's cool, but it doesn't detract from the game for me. I would like to see them use the new points system though.

In summary - I am glad I bought it on opening day, bugs and all. I had a good time running multiplayer last night even with the bugs, and the time flew by. One sign of a good game is when you have to make yourself quit - I kept thinking "ok, after this next race I'll quit and go to bed. Well, maybe one more... Ok, this time I really mean it, just one more..." If Eutechnyx is committed to working out the bugs in the online action and some of the game mechanics, then I am committed to supporting their establishment of a new Nascar racing franchise.

NanoSiO2 (#42 Juan Montoya)

If there were 3.5 stars, I would have a tough choice on what to rate it, so I gave it 4 stars. I can't believe people are giving it 1 and 2 stars, that's ridiculous. I am going to give a simple review by showing you the pros and cons of the game.

Pros:
-Graphics are very impressive, best on a NASCAR game yet.
-Sound is also commendable. Realistic engine sounds, announcers and spotters are solid.
-Online play is great and well put together. Seems as if everyone always races fairly, no glitches that I have seen thus far, and presentation is as good as it gets.
-Presentation offline is fantastic. If you race in a season, it's all there, pre raace introductions from the two announcers, the flyover, and it also shows the current points of each driver going down the rows of the starting grid. Menus are easy to navigate, options are good, driver selection is complete.
-Finally, paint schemes are included again.
-Bump drafting is here, which is good and bad. Sometimes other drivers would help me with a slight push, other times they bumped me out of the way nearly crashing me.
-Replay factor is great. I always want to play it for some reason or another. It will definitely hold fans over for the 2012 edition.

Cons:
-Feels too much like an arcade game for my taste, but as a seasoned veteran to these games since 2003, I found pleasure none the less. Wish they would have made it a bit more technical and less pick up and play. A solid effort, but I hope to see a change next year.
-Based on 2010 season, we will have to wait for a DLC update for new schedule and drivers.
-Load times are sometimes annoying and longer than you would expect.
-Experienced a few minor glitches with online play, but nothing serious.
-Caution flag only waves for major accidents, if you spin out you basically don't have a chance of catching back up.
-Currently waiting for patches to fix all the above issues. One has already came, waiting for the 2nd one.

We shouldn't bash the game. It's Eutechnyx's first try at a NASCAR game and if you ask me, it's a heck of a lot better than EA's past few attempts. It is a very solid package. There are glitches, yes, but overall, it is a must-own for fans of the sports, such as myself. Days are gone where we once had PERFECT Nascar games such as Thunder 2003 and 2004, so get used to not seeing those any time soon. EA really disappointed me with 2005 through 2009, making sub par, boring, unplayable Nascar games, but hopefully Eutechnyx can save the genre. I'm sure anyone would agree with me when I say the best ones were 2003 and 2004. Easily. If there was a PERFECT Nascar game, it would have the depth and presentation of Thunder 2004, the gameplay and finesse of Thunder 2003, and the graphics and online play of the current 2011. So we still wait for the PERFECT Nascar game. In the mean time, pick this one up, you will not regret it. NASCAR the Game 2011 will definitely feed your hunger for the spectacle that is NASCAR racing.

Thanks for reading!

I think the game is great and I like it a lot, yes there is room for improvements too. compared to previous nascar games (I have), this one is a huge improvement.

Graphics: they are good, but I also own GT5 and if you compare it to GT5 you know it could be better.

Wheel: I use it with a Logitech wheel and the game gives you great feedback on the traction, loose (over steering) tight (under steering). in my mind I think it does a good job there and you can feel how much traction you have in the corners and if you will hit the wall or not.

when a yellow comes out it takes you to the video of the thing, I don't like that but is ok not a big deal.

I was going to give 4 starts but why not 5, I'm having fun with it.

* they said before releasing the game that there will be a free upgrade to change the game to the 2011 season and get the new track, don't think is out yet, waiting for it.

Thanks,

If your looking to replace NR2003 with this, save your $$.

I really wanted to like the game. Played the game for about 4 hours trying to like it, then just had to walk away.

First the good:
Graphics are amazing
Damage is cool
43 car field awesome

The Bad :
Online - Online unplayable in present state. LAG, LAG, LAG!! Cautions are erratic. Could be fixed with patch.

