All this time, and I have not committed a full post to this awesome game! What a shame! No more, though. I am going to dissect this game like never before!
Ok, with that out of the way, let me introduce you to the world of Simulation Auto Racing! Yay!
This game and this franchise has been a part of my life since I can ever remember owning a computer. This game franchise started in 1994 with the incredible game NASCAR Sim Racing. This was followed by NASCAR Sim Racing 2, NASCAR Sim Racing 1999 Edition, NASCAR Sim Racing 3, NASCAR Sim Racing 4, and finally NASCAR Sim Racing 2002 Season.
(PHEW!!)
I have owned every single one of these games except NASCAR Sim Racing 2 (and various expansion packs I didn't have the money for). The transformation these games have made has been astounding. Ever since the release of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition, this game had a new version released yearly.
The success of this franchise was in its realism. Simply put, the tracks, the cars, the physics and everything associated with NASCAR was the best in the business. No one had more official tracks in their games, or more official car sponsors, or more official drivers.
This game had all of it. On top of this, though, they had the most realistic driving game out there too. Graphic quality aside, this game looked right. Cars were hard to handle. They spun out in the right way, they crashed the right way, and damage models were scary-real.
As computer technology improved, so too did things in the graphics department and the sound department. During the transition to NASCAR 3, Papyrus (the game's developers) added cool effects like a 'groove' that closely resembled a 'groove' you would see at a real NASCAR track. They added translucent smoke, so no longer were you left with cartoon-ish looking smoke. You could the see the fog surrounding cars in front of you, and better avoid wrecks (although heavy wrecks you couldn't see through, so good luck getting through! Another dose of realism!).
Once NASCAR 4 came around we were allowed to have Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Daytona at our fingertips for the first time, as these venues had open rights to appear in games (Daytona had been SEGA exclusive previously). In addition, the NASCAR team implemented new physics, which allowed cars to get airborne (previously only sliding and rotating happened, which was fine because hitting a wall upside down or not still was a wreck). This just upped the ante on the realism.
NASCAR Racing 2002, and then NASCAR Racing 2003 season (NR2003 for short from now on) added new effects like blimps hovering around the tracks and helicopters, as well as sunlight effects on cameras, with reflections at an all-time high, and shadows playing a major role in the game.
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