Customer Reviews

NASCAR Heat

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not really a Nascar fan but I do love racing games. This one is a hoot! Here's the deal: I bought Nascar Thunder but I also own Nascar Heat because my girlfriend bought it the same day as a surprise to me. So here I was with two Nascar games and I've kept them both. As far as true racing and competition, Nascar Thunder is the better racing game. It has a create-a-car option and most of the real Nascar drivers. The graphics aren't as good as Heat though. If you're into better graphics and bigger, fiery crashes, Nascar Heat is the way to go. Sometimes I create havoc on the track just to watch the replays of the crashes. You can create a lot more mayhem on Heat than Thunder...and that's why I love it. The only problem with Heat is they don't have all the drivers. Half the cars in a race are just fake, generic cars. I play both a lot, but if I could only pick one - I'd give a slight edge to Nascar Heat. But you really can't go wrong with either one. Both are great games that you can pick up anytime for a few minutes (or hours) of fun. If you love great wrecks, get Heat. Great racing, get Thunder.

I have never been a fan or spectator of NASCAR racing, but I'm extremely glad I decided to get this game. It's easily one of the most enjoyable games I have on the XBOX (and I have quite a few great games so far, including Halo, NFL Fever, NHL Hitz, Dead or Alive 3, Amped, and others). If you're a novice at stockcar racing--and simply appreciate how cool it could be to drive 300 laps at 190 miles an hour, racing other fast cars, making pitstops, accumulating points over the course of a season to win the coveted NASCAR Championship, taking practice runs and qualifying laps, as do I--you can turn this game on and be enjoying all these things in no time. If you're more advanced, or even very advanced, don't worry: there are plenty of different things you can do to insure a very realistic, challenging and fun simulation. The graphics, the game play, and especially the realism are all great. I'm sure EA Sports' NASCAR Thunder is a great game for more advanced people, but I can't imagine it being more enjoyable or realistic than this game--for novices, experts, or anyone in between. Highly recommended.

I have Nascar Heat and Nascar Thunder. On the good side, Nascar heat is more of a simulation, meaning the driving is a bit more realistic and if you know a little about Nascar racing, you can adjust your car in about every way possible. In Thunder, you can only adjust tire pressure, spoiler angle, and gear ratios. In this game, you can adjust individual tire pressure, spring rates, wedge...the more technical stuff. The "in-car" view is better in Heat because you can look left and right, which I'm pretty sure you can't do in Thunder, which to me makes it unplayable. I think Heat sounds more like Nascar than Thunder does. The graphics are about the same.

ON the bad side, if you have the Mad Catz steering wheel, you can't up shift using the gear selector. There are only three controller configurations, and you can't customize them. Drivers are limited to 20, and there are only 19 tracks.

So basically, Heat is more of a simulation, but you can't use a steering wheel with a manual transmission, a lot of drivers/cars are omitted, and a few tracks are missing. If future versions of Heat fix these things, then I'd prefer Heat. As it is, I prefer Thunder.

This is the best NASCAR game out there bar none. I am a huge NASCAR fan and I love this game! The playability of the game is excellent and you can spend hours making highly technical adjustments on the car in the garage and they make an amazing difference to how the car handles. If you're not up for such technical things and just want to race, go for it! The cars are set up very well from the get go and you can be very competetive without making any adjustments to the car. Most of the NASCAR stars are depicted in this game along with quite a few drivers that I've never heard of. The tutorial is great as are the one on one challenges against the NASCAR stars. The only complaints I have about this game are the graphics which at times simulate the sun glaring on your windshield which gets annoying at times. Also, I ran into a problem while racing at Martinsville. The race went under caution after the 4th lap and the pace car kept coming off and on to the track. The race didn't go back to green again and it was very frustrating. I haven't faced any other problems with this game. Fix this minor glitch and you've got an AMAZINGLY stunning game!