Single Player -
You don't control car till green comes out. You typically either spin the tires or get run over.
One choice of driver, it's auto saved, then your stuck, even in single player/quick race.....really??
Yellow comes out you can't pit?? Yellow causes a cut scene, you view what brought out the yellow and you can choose inside or outside lane.
No rear view mirror in cockpit view?
Bad racing wheel jitters. Drive a slow lap and the wheel pulls all over the place.
No calibration settings for racing wheels
H pattern shifters not supported

Career Mode : Don't know, was too disgusted at this point.

Here's the deal.... I want to feel like I'm in a race. I don't want breaks in play, or cut scenes of crashes, because it tears you away from immersion into the game. If you want to me to be able to see a wreck, just allow pausing the game to view it. Most of the time it's not necessary, because I caused it and had a front row seat the first time. If I want to pit during a caution, I want to be able to. Fresh tires and tuning the car, in race, can greatly effect a race.

Hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I may be the rogue idiot who doesn't like the game. I spent a lot of time reading the official forums pre-release, and Eutechnyx did honestly seem to care about what they were developing. It's just, for me, they missed the mark.

Ultimately I blame NASCAR. It's their fault for selling exclusive rights to EA, which put Papyrus out of business. At this point I'd settle for NASCAR Heat getting a graphics upgrade and being re-released.

I popped the game in shortly after getting home from work on Tuesday and after a painless update, was up and running. The first thing I see (after skipping the Activision logo) is that familiar trailer we saw months ago, still as entertaining as the first time I saw it but it's a video...I want to play. I press X I'm at the Start Screen...

The loading screens are immediately welcomed. They consist of a simple trivia question with 5 seconds to come up with an answer. Sadly, the player can choose anything, it's simply to educate people. Still, I'm not at the main screen and it's awesome. We're inside the garage of Jeff Gordon and his team as he is the driver I selected. People are walking around outside (and a few members inside the garage are idling chatting). I can select from Career, Single Player, Multiplayer, Car, Driver, and Options. I select Single Player, pick my car, and choose Race Now. I could have selected Track Testing or Eliminator, but I want some straight up racing. The next screen I get to select the track, I choose Las Vegas. Up Opponent Difficulty to "Very Hard" with the other settings set to "Quick". 42 opponents, 6 laps, no qualifying, tire wear and fuel off, damage is cosmetic, and cautions off. Hit X and I get to choose my assists and setup. Pro seems appropriate enough for my first race. Off we go!

A new loading screen shows up, this time with a map of the country and pins of all the tracks. The badge slowly swings with 0 for all my stats :P Loading takes about...15-20 seconds, not bad.

OK, I'm on the track, last place, 6 laps, pssh, easy. The green flag drops and I immediately nearly spin out. Ha! A little too much wheel on the straight, my bad. Thankfully I bounce off the outside wall lightly and am only a few car lengths behind 42nd. I gather my car up and go into the corner. "BRAKE!" appears on the screen, I'll have to turn that off later, as helpful as it was, I like a clean HUD, aside from the necessities. I get into turn 1 and the car feels great. Already a major improvement over previous NASCAR games when it comes to handling. I fly by a few cars on the outside and...hit the wall. Too fast it seems. I barrel down the backstretch and get a good draft off of the cars ahead of me and brake a little earlier this time and make a few clean passes. 6 laps isn't going to be enough to win this thing but I can aim for top 20 at least. the next few laps I try to hit my marks if at all possible, I don't, but the car is generally fast enough that I can go in a lane or two higher than I want and keep the speed coming out of the turn. I'm up to 31st on lap 5 and going into turn 1 I get bumped by the AI from behind. My car gets loose, I get sideways, but save it, but I'm back to 33rd position now. I enter the last lap, get into turn 1 a bit hot but I keep it off the wall. Final turn now, I'm in 31st, on the tail of the car ahead of me. I bump them slightly, what most drivers would call a bump n' run, and I get underneath and a good driver off and finish the race in 30th place.

*Huge grin on my face* "That was fun". The screens shows that I've leveled up, cool. I immediately choose "Race Again" and this time is a bit cleaner. I finish 20th. Awesome. So far, the graphics are great, but the AI is leaving a bit to be desired. Perhaps the AI is scaled to the number of laps, and the first 20-30 cars are slower...either way, I love how they bump and bang on the track, but I am concerned with how much checking up they do early on. Once the cars get spread out they seem to race fine, but those first 2-3 laps they check up in just about ever turn, making it really easy for me to pass...

