Saturday, May 24, 2008

Approaching the Green Flag: EA Sports NASCAR 09

At the beginning of NASCAR's Jeff Gordon era, software company Sierra were creating some of the first licensed games featuring professional stock car racing when phrase was considered an oxymoron. Sierra focused in providing the realistic feel of NASCAR racing with the technology of the day for PC software by providing race set-ups and actual tracks to their games. Whlie this impressed the hardcore NASCAR fans, these games also became a frustrating experience for the casual gamer who simply wanted to thrill to rough up computer-created Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Sr's fenders in those glory days. EA Sports emerged in 1998 with NASCAR Revolution with a more arcade feel gameplay which simplized the gamers with racing against the best drivers. EA Sports has since extended itself in a near monopoly of North American sports, which included NASCAR. While the upcoming NASCAR 09 is the sole title expected from the sports body, EA Sports had adapted itself to some of the principles of Sierra's past ventures.

Featuring the top three touring divisions of NASCAR, NASCAR 09 combines the Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Craftsman Track Series to be played by choice. With authentic teams, drivers, and 08 paint schemes, the game's graphics are unbelievably viewed as crisp with rich shining/lighting effects. The software's AI will assure that the virtual Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon are closest to providing the same fight you could expect from the real-life drivers. Speaking about Jeff Gordon, he is the spokesperson for this year's game release outside as well as inside the game in high-grade pixel form. Acting as your mentor, Gordon will be available to offers advice and recommendation through the course of your rise in establishing your NASCAR career. Two gameplay options allow gamers to cater their wishes of either a satisfying game sensation at Normal or you can absorb the true NASCAR experience on the Pro setting. Not simply a race game, NASCAR 09 features several elements to constantly test players. "Driver Challenges" enable you to go 1-on-1 with current stars of NASCAR on special competitions (An element familiar to players of the NASCAR Heat game from many years ago). Another element is "Own the track" which involves stats posted on a North American map referencing the location of all the sanctioned race tracks on the schedule. You'll know where you have conquered your competition and quickly determine your next attacks.

Without the need to spending the 10 million plus dollars needed to run an adequate NASCAR team, the users of NASCAR 09 are able to customize their own vehicles. Paint shop elements similar to those seen in previous EA Sports and Sierra allows a design to adopt the desired colour scheme. But unlike earlier editions, a gamer can add their own graphics as well as their own image to the driver list.

Race time for NASCAR 09 is slated for June 11th on Sony Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 as well as the Xbox 360 game console. Release for Nintendo Wii and for PC have not been announced but are to be expected soon.

No comments:

Post a Comment