Ultimately, NASCAR games have been one of the greatest stepping stones in the budding career of a sim racing enthusiast. Many drivers can recall countless hours spent fine-tuning their setups on NASCAR ‘99 for the original PlayStation, signing their first multimillion dollar sponsor on the legendary NASCAR Thunder 2004, or turning their daydreams into reality by purchasing a Nextel CupUltimately, NASCAR games have been one of the greatest stepping stones in the budding career of a sim racing enthusiast. Many drivers can recall countless hours spent fine-tuning their setups on NASCAR ‘99 for the original PlayStation, signing their first multimillion dollar sponsor on the legendary NASCAR Thunder 2004, or turning their daydreams into reality by purchasing a Nextel Cup team in NASCAR 07. While the occasional challenger appeared, offering innovating new career modes and racing series, EA’s long-running NASCAR franchise experienced both immense highs and devastating lows, going from critically acclaimed to universally hated in less than a decade. Incredibly detailed career modes were steadily phased out, extra tracks and game modes suddenly went missing, and by the final game in the series, NASCAR 09, even the four makes involved in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season did not appear in-game, in favor of a generic set of brand markings for all cars.
If, like me, you’re not well-versed in NASCAR, you’re probably thinking there’s not much track variety at all, however if you only look at the shape of the tracks, you’re right. They’re mostly oval shaped tracks, though there is one track in the game that looks like a ‘normal’ race-track. While the tracks are all the same general shape, the size, banks, corners and pit area are all different. Some tracks are large and wide, allowing you to pull far ahead, driving solo. Some tracks are small and narrow, forcing you to stick with the pack. Some tracks are a mixture. It isn’t until you get out there and drive or in this case play the game that you realize how different these tracks really are.
In NASCAR 2013 there are plenty of customization options to choose from. You can paint your car and stick it with sponsors of your choice. There is a lot of freedom in the design as you can make your own sticker using simple-shaped decals and turn it into one layer. Doing this allows you room to create detailed images and decals for use in recreating real-life stock cars or even creating your very own design Not that you’re likely to run out with 1200 layers available. Visual customization isn’t the only customization available. During season mode you can unlock new sponsors for your car and also upgrade the parts using your race winnings.
There are many different ways to get first place. One is Drafting. Drafting can be driving behind a car to reduce drag, then shooting out from behind it to overtake it this is the type most people are familiar with but it can also mean ‘docking’ your car with another to allow both of you to gain speed. ‘Docking’ is a bit riskier as it can raise engine temperatures, but can have a larger pay-off if you do it correctly. On the other side of ‘Docking’, there’s Blocking. Blocking is simple and just involves positioning your car in a way that stops you being overtaken, but trying to keep this up can easily cause a crash and a caution this could cause loss of position. Interestingly, while crashing brings up a caution flag, you can use this to your advantage and gain some positions by bringing the whole pack closer to first place and gaining positions on driver who decide to pit under a caution. Finding a balance between all of these techniques can be fun and cause for experimentation.
In my experience of multiplayer, coming into this as a rookie, I was destroyed. In the races I participated in online, everyone was much faster than me from the starting line, almost as if their cars were more powerful. I think the reason for this is single-player upgrades carrying over to multi-player. In multi-player, the only race option is a normal race. This was a little bit disappointing. There is plenty of control over the parameters of the race, which somewhat makes up for the lack of other modes.
NASCAR 2013 does enough to redeem itself from the negative pre-conceptions of the sport, but only if you give it the chance to. While there are a few minor bugs to be found, they don’t detract from the well-polished and fun core experience. NASCAR 2013 is full of little touches that neatly tie the package together. From the ambient garage in the menus to your character’s feet moving in first-person view, there are lots of little touches that just tie the game together well.… Expand
NASCAR: The Game 2013Your Score0 out of 10User Score