My fiancé wants to watch some show coming on in about 30 minutes so I jump into multiplayer, choose online (instead of split screen) and select Quick Race. My first race is Phoenix. Cool, I like this track. When I get in the race timer is at 25 seconds. We end up starting with five people, myself included. Loading takes a bit longer this time, though I saw a custom scheme load I think. Still, only took about 20-30 seconds. OK, the race is starting, I'm on the outside. Green flag drops and we're off...straight into the infield. Seems all of us are still having issues with how much wheel to put into the car when the race starts We gather ourselves up and the races continues on fairly event free. I make a few passes and am somehow in first, though second place is closely behind. It's a short race, only a few laps (6?) and on the last lap the 2nd place player gets into the turn a bit hot and drifts up. I win my first race online, YES!

The next 4 races yield the same results. 5 races, 5 wins, this is obviously leaving a good first impression. The next few races aren't as kind, with one player, name withheld, wrecking some people during each race, myself included being caught up a few times...

But enough of me rambling, here is a quick breakdown of my impressions:

GOOD:
Handling is solid, the cars feel good
Graphics look amazing
The cars and atmosphere sound great

BAD:
Slow AI
Texture tearing on some tracks
Damage modeling is a bit unrealistic, cool, but unrealistic

UGLY:
No option to kick players online
Random glitches when racing online
Lag/bad hosts online

If I HAD to give the game a rating, I'd say 8 out of 10. It's solid, and hopefully with a couple of patches the online issues are resolved. I would like some clarification on whether or not the AI is scaled with the races...if not, then they need to be improved, if so, then it makes perfect sense :)

At this point you know what's wrong with the game and what needs to be fixed with the new patch. This game is fun and is an improvement over Nascar 09 offline anyway, the online needs to be patched. When the patch is released this game should be 4/5 at least and I would recommend this game to any racing fan or Nascar fan after the patches are released. This somewhat feels like at beta at this point, but the offline and single player is great fun and will be better with the new patch. Thanks for reading! (I know I say "patch a lot, but hey they keep preaching the patch and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt).

I've only logged about 2-3 hours on this game but i wanted to write a review for those that would consider purchasing it soon. From a value perspective it's not worth the full retail price. Amazon was giving a pretty good gift card credit with pre-orders so I had to buy.

I own GT5 and I play it a lot with my G27 logitech steering wheel. I play the nascar series in GT5 and I'm pretty familiar. Actually GT5 is pretty darn awesome when you're driving around daytona. it's main negative being that it only has a 12 car field (I think it's 12). I wish they had an endurance race for Daytona on GT5 which would be the real daytona 500!! I believe GT5 to be much better in simulation mode, and the use of the steering wheel in GT5 appears to be more realistic. Note that the clutch pedal does not work in Nascar 2011 but it does work in GT5 for the G27. Steering input is much more accurate in GT5 as well and you are able to select force-feedback, but I'm unable to do that in Nascar 2011. I find GT5 to be more of a simulation, you can get loose if someone is behind you and bump drafting you. you can get loose behind dirty air etc...Graphics in GT5 are also superior...The one thing GT5 is lacking in comparison is accuracy of damage.

IN short if Gran Turismo or Polygamy Digital went out and made a Nascar game it would be 5 stars and completely awesome. With that said, they don't focus on nascar and it's only 1% of their offering in the game which then got me to buy Nascar 2011.

Nascar 2011 does have a career mode that puts you through the paces of the entire Nascar Season which includes Qualifying and Race (no practice sessions). It seems okay so far and you're able to select the difficulty of the competition as well as drivers aids. Thus far I've found the game to be on the easy side. This might be because I've driven car games before, but it has to be on the most difficult setting to be considered challenging. This scares me a bit because this means I'll probably master the game in less than a month...

What's good about the game is that it's fun in terms of being an arcade game. I like how you can look left, right, behind. You have a spotter, radar. The damage is very realistic and if you hit the wall....there goes your steering and possibly your engine. The 43 cars in the game make it really entertaining for me. I wish it was more like the EA game where you could drive in the Nationwide or Craftsman Truck series

One Odd Negative....
Why is Danica Patrick In the series? I see her #7 Go Daddy Car when I was driving around...last I checked she's NOT in the sprint cup series!!

Okay - so it doesn't have every little nitpick customization, but let me tell you what - From a Dad with two kids, and barely enough time to even WATCH the races on TV, I'd rather spend my time RACING in the game, and not setting my car up.

