NASCAR Racing: 2002 Season

by Vivendi Universal

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005V9PD
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: February 13, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,239 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Review

Over the history of PC racing, one company has grown to represent quality. Papyrus has always delivered a quality product, meaning the best presentation, realism, and physics. It may not look like it to some, but NASCAR is easily one of the most demanding sports out there, in every way possible. It's about subtle jockeying for position, deft maneuvering, the art of delicately nudging an opponent off course (yet not causing a massive crash like we saw at Daytona 2002, or a fatal crash like in 2001), and again, the reliance on accurate physics. Think about it. You have the track quality, wind and air resistance pushing down on the front of a car and up on the back, the slipstream provided by riding behind the leader, and the contact different wheel surfaces have with the pavement. All are extremely important, yet subtle enough to escape the notice of most fans. If you're one of the fans who does notice when these factors aren't realistic, has Papyrus got a game for you!

NASCAR Racing 2002 comes with all the extras fans expect. Just about all the drivers are here, including Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, and Dale Jarrett. Their cars are re-created down to the tiny details. And you'll find every NASCAR speedway is present and accounted for. There are 24 tracks total, and this is a bump up of three tracks from 2001.

The graphics are picture perfect and state-of-the-art. The high system requirements (it requires a 16 MB video card) ensure that even with the details turned way down you'll get to see all the cars on the track. Crashes are best avoided, of course, but when they do happen they're spectacular. Smoke, fire, and car pieces rain all around the pileup.

New driver aids are present, including automatic breaking, and a "best path" line to show how to approach the curves. The aids make it easy for new players to get around the track in one piece, while veterans will find some challenging racing ahead with all the aids turned off and the physics set to realistic levels. They say NASCAR is the everyman sport; maybe that's true. NASCAR Racing 2002 Season is certainly a testament to that. --Bob Andrews

Pros:

• Stunning graphics
• Realistic physics

Cons:

• High system requirements

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the ultimate simulator for Nascar racing, period., February 24, 2002

By 

Agent X (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NASCAR Racing: 2002 Season (CD-ROM)

Words can't describe how awesome of a game this is,no, wait, this is no game at all, this is a honest to goodness transition of America's favorite motorsport to a breathtaking simulator that is on your desktop. It has what a fan wants, a driver seat in the action of 750 horses marching foward at blinding speeds like horsemen fighting for position down a backstrip of Daytona. EA can't touch Papyrus's passion for realism. EA's version of realism is starting from 24th and winding up at 1st in 2 laps, 1 if you are lucky. Papyrus doesn't want to sugarcoat the experience, they want you to know both the pleasures and excitement of Nascar racing, but also the misfortune of breakdowns and failed engines. Damage is handled beautifully, smoke flows, rubber squeals, it's everything a Nascar fan could want, buy it now, for some premium racing. You must know the track and all it's grooves and weak spots, as well as when to use the draft and with whom and when to just rebel against an orderly pack and to carry others with you to create a draft line more to your liking and to challenge theirs to come out on top. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Park will tell you how real it is, and you won't hear them saying the same about Thunder, plus you can get updates on your game and race over the net and make your own paintjobs, trust me, this is awesome.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best NASCAR game yet!!, February 17, 2002

By 

James K Polk "Napoleon of the Stump" (Bothell, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NASCAR Racing: 2002 Season (CD-ROM)

OK, I want to start off by saying that I was EXTREMELY disappointed with N4 when it came out last year. I think the graphics are a sick joke, the sound was marginal at best, and the gameplay was OK overall. With that being said, N2002 is NOT just N4 with a couple of new tracks and new paint jobs for the cars. I'm sure if you go to Papyrus' website, they'll go on and on about new graphics engines, physics models, and a host of other technobabble improvements they've made. Well, I'm going to take my cue from Forrest Gump on all that and say "I'm not a smart man" when it comes to the how's and why's of computer games. All I know is, the graphics are near perfect, the gameplay is superb, and I've finally found the game to shelve my copy of "NASCAR Heat" for a while.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good outweighs the bad, March 22, 2002

By 

S. Carter (Nebraska) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: NASCAR Racing: 2002 Season (CD-ROM)

I have a little different perspective on the game that I haven't seen addressed very much in other reviews.
1--Good news: The game is much more stable! This is the main reason I got it. Unlike N4, most of the crashes in this game are on the track where they belong, not on my desktop when I try to quit the program.
2--Good news: Latest paint jobs, and more of them. Bad news: No Jimmy Spencer. And no Sterling Marlin, who wasn't in the game last year either. Jimmy and Sterling are on the same team this year; does the owner have something against video games? Very puzzling. But you can download them for free off the internet, so no big deal.
3--Good news: Better sound effects. Bad news: Annoying "wrinng-wrinng-wrinng" tire sound in hood-cam view. But that forces me to drive from inside the car, where you can't hear the "wrinng," which is more realistic perspective anyway.
4--Bad news: If you painted your own cars in N4, there doesn't seem to be any way to use them in NR2002. They'll look like you've been racing in the Twlight Zone 500. And the paint program no longer has those little decals you can slap on the side of your car to make it more realistic. Why did they get rid of them? Dumb.
5--Good news: Car is easier to drive! (I said easier, not easy.)
6--Good and bad news: Graphics are excellent, but if you don't have a top-of-the-line computer to handle higher res, they're not better than N4 and in some ways are slightly worse (blurry), except on practice track when you're driving alone.
7--Bottom line: Despite the flaws, this is worth every penny, even if you have N4. Buy it.

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