When NASCAR 08 made the leap to the 360 generation last year, it proved something that real racing fans know — driving fast in a circle is genuinely hard. Unfortunately for the game, only a niche of hardcore players want a ball-busting simulation that pushes them to the limits. Most players prefer a more balanced approach that lets them start off gently and ramp up the realism to their tastes. With NASCAR 09, EA Sports says they’ve heard and addressed those complaints.
The game opens with Jeff Gordon as your mentor, and one of the first things you do is pick your driving style — Normal or Pro — which are pretty self-explanatory. In Normal, you don’t instantly lose control if you collide with someone, and you can also do quick pits and quick flags. Pro is all sim all the time.
As a new learning ground for beginners, the game is also adding Sprint Driver Challenges (as in, sponsored by the phone company — not driving sprint cars). Much like the honeycomb grid of challenges in Tiger 08, it serves up a selection of short, one-off race challenges that’ll help you learn the ins and outs of the game, or just get in a quick shot of racing.
On the career side, everything revolves around rep — the AI reaction to you on the track, sponsor contracts, even online matchmaking. You’ll begin your stock-car odyssey by building your own car and hitting the track to start racking up the strong performances (but probably not wins, at least at first) to build that rep. You also earn performance points, which you can spend to build out your engine, chassis, aero, and durability on each track type (speedway, road, etc.).
The other cool highlight of NASCAR 09 is the new Own the Track Mode, which presents you with a Risk-style map of the NASCAR tracks across the country. Your performances make the tracks “yours” in a leaderboard kind of way. If you’re on Live, you compete with anyone on your friends list; if you gotz no broadband, it’s you vs. the AI.
Speaking of online, look for 14-player action this year, which EA hopes will perform more smoothly by not sticking one of those 14 in the role of host for the session — theoretically, all players should therefore have equal access to packets. Aside from that, the graphics were naturally enhanced (anti aliasing!), and the AI now dynamically adjusts, taking it up a notch if you’re killing them and easing off if you’re getting killed. It all sounds like great stuff to us — watch for our final verdict in our August issue.
Boskiway
June 04, 2008 at 3:00pm
I played the demo on Live, and wow! What a difference from last year! It's 100% better and the visuals make the 2007 game look like a ps2 game! Can't wait to get this one!
Paul OXM
May 28, 2008 at 11:44am
The review will run in the August issue, and will be posted here on the day the game comes out.
superman37876
May 27, 2008 at 6:06am
I hope the AI doesn't drive like kamikaze pilots into the corners and take you out like Nascar 08 did. I also hope the damage was redone because if you barely bumped someone or was bumped your car looked like you had been in a bad wreck...
Ala BigEd
May 21, 2008 at 3:18pm
I am a BIG Nascar Fan. I love playing the XBox 360, am 43 years old, and love the Nascar '08. I really liked the fact that you had to set up your own car to make it fast and the fact that you had to drive a smooth line in order to be fast. I only hope that '09 has the same, or better, features for car set-ups. Older players and fans like to run the races in order to get faster, unlike the younger players who want a fast car from the beginning instead of having to work to get a faster car. If you do any changes to '09, I hope it's an arcade version for the younger kids who want to wreck just to see the cars fly thru the air. Sincerely, Ala BigEd
gator70
May 19, 2008 at 12:39pm
Have NASCAR 08 and it had a steep learning curve. I also own the XB360 Wheel, which was difficult to get the hang of in 08. I'm not a huge J. Gordon fan, so I hope the menus don't make me hurl listening to him whine. I really would like to see the voice communication with your spotter, like the original Xbox Total Team Control - Think it was NASCAR 06. Anyway, looking forward to 09, just wish EA would release the NASCAR franchise with the beginning of the race season, not a 1/4 the way through it.
Kamikaze8
May 18, 2008 at 2:03pm
Ill tell you I liked Nascar 08, but man it was so discouraging to play one mistake and bam. You were done. Glad theyre giving an option this time. Maybe Ill actually be able to enjoy it.