I set the difficulty (which it remembers in my profile), I pick the track, and press "x" and next thing I know I'm at the back of the pack working my way up! Note: I don't even qualify or any of that. (which I could do if I wanted, but choose not to)

Racing on this game is configured to be about as "arcade pick-up game" -ish as possible and it succeeds amazingly well.

The one thing that drove me nuts in the beginning was that it was pretty hard to get used to everything, but now that I've logged a few (and by few I mean under ten since I got it) I'm more comfortable with the accel and brakes and have turned off the "throttle/brake control" button - might not be a big deal to hardcore gamers, but it's a big deal for a game that is just meant to be played once in a while.

Score score score all around!!!

Graphics are great, sound is what you'd expect, and controls are spot on.

No complaints, even at full market price it's worth it if you've been waiting three years for a Nascar racer!

Enjoy it! (and stop whining)!!!

p.s. = for all you whine-babies complaining about it not being "sim-enough" - how's this: I race with gas and tire wear OFF and my damage is purely COSMETIC! So how's that rub ya???? LOL Just hae fun with the darn thing!

This game isn't perfect, but what game is? That being said, a lot of these 1 star ratings are extremely harsh. Yes there are bugs and some issues, ok, GLARING issues (cautions, online play, thin career mode), but a day after release isn't the time to bash...wait a little longer and after a few patches before coming to a conclusion. Let's also keep in mind that a small percentage of buyers are in actuality horrible at racing, only race 6-8 lap races (that's a heat not a race), do not know knowledge of the tracks, nor understand the concepts of "loose" and "tight", do not know how to handle stock cars in general, etc, so their opinion is certainly swayed by ignorance.

Positives:

I use the Logitech Driving Force GT wheel and it works great. I turn all of the assists off, and while it isn't the same feel as NR2003 or iRacing, it's extremely realistic and should deliver satisfaction to any racer. When your tires begin to fall off, prepare to wrestle with your car. There is a very user-friendly meter at the bottom of the screen that shows surrounding cars approaching, being to the back, front, left, right, or even coming through you. It's probably best to start with the Hard difficulty at first. The AI will bump draft you, and although they won't necessarily "swing" out and hope you follow/bump them at Daytona, if you push long enough they will fan out and you can push them alongside the other pack. Really good stuff in the cockpit view. Places like Atlanta and Charlotte are great for those who like to race multiple grooves as well. Me and my buddy raced together online last night, and he preferred the high line, and I stayed on the bottom. Several times if either of us got into a corner too hot, you would shoot up the track, or in his case, the wall. The Paint shop is incredible, so many options to choose from. It's time consuming, but you should put some effort into creating a custom car people I mean come on! Wouldn't you rather see complaints of TOO MANY options rather than TOO LITTLE? Graphics are BEAUTIFUL, track layouts are great, paint schemes are to a T.

A few drawbacks:

Super speedway qualifying is incredibly easy, just hold your line and you're on the pole. So in that respect it relates to EA. Cautions are a big issue. Sometimes they come out when they shouldn't, sometimes they don't when they should. That's strange and somewhat frustrating. Online is a mess. I'm sure it will be corrected. Any lobbies more than 8 people and I back out, otherwise if you have 8 or less, and weed out the jack@$$'s that only want to wreck people, racing online is a blast! I also noticed that with the same setups, the controller seems to be a tick faster on lap times online, so I use the controller when I race online, but the wheel in career/single race mode. Maybe that will be fixed, or maybe I need to get up on the wheel more. Time will tell. The spotter is overall helpful and on time, but a few REALLY cheesy lines kind of ruin the authenticity for a moment. Celebrations are very corny and many drivers do the Carl Edwards' back flip. That kind of spoils the real feel as well. Although I have a bro-mance with Smoke, he is way too heavy and old to be back-flipping. It would be cool to upload pictures in the paint shop, but I'm sure there are numerous concerns from the developers in regards to that aspect.

Conclusion:

I too am not that far into the game, so I cannot be a hypocrite and give this 5 stars after playing for a little over a day, but there's no way on Earth it's AS bad as some people claim on here. People just need to calm down and quit being so critical. There are some issues yes, but the developers are committed to this game and franchise, and in my opinion, will make said changes via patch or future title releases. So for now, I'll say a 4. For a racing game on the PS3, this is a great start for the guys at Eutechnyx. Hopefully next year an in depth career mode will be first on the agenda.

Also, whoever says the EA series was even half as good as this game in terms of game play, is a complete moron.