When I first popped "Nascar Heat" into my X-Box I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. The graphics don't look as impressive as they do with "Nascar Thunder". But as I started to play they game I realized there was no comparison. The race cars have a better feel about them. If you play in the Hardcore mode, (No driver aids) the way I always do, you quickly realize this game is tough too beat. It's harder to win than any other racing game I have. (That's saying a lot.) Both "Thunder" and "Heat have problems with their two road racing courses, way too much slow down. "Heat" is almost impossible to drive on the two road courses with the driving aids turned off. But on the short Nascar ovals "Heat" has it all over "Thunder". The one funny thing about "Heat" is that there is no way to speed up the process when a yellow comes out. You have to wait for the pits to open, (Just like the real Nascar) and then you have to wait several laps before going back to green. My advice, get up and stretch and have a cup and coffee, and be ready to go back to green. Can't wait for this game to get updated. Now get out there and buy a racing wheel and pedals, and you'll never go back to hand controllers again.

After playing both the EA and the Infogrames NASCAR simulations, I preferred this game. The caveat is that this is a more complex, more time consuming racer. The reward is more depth and a more realistic experience, particularly in the stupidly named, but very playable "hardcore" mode. The number of car setup options and nice physics model kept me involved.

The EA Sports game, in comparison, is more suitable for those that care less about depth and desire a more arcadish (aka Daytona USA with a bit more panache) feel.

Although I preferred this game, there were some annoying things about both NASCAR racers. First, Infogrames, couldn't you have built a pace car that really looked like a pace car instead of a re-painted stock car? This game also suffered from some pop-up, something that EA Sports addressed very well with their racer. That said, NASCAR Heat has smoother car models and more realistic track design than the EA Sports NASCAR Thunder game.

I don't think you can go wrong with either game, but they definitely target two different audiences: Prefer simulations? Go with NASCAR Heat. Prefer Arcade? Thunder is for you.

I recieved Nascar Heat 2002 as a Christmas Present. In just 2 days, i spent hours playing it. It is awesome!!!! The graphics are great and the game play is realistic to NASCAR races. You can practice, qualify, race, go to the garage and even race in happy hour! This game was great and i highly recommend it for anyone who likes action packed games!

This game is so much fun still 6 years after i bought it. Me and my brother still play this game every weekend and have a blast playing it. There are 27 real nascar drivers and 16 fantasy drivers (unfortunately no #15 michael waltrip NAPA car) kind of a bummer that they don't have the 2001 winner of the daytona 500 in here since the game takes place during the 2001 season and no dale earnhardt sr. in the game. Other than that this game rocks, every track except bristol is awesome and even though they left out indy, pocono, chicago, and kansas the rest of the game makes up for it. If you are a NASCAR fan I WOULD HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND BUYING THIS GAME, it blows away any EA Sports title in a landslide becasue unlike EA this game actually has a real simulation feel to it along with spectacular crashes and pile ups. The multiplayer is a blast once you get a couple of your friends over and the racing can get pretty intense at times. The beat the heat mode and Race the pro modes are fun also and can really help you become good at the game. Bottom line is this is the BEST NASCAR GAME FOR THE XBOX STILL.

THIS IS A PRETTY GOOD GAME.IT HAS SEVERAL GOOD GAMES TO CHOOSE FROM. IT I HAD TO GIVE IT A GRADE.B
THIS WAS A USED GAME.

This is the best NASCAR game out there bar none. I am a huge NASCAR fan and I love this game! The playability of the game is excellent and you can spend hours making highly technical adjustments on the car in the garage and they make an amazing difference to how the car handles. If you're not up for such technical things and just want to race, go for it! The cars are set up very well from the get go and you can be very competetive without making any adjustments to the car. Most of the NASCAR stars are depicted in this game along with quite a few drivers that I've never heard of. The tutorial is great as are the one on one challenges against the NASCAR stars. The only complaints I have about this game are the graphics which at times simulate the sun glaring on your windshield which gets annoying at times. Also, I ran into a problem while racing at Martinsville. The race went under caution after the 4th lap and the pace car kept coming off and on to the track. The race didn't go back to green again and it was very frustrating. I haven't faced any other problems with this game. Fix this minor glitch and you've got an AMAZINGLY stunning game!