NASCAR 2000 Review

The sun ruthlessly shines over the rotund cars with metal beasts under their hoods that reflect the surrounding area crammed with camp-trucks, scaffolds, and people equipped with burgers and cokes. Laps go by until the next driver makes a mistake that will induce a chain car crash, hundreds of thousands of dollars damage and make parts of these cars go up, up and away.

These words properly describe the atmosphere of NASCAR racing. Swift reaction and technique have been put aside here, for NASCAR (just like Indy Car) races value precision and organized teamwork more. Engines of more than 750HP, their speed in curves and the spectacular car crashes make the true fans of these races spend long, hot days on the racing tracks. EA Sports gave each one of those fans a chance to be in the shoes of one of his idols and feel the atmosphere of the races on his own computer.

The installation after which the CD is no longer needed, and a typical intro composed out of movie clips from NASCAR races, bring us to the main menu that is like all EA Sports games' menus simple and functional. The options are easily understandable and let you customize just about everything. Apart from the Quick race, in which NASCAR 2000 places you in a randomly selected car on a randomly selected track, there is also a Single Player mode with several options. Single Race Weekend gives you a complete weekend on the racetracks. You can then determine how realistic the game will be, the level of AI, your driver and car. Most of the drivers of the real NASCAR appear here with a short biography. As for the cars, you can only select from a relatively small number of auto bodies, with a great number of different advertisements and details that make controlling them slightly different. It is a pity that there is no technical data on the cars, so that those of you who do not follow NASCAR racing in detail, will have to randomly select your car. Some data on horsepower, torque, acceleration or maximum speed would really come in handy. The Championship Season mode gives you a possibility to play an entire championship after selecting which and how many tracks you want to drive.

NASCAR competition currently recognizes 28 tracks all of which have been included in this game. There are five additional "fantasy" tracks, all of them belonging to the "road" type - irregular shape with a lot of curves. Apart from the road courses there are also super speedways on which you can achieve speeds up to 200 mph and short tracks, not more than one mile long.

A Race Weekend involves the training, qualifications, second training and second qualification race. After your place is designated you drive Happy Hour race and then the real race with a flying start.

Once behind the steering wheel, the peculiar graphical engine dazzles you. The graphics seem granular, and the surroundings are composed from photos taken from the real tracks. This decreased the number of 3D objects present, which are reduced to an occasional building or hill. This can look quite satisfactory if the camera is happily situated far away from the background, but once you come any closer it starts looking really ugly. The cars are average in detail and quite functional. The simplicity of the car models makes the frame rate steady even if there are more than forty cars on screen. The crash, smoke and spark effects are satisfactory but car damage might have benn represented in a better way.

The behavior of the car on road is average. It is far below the standards set by Grand Prix Legends or Rally Championship. Even NASCAR 3 was better than this. The feeling much more resembles an arcade game than a real simulation, but it can still give you hints of atmosphere fo the NASCAR. Driving is fairly simple, but that doesn't make the game easy to win. This is one of the most difficult games I have ever played. Computer AI when set to any of the higher levels proves to be a smart and steady driver that can only be beaten if you can drive for some time without making a single mistake. The cars get easily damaged and any contact with a wall or an opponent may prove fatal or send you to the pit stop. The head mechanic and the team captain assist you during the race, giving you instructions and calling you to pit atop when necessary . The pit stop looks good with all the mechanics animated using the motion capture technique, apart from the one that keeps conjuring spare tires out of thin air.

Force feedback effects are relatively good. They provide sufficient quantity of information to make driving more precise. My only objection would be that the steering wheel momentum is too strong.

The sound is very good. The cars sound the same as the real ones, and tire sounds are one of the best I've heard. 3D positioning is also very good. The best effect there is the echo of the engine you hear when you come close to a wall. The announcers are OK, they don't repeat themselves too much, and they don't comment on every single detail. The only annoying voices are captain and the boss, who have a relatively small number of samples, which makes them even more irritating.

There is a multiplayer mode with single race and league options, which should provide long-term fun with your friends.

The game is altogether mediocre. There is nothing that would make it particularly bad, just as there is nothing that would make it good. Racing fans can try it out, but I would recommend them not to expect too much fun. NASCAR fans, on the other hand, might have a lot of fun with it providing they are not too keen or realistic games.